Photographing without a camera

Well, after about 3000 shots on my current travels in the United States and Canada, my trusty little camera (my first digital one) seems finally to have reached the end of its life. It has gone through much hardship, extreme changes of temperature, been dropped a few times and developed some scratches, but it started playing up a couple of weeks ago in California, and by the time I got to South Carolina was only able to tale pictures in near dark conditions -somehow it becane ultra sensitive to light, so any picture taken in daylight just comes out totally over exposed, and nothing I try seems to overcome it. So a new camera will be my next investement. Sadly however I have been unable to take hardly any pictures in New York this weekend -a city that just cries out to be photographed at every step. I attempted to use my iPad as an emergency solution, but its far too clumsy for most shots, and is certainly not as easy to whip out and take a picture in seconds as a camera is. So instead I have been using my eyes like a camera over the last few days -seeking out shots and angles and above all LOOKING, which after all is what photography is really about. It has been more than a useful exercise, and with no technical restrictions or limits some of the discoveries I have made will no doubt benefit whatever pictures I take in the future. But it is of course terribly frustrating not to have the camera available all the time. I somehow feel naked without it.