Be Prepared

by Joseph T. Sinclair

One of the great advan­tages of phone cam­era pho­tog­ra­phy is the abil­i­ty to take pho­tos instant­ly on impulse. After all, your smart phone is like­ly always with you. When you see a pho­to op, take it. That is, take the oppor­tu­ni­ty to take the picture.

Here’s what I’ve found use­ful after some frustration:

1. Put the cam­era icon in the place on your phone screen where it’s always vis­i­ble. There is only room for sev­er­al icons there. Make your cam­era icon one of them.

2. Make sure the default for your cam­era is pho­tographs not videos.

3. Make sure you know your cam­era set­tings so that you know exact­ly what your start­ing point is. Some cam­eras default auto­mat­i­cal­ly when the cam­era is turned off. Some cam­eras retain your pri­or set­tings, not the default set­tings. If your cam­era retains your pri­or set­tings, make sure such set­tings are your own default set­tings that you understand.

4. Prac­tice posi­tion­ing the cam­era prop­er­ly in your hands for quick shoot­ing. There are eight pos­si­ble ways to hold your cam­era for shoot­ing. Four of them don’t work (point the wrong way). Anoth­er two are imprac­ti­cal (upside down), although they will pro­duce accept­able results. That leaves two ways. Train your­self to quick­ly hold the phone in the prop­er posi­tion, one posi­tion for land­scape and one for portrait.

You may think #4 is sil­ly. But some pho­to ops last only sec­onds. I can tell you from expe­ri­ence that I’ve missed pho­to ops as I’ve fum­bled with my phone. So one day I just sat down and prac­ticed. Now I’m much quicker.

Now you’re ready to take pic­tures instant­ly what­ev­er comes up. But it takes a cer­tain mind­set too. I have found myself think­ing: that op would make a great pho­to, too bad I don’t have my cam­era with me. Yet, I did have my cam­era with me—my phone cam­era— if I had just remem­bered it in time. Start think­ing: I am a cam­era. Of course, this assumes that you always car­ry your smart­phone with you as I do.

One sit­u­a­tion bears fur­ther scruti­ny. When you’re dri­ving, you some­times see pho­to ops, par­tic­u­lar­ly when trav­el­ing cross coun­try. Before you slam on the breaks and pull over on a nar­row shoul­der thus putting your­self and oth­ers in a poten­tial dan­ger, think about where you can stop safe­ly and still get the photo.

But do stop, even if down the road a way.

If you have missed a pho­to op on a sec­tion of road that’s inher­ent­ly dan­ger­ous, you can strate­gize about how to get in a posi­tion to take the pho­to safe­ly. For instance, there’s a place near Page, Ari­zona where I trav­el occa­sion­al­ly that I want to pho­to­graph. But it’s off a very nar­row and dan­ger­ous part of the high­way. I have strate­gized that the next time I’m there, I will park at a safe place about a mile short and walk the mile to the pho­to op to take pictures.

And what about your camera’s stor­age capac­i­ty? Are you on the verge of run­ning out of mem­o­ry so you can’t take more pic­tures? Very naughty. Emp­ty your cam­era reg­u­lar­ly (upload the pho­tos to your com­put­er) so that you always have plen­ty of room to add more pho­tos. Noth­ing is so frus­trat­ing as find­ing a 50-shot pho­to op and dis­cov­er­ing that you only have enough mem­o­ry left to take five more photos.