Like most people, I spend far too much of my free time staring at my phone screen, alternating between doom-scrolling news headlines and flicking through attention-grabbing, casino-like apps. I love the idea of switching off and engaging in a fully offline hobby.
Running is a great activity for this, as it allows me to uncouple from the digital world and engage with my surroundings, but this is technically work. I'm often testing the best smartwatches and best running shoes in my capacity as TechRadar's Senior Fitness Editor, and therefore I'm checking my metrics and route on one of a dozen wellness apps, or scanning Strava, after every run.
So to completely separate myself from screens, I chose a very different hobby: painting little figurines, rolling dice and moving them around a table.
Painting and playing Warhammer, and other war games like it, offers an old-school escape from a life glued to screens, which is why miniature painting and wargaming saw such a resurgence during the Covid years. However, every time I get to play the game, especially on a gaming board full of expertly-painted terrain supplied by my local hobby shops, I really enjoy taking photos of the action, which invariably involves picking up my phone.
I'm rocking an Oppo Find X5 Pro, which has a great triple-lens rear camera with Hasselblad tech built-in, but the camera either tends to focus on certain elements in the shot and leave other important areas out of focus, as you can see below, or keep everything in focus when you'd rather creatively blur other elements in the background.
Fiddling with the settings and composition to try and get the desired shot means slowing the game down, potentially frustrating my opponent.
However, if that was the only issue, this article wouldn't exist: I could work on mastering my phone's camera with a bit of practice. The main reason I want to ditch my phone during game times is that once the darn thing is in my hand, I've instantly reconnected with the world.
The temptation to check my WhatsApp messages or work emails rears its ugly head straight away, especially when I can see unread notifications in my nav bar. While Airplane Mode is one solution, I don't enjoy having my phone in my hand while I play, and would prefer to leave it in my bag if I can.
Consequently, I was delighted when I stumbled on my Canon Powershot SX530 HS, an older 'bridge' camera that's now too outdated to make our best Canon cameras list. However, it is a great camera for my needs: simple to use, with a 16MP lens and plenty of control over depth of field – that is, which parts of a scene and in focus and which are blurred – and other settings should I want to dig into the nuts-and-bolts of photography a little more.
It was a present from my wife many years ago, and had been collecting dust in a drawer after we moved house before I rediscovered it – and found that it was the ideal device to help me disconnect my hobby time from reality.
I'm not a good photographer by any means, but I really enjoyed putting my phone away and taking pictures of the action on a dedicated device. From a psychological perspective, it felt like I was engaging with the game a lot more by not using the phone, which I associate with distraction.
A report published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology in 2022 found that phone use during social experiences has "detrimental effects on cognitive processing, well-being, and relationships" according to existing research on the topic. The report cited stats that Americans were spending over three hours a day on their phones – and three years on, I imagine that number can only have increased.
Putting my phone away during play and picking up my camera instead, and using an offline tablet to peruse the rules of the game, has made for a richer and more intentional experience. With not having my phone in my hand for rules or pictures, I felt as though I was more present and focused on my tabletop time – and it didn't hurt that the camera is excellent, adding depth and drama to miniature battlefield scenarios.
This intentionality is preserved and enhanced at all stages of the hobby. When I took action shots of battlefields in the past, I would send them to my fellow hobbyists in a WhatsApp group or Discord server, but I would only ever interact with the images on my phone. In order to get them off my camera, I have to plug it in and upload them from the camera's SD card, setting aside time for this part of the hobby rather than idly flicking between my camera roll and a distracting app like Pinterest or Reddit.
Once they're on my laptop, I found I could interact with the images in a much deeper way, appreciating them on a larger screen, and upload them into Photoshop to tinker with the color and other elements. I've begun looking into more complex ways to alter images, such as stacking photos to increase the depth of field, enhancing finer details, and applying rudimentary effects – but I've got a long way to go here.
I may not have left phone addiction and screen-based distractions entirely behind, but with the help of my Powershot there's now one area of my life where I can escape the relentless encroachment of everyday life and grim reality – even if it is only to enter the even grimmer world of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
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