I was wondering the other day, what sort of camera gear did they use on the moon landings? Well, the interwebs were at my finger tips, so off to Googleland to see what I could find. Turns out, there is loads of stuff out there, a hell of a lot of it about conspiracy theories, but amongst them, this little gold nugget.
Wonder no more. What a terrific collection of photographic gear they had. That beast in the photo above is a 500mm lens!
Some stunning photos of water and the lack of water in places.
World Water Day – The Big Picture – Boston.com.
It may come as a shock to some people, the fact that I am pumping up the tyres of the iPhone camera, given my previous rants and raves on other parts of the interwebs. But rest assured, this isn’t a flip flop that Mayor Quimby would be proud of. To me, the iPhone is the single best gadget I have ever owned. I love the gadget part of it. What it can’t do, with the help of the gazillion apps out there for it, is limited only by your imagination. But, as a mobile (cell for our US and other over seas visitors) phone, it is bloody terrible. I wont go into that here, as I have said previously, I have had many a tanty in other forums.
Onto the fun part. The camera and the amazing apps. At 3 megapixels, you aren’t going to be able to make a poster sized print out of the shots you take, but anything up to A4 will look pretty damned good. The selective auto focus is a great addition on the 3GS. But, what really makes it shine are all the apps at the iTunes App store. And there is a metric bucket load of them. Here are a few that I recommend.
Photoshop.com Mobile (Free) – Photoshop on the iPhone. It is pretty basic, but can get you out of trouble if you need to tweak exposure, saturation, contrast and many others. It also has a handy crop tool. A really great free app.
Mobile Fotos (A$5.99) – If you use Flickr and have an iPhone, this is virtually a must have. It will let you upload a photo, Geotag it, add it to groups and sets and loads more. Really worth the cost.
Gorillacam (Free) – This one is like the Swiss Army knife of camera apps. Bought to you by the people who make the Gorillapod flexible tripods.
Morelomo (Free) – If you love the Lomo look, go no further than this little app. Will take a digital imagine out of the iPhone and turn it into something from yesteryear.
Polarize (free) – Another retro type app. As the name suggests, this one turns the digital imagine into a Polaroid picture. Now shake it.
PerfectlyClear (A$3.99) – This one really surprised me. An auto correcting app, it does an amazing job on some of my photos. Sometimes, too amazing. Watch the over sharpening.
TiltShift generator (A$1.19) – No need for a tiltshift lens on the iPhone, this will do it for you. And it does a great job.
And here are but a few examples of what some of these apps can do.
So, if you have an iPhone and enjoy photography, you can certainly make some pretty snazzy images from the little pocket rocket, you just need to add steroids!
Black Rock, originally uploaded by norbography.
Flickr fans may want to give this post a wide berth, although what I am bitching about isn’t exactly the fault of the good folk at Flickr, well I don’t think it is.
I can recall a day when I used to love to join in discussions in Flickr groups. They were helpful, informative, funny, controversial and a pleasure to be a part of. The last 12 months have seen things slide like a eel on a Teflon slippery dip. I don’t know if it is the groups I had joined, or all groups are suffering from the same general decline in the social aspect. In the past 3 weeks I have left 4 groups that I had been a member for for nearly the whole time I have been a part of the extended Flickr family. These groups were once like immediate family. You knew the other members well. You even socialised with them.
The reason I left each group was the same. It was less like a group of friends with a shared passion, and more like a bunch of teenage boys for ever trying to prove who had the biggest dick, which is terrific if you are an angsty acne sufferer with a backwards baseball cap, but less fun than a prostrate exam (this is supposition on my behalf, my back door has not yet seen a doctors gloved finger approaching) for a 40 plus cranky bastard like myself. I miss the chit chat, the sharing of links to interesting photographic gold nuggets. I miss the willingness to share advice, experiences and equipment. I miss the friendly banter.
What has happened? I was going to point the finger at all the different types of Flickr user that piss me off, but I can’t see that doing anyone any good at all. Me sitting here whinging and ranting will no more fix things than if I could clone a pig to an eagle and finally stop people telling me I will take a great photo when pigs fly.
So, I ask you, dear visitor, is it just me? Have you found similar happenings on your travels around Flickr groups?
I’m off to find an eagle!
When ever there is a list of the all time best of something, or, like this list, The Most Influential, there will always be debate raging right behind it. No Australian photographers made it into the list, which seems a little odd. Ansell Adams at #23? What do you think of the list?
100 Most influential photographers of all time.
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