I’m in the habit of carrying my camera, a Canon Powershot A720, with me everywhere I go. Ever striving to view through my eyeballs in the present moment instead of watch life pass on a tiny screen, I don’t shoot every fascinating thing. A lot of experiences you can’t capture anyway, so you might as well just live them.
I have, however, increasingly been using my camera as a tool. It’s more than a memory catcher—to remember for myself and to share with others. It’s also a damn good set of eyes that can see what I cannot and that can capture things quickly. For example, instead of taking time to read the buffalo statue‘s plaque in small-town Alberta with my out-of-sight Greyhound threatening to take off without me at any moment, I snapped a shot then read the inscription once safely back on the bus.
Because of their dark or otherwise colored lenses, trying on sunglasses and checking them out in a mirror doesn’t give you an accurate idea of what they actually look like on you. The solution? CAMERA TOOL!
As another example, one day waiting for a city bus, I noticed some kind of parking lot sale across a busy street. I couldn’t read the sign and didn’t want to cross the street to check it out and potentially miss my bus—but nor did I want to miss out on some mega-ridiculous street shirt sale, if indeed it were mega-ridiculous.
Zooming in and taking a picture, I found the shirts were $20 and nothing special. THANK YOU, CAMERA TOOL!
I did this trick again with my family. We noticed a bumper sticker stating “26.2” and all suffered temporary brain-blanks. Figuring the fine print we couldn’t read might be a clue, I zoomed, snapped, viewed, zoomed and duh, it’s for a marathon.
I’ve also used cameras to flash-and-snap inside dark rooms and to see what’s on the other side of tall obstructions. I know none of this is new, but I’m willing to bet it’s unrecognized and under-utilized by most folks—many of whom carry a camera, whether a point-and-shoot or in their phones.
Your camera is your friend! Exploit it. 🙂
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