A few months ago my buddy Al Smith sat across from me at a crappy diner in Victoria, BC as we both shoveled Eggs Benedict from plate to mouth. In between bites he told me he’d been teaching iPhone and mobile phone photography for some local colleges. I laughed. I thought it was a funny joke. He was serious. Thing is, Alan is a total geek. Dude knows way more than he should about things no one should know stuff about. In 10 minutes I learned more from Alan about the camera on my iPhone than I had in a couple years previously. It’s now my favourite camera. I have always liked it, but now I love it in almost-unhealthy ways. I shoot and process several hundred of images a month on this thing. I don’t care if it’s made by Apple or someone else, camera phones now make much better images than my first digital camera, and they go with us everywhere. It’d be a sin not to take them seriously.

So I asked Alan to put this stuff on (digital) paper and become part of the growing, brilliant, dysfunctional family of authors at our little publishing house, Craft & Vision. He agreed, and the result is eyePhone, Making Stronger Photographs with your Camera Phone, a 45-page PDF eBook that we’re releasing today. It’s written by a geek, but he’s an artist too, so there’s a balance of great tips, creative considerations, resources, and more.

It’s been said that to achieve mastery of anything, you need to put in thousands of hours. It’s also been said that your first 10,000 photographs are your worst. The camera phone in my pocket keeps me shooting when I otherwise wouldn’t. It keeps me fresh, keeps my playing, and I’d be happy to go on record saying my iPhone has made me a better photographer. If you’re interested in taking your photography further and haven’t given your camera phone a fair chance, now’s the time.

For the next six days use the promotional code EYEPHONE4 when you checkout so you can have the PDF version of eyePhone for only $4 OR use the code EYEPHONE20 to get 20% off when you buy 5+ PDF eBooks from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm (PST) May 27, 2012.

By the Way: I’ve packaged up 7 of my most popular eBooks into a bundle that I think you’ll really like. If you’ve been around here a while, these won’t be new to you, but If you’re new to my blog, or new to Craft & Vision, then check out The duChemin Bundle. I know, catchy name, right? I was getting my gallbladder out at the time and I’m not known for making good decisions while on painkillers. The bundle includes 7 great resources for honing your craft.

The list price is $28 (that’s 20% off) but if you’re on the C&V email list, or follow C&V on Twitter or Facebook then you’ll be able to get a discount code that makes the purchase just $19.