Serendipity: the only reason for using phone cameras

It constantly amazes me that users are not only putting up with pictures that they take with their phones, but actually regard their mobile phone as a camera. Yes, it will capture an image, and if you are lucky, it may be in focus, not blurred by motion, and may have caught what you think you caught. However, for me the only reason to use a phone camera is when there is no alternative. This may be when something out of the ordinary happens in front of your eyes. If you have to get it out of its case, enter the security code, find the camera app etc, it may all be over, but it may be as good as it gets. I find that in bright light, the screen may be difficult to see, and of course, there may be little that you can control at the moment of impact.
So, I am outside Fortnum and Mason in Piccadilly, and a bunch of nearly naked men are running along Piccadilly. Fortunately they stopped for the traffic lights:

This is what it looked like off the phone camera. As you can see, it was taken into the sun, and was taken about 1300 BST on a sunny day. There is some flare. I did not get rid of the flare,but did some basic photoshop manipulation, and the results are acceptable for a serendipitous picture.

The message is don't expect great things off your phone. Carry a camera. I did but was not quick enough, so used my SIII galaxy for this.

Raw is interesting

I have been learning more about RAW processing in photoshop elements this week, and I have now been tempted to waste memory space by shooting both jpeg and raw files simultaneously. May be there is a case for this if you have the resources. Not everyone has the time to sit down and mess about with the RAW converter.
I went to Abney Park in Stoke Newington, and took pictures of memorials. This is how jpeg and raw conversion might compare.

What came out of the camera jpeg

After raw conversion and Lomo effect.

I think they are different beasts, and each has its merits.

Macro

7th July 2013 An acquaintance told me that he had enjoyed macrophotography shots, so remembering that I had a screw on +2 diopter lens attachment, I dug it out and had a trial in my garden. It is a tricky beast, and needs fine adjustment of focusing. I used f10 to try to get a greater depth of field, but even that was not easy.

I used my old eos 350D body with a Tamron Zoom Lens. 

I quite like this, and have moved the lens and adaptor over to my eos40d body so I can have more megapixels to crop.

I like this one also, but don't know the name of the flower.

This was taken with the same lens, but with the Eos 40d body.