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Capacitive Stylus

Capacitive Stylus

No matter what type of technology is being used — camera, computer, tablet, smartphone — the way we humans interface with technology is of such critical importance. I think that's one reason why the iPad has been so successful. Its interface is tactile and intuitive (a finger), and does not require that we sit in a specific place in a specific posture. This is one of the chief comments we hear about LensWork Extended — people would love to be able to enjoy it without being tied to their computer. You can imagine our excitement here about the iPad, Android tablets, and now the Kindle Fire. They bring a whole new type of human interface to the technology that liberates it from the desk.

But let me return to that finger. Pointing, swiping, tapping, and prodding are all fine, but they do make a mess of the screen. The photographer in me just winces whenever I see dirty glass — all those years keeping my lenses spotlessly clean, I guess. So, the capacitive pen has become an unexpectedly important part of my life. I've purchased half a dozen of them to find just the right one. It needs to feel right, comfortable, natural. I'm not sure I have found the perfect one yet.

The two I keep returning to are both by Boxwave. This one is lightweight and small.

The other is no longer available from Boxwave, but is the same as this one by HHI. Heavier, easier to grip, better for sketching.

What are your favorites?

Kindle Fire, Initial Observations

Kindle Fire, Initial Observations

Wow. And let me repeat that — WOW.

I'm less than 24-hours into possession of my new Kindle Fire, so these are certainly preliminary observations, but for those of you on the fence, here are my initial thoughts.

