You ever decide one day to deprive yourself of something you do regularly and love? Like, going a month without beer, or no-added-sugar, low-fat yogurt. Just to see if you can do it? Just to see if it makes you feel alive? And it makes you really appreciate what you've been taking for granted, even though you're plainly aware that you enjoy it.
I've gone a month without taking photos with my phone. And, amazingly, I've found my life has actually improved by... Shit. I can't lie, it's like the worst thing that's ever happened to me in the post-Snapchat age. You practically can't live in society these days without taking photos with your phone. As far as July 2015 goes it may well have never happened as I have no photos to prove it. I'll have to rely on my fitness tracker records and my Fly Buys account details purely to remember that I was even alive.
If I really grasp at straws, however, I can kind of say that one advantage of having no phone camera is that for photos of the month I can describe the amazing photos I would have taken, had my camera not been busted, instead of actually taking them. Plus, I didn't have to get into the weird postures to take these photos at the right position/angle, nor endure strangers wondering what kind of weird selfie I could be taking facing the camera away from me, and with no meal in sight.
Here are text descriptions of the July 2015 Cameraphone Photos of the Month.
1. Shiny, blue early morning dew on overgrown green grass.
2. Vibrant stalks of lavender growing along the footpath, the sunrise in the background
3. Adelaide oval under lights and a downpour, from high in the western stand.
4. Gus at night at Steve and Kristen's house-warming, wearing a fashionably knotted scarf / rollover for Gus in a sunlit front bar watching The Showdown with a fashionably knotted scarf.
5. Grange beach after a winter run, the clouds approaching sunset reflected in large puddles on the dirt path behind the dunes.
6. A grainy photo of our quiz-night answer sheet at the Curious Squire, showing the cartoon drawing of the quiz master.
7. At Henley Beach square, A large sign on temporary fencing that reads "Business as Usual" and through the fence the destruction of construction clearly illustrating that things are not as usual.
8. Something I cooked or baked
9. Claire and Josh's roaring fire.
10. Cowan eating a blue frosted cupcake on the Fourth of July with a big, goofy smile.
11. Nash after a bath looking equally fluffy and unimpressed.
12. North Terrace office towers glowing in 5pm golden sunset. Rollover for Parliament House post-sunset with orange and black clouds of dusk filling the background to the horizon. (If dicking around in Photoshop makes the colours and dynamic range particularly sharp, post as separate photo rather than a rollover.)
13. Vanessa wearing a pompom-beanie and two jumpers under a furry blanket and a cute, pouty face.
14. Chow at Lucky Lupitas presenting a trunk of beers to the cook to say thank you for years of feeding him Mexican food (Chow description of a cameraphone photo of the month.)
15. A couple of ducks sleeping in the midday sunshine on the bank of the Torrens River, with caption "Stop being lazy and make the fucking ducklings, ducks. I need some Spring."
