Looking at photo albums is a tradition that can be traced back to the first photographs ever produced. The albums usually are thick-ringed binders with sticky plastic sheets protecting the often fading photos of family, friends and fun, and other memories.

Nowadays, albums can be found in a drastically different form.

With the number of camera phones in circulation, and the fact that many of the cell phones sold today are equipped with digital cameras, it’s no surprise that people everywhere, including local residents, are using theirs as photo album “flipbooks.”

Folks in downtown Bangor recently said they use their camera phones to record memento photos of family, friends or pets, which can be instantly viewed or later shared with others.

“In the old days, we use to carry photos around in our wallets,” said Richard Donaher, an Orrington resident in his 60s. “Now we have phones.”

Brewer Deputy Mayor Gail Kelly, a proud grandparent, said her camera phone is used whenever she can’t find her digital camera.

“I have my granddaughter on my cell phone, my precious 21/2-year-old,” she said. “I probably have half a dozen. I have a [saved] picture of her when she was 4 to 6 months old.

“It’s a photo album of my life – they’re important photos,” Kelly said.

Others in Bangor’s downtown area said they use their portable camera phones to keep in touch with others who live out of state, to send a joke photo and to sell items online.

“Probably 90 percent of our phones have cameras and video capability,” said Tim Hughes, manager of MC Wireless, the Verizon wireless store downtown. “Most people like them because you can snap a photo anytime.”

A 2004 study of camera-phone use, conducted in the United States and England by Hewlett-Packard Co., shows that some people are using their camera phones “like digital ‘flipbooks’ of favorite images, or the images one might keep in one’s wallet” and that “the majority of image-sharing took place face-to-face on the phone itself” – an opinion supported locally.

Halfway through 2006, there were about 219.4 million wireless subscribers in the United States, representing about 72 percent of the population, according to a September 2006 report on the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association’s Web site.

It’s unknown how many cell phones in circulation have digital cameras; what is known is the number is growing, said Hughes, who is in his 20s and carries around photos of his dog and girlfriend on his phone. He also has used his camera phone, which is capable of connecting to the Internet, to sell items on e-Bay.

The ability to instantly record clowning around or gentle ribbing in pictures is a big reason for having a camera phone, said Hampden resident Nick Searles, 13, and Lisbon resident Meghann Blethen, in her 20s.

“Usually, it’s something funny you see to send to friends,” Blethen said. “It doesn’t replace the photo album. My friends that have children, their phones are full of photos.”

Adding a face to long-distance relationships, is why sisters Hosanna Garcia of Dixmont and Raque Laplante of Bangor, both in their 20s, purchased camera phones.

“One of my sisters lives in Wisconsin – that’s how we see her,” said Garcia, who has photos of her nieces, nephews and six siblings on her phone.

Mick Delargy, a 40-something Bangor resident, owns a digital camera, a camera phone and a 35 mm camera he hasn’t used in 20 years.

“I like the fact that I have it [a camera phone], but I don’t use it much because the resolution is so much lower [than a digital camera],” he said. “I do have a photo of my son [saved on the phone].”

He also has a couple of other photos of his son in his wallet.

Saving digital images on CDs is easier than ever nowadays with do-it-yourself digital photo centers at many shopping centers. That’s how Kelly and Donaher save the images they have snapped. Others download images onto their computers, and still others just erase the images when they are considered old.

Finding someone 60 or older with a camera phone in downtown Bangor took several tries before Donaher was located. Hughes said it’s his experience that “for the most part, the older generation don’t want cell phones with cameras – they just want a phone. A lot will say, ‘I already have a digital camera, why would I need that?'”

The question is easy to answer for Hughes, who said having a camera phone is “more convenient because [images are] on the phone, and I carry it with me.”