I held off getting a smartphone for a long time. I frustrated friends who tried to text my ancient flip phone internet links and baffled people by actually getting lost and having to phone for directions. (Who gets lost these days? Everyone has Google Maps in their back pocket now.)
But I’m going to two conferences in unfamiliar places this summer, and I don’t particularly want to get lost in Alaska or Brazil. So I got a smartphone. And now I have a camera in my back pocket all the time.
Not surprisingly, in my hands this has mostly yielded pictures of birds.
Owl Finches at the local pet store.
Display of birds at Cal Day, the one day a year (today!) that the museum opens its doors to the public.
Limpet in my backpack.
Nestlings almost ready to fledge in a junco nest near my work.
Mounted Barn Owl specimen at Cal Day.
Jar o’ newts at Cal Day.
Skull at Cal Day.
Bridge in coastal Oregon
A sign proclaimed these nestboxes to be for Purple Martins, but all of the birds in them were Common Starlings.
Hybrid Spice Finches at the pet store.
Interesting flower
Echidna specimen at Cal Day.
Live tuco-tucos doing outreach (and eating lettuce) at Cal Day.
Live snake doing outreach at Cal Day (not too close to the tucos-tucos, though).
Molt from a barnacle. The hard protective shells of barnacles protect these delicate little arms, which sweep for food in the water.
Fridge magnet poetry
Blue Parrotlets.
Selection of motmot species at Cal Day.
Malachite Sunbird at Cal Day.
Forest near Portland, Oregon.
Another junco nest near my work. Just because I’m not out in the field, it doesn’t mean I’m not stalking juncos…
Tough Little Birds 
I think of it as a camera with a lot features including a phone.