5 Great Uses for Your Smartphone On Vacation
By Robyn Wright
Summer vacations are always so much fun and now we have these amazing smartphones to take with us. Our devices can help us plan the trip, stay on schedule, discover new things, and capture memories while traveling. Here are five great uses for your smartphone while you are on vacation that you may not have thought about:
Create a Photo Scavenger Hunt
Before you hit the road for summer vacation, take some time to create a photo scavenger hunt for your family. This is a great idea if everyone has their own smartphone to snap pictures. Make a list of items that they should take capture during your trip. Once you are back home, you can compare the different photos everyone took for each item.
Include simple things like a red car, a gas station, a cow and other common objects, but also include some items specific to the location. For instance, if you are going to an amusement park, include some of the featured attractions, characters, or landmarks. Finally, include more abstract items such as happiness, thrills and family, which should result in some unique images when the photos are compared.
Create Collages
You can take dozens of photos with your smartphone, deleting the bad ones right away or backing them all up to the cloud to go through later. Instead of just keeping them all as individual photos, why not try creating collages? You can make a collage for an entire trip, or better yet, create a collage for each day or each specific activity or event.
Get the kids involved too and have everyone create their own collages. Seeing your vacation through others’ eyes can really be revealing. There are hundreds of collage apps for your mobile devices and computers. Just search in your favorite app store. You can save your finished pieces digitally and you can even print them out to frame and hang on the wall.
Make Movies
Not so long ago if you wanted a movie of your vacation someone was stuck toting around a large video camera. Now smartphones have amazing video capabilities too. Be sure to play around with the controls a little before you leave, so you’re ready to capture the fun at a moment’s notice. You can edit these short videos together after the trip or even edit them right there on your smartphone. When you are finished, you can burn your video to a CD-ROM to share with your family.
Instant Postcards
Is there someone you wish was with you on the trip? Maybe Grandma and Grandpa couldn’t travel with you but would love to see everyone enjoying themselves. Snap fun photos of your family throughout your trip to text instantly to loved ones back home. Using photo editing apps, you can even add text and stickers to make them look like postcards.
Capture the Details
On vacation we often take pictures of scenic views and attractions but sometimes everything blurs together when we get back home. Be sure to take photos of signage and detailed information markers when they are available. Take your picture first, then take one of the signage. That way you can remember names, dates and history when you look back at your collages, movies and scrapbooks!
Robyn Wright is a social media specialist and blogs on her own blog, RobynsOnlineWorld.com, as well as several other sites. Robyn has a love for family, technology, food and lots of apps!
