Not only do smartphone cameras provide quality, they are also much easier to pack and the phone itself offers many handy uses on the fly.
When we were shopping for our RV, we tried to find one that was versatile so we could use it for many purposes. It needed to be large enough to sleep my wife and I in RV parks – along with a couple of friends – yet small enough so we could get good mileage and easily drive it up narrow roads to new adventures such as California State Route 1.
So far this summer, we have traveled a lot in our RV and still have a lot of places to visit on our list. I recently took it to Coffinbury Lake in Warrenton, OR, to assist with the Oregon Free Fishing Day. My fishing club, Rainland Fly Caster’s, sets up 100 fishing rods, fixes tangled gear, teaches kids how to cast, bait hooks, and clean their catch. Most of the effort is made on simple casting outfits. Our motorhome served many purposes. We used it as a gear hauler for our tables and fishing equipment; a comfort center to use as a restroom; to get some shelter from the sun, and a snack bar for the volunteers.
We used a couple of boats on a recent trip and took great images of each other.
I had to chuckle about another multipurpose tool that we haul around. On one of our trips, we were getting ready to launch our first guide boat for our shad fishing tourney when I realized that I didn’t have my camera. I asked our guides, Rob and Todd, if they had any one. They gave me a look as if to say, “where did you come from?” They hadn’t really used a camera on their trips for a couple of years. The cameras on their cell phones were good enough.
Smartphones for your RV Trip
Not only do smartphone cameras provide quality, they were also much easier to pack and the phone itself offers many handy uses on the fly. They can take countless of pictures, which can all be organized for easy viewing.
On this trip, we had about half-a-dozen phones that helped. Our wives snapped pictures of us leaving (probably for insurance purposes) and when we came home, we took pictures of our triumphant catches of the day. We used a couple of boats and got great shots of each other.
Another great feature I realized is using video. Last summer when my son’s buddy, Ford, caught a lodge record trout on the Kenai, we captured of most of the fight, jumps and leaps on video. We also used the still images for a guides’ brochure.
How did we know the fish was a record? Well, we measured its length and girth, and put the data into an app that the guide had uploaded to his phone.
If we needed a recipe for cooking a few fish for the celebration, our phone could access a few hundred or so online that we could choose from. When we needed music for the party, my son had a phone with a speaker that could provide a pretty good range of sound. Finally, if we had gotten lost or needed an ETA about how long it would take us to get back down river or back to camp, we had GPS coordinates ready.
I could have done almost all of that before we headed out to catch some shad. The only problem was that I had forgotten to charge my cell phone before we left and I quickly reverted back to old time technology. As always, it’s great to have friends. While I like to compare today’s smart phones to a Swiss Army Knife with its multiple uses, it’s pretty much useless unless you bring it along on your next trip.
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