Behind the Lens: Cameras can come in handy for more than just pictures / LJWorld.com

Archive for Sunday, July 5, 2009

Small digital cameras and cell phone cameras give you a portable capture device capable of many unusual uses. See a book you’re interested in but not ready to purchase? Snap a photo and later you can refer back to it when at a library or another store.

By Mike Yoder

July 5, 2009

Now that most cell phones have cameras, and many models of point-and-shoot cameras are pocket-size, many people are carrying one or the other throughout their day. Here’s a list of some unusual ways to utilize them:

• When you see books, CDs or movies you are interested in but don’t want to purchase, take a photograph. Later you can reference the photos and find them at the library or video store.

• Take a photo of your parking space location or sign at the airport, mall or garage to help find your car later.

• Have a collection of old photo prints you’d like to digitize? Most point-and-shoot cameras have excellent macrocapabilities. Use that feature to copy your photos or anything else you want digitized.

• For insurance purposes, take photographs of your possessions, room by room. Burn the photos to a CD, DVD or hard drive and put a copy in a safe-deposit box or give to a relative.

• Shopping for home furnishings? Take photos of your rooms and color schemes. Then take the camera along to the store and compare and match with possible purchases.

• If you’re a businessperson who exchanges business cards, take photographs of the cards with your phone camera and store there rather than in your billfold.

• When you make a reservation online for a hotel, snap a photograph of the statement and important numbers off your computer screen. Now you have the pertinent information in your phone for later reference.

• If you move TV and stereo equipment and want to remember how to rewire the connections, a photograph of the scene can help you reconstruct the set-up later.

• Can’t remember your license plate number when checking into a motel? Take a photo of it with your cell phone and store it there.

• Here’s one of the silliest uses. I was in the waiting room of a doctor’s office without my reading glasses. It occurred to me that in a real pinch I could have taken a photograph of a magazine article and then enlarged it in my phone to read.

For more ideas and tips check out this Web site: http://cameras.about.com/od/cameraphonespdas/a/emergency.htm