Tag Archives: Apple

iPhone camera and apps equals fun.

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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.

32/365

31/365

25/365

18/365

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!

The World is an Amazing Place, A Worldwide Moment and Mac photo software.

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As a hack photographer, everywhere I go I see photographic opportunities. Here is a link that pretty much sums up the way I see the world, and I think it is relevant to most photographers.

The World is an Amazing Place.

Here is a very interesting idea.

The concept calls for people to take photographs at the exact same moment in celebration of this event. Whether you are comfortable at home, hard at work, or in the middle of fighting for a cause you believe in, Worldwide Moment wants you to participate and share in this moment.

Worldwide Moment | Home.

Own a Mac and wondering about what software to use for your photography? Check this out.

The Ultimate Mac Setup for Photographers (50 Apps) – Mac.AppStorm.

And now another photo of mine from the archives.


Alone, with a tree. (PSD)

®iLightmeter

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I am wondering, is there an iPhone app that acts as a rudementry light meter? Surely it wouldn’t be that hard to do. The phone already has a camera. People are writing apps like it is going out of style. Surely some smart geek could come up with an app that could be used as a light meter? Come on geeks of the world, get to it. And I want my cut of iStore profits!

iPhone iWant

Note: I dont actually own an iPhone yet, but if anyone wants to give me one of the new iPhone 3GS phones, I would be more than happy to test drive it. 🙂

Off Topic Rant #1.

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Well it won’t be often that you hear me ranting and raving on this photography based blog about non photography topics, but I best get this off my chest. It is sort of photography related in that it is regarding my Apple MacBook Pro. I use it to store and post process my photos. It is my main computer here at home. (I am writing this on my work laptop which IS working.)

Apple and Logitech

I have had the Mac since June 2007. In that time it has had the DVD drive replaced under warranty, which I had to fight Apple over, as they consider the warranty starts the day you purchase the computer. That is fair enough if you buy it at the shop, but I bought mine online. I didn’t get it until nearly 7 days later. The drive failed nearly 1 year to the day after I got it in my hands. A few phone calls and they finally recognised it should be replaced under warranty.

Then, a few weeks back, the display on the laptop and the external display failed. The computer was still running, just no display. Grrrrr. I had a bit of a stroll around the interwebs and found out this is a common problem, which is fixed for free as nVidia, the video chip maker, has admitted there is a problem. Phew. This shouldn’t cost me a cent to have fixed, but it is a hassle taking the computer back to the closest authorised repairer. Once again, I had to argue to have it fixed for free. A week later, I get it back and fingers crossed, no more problems.

Hah, not so quick! I notice a few days later the battery is at 87% charged. Thats weird. Must keep an eye on it. A couple of days later 54% charged. Next day 37%. Oh oh. Now this battery has down 15 cycles. Apple themsleves say you should get over 100 cycles. I have down the suggested discharge monthly for the 1st 12 months, then I pretty much didn’t worry too much about it. What a mistake.

Computer and Keyboard

On the phone to Apple. Tech support take me through the usual battery reset procedure. Nada. “One moment sir, I will speak to customer service.” 15 minutes later I am speaking to Dean, who sounds like he really loves his job. No really, he sounded happy and really wanted to help me. He couldn’t, but what he could do was give me a 25% discount on a new battery which retail for $199! (clear blue ocean, clear blue ocean.) Wow, so it will only cost me $150 to replace a buggered battery. Arrrrrrrrr!

So the order went in for a new battery today. Lets hope it gets here soon. When the Mac is running, it is a dream. It is so much more stable than any Windows computer I have owned. Things just work. Apart from that horrid iTunes, the rest of the OS X experience has been terrific. If only the hardware was as reliable.

Pick up your game Apple. Don’t make me ring Mr Jobs.