Using a keychain camera to record the morning sun

Remember taking photos with your cameraphone back in the early 2000s? I’m talking 2003 vintage style—lo-res, JPEG artifacts, the works. There’s something special about the lo-fi quality of old digital cameras that modern smartphones, for all their technical perfection, can’t quite replicate.

This year Kodak released a keychain-sized camera called the Charmera. It’s nearly impossible to find, but a month ago I managed to snag one from the Kodak store on Amazon. (Their Amazon store no longer carries it, sadly.)

It’s the perfect camera to keep in your pocket.

An autumn morning in the woods

This morning after dropping my daughter off at school, I walked through the nearby woods. The wind was pulling leaves off the trees—the perfect scene to capture. Leaves falling, branches swaying, that golden October light filtering through.

I pulled the tiny Charmera out of my pocket and propped it against a tree trunk to keep it steady. I wanted to record this as a two-minute video (part of my two-minute video series), which meant the camera needed to stay still. Trees make surprisingly good tripods.

Even braced against bark, the camera still shifted a bit. I often think I should just carry a tripod everywhere, but when you’re tripodless, the world is full of makeshift stands—rocks, benches, fence posts, even a carefully positioned shoe if you’re desperate.

Breaking the rules

I pointed the camera directly at the sun. Yes, I know—you’re not supposed to shoot into the sun. But I love how it appears to pulse, growing larger and smaller as it moves behind the swaying branches. The Charmera’s limitations—the way it handles bright light, the slight camera movement—become features rather than bugs.

Here’s the result: a relaxing two-minute video of the morning sun during autumn. (Just ignore the part halfway through where I had to adjust the camera.)

The value of pausing

I highly encourage anyone to pause and record a two-minute video of something. No narrative, no cuts, no music. Just observation. In a world of 15-second clips, there’s something quietly radical about watching leaves fall for 120 uninterrupted seconds.

It’s a form of digital meditation—and the lo-fi quality of a camera like the Charmera makes it easier. There’s no pressure for technical perfection. The grain and artifacts become part of the charm.