Easter in July

Self portrait with Easter Island Moai

See photos from the eclipse on Easter Island here

iPhone + Plastic Bullet = perfect picture storm

Even though I’m a fan boy I didn’t get my first iPhone until a couple of weeks ago. (I think it was the iPad that pushed me to the iPhone but that’s another post). Just after I got the phone I heard Alex Lindsay talking about an iPhone app on Macbreak Weeklly. The app replicates the view created by the Holga plastic toy camera when used with the iPhone’s camera. In short, I got it, shot it and can’t stop. Here are a few from Toronto while I was attending IABC’s World Conference this week.

Friend and fellow shooter Suzanne Salvo

iPhone shot, scooter on Queen Street

iPhone shot, Plastic Bullet software

iPhone shot with Plastic Bullet software

DIY iPad cradle from cup sleeve

Now it's lean forward

Two Starbucks cup sleeves and you're in business

Part of the deal with the iPad is that you don’t have to take along a lot of other stuff when you’re traveling. Bringing the stock cradle or the keyboard cradle is more stuff.  Two Starbucks sleeves with trimmed notches will hold the iPad at the perfect angle for viewing a movie. Ditto, if you want to use an Apple bluetooth keyboard (which has a much slimmer profile that the keyboard dock).  In version 1.0 the Philpott Coffee Sleeve Tablet Holder is still not as stable as I’d like.  I’m planning to add a third sleeve to the rig on my next visit to Starbucks.

Folding iPad keyboard, I can dream can’t I?

Folding Palm keyboard....I guy can dream.

Trying to travel with an old Palm V as one’s only device comes about as close to an exercise in futility as I can think of. But, man, did I love that folding keyboard. It was the Optimus Prime of input devices . The Palm keyboard plugged into a docking system similar to Apple’s docking keyboard for the iPad…..with one huge difference.  After a satisfying series of clicks it folded up into a bundle just larger than a deck of cards. Folding and unfolding it was way more fun than actually typing on it.

Which brings me to my point. How cool would it be to have a folding keyboard for the  iPad. I just got my Apple docking keyboard and I can already tell it’s going to be a stay-at-home kind of device. I want something that transforms from a full-sized keyboard into a folded roamer that fits in the “top” pocket on a ScotteVest.

Run, iPad. Run.

The iPad seems like a natural tool for folks who like to chase funnel clouds. Coupled with a Sprint or Verizon Mi-Fi card you get great real time radar for ferreting out those pesky hook echos. Also, the map function serves as a faux GPS device (cell tower triangulation) to get you close to the action. The missing piece in this rig is a way to mount the iPad to your vehicle’s dash or console. The perfect storm-chasing outfit would be a Garmin Nuvi running on the left side of the windshield and Weatherbug’s radar feed running on the iPad mounted low on the right side of the dash.

Finally, the iPad is here

Coffee and the morning paper.

I can’t tell you how many times I almost peed my pants waiting for the iPad arrive. I had extremely high expectations about the device and after using it for 24 hours I have found few things to complain about. As a photographer, I was primarily concerned about how the iPad would show photos. The color is stunning. The slides shows are quick. And, I love how you can sort through the photos and then flip it over to show to someone sitting across from you. The accelerometer detects the orientation change and shows the photo in the correct position. This is the perfection confluence of presentation size and portability. Stay tuned.

Springtime in the rectangular states

Radarscope running on an iTouch 4/2/10

 

Window display, New York.

 

 

You are now free to move about the internet

This latest video from a grounded jet in  New Windsor, N.Y continues to remind us that for airline customers, happy has left the building. Airlines’ level of service seems to be in a perpetual state of decline.

Normally, when customers become unhappy with a company’s product or service one of two things happens: either the company improves or it can go out of business. Until recently airlines have avoided this because their customers have not had many realistic alternatives short of staying home. But trains, on-line conferencing and the unblinking eye of crowd-sourced journalism from social media sites like Kontain could create a convergence of rapid change.

The trains that could upset  the domestic airline business are in Asia not Europe. For starters check out Shanghai’s Maglev. This cute little train set a speed record in 2003 of 311 mph (for comparison a 737 cruises around 500 mph). Technically, I suppose you could make the case that the Maglev is actually really, really low altitude flying since nothing is touching terra firma.  The Chinese plan to expand on this idea in the next decade with two-day service between London and Beijing and beyond.

The continued travel pain associated with flying coupled with next generation on-line conferencing is leading many companies to the conclusion that they can replace some air travel with video conferencing.  Hours of non-productive time spent getting to the airport, shoes on/shoes off security and waiting for 10,000 feet before turning on one’s approved electronic devices can now be recovered.

As for adding on-board Wi-Fi, it sounded good….until people started using it to stream video of passengers in lockdown.

Musings on the future of photography

Pondering the future, 35,000 feet.

Friend and fellow photog Suzanne Salvo asked me to comment on an article she’s writing about the evolution of photography. I’ll try to put up a link to her piece when it’s finished. In the meantime, a few of my thoughts:

Truth

If there was ever a relationship between photography and reality it evaporated with the advent of digital photography.  Expectations about photography will change gradually as different demographic groups learn about new technology. Juries may eventually reject photography as reliable evidence, I know I would. The understanding that all photographs come with an agenda will become universal.

Thumbnail nation

Check yourself the next time you pore over a gaggle of Flickr galleries. With massive numbers of still images available for viewing, the file that gets opened is often the one rendering the coolest thumbnail. Welcome to Thumbworld.  Nuanced, wide-angle shots that must be “read” are often passed over for images that generate thumbs with clean graphics, richly saturated color and a single defined element.

Convergence

The line between still and moving images will become fainter. The universal acceptance of portable devices like the iPad and Kindle coupled with continued concerns about the environment will push print farther and farther from mainstream communications. As on-screen channels displace dead tree media, multi-media content will become as portable as a copy of Life Magazine. There will always be a place for the still image…even though it may be a single frame from a video capture.

HDR

I use it on a regular basis. It’s possible to tone map a single RAW capture to create this affect so I expect this technique to become more widespread. One of the advantages still images have over moving images right now is the ability to create HDR images. I’m curious if it’s possible to create HDR video footage.

Outliers

The most exciting changes are the unforeseen.  These occur when a new technology is combined with another new technology to create a previously unimaginable thing: geotagging and Google Earth come to mind, or cameras with built-in international distribution systems (cell phones). Crowd sourcing is feasible. Augmented reality is conceived.

–Keith Philpott