Recently, I’ve changed my opinion about my iPhone. Oh, don’t misunderstand me. I love my iPhone and think it’s a wonderful item of techno-wizardry. Yet, there is one part of the iPhone of which I’ve been ambivalent — its camera. The iPhone has a 2 megapixel camera. Not bad, but not great. So I’ve viewed it kind of like a toy. Sure, I would take occasional pictures of the kids, but I wouldn’t have thought of using it for any kind of creative digital photography or documenting important family moments.

That is until I saw what a great photographer could do with the iPhone’s camera. Enter Chase Jarvis. This guy is a particularly skilled professional creative. And while he uses some very high-end photo equipment, he also has a gallery of images taken with his iPhone camera and edited simply with iPhone apps.

When I saw his iPhone images, I suddenly became aware of an entire vista of opportunity. Many great photographers recommend constantly carrying a camera. In fact, Chase states, “The best camera is the one that’s with you.” I own two cameras — a Nikon D40x and a Canon PowerShot A620. Constantly carrying either of these cameras throughout my daily activities is out of the question. But my iPhone is always on my hip.

Viewing my iPhone as a viable creative tool is developing a couple of important photography skills. First, I find myself more alert to my surroundings. I’m becoming more aware of the colors and lines and textures around me. Some capture well on the iPhone and some don’t. But I get to enjoy the beauty in the moment nonetheless. Second, because my iPhone’s camera is pretty simple, I’m forced to find simple compositions. This discipline translates well to my other cameras.

So, I not only love my iPhone, but also its simple camera. And I’m using its camera more and more. I’m also using two iPhone image-editing apps — CameraBag and Photogene. The results are far from high quality images. But there is still beauty and splendor. For me, that’s what it’s all about.

If you’re interested, I’m going to be posting my iPhone Photos in two ways. First, I will be posting the images on Twitter along with my other Tweets. You can follow me on Twitter by clicking HERE. I have also created a simple iPhone Photos page on my photoblog that I will update occasionally. You can view the iPhone Photos page by clicking HERE. I’m not sure if I will upload these images to my Flickr account yet, but you can always view my Flickr Photostream HERE.

UPDATE (6/12/09): I have decided to post my iPhone Photos on my Flickr account. I’ve created a new set called creatively enough, “iPhone Photos.” You can view that set by clicking HERE.