The 5 best uses for a selfie stick
We’re big fans of the Wand of Narcissus at ShinyShiny, as you might have seen in our recent post ‘In defence of the selfie stick‘.
If you’ve been wondering why you need one, want to get the best out of yours, or just need to justify your purchase to judgey friends, we’ve got you covered. Here are our 5 best uses for a selfie stick:
1. Taking amazing gig photos
It can be hard to get across the magnitude and atmosphere of a huge gig when you’re the shortest person in the standing section and your phone is at the approximate height of the guy in front’s earhole. Whack it up on a selfie stick, though, and suddenly you’ve got an amazing view of the entire arena that even Tallpants McGee can’t rival. You can take incredible panoramic videos this way – and if that doesn’t convince you, then check this out:
Yep, Dr. Brian May CBE uses a selfie stick at Queen gigs.
Oh, and did we mention Katy Perry does too?
Sold.
2. Taking group snaps with no one missing
Back in the day of analogue photos, some poor sod had to get up from the restaurant table and take a group shot, which may or may not have come out blurry (you had to wait weeks for processing to find out). If you were lucky, a surly waiter might have taken a half-arsed shot for you while trying to work out if it’d get him a better tip, but he’d invariably leave his finger over the lens as a way to punish you for ordering the cashew salad with no cashews.
In the age of the selfie, group photos got a bit easier, but it’s still pretty tricky to get everyone in without being uncomfortably close to the camera yourself, or accidentally being photobombed by your own arm. Selfie sticks are perfect for this purpose – just hoist them up and tell everyone to smile. Your waiter will still be surly, but your photo will come out beautifully. We’ll drink to that!
3. Taking outfit shots without a mirror
Taking a photo of your entire outfit is surprisingly good for finding out if it looks naff or not. You’d think just looking in the mirror would be enough to work that out, but trust me – a photo is so much better. It’s like looking through someone else’s eyes.
Red, white and blue for my last night in Vegas. #latergram
Until the advent of the #selfiestick, you had to take shots like this in a mirror. It’s not impossible, but it is awkward – your phone’s in the shot (including your oh-so-tasteful leopard print case), your posture is oddly contorted, you’re not sure if you’re meant to look at the mirror or your phone, and – my personal horror – your mirror is filthy. The shame!
We’re not above cleaning our mirrors to take a good selfie, but we don’t need to anymore. Hold your wand in front of you with one hand (or above you, if you like the MySpace angle) and snap a perfect outfit shot that’s good enough to share. You can even use the stick to see what you look like from behind, Kim Kardashian.
4. Making awesome videos
Using a selfie stick to take video puts you right in the middle of the action. You can move the stick around to show off an impressive backdrop, walk along holding it while you talk to the camera (music video style), even stick it out of the sunroof to get an amazing timelapse of a journey (not if you’re the driver, obviously). Or just put on a cape and go skiing.
It’s also great for taking in amazing views – there’s someone on Tower Bridge with a selfie stick every single day – and showing the scale of something like an epic iPhone queue or anti-Bieber protest march.
“Selfie sticks.”
“Oh.”
You can also make videos by yourself, without having to rope in a friend to be your videographer.
We used one at CES, which worked really well except for the constant videobombers. Sigh.
5. For ultimate laziness
Enough said.
Don’t have a selfie stick yet? Here’s the one we use, £12.98 from Amazon UK.
Main image via Flickr Creative Commons.
