40. geotag your photos

Image139, originally uploaded by markresch.

one of the nicest features of the nokia n95 that i'm currently using is the ability to mark the photo with the location where it was taken. i liked this collage someone posted to a public bulletin board in bolinas, ca. because it's geotagged, you'd know exactly where to go to find it. you'd find it right here

39. give clear direction

john was getting married. he was in the last moments of pre-wedding jitters when he called and asked that a specific set of boxes be brought to the wedding by one of the guests. he left the boxes in his shed, but you know, asking to "bring the boxes" can be ambiguous. john sent a picture from his phone to make it all clear.

38 optical and digital zoom

05122008010, originally uploaded by markresch.

05122008011, originally uploaded by markresch.

05122008012, originally uploaded by markresch.

your camera may have both optical and digital zoom settings. these are three pictures from the n95 the top is all the way wide optical only, the second is full optical zoom, and the third is full optical + digital zoom.

all three look good, but there's really not any more data in the third picture than the second—just good image processing.

you can achieve as good or better results from the digital setting by manipulating the data from the full optical zoom in a program like photoshop.

a second advantage of processing the optical photo is that you have more original pixels to choose from to frame the shot.

37. use your phone to shoot video

05162008005-001, originally uploaded by markresch.

as phones become more fully featured, many of them are able to record video. so not only is it a phone, and a camera, but it's also a video recorder. and of course, you can do just what you do with still images—take them everywhere, post them to the internet, share them with friends, because —as flickr says—they're "long photos".

go ahead! click on the picture above! it'll play the video.

36. make your phone a wallet

albert on 't Is Goud posted about an idea he had to slim-down his wallet: taking photographs of his id cards, and storing them as photos in an album on his phone instead of carrying them around all the time.

this probably won't work for you to swipe the card you need at the atm, but i bet it works for many other purposes like for insurance cards. i'm not sure what the doctor's office will do when they want to take a photocopy of the card...maybe i'll email the photo to them.

35. remember [more than] the model number

05142008078, originally uploaded by markresch.

i am working on a project to restore (and heavily modify) an electric car. i need new tires and batteries to make it go. while i can remember that they're six volt batteries, i forget the other details all the time.

solution: snap a pic of the current batteries and you'll get all the information at once and have it with you when you get a spare moment to shop for replacements.

34. scan business cards

34. scan business cards, originally uploaded by markresch.

use your phone (again in macro mode, if you have it) to take a picture of business cards you get on a trip. you can keep the cards organized digitally. and the best thing for me is that this keeps cards from getting lost in the mountain of receipts and notes that i accumulate.

33. avoid parking tickets

05142008075, originally uploaded by markresch.

parking in the city is tough. parking at an available spot with a broken meter is like winning the parking lotto jackpot. but there's one small hitch in the gitalong: you might still be ticketed. after all, who knows how meters work? i suggest that you document the meter breakage with a quick photo. the EXIF data in the photo stamps the date and time (and if you want, the geolocation) of the photo. the data is plain: the data that my phone added to this picture looks like this:
Camera: Nokia N95 8GB
Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.6 mm
ISO Speed: 160
Flash: Flash did not fire, auto mode
Orientation: Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution: 72 dpi
Y-Resolution: 72 dpi
YCbCr Positioning: Centered
Date and Time (Original): 2008:05:14 14:16:31
Date and Time (Digitized): 2008:05:14 14:16:31
Shutter Speed: 6965/1000
Color Space: sRGB
Digital Zoom Ratio: 100/100
Gain Control: Low gain up
Compression: JPEG
Image Width: 2592 pixels
Image Height: 1944 pixels

don't be late for your meeting!

32. another vote in favor of the camera in your pocket

Beach shot at sunset with new Nokia N82, originally uploaded by Robert Scoble.

Canon 5D beach shots, originally uploaded by Robert Scoble.

robert scoble is the society photographer of web 2.0. he goes to every event, and shoots lots of photos and videos. he just posted a comparison of his mobile phone (a nokia n82) with his big digital slr, and posted two comparison shots. they're not amazing photographs, but i think they make the point that these are getting to be great cameras, with the primary difference for the amateur being the lens. oh, and the weight, and the fact that one is always with you.

and so while they may not be as fast, or have quite as high resolution, they win hands down because they're in your pocket.

31. use the macro function and move in close

ruth's pencils, originally uploaded by markresch.

you can take beautiful photos everywhere with your cameraphone. i took this picture of ruth's pencils in a conference room, after a discussion of interface design. activating macro just took a second. but when you do activate macro, don't forget to turn it off when you're done!