[OLS]

I am like most of you now, torn between the subject matter and the essence of what Marc was getting at.
Cell phone photos can be as good as the VERY good imagers many of these new phones have in them.
But speaking strictly about cell phone pics, photography is certainly not just taking pictures, and what you
have pushing on you is the desire to shoot cool pics, regardless of the tool used. So if you are trolling around for
some advice, my best advice is always to improve the light when you intend to shoot something that you can
control. A cell cam might be easy to use, but never let that trick you into thinking that taking a good pic with it
is easy. To that original point, if you can improve the light, the camera phone will respond by giving you
much more even exposure as well as showing a much truer color with more controllable shadow areas. TO say
nothing about the possible improvement in overall focus and sharpness.

So what we now have learned is that YES, I DO have a camera I can sell you cheap, and NO, you need not give
up your cell-cam. Just make sure that if you are taking the time to shoot a pic that you want to rise above the
snapshot level, ALWAYS think first about the light. If you can get enough bounced light to enter your cigar studio,
your photos will go up in overall appeal exponentially. And by all this I mean DO NOT let your camera produce the
lighting for your photos. No flash should ever come out of your cameraphone when you are setting up still life shots.

Second I would say to shoot the heck out of it. If you go to the trouble of taking multiple cabs of PLPC
apart to shoot, make the most of your time, shoot angles, different formations of stacking, move the light
around. The un-definable quality you spoke of that makes any old photo into a photo that you LIKE is the
seemingly effortless interplay between light and framing that captures a NOVEL image for the brain. I can
look through THOUSANDS of thumbnails of photos and stop dead on one that my BRAIN perceives as having
an interesting composition of angles, colors or light. And I literally stop in my tracks and give it a longer,
bigger look. Sad thing about composition is, that while people try all the time to TEACH it, it is not as easy
as it sounds. Everyone likes different things and looks at the world in their own way. It is very hard to force
a great photo into existence simply by applying all the rules of composition to the scene or situation.
The best way to GET to where you have the ability to impress yourself and others is to take it seriously
and practice it often. Take the TIME to set up some good lighting. Don't stop with one setup and move
to the next box of cigars.

NO REALLY....explore the space.

EDIT: If this mysterious quality you spoke of is ACTUALLY NOT just a better overall photo, and you are
talking about how one item is in crisp focus and the rest of the photo fades away to dreamyness, THAT
is something different and less do-able with a cell phone. IF THAT is your white whale, that is as simple
as getting a camera that lets you control the point of focus as well as the lens aperture. Which is why
I offered to sell you a camera. Well, that's not true, I offer to sell EVERYBODY a camera. But we can
get you cheaply into the DSLR world in one quick shot if that is what you are after. If not, there is a
world of possibilities in that cell-camera if you adjust the variables you can control. (light, composition)