Memories are fleeting. They grow so fast. Savor the moments. Those are the sayings that drive us to photograph the time we want to remember with our children.
We had many of those special moments on a journey thousands of miles from our family's home to visit my childhood home and family half way across the country. This journey was the first I had my memory-keeper at hand—a little iphone instead of my bulky SLR digital camera. My full-size digital SLR was trusty. We have over 35,000 family photos taken with ours. However, our large SLR camera—along with the heavy, detachable zoom lens—was sometimes left in the car or at home because of its weight and size. The pocket-size of the camera phone became our take-everywhere, all-the-time camera.
camera phone photography tips
1 • Avoid Instagram-looking filters. In a few years heavily filtered photographs will look outdated. The vintage-hued style popularized by this popular photo site will not be the look-of-the-moment forever. Have fun sharing your photos any way you wish, but save your photos for posterity the way you experienced them—natural as the moment itself.
2 • If you do add filter enhancements to your photos on an iphone with iphoto, keep in mind your photo filters will be lost when transferring your photos to your computer or back up system. Only the original photo will be saved and transferred. If you want to save permanent filters or enhancements to your photos made, use an app like Filter Keeper. Your original, un-enhanced photos will be backed up, along with a folder of all of your filtered photos.
3 • Camera phones are discreet. Play up the advantage. Slip your camera out quietly and capture those special moments unnoticed. You will capture true, natural moments and memories instead of staged poses.
4 • Photograph guilt-free. Camera phones have capabilities of snapping photos with quality as high as good digital SLRs. My Canon Rebel was 8 megapixels. The iphone 5s? 8 megapixels. Some camera phones have even higher image quality. Not good with technology mumble jumble? Those mega, megapixels translate to photograph quality on a camera phone as good as, or better than, a digital SLR. Photographs taken with camera phones can be great as expensive, bigger cameras.
5 • Back up. Back up. Back up. You have heard this advice for the files you store on your computer. Double important for the once-in-a-lifetime bits of your life stored as photographs on your phone. Phones are portable—and lose-able. You can back up to your computer, or consider backing up to a hard drive dedicated solely to storing your photographs—consider your hard drive a digital photo album. The latest hard drives are almost the size of a deck of cards and backing up has never been more simple. Your memories are worth the cost of this invaluable, compact device. I back up my images once a week on my tiny
hard drive for Macs* (there is a
PC hard drive*
too). *These two links are Amazon Affiliate links
Camera phones can now give mothers everywhere reasons to cheer. With armfuls of children, diaper bags, snacks, drinks (maybe even a toy truck or doll shoe stuffed down in a pocket somewhere too)—doesn't a good pock-size camera sound like the innovation of the century? It is the first cell phone I have used—I can be a stubborn, reluctant adopter of technology because of our enjoyment of so many simple things we have to make us happy. I do not use the phone for a phone—but, the calendar, alarm, and notepad have also tidied up mothering.
And, my phone camera—now brim full of family memories—has simply won me over.
{My tranquil childhood home we shared through our camera phone photos above, is the Whiteley Creek Bed and Breakfast at whiteleycreek.com, where you can find wholesome recipes, reflections on rural living, and information on booking your own stay at my father and mother's inn.}
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©heather cahoon • wordplayhouse®