• It's solid, serious, and built to last. Perfect size for portability, yet large enough to be comfortable using and viewing. I had hoped the screen size would be a Goldilocks sweet spot between my smartphone and the iPad/Android full-sized tablet. It is. Larger enough for viewing a movie, but not so large as to be cumbersome. Think paperback book sized. Just right. The iPad is more hard-bound book size; the Transformer is magazine-size.
• The screen is simply gorgeous. I haven't looked at the deep specs, but it feels like it is higher resolution than my iPad or Transformer. Maybe this is an optical illusion based on the smaller size (just like in photography where small prints look sharper), but I wouldn't be surprised if it actually is higher resolution.
• Unlike my ASUS Transformer, the Kindle Fire gets audio right. The stereo speakers are not anemic like the Transformer. They won't power your next rave night in the living room, but the volume is loud enough for movies and audio books without having to strain to hear them. With headphones, as expected, the audio is stunning. I'd say audio on par with the iPad.
• I watched a couple of movies last night via my Amazon Prime membership. Flawless. Not a single hiccup, no audio/video sync problems, no buffering pauses — a perfectly seamless experience. Impressive.
• I uploaded a dozen albums to my Amazon Cloud Drive site and played them via streaming. Worked perfectly. I've been a Pandora user for some time, so I expected the audio streaming to work just fine. I then downloaded one of the albums from the Cloud to my Device just as a test. The download was complete in a minute or two. Slick. I was a little surprised that this is a one-way street — no uploading from the device to the Cloud. (Uploading to the cloud is done from your computer.) I was thinking I could simply swap in and out the music I wanted on the device for those times I'm not in Wifi range. Instead, the paradigm seems to be that you store all your music in the cloud and then download whatever you want on the device, and then delete it from the device when you need room for different music. Makes perfect sense, it was just not what I was expecting. No doubt it will be completely functional, particularly if I upgrade my cloud Drive to the 20 GB plan for $20 a year.
• The Fire does not have access to the Android Market where I purchased all my apps. Getting these apps onto the Kindle Fire involves a couple of steps — not too convoluted, but not straightforward either. Essentially, it's a matter of backing up the app on your Android device to an install .apk file, transferring that file to the Fire, then installing the app on the Fire using this file.
  • The Kindle arrived with the default option to disallow non-Amazon apps from being installed. I understand why — it's a security concern. In the settings area, I enabled non-Amazon apps so I could transfer over apps from my Transformer.
  • I downloaded ES File Explorer (a free app from the Android Market) to my Transformer and did a backup on all the apps I wanted to transfer over to the Fire.
  • On the Transformer, I moved these backup .apk files into my Dropbox which synced them with the Dropbox on my computer.
  • I then connected the Fire to my computer via a USB cable and moved the .apk files from my computer's Dropbox to the Downloads folder on the Fire.
  • Again using ES File Explorer but this time on the Fire, I navigated to the downloads folder and simply tapped on each .apk file and was prompted to install it.
  • Using this method I was able to install several apps that are currently not available in the Amazon app store or that I'd already paid for over in the Android Market — Dropbox, the Mantano Reader, KeePassDroid, Ambling Books, etc. I only had one app that would not install and that was WorldMate — for unknown reasons. All the others installed work perfectly.
• Odd that it wasn't my first observation, but I supposed I should not forget to mention e-books! All of my previously purchased e-books from Amazon.com were immediately available in the Books section of the Fire when I unpacked the device. Amazon had preregistered the new Fire to my existing Amazon account — I suppose because this is my second Kindle e-reader.
  • I should add that one of the chief advantages of purchasing books from Amazon.com and using the Kindle Reader app is that it syncs your current reading location across all devices. If I read for a while on my smart phone and then later pickup my Transformer or my new Fire, the later device will know how far I've read on my smart phone and move me to that location in the book. Very handy.
• The Achilles' heel of all previous iterations of Kindle eReaders has been that they are incompatible with the universal EPUB format. With the Fire, however, I was able to install the Mantano Reader app that is EPUB savvy. Voila! EPUBs on an Amazon device! With the Fire connected to my computer via a USB cable, I simply copied over my entire EPUB eBook library into the documents folder on the Fire. I then had the Mantano Reader index that folder and my entire eBook library is available on my Kindle. Sweet!
  • There is still one disadvantage to using EPUB and the Mantano Reader and that is the inability to sync current reading locations across devices. I can create a bookmark and return to my current reading location on any given device, but if I move to another device and want to continue my reading the same book I have to manually find my last location. Bookmarks do not transfer from one device to another. One can only hope this is a feature that might be coming in future technological developments.
• Hoorah! Yay! Fabulous! Because the Mantano Reader works perfectly on the Fire, that means there is flawless compatibility to LensWork Extended Android Edition PDFs. I downloaded several from LensWork Online and they looked spectacular. How fun! The screen on the Fire is simply stunning and it makes viewing our PDFs a real joy.
• Audible audio books. Because Audible is wholly owned by Amazon, it came as no surprise that the Audible player was pre-installed on the Fire. I opened it, logged into my Audible account and all my audio books were there, ready for download. The Audible player works just like the Android version (not unexpected), so away we go. One thing I do love about the Fire is that it will continue to play audio (music or Audible books) while you are doing something else on the device. For example, one of my favorite entertainment activities is to read along in a book while listening to the audiobook. Really brings the book to life. This works perfectly in the Kindle Fire — which it didn't in the earlier Kindle eReaders which would play audio or display a book, but not both at the same time. The underlying Android platform of the Fire makes this kind of multitasking work just as you'd hope.
• Battery life. The Fire arrived 82% charged. I charged it for less than an hour just to top it off. During the rest of the day I watched several hours of video, played music with the screen off for several hours, read for about an hour, and spent a couple hours installing apps, uploading music, transferring eBooks, etc. Just before I went to bed last night, it still had 21% battery capacity. I plugged it in to recharge overnight. Like all new devices, I assume it'll take several charge/discharge cycles for the battery to achieve its maximum potential, but it certainly appears that it will be able to endure a day of heavy use before needing to be recharged. For a tablet-type device, that's all that's really needed and would appear to be consistent with my other two tablets, the iPad and the Transformer.
• Interface. It's quite intuitive and easy to navigate to the content. The main screen has a "carousel" that shows your recent activities — books, apps, movies, albums, etc. It was unexpected that it would mix all of this together into a single mash-up, but it works. Frequently used items — like the current books I'm reading, or frequently used apps — can be loaded into the "Favorites" shelf, also available on the home screen. I've been obsessing on the music of ballad singer Nancy Wilson and listened to her music as an "Artist shuffle" in the music player app. This was indicated in the carousel with a single icon grid of 4 album covers. I was able to add that icon to my Favorites shelf where the artist can be opened with a single tap. Very nice feature. I wish they had a tap-and-hold selection to start the music playing directly from the Favorites tab, but no. I may have to try installing PowerAmp to get this feature.
• The Silk browser was highly touted in the initial announcements. It's functional, but it doesn't play audio links from the LensWork Online pages. Damn. I need to do more research here. It's not obvious why it didn't work. I'm going to sideload install the Dolphin browser and see if this works. Might be something to do with Amazon's Silk browser, but I'm not sure yet. Silk does play our Flash videos just fine — and Flash player audio is not a problem either. Why it won't play the simple MP3 links is a mystery.
• Memory. A lot has been made of the Fire's lack of external memory capabilities and its paltry 5GB of user accessible memory. I uploaded over 1,000 eBooks, 35 albums of my favorite music, and a dozen apps and still have 2.4GB of storage left. Downloading movies would strain the system, but I won't be doing that, so I don't see a problem. The 5GB onboard seems fine to me and with the Cloud to supplement that, I don't anticipate any problems. I knew this was going to be the case because my Transformer has 28GB of space internally plus I added an additional 16GB microSDHC card. I was anticipating needing lots of storage. I still have 25GB available internally and 14GB available on the card. If the Fire had an external memory slot, I'd pop in a card, but I doubt I'll miss it.
• A few tiny, non-critical hitches in the gitalong:
  • While I was downloading a large PDF, I noticed the playback of the music would hitch from time to time. Multitasking must have limits. I can live with this.
  • With my other Android devices, I'm used to tap-and-hold on the Home button to see a list of recently used apps. Doesn't work on the Fire. Instead, there's the home page carousel. I'll get used to this, too.
  • I have no idea what Amazon was thinking when they put the on/off switch on the bottom. I haven't accidently turned off the Fire yet, but it's only a matter of time.
  • I'm glad they used Gorilla glass for durability, but it is a fingerprint magnet. Expect to clean the screen a lot. Thankfully, the fingerprints are not bothersome during reading or watching a movie, but it bugs me. Too many years keeping my camera lenses flawlessly clean, I guess. Capacitive pens work great — whew!

