The problem with cell-phone cameras is the lag time. In the past, the photographer pointed a camera and clicked. Now, one points a cell-phone “camera” and pushes a button and… nothing happens. Then, one turns the phone over and looks at it and asks the subject, “Did anything happen?” And one tries again. If one mashes the button often and at length, the telephone might take a picture and reward the photographer with a phony “click click” noise indicating the facsimile work of a camera has been done. If this were not true, I’d be showing you a picture of the tufted titmouse that has for the past three afternoons landed on my head, as I sat in the garden, and pecked around as if for insects. He does not stay long, but he does come with disquieting regularity. Maybe we’ll remember to have a real camera out there one day.
