American Football
I have just finished watching the Stanford Cardinal take on the Wisconsin Badgers in the 2013 Rose Bowl – live from Pasadena.
It was a good game – action packed throughout – until Stanford clinched the win, 14 to 20.
iPhone photography
How many cat photos on the Internet?
Here is one more – Michael’s cat Asbo.
Update – it looks like this is the first image of my project to take and feature an image on my website every day during 2013 – read more here.
How many cat photos on the Internet? Read More »
Overnight trip to the Old Man of Coniston
Next weekend I am planning a backpacking trip to the Lake Dustrict, with a couple of friends, to walk up the Old Man of Coniston with an overnight camp – depending on the weather. (Click on the map for a larger version).
The main reason for going away is to spend the weekend taking photographs – so we are taking a tripod with us and I am going to try my hand at some video on my iPhone. I have a bracket to mount my iPhone on a tripod.
This weekend I have been sorting the gear.
- I will get to try out my second inflatable pillow!
- I am going to take my MSR Pocket Rocket stove with a 100g cannister – I have not yet used it on an overnight trip
- I am going to test using a Molle water bottle pouch to carry my lunch and brew kit – fixed to the hip belt or compression strap on the Golite Jam2
- I am going to pack the titanium meths stove and 50ml of meths in the Molle pouch – for hot drinks whilst walking
Food for the trip
We are going to start walking after lunch on the Saturday
Saturday
- On the trail dried mango slices and salted cashew nuts
- Instant white coffee – I can make a brew whilst waiting for the light to change for that perfect photograph
Evening meal
- Smoked Sausage
- Tortilla x3
- Onion Gravy
- Instant custard and chocolate chip cake
- Tea
Indian tea (with milk and brown sugar) wafer biscuits
Hot chocolate, wafer biscuits
Sunday
Tea and biscuits whilst still in my sleeping bag
Breakfast
- Cereal bars
- Breakfast biscuits
- Crackers and jam
- Apple flakes
- Tea
On the trail dried mango slices and salted cashew nuts
Extras
- Boiled sweets, apple flapjack bar
- 2x instant peach teas (use hot or cold)
- 15ml of dried milk 2x sugar packets 2x pepper packets 1x salt packet 1x tomato ketchup sachet
- 1 oz Southern Comfort
- Tissues
Emergency Food – Glucose tablets
Water
- 1l in my CamelBak for the walk – this should be enough for both days as we are not walking far
- 1.3l for evening meal
- 0.7l for breakfast
- 0.9l for extra cups of tea and cleaning
I am going to store some water in the car so I can drink before setting out and on my return.
Let’s hope the weather is good enough!
Overnight trip to the Old Man of Coniston Read More »
Yesterday’s Photo
The photo I posted yesterday as part of my “Photo a Day” project had been post processed to give the final image.
The original image was taken with Camera+.
Although I have got a copy of 645 Pro, which is a good camera replacement app for an iPhone, I find Camera+ so much quicker to use and it returns great images. In this situation the dandelion was moving in the wind so being able to shoot at the moments it was still was essential, as it was nearly half of the images I took were blurred.
I used the Apple Picture app to sort through the images, firstly to delete all the ones where the framing was off or they were blurred and then to select the final image I was going to work on.
I was pleased with this initial image – it shows the detail of the seed head against a vague green background but I wanted to see if I could bring out some of the details and improve the impact of the final image.
This meant using my favourite iPhone image processing app Photogene2. One of the features of the app is that you can save your own custom image filters – and this I have done.
I have created a low exposure, high contrast mono filter, that creates an image similar to those I used to regularly print in my black and white “wet” darkroom, but on the way to creating this filter I also saved a version of the effect but without applying a grey scale to the image – so it is still colour. It was this filter I decided to apply as it would emphasise the white seed parachutes and reduce the influence of the backgound. This I think it did with good results.
If you click on either of the above images they link to full size versions (2592 x 1936 pixels) so you can examine the details.
645 Pro Camera App
Having seen 645 Pro app trailed last week, I decided quite quickly on Saturday evening to buy another camera app for my iPhone.
I gave the manual a quick look over on Saturday and then went out and used it Sunday morning.
It is a complicated app to use – with all the functions driven from the main screen, using small button, and on first use, in bright sunshine where I was struggling to see the iPhone screen I had some difficulty using the camera. However with practice the strength of this app is that all the controls are alway available, making creative choices easy.
There were several features I was really interested in.
Film Stock
It comes with built-in filters that emulate traditional film stock results. I especially like the K14, a saturated colour result similar to Kodachrome and H5, a high contrast filter that emulate Ilford HP5 mono film.
Various frame ratios
I do like Jag.gr’s 6×6 camera – and the square format is included in the options.
Live View
Both of the above functions will display live in the view finder, so you will see a mono square image if you have those options selected.
Below are some comparison photos. Not as sharp as I wanted but they show the colours.
taken with 645 Pro K14 6×6
taken with Camera+
the Camera+ image – post processed with Camera+’s polarizing filter.
If there is a problem with this app it is that it is slow to use. The viewfinder is “laggy” as you pan and tilt looking for your shot. There is an occasional delay after pressing the shutter release and a longer delay before the app returns control to the user. Because of this I was struggling to get the framing right on some moving leaves when using the camera last Sunday.
I am pleased with the array of functions available in this app and look forward to using it over the coming months however its complexity relegates this app to my second camera “when I have time”. Camera+ is still my go to camera replacement app, it is quick to use and has a flexible focus and exposure system. I have taken some of my “Photo a day” images this week with 645 Pro but Camera+ is still the one I am using the most, and remains the camera app I would recommend to people, as it meets most people’s needs. I have only recommended 645 Pro to one friend who is a really keen photographer as he will get some fun and benefit from the app.
Overall I am pleased I bought this app and I am looking forward to any updates that will address the issues.
645 Pro Camera App Read More »