Thrifty Thursdays feature photographs taken with equipment costing less than $500.
[iPhone 4S - $336]
The best camera is the one you have with you, they say. And when I saw the afternoon sun filtering through this palmetto leaf in Gainesville's Austin Cary Forest last week I had to take a shot. Simple patterns in nature photograph well with any kind of equipment, and my cell phone did the trick.
Sunlit leaves are one of my favorite exercises for beginning students in my photography workshops. Since ambient light is abundant in these situations, even the most basic cameras are capable of dramatic captures when thoughtfully aimed.
The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
Alex Wild
Alex Wild is Curator of Entomology at the University of Texas at Austin, where he studies the evolutionary history of ants. In 2003 he founded a photography business as an aesthetic complement to his scientific work, and his natural history photographs appear in numerous museums, books and media outlets.
