Lens, the photojournalism blog of The New York Times, recently held a cellphone photo contest, which was open to all readers. Out of 1,524 photos submitted, Josh Haner, a regular contributor, selected 353 photos that he thought were worth sharing with a wider audience.

"Many entrants," writes chief Lens blogger and photographer David W. Dunlap, "focused on the sky, capturing moody colors and striking cloud forms; exactly those fleeting moments at which one used to say, 'I wish I had a camera right now.'"

Left: Photo by Melissa Lyttle from Chase Jarvis's gallery on Lens. Right: Equinox poster, photo by James Danziger.

A surprisingly large number of the winning entries were shot by professional photographers who seem to appreciate the built-in limitations of these minis, such as "distortions that sometimes make it feel as though you're looking through a sheet of plastic or fish bowl glass, and they produce colors that aren't totally in sync with reality," according to Nicole Pangelinan, who has 11 pictures in the cellphone gallery.

"The results are therefore always a bit odd, off, and slightly surreal," she adds. "Because of its strange qualities, I've always thought of cellphone images more in terms of capturing sensations and daydreams, and less about duplicating reality in all its exact details."

FROM ANOTHER CORNER OF THE BLOG-O-SPHERE:
Photo guru James Danziger, who launched The Year in Pictures blog a little more than a year ago, has taken a bit of a break during the month of August. His most recent post concerns an advertising poster he casually shot with his iPhone. James operates his eponymous gallery in Chelsea, and has a wonderful sense of what makes great photographs, and I mean photos of all kinds, so enchanting.

He writes, "I was walking along 10th Avenue when I saw this large poster outside the Equinox Gym. I love the picture and the good humored pun. I'm pretty sure this would have been an image that someone picked up from stock rather than commissioned, so it also shows the afterlife of a well executed image in today's fluid picture market. And lastly, in this summer of no summer, it's nice to be cheered up by a funny sunny photo!" Check out the blog for his insightful and openhearted views on the medium and its messages.

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