How long were all of you, my gentle readers, going to remain silent about my nonsense about showing you pictures from my phone? A phone!! A phone is not a camera!!! Yes a phone can take a picture but that is not the definition of a camera to me. A phone is as much of a camera as a hubcap is a frying pan! And you can’t do photography with a phone. You can record a scene in front of you but you can’t photograph it.

So why am I going to amazing aquariums and trying to capture the wonder with a phone? Because I’m an idiot! Anybody care to argue with me? Didn’t think so.

I’m also indecisive, well I was until last week. I should probably explain. For at least the last couple of years I have been wanting to buy a small camera as an alternative to my giant Nikon D4. Something that is inconspicuous, easy to carry around but still takes good useable pictures and is easy to use. there are many options available- Panasonic Lumix, the Canon G cameras, Sony make really good little cameras, Leica, Fuji and, of course, Nikon. I had a small Panasonic a few years ago but it was so small it was hard to use. I then had a Nikon D5100 which is a real, full sized camera but it never felt comfortable in my hands or in my head. I gave both of them away.

Each one of the little cameras has its advantages and disadvantages. I came to realize that there is not the perfect little camera out there. As soon as I found a model I really liked I discovered what I thought was a fatal flaw. I then realized that every camera has a fatal flaw or two and that not all fatal flaws are so fatal.

This didn’t help my decision making so much- I went from eliminating every option to embracing every option- thus no decision. This is why I took so many pictures with my phone and why I shared so many of them with you all. Those days are now over!

Meet my new little friend! I went with the new Nikon 1 J3. It takes pictures in RAW, does good full HD video, allows me to shoot in aperture priority and has interchangeable lenses. The lens that sold me on this camera was the equivalent  of a 16mm lens. Most other little cameras have  wide angle lenses that only go to 28mm- I wanted something much wider. I got three lenses to go with the body- the 35mm equivalent of a 16-35, 27-85 and a 27-270.

I’m going to take it on my next two big trips to British Columbia and Brazil and will be sharing lots of pictures and thoughts on it. Be happy to know that my days of posting iPhone shots are over. Never again will I resort to that hubcap appliance for photography! Well, almost never. the shots in this blog were taken with my iPhone!