Photography is an art form that needs no introduction or translation. Like most art, it bridges the language gap. Someone could take a photo in Oslo, post it online and a person anywhere in the world could stumble upon the photo and appreciate the art without a caption. If they really wanted to read the caption, they could always go to google and type in “free translation”. More importantly, if you need a caption to appreciate a photo, you might need to go to the optometrist.

Since the invention of the first portable camera, people have been taking snapshots of their everyday life. Not those posed photos where you stare straight at the camera and try to smile and frown at the same time with your head cocked to one side, they just make you look confused and/or constipated. I’m talking about real photos, candid glimpses into the everyday life of the human race (this does not include MySpace mirror photos, sorry all you tweeners who have iPhones. We don’t want to know what your bathroom looks like).

It blows me away that every purchase of an iPhone comes with a portable camera. I mean, how awesome is that? Now with the 3GS you also have a video camera…talk about really awesome. We all know that the iPhone camera is great and all, but there definitely is some room for improvement. Have you ever tried to take a photo of yourself? We all know we have, we just might not want to admit it. How about this one; have you ever tried to take a photo of yourself and a friend or significant other? (now you can say yes without feeling weird) Its almost impossible to hit that little button while you are holding your phone backwards.

Camera Genius helps make taking shameless photos of yourself a lot easier. Don’t feel bad kids, I had a manager that only used Photo Booth to take completely ridiculous photos of himself. You are not alone.

We have all heard the expression “a photo is worth a thousand words” well if that photo sucks, those thousand words may just be a little more choice than you would have liked. Camera Genius is going to help your photos to not suck. Don’t think this app is going to give you cool effects on your photos, there are plenty of those apps out there. No matter how much editing you do, if the photo sucks to start with its going to suck when you finish mauling it with effects.

To me, the main feature of Camera Genius is that it gives you the option to make a greater portion of the screen the capture button, which is pretty awesome. Now you can take those photos of you and your ‘friends’… even if you are just going to keep them in your camera roll and not show anyone.

For those of you that know some of the basics of photography, you will also be happily surprised to find that this app has the ability to lay over a rule of thirds grid to help you line up your shot. For those of you who do not know the basics of photography, take advantage of the camera manual. Its a comprehensive guide to taking good photos. Take the time to read it. I mean if you took the time to read this, you can handle the camera manual.

This app also has the single most asked for feature from the iPhone camera, wait for it… ZOOM! Now you can stop complaining about the lack of zoom and start living life with zoom and reckless abandon.

It also has a couple small features that are merely okay: anti shake, timer, and sound capture. The anti shake is okay because as all of us know, you get blurry photos in low light situations. this doesn’t help that much. So that feature is kind of a bust for me. The timer is cool as well but with the big capture button it seems a little unnecessary. I mean, you aren’t going to press the timer, run around to meet your family for a family photo with your iPhone. The sound capture is 100% gimmick for me, its like a ‘clap-on’ for your camera. Its supposed to make taking group photos easy, unless you are taking a photo of a group of mimes its not going to work so well. It triggers off of sound so everyone has to be completely silent.

This app won’t turn you into Ansel Adams, but it will help you to take some pretty good photos (compared to the normal camera app). Even if you are taking it just so you can post it to Twitter. This app has all the missing features of the iPhone camera that should be there in the first place, so instead of cursing at your phone, just download Camera Genius.