How many times does it take?

<p>How many times do you say to yourself "I wish I had my camera!" before you actually start carrying your camera with you everywhere? I've lost count of how many times I've lamented not having my camera with me. I find it is happening with increasing frequency.</p>

<p>This evening as I walked to my car from work I was blessed with an amazing view. A breezy afternoon had kicked up a lot of dust, and the setting sun shining through it created an amazing golden glow. A mesquite tree with twisted trunk made an awesome silhouette as the sun approached a nearby mountain range. All I had was my cruddy cell phone!</p><div></div>

<p>I'm going to say eleven.</p>

 

<p><em>before you actually start carrying your camera with you everywhere</em></p>

<p>Suggestion: you don't really need "your camera" (the main one) or "everywhere" to get 90% of the benefit. Go on craigslist (which is actually much better, at least in my area, than eBay for this specific purpose), get yourself a used compact digital, and keep it in the console or glove box in your car. I have a Canon PowerShot A570 IS bought for this purpose. With lithium batteries, an old SD card, and the CHDK firmware hack, I've got a decent camera with PASM modes, raw capture, 35-140mm equivalent lens, image stabilization, 7 MP, basic video (640x480p30), and even an optical viewfinder--for IIRC $40. Works <em>waaaay</em> better than the camera in my fairly modern smartphone, at a very modest space / carrying cost, and for a very modest monetary cost.</p>

 

<p>Ditto Dave's Canon PowerShot suggestion, especially with CHDK firmware. My A610 bought for a few dollars serves the same purpose. <br>

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</p>

<p>No matter where I go, I always have a tiny digital and a Minox film camera on my belt. If all else fails, I have my cellphone.</p>

<p>I carry my camera about half the time I'm out.</p>

<p>I figure all the pictures I don't take culminate in the ones I do.</p>

<p>One or two regrets over the years. That's about it. </p>

<p>Ditto Dave and Michael. I have a Canon A1000IS with me at all times.</p>

<p>just carrying a camera isn't enough - any number of times I've been driving along and see a 'photo opportunity' but unable to stop, so maybe a dash-mounted camera is the thing !</p>

<p>Chris, that's one advantage the Canon PowerShot/CHDK combination has. </p>

<p>There are large numbers of free scripts available that you can run on these small cameras including time-lapse, motion sensing, light sensing, video recordings, even remote trigger simply by choosing a script from the menu and dash-mount or windshield-mount the camera. </p>

<p>I can only recall two times that I absolutely know I missed a GREAT opportunity, once in the French Alps and another at dawn near the Oregon-Washington border. Will never forget those.</p>

I always have a camera with me, whether cellphone cam or point-n-shoot. But not for the purpose of

"going out to take pictures." Rather, to record interesting moments while experiencing urban life, coming

across interesting people on the street, etc when not doing anything else in particular. Often I'll take no pictures. Either/both fit comfortably in my jeans pocket.

 

You can go very far with the right approach and cellphone cam. Many photographers, including myself,

have developed bodies of work and projects with just a phone.

To carry a camera with me always in case a photogenic object or scene by chance should appear in front of me is as always carrying a candle and a bottle of wine in case by chance a romantic scene should appear in front of me and my better half. I prefer to first find the place, then plan for the event to happen later on. ;-)

 

But of course, there are rare occasions where I take it with me, just in case, because I expect something might happen... 8-)

<p>When I was a young man (I think Eisenhower was president) I was walking through downtown Los Angeles and came across a fellow selling a religious magagine with the name of "Awake." He looked like he was a street person who had been given a job for the day selling these magazinesl. At any rate, he had the magazine pinned to his chest and he was sitting on a stool on the street courner -- fast asleep. I had a very good camera at the time, a 3.5 Rolleiflex, but had left it at home. I never go anywhere without a camera in my car or otherwise close at hand.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>I'm going to say eleven.</p>

</blockquote>

<p><br /><br /><br />It's closer to eleventy three.</p>

<p>nm</p>

<p>""How many times..."<br /> Often, very often, too often.<br /> My Canon 5dII, with whatever objective, it is often too big and heavy to have with you everywhere, at any time. Much too often it stays in the car, at home or in the hotel safety-box. It is a marvelous tool when traveling for landscape shot and city shots, but for street-photography, for example, it makes me long for something else. I have recently bought a Sony RX100, that I hope can satisfy such needs in the future. Up till now I used the iPhone.</p>

<p>I have a wonderful camera which I take everywhere ... my brain.</p>

<p>Never. I live in a small town and generally go everywhere, even grocery shopping, on a bike. Diesel is so expensive that I don't get out much for a drive. When I do, it is for the express purpose of enjoying the landscape, so naturally I take my camera along. But on a Sunday morning bike ride down to the corner store to buy a newspaper, or on a ride to the post office to pick up the mail, the camera stays at home.</p>

<p>And if you bring your camera, slavishly, there's always: "I brought the wrong dang lens!".</p>

<p>I've always carried a camera with me ever since the time I saw four young boys walking ahead of me wearing soccer uniforms, and the numbers on their uniforms were 1, 2, 3, and 4, in that order...and I had no camera.</p>

<p>And you never know when a good stereo will show up.</p>

<p>Oops! Forgt illustration!</p><div></div>

<p>All the time! Photographic opportunities do not wait for me to have a camera. As I go through a typical day I notice potential shots all the time. </p>

<p>Not only do you need to have the camera with you, you need to keep your brain in gear to use it. I was coming home from work one day when I got passed by a fire truck. Half a mile down the road I was the second car back from where the fire fighters were stopped in the middle of the road, preparing to douse a car that was in flames. After it was all over except for some steam I looked at my D300 with 70-200 f/2.8 in the seat next to me and thought: duhh!</p>

<p>I still cary the D300 with either the 70-200 or a 17-55 f/2.8, every where I go.</p><div></div>

<p>0</p>

<p>Seriously. Get a camera phone. Then you have a camera with you all the time.</p>

<p>A lot of us are constrained by environment. A glove box is simply too hot a lot of the time to leave film or a battery powered camera in there. I am not going to subject my equipment to 1000° temperatures just to get the odd shot now and then. I love my cameras too much.</p>