The following command records a snapshot from the front camera:

gst-launch v4l2camsrc device=/dev/video1 num-buffers=1 ! omx_jpegenc ! filesink location=test.jpg

Of course this totally missing the point of having a live view of the front camera before getting the snapshot. :-)

What is really needed is something that does:

gst-launch v4l2src device=/dev/video1 ! autovideosink

and then sits around waiting for the camera button to be pressed, and then runs the above command.

Any takers?