       

So, the bottom line — winner, big time. Lots more to explore, but already I can see this becoming my everyday, favorite portable device. I almost feel bad for my iPad and Transformer. I really feel bad about the $500 apiece I spent for the iPad and the Transformer compared to the $199 for this little sweetie. Sure, the iPad and the Transformer can do things the Fire cannot, but in my world those extra things are gravy I don't need and won't miss. As an entertainment device, the Fire has it all. As a production device, the iPad and the Transformer take second seat to my Sony netbook running full Windows 7 with Lightroom, Outlook, OneNote, etc. I'm not sure where that leaves the iPad and the Transformer in terms of everyday use. Time will tell.

Remote Cable Release

Remote Cable Release

A quick idea for a Friday post. As a 40-year tripod user, I am also a 40-year cable release user. For years, I fought those stupid mechanical cable releases that always seems to break or get lost at the most inopportune times. I am not sorry that those days are behind me — one of the best reasons to embrace the digital age. Okay, I exaggerate — but only slightly.

I'm now using a nifty RF remote cable release that I purchased off eBay from somewhere overseas. It's called a Pixel Wireless Remote RW-221RX which appears to still be available. It's a two part affair: one part that is supposed to fit on the camera via the hot shoe bracket; the other part is the remote you press. I like that the two are separate so any movement on my part is not transferred down the cable to the camera. The two talk to each other wirelessly. The frequency can be programmed to avoid interference. The both require 2 AAA batteries, but they seem to last a long, long time. So far, this has been a terrific tool.

   

Here is my technology tip of the day. The remote connects to the camera via a curled patch cable. Smart engineering in that they can simply substitute a different cable for different camera connections. Bad engineering in that if the cable is lost, you are out of luck.

Anyway, rather than attach the receive to the top of my camera, I've found it much more practical to just keep it attached to my tripod leg, safely secured in a small camera bag which is in turn attached to the tripod leg with a Velcro strap. I never have to remember where I put it. The cable easily reaches up to the camera plug and stays out of the way while I'm photographing. The release I wear on the end of a lanyard around my neck.

   

Simple, easy, and very handy. Less than $25. Sweet.

Viewer Fatigue

Viewer Fatigue

For every medium of entertainment, there is a limit beyond which viewer fatigue sets in. Most songs, for example, last 3-4 minutes, but beyond 90 minutes even the patrons at the classic symphony hall start to wiggle in their seats. A novel can ramble along for several hundred pages and no one blinks, but it takes a truly dedicated reader to wade through all 1,200 pages of War & Peace. I remember being amazed at the 4 hours required for each installment of Lord of the Rings, and then even more amazed when the extended DVD came out with an additional half hour in each of the three movies of the trilogy. The extended footage was about the same length as the average regular movie.

