This article has been updated by 7 ways to use your phone’s camera.

Phone cameras have been getting better and better, and I believe they are both useful and usable now, from a writer’s point of view.

If you have a phone with a camera, using it makes sense because you already have it with you: no need to lug around an extra camera.

Here are some ideas for using the phone’s cam or video camera:

As an aide-memoir, to remind you of a scene, a building, a person, or an idea.
To record a stimulus picture, for helping you become even more creative when sitting down to write.
To share a photo or video with friends, people in your social networks or even yourself, via email – immediately.
To record an interview with someone you meet.
To record an event you attend.
To record your thoughts about something, talking to the camera.
To take a photo of yourself with a particular sight in the background.

Those last two may seem impossible, or at least very difficult, but that is not necessarily the case. Have a look at your phone camera’s icons. With any luck you’ll have a couple like the two on the right in the screenshot below.

Your camera phone's icons will probably look something like this

The icon at the very end on the right-hand side changes the camera to a video camera. The icon just to its left turns the camera on yourself – and there is a similar icon in the same place (at least on my phone) in the video camera feature.

Just for the record, the other icons shown are for, starting on the left-hand side: