Digital Photographs Replacing Paper and Pen

Here's one of my favorite tips from one of my favorite books, the Digital Photography Pocket Guide:

"Don't forget to take pictures of signs and placards. It's a lot easier than taking notes about locations, and the information comes in very handy when recounting your travel experiences."

Lately, I've been observing variations on this theme all around. Instead of taking out pen and paper, or even PDA and stylus, people are taking out their digital cameras to record useful information:

• One of the O'Reilly Editors took pictures of the whiteboards at Foo Camp and passed them around so we wouldn't forget the ideas germinated during the fabulous idea-germinating process that is Foo. (No, I often don't fully understand what the O'Reilly Techno-Elite are talking about; I'm just glad they use their notable powers for good and not evil.)



• I've been using my camera for "taking" winetasting notes, rather than be that obnoxious woman at the end of the bar with a pen. (Seriously. She was at every winery I went to last weekend. Same woman.) I usually have my camera in hand anyway given the beautiful countryside provided by California's wine regions. If I see a wine I find interesting, but maybe can't afford or don't want to purchase at the moment, I can snap an image of the label for future reference. (By the way, don't do this without capturing a bit more relevant detail than I did here. Good to know. "Port." Very informative, Colleen.)

• Attendees of Photoshop World were shooting the large, centrally located seminar schedule in front of the Expo hall. This despite the fact that, mere yards away, NAPP was offering lovely printed brochures that had the week's schedule laid out exactly the same way in a portable format. But clearly some people thought it would be easier to just zoom in on their camera's LCD screen when they needed to refresh their memory about what room their favorite Photoshop guru was in at 3:00.

• My son is on an ongoing quest to spot license plates from all fifty states. Now, when he's not with me and I see one I know he doesn't have, I snap a picture of it. We've agreed that this doesn't really "count," but it lets him know what to look for in his quest for Florida (fish) or Mississipi (magnolia). And no, the educational value is not lost on me.

OK, so I'll always be the quasi-luddite girl with the ink splotch at the bottom of her purse where the fountain pen leaked, right next to the coolest quad-ruled notebook I can find. And the stylus fell out of my Treo in April and I still haven't replaced it, because taking notes on a PDA has never been satisfying or productive for me (and besides my thumbnail works just fine for most situations). But snapping a quick shot with my compact digital camera (stowed right there next to the ink splotch) is a fun, expressive, and inexpensive way to store a good deal of information quickly. Score one for technology.

To learn more handy digi-photo tips, check out the third edition of Derrick Story's Digital Photography Pocket Guide from O'Reilly Media (2005).