always on the go

Sometimes bigger is not better. The day has come when things are compacted into small little pocket-sized contraptions that weigh less than your credit card and perform about 486 functions. They are a bit ridiculous. But these things can be pretty handy when it comes to pictures on the go.

For example, it is hard enough to take a horse out on the first ride of the season on a windy day. Its especially hard to pack around a large, expensive camera and not managed to drop it (or myself) off his back. So a camera phone comes in handy to capture the essence of the ride.

For those of you who don't know the story of the Tennessee Walking Horse's history, they were originally used on plantations to ride up and down the crop rows all day for inspections. They have an incredibly smooth gait (instead of the bumpy trot) and can be ridden for hours at this gait. Having finally moved my horse out to the prairies, I experienced riding him up and down between the rows of crops. It was a very plantation moment.

Other times, there isn't just a free hand to fiddle with a large camera and a view finder. Not that I am advocating this shot, or anything. But I was heading back to the prairies from the mountains and couldn't resist recording the journey.

And finally, of course there are those moments when you just plain forgot to bring the camera. This is me every single day at work. I have one of the best jobs in the world, where almost every case is photograph-worthy, and I can't even remember to bring my point-and-shoot.

What made me feel worse in this scenario was seeing a man with a camera lens that was longer than my arm and with a diameter bigger than my face. Show off.

Hope you've enjoyed my cell-phone-camera-only shots. I will get out with the SLR soon, I promise.