Life thru' a lens

iPad

bbrsnapper — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:02:21 +0000

So, “the big event” has come and gone, iPad is now officially part of the lexicon of the tech world and in 60 days the early adoptees will have their hands on Apple’s latest and greatest device.

From this distance it certainly looks interesting and I can already feel pester power beginning to rear it’s head amongst the tech savvy teenage generation, however, I am most curious about a couple of hinted at functions.

Firstly iWork, it’s great that Pages, Numbers and Keynote are available, but how will the device store any documents that have been created? Is this why the much forgotten iWork.com was created last year (or was it the year before?) or are we looking at using iDisk/mobile me as the solution?

The other question that springs to mind in relation to document creation is printing. I know it appears that Apple regard paper as old technology, but, there are a lot of us who do need to print documents from time to time. Third party app and connector maybe?

Secondly the camera connectivity kit, fantastic news, now I can back up photos between quarters or in between jumping classes, but hold on a minute, the only options are SD card or USB cable! What about the majority(?) of pro photographers whose cameras only use CF cards? C’mon Apple you may have missed a trick here.

Those queries aside I like the look of the giant iPod Touch and the addition of the keyboard/dock makes it an even more interesting proposition, only time will tell if Messers Jobs, Ives and Schiller have another iPhone on their hands.

Back up (again)

bbrsnapper — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 23:05:03 +0000

Having finally uploaded all of my photographs to Zenfolio’s servers I am on the look out for an offsite solution for several gigabytes of other documents.

This has led me to consider one of two stratergies, an online service or buying two portable drives and rotating them between offsite locations.

Online looks attractive from the point of view of always having everything backed up, but my rural location and subsequent slow Internet connection makes me a little wary.

Offsite would be more practical as long as I am disciplined enough to back up and rotate each day whilst accepting that should the worst happen I will almost certainly lose 24 hours work.

Think a bit more research is needed….

Apple Event 27th Jan

bbrsnapper — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 22:14:08 +0000

Yesterday Apple sent out the following invitation to assorted media luminaries:

So batten down the hatches for one more week of even more intense speculation about the “iSlate”, “iPad” or “iTablet” that Apple seem certain to be revealing next week.

Now whilst I love Apple hardware as much as the next ‘fanboy’ I’m not sure I can get that excited about this tablet as I am struggling to see what extra benefits it will bring me as a photography biased user, I guess this is why I don’t work in Apple’s design department, however, I can see the benefits of one other announcement that I REALLY hope Apple will make next week….

If Apple do introduce Aperture 3 (or X per some rumour sites) then I will be first in line with my credit card in hand. It is very nearly two years (Feb 08) since Aperture 2 was released and it has seen no major update since the end of last summer, by my book this makes it ripe for an update.

C’mon Apple throw the photographers that haven’t migrated to Lightroom a bone.

Zen(folio) and the art of Back-up

bbrsnapper — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:59:12 +0000

By the time you read this I should have completed one of my “winter tidy up” tasks and uploaded the last of 2009′s personal photographs to the wonderful Zenfolio servers, this will mean that some 20,000 photos from the last six years will finally take their place in my 3-2-1 back up system. Each file must reside in 3 places, on 2 types of media and at least 1 must be offsite, none of this is original, but it does give me a slightly warm comforting feeling.

All I need to do now is start with the next round of winter tidy up whilst the snow is still on the ground

Photographing fireworks

bbrsnapper — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:20:44 +0000

Well in the UK it is that time of year again when tribute is paid to the man who tried to blow up Parliament and all over the country countless pets cower and shake as the skies are filled with vibrant colours and the night is rent with whizzes and bangs – yup, it’s Bonfire Night.

For photographers this provides an opportunity for some fun after dark shooting as we attempt to capture the spirit of the event. Last night some obliging neighbours started letting loose in their garden, so I grabbed my camera, braced myself against an open door and had a go, several minutes later and I ended up with one useable shot!

Just goes to show how good the photographers are that manage to capture the stunning images we see all over the internet/books/magazines etc

For those that are interested this shot was taken with a Nikon D300, using an 18-200 VR lens at 27mm, an aperture of f13 and exposure of 2 seconds

Fireworks light up over a darkened house

Can’t wait to have another go!

London’s Science Museum

bbrsnapper — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:55:25 +0000

Took a day off to take the family to the Science Museum in London yesterday, and a sneaky trip round Harrods before hand. A great time was had by all, if you haven’t been to the museum I highly recommend it, five floors crammed full of fascinating stuff, so much more than you can take in, but it does show mans amazing capacity for invention.

Some iconic cars including the 2CV and Morris Minor

Harrods was also fun, especially the sweetie and Christmas departments where these rather took our fancy…..

Almost too good to eat

Talking of treats all of these photos were taken with Apple’s iPhone 3GS, which although not the greatest camera in the world, on days like yesterday certainly fulfills the maxim “The best camera, is the one you have with you”.

This final shot was taken through the speeding train window and tweaked using “thebestcamera” app created by Chase Jarvis, you can this and many, many far better photos at www.thebestcamera.com

Autumn colors thru a train window

NFL at Wembley

bbrsnapper — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:57:26 +0000

Sunday was a special day for me and my lad, he got to experience his first ever NFL game and I got to share it with him. We travelled down by train to Wembley Stadium, a first visit for both of us and we were amazed at the number people that were already there 3 hours before the gates even opened.

Walking from Wembley Stadium Station to Wembley Stadium

The crowd throngs down Wembley Way

Wembley was transformed for this NFL extravaganza

After wandering round for a while and consuming the obligatory “hot dogs and soda” we eventually made our way to and through the gates, what a site awaited us, Wembley had been transformed into Raymond James Stadium, all that was missing was the pirate ship.

Wembley's arch soars above the stadium

Tampa Bay battle flags we given to all fans adding to the atmosphere

The rest of the day was a blur of noise, fireworks, New England efficiency (unfortunately for us Bucs fans), good humour and best of all a beaming smile across the face of a very happy 9 year old (and his Dad)

At the end of the game we made our way with the throng back to Marylebone Station and finally back home.

Seeking inspiration

bbrsnapper — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:11:52 +0000

Friday lunchtime in late October, staring at a blank page, seeking inspiration.

The world tells me I need to network with Facebook, Twitter & blog (hence this post).

But what to say? With a camera in hand I feel inspired to create, staring at a blank page is different.

So how do we photographers translate our visual inspiration to the written word in this new “socially networked” world?

Perhaps we need to remember that “a picture is worth a thousand words”.