Thank you! That makes perfect sense. And your tulip picture is making me smile.

You're so right: that flat, all-in-focus effect is generally useful for illustrative purposes, but really limiting to the expressiveness of an image.

Someone else here recommended Vignette for Android after I posted my flip-flops picture, and it's fantastic! Its tilt-shift is more sophisticated, and it has dozens and dozens of other art-photo options that are really intriguing. Suddenly my phone is seeming like my principal camera.