My BlackBerry Curve 8300 photo selected for Schmap Guide - East Coast

Schmap Guide has chosen one camera phone photo from my Flickr collection of camera phone images for their photo guide to the East Coast (see below).  I post some of my better camera phone photos on Flickr (I need to post some more!).

The Schmap Guide photo is part of a sculpture of heads affixed to a staircase (see below) inside the Torpedo Factory Art Center in the Old Town area of Alexandria, Va.  I shot the photo with a BlackBerry Curve 8300, which has a two megapixel camera, as I was wandering around Old Town specifically to take camera phone photos with what was then the new 8300.

I wrote previously in this weblog that the 8300’s beta and early commercial software had serious problems with the white balance when taking photos in bright sunlight.  But software updates and succeeding versions in newer BlackBerry models have significantly improved the photo quality in sunlight. 

The 8300 and 8320 take better than average two megapixel camera phone photos.  (My 8300 and 8320 photo albums.)  I’m often pleased with the results, although you can’t compare them to many phones with higher resolution cameras, such as the Nokia N82.

(Research in Motion gives me BlackBerry phones to test, as do many other handset manufacturers and cellular operators.  The Curve 8320 is my “must take” phone because of its superior QWERTY keyboard and e-mail capabilities, although I often also carry a high end multimedia phone, such as Nokia Nseries handsets.)

Thank you, Schmap

A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from the managing editor of the Schmap Guide who wrote that one of my Flickr photos was short-listed for inclusion in the Guide.  She asked my permission to use the photo if selected. 

I hadn’t submitted the photo or previously knew of the Guide, but of course I gave my consent.

There’s no money involved, but I am content with the glory.  So, thanks Schmap Guide for thinking my photo is good enough to be selected.