Once in a blue moon I like to do a bare-bones photo-shooting excursion: I have spent one day shooting only a wide-angle, a medium telephoto or a normal lens (in the old times a normal lens was all I had anyway)…

After many years of sporadic episodes of GAS (all photographers of course know this is the medical acronym of Gear Acquisition Syndrome) I suffer the consequences of the disease: A full camera store inside my heavy backpack.

Knowing that the disease might lead to a big belly, heart disease, and even lower-back and knees pain I thought I would go to a birding trip without my big lens… maybe then I would hike more. Then, the night before, I said to me: Eduardo, you know you are going to a rain forest in the middle of Costa Rica’s rainy season… today you are not going to set up tripods, flashes and big cameras under an umbrella. Just take your binoculars and enjoy the birdies!

I did it! All my birding friends asked me about my camera and I said “I am on vacation: just plain birdwatching today.”  I was about to open a large wildlife photo exhibition and it really felt good not to think about photos for a while.

We watched Yellow-thighed Finches, Flame-throated Tanagers, several hummingbird species and even Resplendent Quetzals. Then we drove to another place where we saw more hummingbirds and forest species. We started a hike along a mountain stream. I was walking in front of the group  and slowly left them behind.

I then remembered my iPhone with its 29 mm equivalent focal length lens was in my pocket …and I cheated.

Can you really have a camera in your pocket and not take pictures?