Make your camera a tool

A FEW YEARS AGO, several friends and I went for a boat ride off the coast of Maine. We wanted to explore an interesting-looking island, but we needed permission to land. There was a sign onshore with visiting instructions, but we couldn’t get close enough in the boat to make out what it said. So I took a picture with my camera, then zoomed in until I could read it.

I often use the same trick at home. I broke the glass globe of the light fixture on the ceiling in our laundry room, and in order to replace it I needed to know the model number of the fixture. I was too lazy to go downstairs for a step stool, so I held my phone over my head and clicked. You find applications everywhere: checking the score of the big game on the TV above the bar on the far side of the restaurant; exploring wall cavities and other tight spaces that you can’t peer into because your forehead gets in the way; remembering where you parked at the airport; and making a step-by-step visual record of what the inside of your clothes dryer looked like before you foolishly began unscrewing things. – David Owen