For years, I've noticed that photography books typically have between 80-120 images. For some reason, that seems about right to explore a theme adequately. A book of 40 images seems a bit anemic; one of 200 images seems a burden.

I'm thinking about this because of the new media — think PDFs for the iPad and the like. What is the right number of images for this new medium? This is uncharted territory. Of course, through LensWork Extended, we're exploring what works and where the limits are, but it's a bit like wildly waving our arms in a dark room in search of the walls. Is the 80-120 image limit in photograph books a function of viewer fatigue or production/pricing logistics? Is viewer fatigue a function of time or of content?

We live in the age of MTV and the quick cut. One could be tempted to conclude the attention span is shortening. But then, think how many hours your kids can spend playing a video game and it starts to look as though viewer fatigue is content dependent, not seat cushion dependent.

Photography — like all the visual arts — is something that can be viewed independent of time. One can stare at a photograph for as long or as short as one wants. But when we are working on projects — web sites, books, PDFs, slide shows, etc. — time does become a factor. It's one that becomes more important to consider as the size of our photographic project increases.

A couple of ideas that help:

• Break your content into shorter sections. Think of chapters. The break gives viewers a chance to pause, rest, or a place to break and return to in their next session.
• Variety helps. We've found that it helps tremendously to avoid a static rhythm. For example, in an 80 image PDF, don't have 80 pages with one image per page; break the static rhythm by having an occasional page with more than one image, an occasional page with a full-bleed image, or a page of text dropped in where appropriate to introduce variety. Avoid the drip, drip, drip of a water torture-like static presentation.
• Media can also break up a static sequence. Use audio, video, or other media.
• Layout variation can help. Change image sizes, page backgrounds, textures, etc.

The obvious caution here is to use any of these ideas because they fit the project, not so they change the project. Artistic and aesthetic judgment should trump gimmickry.

Brooks' books on photography and the creative process are available in print from Lulu.com, and as eBooks for Kindle or EPUB readers. As one of the membership benefits, these eBooks are available in their entirety to members of LensWork Online via download.

Mountain Photographs by Bradford Washburn

Mountain Photographs by Bradford Washburn

From Mountain Photographs by Bradford Washburn
From LensWork #50
© 2003 Bradford Washburn. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the photographer.

Commentary
I have a friend who refers to these kinds of photographs as belonging to the genre "Ain't Nature Grand." It surely is. Which brings to mind a story I'm compelled to share — particularly in this week when we hear about that banal Gursky photograph that sold for $4.3 million at auction recently. Clearly, the "Ain't Nature Grand" genre has fallen out of favor in sophisticated art circles. It's really too bad, because the world outside of art circles still loves this kind of photography. Me, too.

A quick personal story: When I was in China a couple of years ago with 130 other Westerners participating in the big photo festival at Lishui, I found myself in conversation with a group of New York gallery folks. (If I were in lockstep with the herd, I'd use the newly found term "gallerist" — which I think ranks right up there as one of the most pretentious terms I've ever heard.) As I joined this group of, ahem, gallery folks, one of the women I knew introduced me to the group. In an unmistakably dismissive tone, one of the group turned to me and said, "Oh, you're the one who's still publishing landscapes," and turned to ignore me and continued her conversation with someone else. I was overwhelmed with the glow of pride.

Bradford Washburn was not a New York gallery person but rather a human being. That is to say, he was part of the large collection of ordinary people who find it amazing to simply appreciate the wonder of the planet on which we live — and then photograph it with incredible craft and sensitivity. He was not pretentious; he was a photographer in the highest tradition of our craft. The work he presented for us to enjoy was beautifully seen and wonderfully photographed. But, unlike so much of what we see today in the world of art collecting, his photography was employed in service of something much larger than photography — his love of this wonderful planet. His aerial photography of some of nature's most spectacular landscapes is simply breathtaking. I've always considered it one of the highest accomplishments of LensWork that we were able to bring his photography to a wider audience both through his portfolio in LensWork #50 as well as the LensWork Special Edition Folio we produced of his work. I can't help but believe that the world of fine art photography will be significantly diminished when it no longer celebrates the grand landscape. In light of what sells these days for big bucks, I fear that decline has not only started but that we are well down the slope.

The portfolio can be seen in its entirety in our back issues — print (while still available) and our PDFs for computer, iPad, Android, and other devices. Plus, bonus audio commentary about this image is available to members of LensWork Online.

