Capturing the Moment On the Go {Guest Post}

I like to think of pictures as memory snapshots. When arranged in a certain way, they tell a story. Or, at least, they can jog your memory. Pictures truly capture moments in our life whether they are funny, sad, interesting or serious. My favorite pictures are candid shots. While posed ones have their time and place, candid is the most “in the moment” one can be. This was even something I considered when choosing our wedding photographer – they had to be good at candid shots and that needed to be the majority of what they took!

But, I’m not a professional photographer and cannot afford to keep one on retainer. (It’d be nice to have one there at just every perfect moment though, right?) As we get busier in our lives and technology continues to advance upon providing instant results, we’ve seen our mobile phones equipped with increasingly better digital cameras.

Without the capabilities of my phone, I probably wouldn’t have been able to capture these precious moments:

When camera phones came out I admit I was reluctant in finding the excitement. The pictures were poor quality and hard to get off of your phone. Sure, you could send them to your friends’ phones, but that usually cost everyone money. If you did manage to get your pictures of your phone they were tiny little thumbnails.

In 2009, my husband and I each bought an iPhone 3. Photos were grainy, there was no focus, and there was no flash. While the quality still wasn’t too great, it was a fun way to take pictures of each other, funny signs around town, and of the cats. It was also my go-to camera when my daughter was first born as you can see in the above picture. While it’s a cute close up of her sleepy 2 day old face, it’s grainy-er than than other two.

A few months ago we upgraded to the iPhone 4. This is not only equipped with a camera, but with a video camera as well! It’s quality rivals our other digital video camera. This camera is much fancier. It has the ability to focus, five times digital zoom and has flash. The quality is much crisper too since it is 5 megapixels. With the flash, you can have it on auto and it will determine if more light is needed or not. (Unfortunately, the flash often distracts my daughter. Oh, and it can draw attention to yourself if you are taking pictures of something in a store.) The focus, I just have to share, is surprisingly good. Besides autofocus, you can tap on the screen to choose what to focus on. The macro lens also allows for some nicely detailed close ups. The other two pictures above were taken with my iPhone 4.

Another interesting feature is HDR. It takes a bit longer since it takes three pictures and combines them into one – using the best light exposure from each. You’ll see two photos in your library – one with HDR and one without. Definitely more than I’d expect to find on a cell phone.

This is an example of an HDR photo. Unfortunately, my husband deleted the non-HDR version of it, but there was too much light. Without the HDR, it was streaky and you couldn’t read the signs.

Before we moved up in the world to camera phones, if I saw the cats doing something cute I’d have to quickly scrounge up the digital camera and hope they didn’t move by the time I got back to them. This definitely does not work with my daughter. She barely holds still enough for me to whip out my phone. I may not be a professional photographer, but I’m an avid “on-the-go” moment capturer!

What about you? Do you find yourself using your phone more and more to capture your life moments?

About this guest poster: Darcy Zalewski is the owner of Tales From the Nursery where she provides an honest look at being a married stay-at-home mother of one very curious little girl and products for her family. There is never a dull moment and lots of honest tales to be told.