I absolutely adore my Nikon and long zoom lenses that lose me hours in the hide at the weekends, but I also adore playing with the incredibly impressive built-in camera in my Samsung S6 mobile phone. So easy, so small, so handy, and really good for fitting in tight spaces and reaching a different viewpoint where my Nikon cannot (well not without trampling a dozen or more bluebells anyway). Yet I am struggling with it when it comes to the actual taking of the picture.
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| Wood Sorrel outside my bedroom |
I'm not the daintiest of people and even less so when it comes to high tech gadgets and gizmos, so for its' own protection my phone permanently lives inside a fairly sturdy leather case. This may be partially to blame for some of my struggles, and I fear my left-handedness may also play a part (the case of course is right-handed), but I will share with you the problems anyway... you may be able to help me.
Holding it Steady
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| Primroses on the Eastern stream |
I can hold a 4kg, foot long, Nikon steady with two hands and still hit the shutter release to take a picture...no problem, but I cannot seem to hold 0.2kgs of pocket electronics steady with one hand (or even two) and still manage to take a picture - the supposedly simple act of tapping the screen with a finger that's ill-placed and clearly doesn't bend that way in any kind of controlled manner, causes the camera to move quite some distance from where I frame it. I tried using just one hand to hold it and the other to tap the screen, with similar results (how on earth do the selfie-obsessives do it?). Is this a common problem or have the younger generation evolved particular finger flexibility that I can only aspire to?
Switching from landscape to portrait
When I want to switch from portrait to landscape with my Nikon I simply rotate the camera and continue shooting.... but when I want to do the same with my phone, the phone rejigs the screen and moves the shutter button to a different place on the screen. To make matters worst it always seems to be to the end furthest from fingers that only had half a hope of reaching it in the first place. Grrrrr. (and don't get me started about turning the picture upside down - what's that all about?)
High speed shooting
If I want to take a number of pictures in quick succession on my Nikon, I have a dial on the top of the camera that I move from Single to Continuous. Easy. My phone seems to have a mind of its own and can often take 10 or 20 images of the same thing in one go when I really only need one and of course the reverse is also true.... can I work out how to take more than one image when I want to? not a chance. yes yes yes.... "RTFM" I hear you cry, but really? does anyone? aren't we supposed to be in the age of intuitive operation nowadays? My phone certainly thinks it knows what's best for me... just a shame I can't tell it I'm a left-handed photographer who has already learnt to be adaptive through living in a right-handed world and so has no desire to cope with an adaptive device as well.
Ooh that feels better. Serenity reigns again.
If I want to take a number of pictures in quick succession on my Nikon, I have a dial on the top of the camera that I move from Single to Continuous. Easy. My phone seems to have a mind of its own and can often take 10 or 20 images of the same thing in one go when I really only need one and of course the reverse is also true.... can I work out how to take more than one image when I want to? not a chance. yes yes yes.... "RTFM" I hear you cry, but really? does anyone? aren't we supposed to be in the age of intuitive operation nowadays? My phone certainly thinks it knows what's best for me... just a shame I can't tell it I'm a left-handed photographer who has already learnt to be adaptive through living in a right-handed world and so has no desire to cope with an adaptive device as well.