Usually, you have to work a bit to get dramatic, close-up pictures of wildlife.
Not this time. I couldn't believe my luck. There was a moose, not even 100 feet off Maligne Lake Road in Canada's Jasper National Park. And it was so engrossed in its vegetarian lunch that it didn't even seem to notice the two or three professional photographers who had trained their powerful telephoto lenses on it.
I quickly joined them, and we were all struck by an even more surprising scene. A tour bus packed with college-age students pulled up. Several of the students walked right up to the moose, pulled out their camera phones, snapped a few souvenir pictures and got back on the bus.
They're not going to sell any fine-art prints, but that wasn't their goal. They have proof of their encounter to share with family and friends and Windows Mobile-based Smartphones make it easy to capture and share once-in-a-lifetime events that would otherwise get away.
It should come as no surprise. We tend to carry our Smartphones around with us everywhere. If you happen to find yourself standing behind Elvis in line at a fast-food restaurant, you won't have time to fetch and set up your dedicated camera.
The same holds true if you're in a car accident and want to document the scene. Or if you are furniture shopping and want to see if a chair will match your living room ensemble before you make a purchase. Despite their small size, camera phones generally have only two limitations, and even those can be minimized by adjusting their settings or by being creative with your compositions.
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