Discussion
Add your comments and observations to the discussion by using the "Comments" link at the bottom of this post.

Announcing the Naked Emperor Awards

Announcing the Naked Emperor Awards

First, let me say that I like — and support — Stephen Perloff and his Photo Review. It's a good resource and he's doing good work for photography. I interviewed him for LensWork Extended #85. However . . .

An announcement arrived today via email regarding their annual fundraising auction. Consider the following photograph from their email — and its price.

Jeffrey Milstein: Sahara, Twin Trees, 2007/2011, archival pigment print, 1/10, with signature card, 16"x22" ($1,200–$2,400)

I don't know Jeffrey Milstein and I've never heard of him. Perhaps that's my loss, but be that as it may, here is another example of the idiocy I see so often in the photography marketplace. Look at this photograph. Really. Someone will need to explain to me its virtues. I'm not a newbie at this, and I can see nothing in this photograph that makes it noteworthy at all. Perhaps that is its supposed accomplishment — its subject is banality itself? If so, is that worth $1,200 - $2,400?

At the risk of offering an opinion that is only that — my opinion — this is a really stupid photograph. (How many times does this composition appear in the photo albums of our grandparents all over America?) What is it about so many photographers today that they make these kinds of banal, uninteresting, uninspiring, meaningless photographs — and then price them at $1,200 - $2,400? Seriously, do any of you reading this know anyone that would pay anything for this photograph?

Again, I don't intend this comment to insult Jeffry Milstein; I'm sure he's a nice fellow and working hard at his passion. Good for him. But, I have stood by for years now and watched without commenting on this silliness in pricing and the marketplace for fine art photography. Over and over and over . Okay, once or twice I've commented. (See podcast #0040, The Inkjet Print of a Booth for $650 from 2004. There may be a couple of others.) But with the recent $4.3 million paid for that ridiculous Gursky photograph this week, I've reached my breaking point. I am happy to the take the heat from the few defenders in order to voice the thoughts of the many by calling attention to the absurdity that infects the world of selling photographs. Or to be precise, offering them for sale. I doubt many of them actually do sell — this one included, hence it is a remainder from the auction that is now being offered for silent auction bidding.

I guess I am incensed about this because I have no doubt that this kind of image marketing and pricing hurts photography. I mean that. In the larger circles outside the New York art market, this kind of absurdity makes photography (and therefore, we photographers) look foolish. We become the laughing stock of "regular people" — and by that I don't mean redneck hicks and the uneducated masses. I mean the vast majority of hard working people who know a thing of beauty and inspiration, know when a piece of art is an expression of accomplishment and when it is piffle on parade, know and attend the arts and culture events in society by the boatload. These people wouldn't step into a photography gallery if you paid them because they know without even entering that they'll see overpriced banality on the walls while the "gallerist" insists the naked emperor is adorned in jewels. If the galleries want to play that game, well, they are free to do so. I am also free — to call the naked emperor a naked emperor.

So, I am instituting (for my own amusement and hopefully yours) The Naked Emperor Awards, to be awarded to photographs whose banality and offering price are wonders to behold.

Congratulations! The first Naked Emperor goes to Sahara, Twin Trees for its $1,200 - $2,400 auction price — with apologies to Jeffrey Milstein and Stephen Perloff. I am somewhat discouraged that we need a Naked Emperor award at all, but if it's needed I am happy to be the one to pass them out. Stay tuned, I have no doubt there are more to come.

Brooks' workshop Finding an Audience for Your Work is available on disc for $99 plus s&h. As one of the membership benefits, this workshop is available in its entirety to members of LensWork Online via streaming video.

Sundroid

Sundroid

There is no question that a lot of activity with iPads, iPhones, and the rest of this new genre of portable technology is of a — and let me be bold here — frivolous nature. Do we really need Angry Birds? I think it's rather obvious that entertainment is the driving force behind these technologies. Be that as it may, there are truly useful tools and apps that can help us justify the expense even if the practical and useful are relegated to a minor subset of the device's actual use.

As a photographer, I have become perhaps dependent — and if not dependent at least habitual — in my use of a wonderful little app called Sundroid. Obviously made for android devices, there are numerous equivalent apps for iPads, iPhones, and even laptops.

Sundroid is a astronomical predictor. It lists important events for every day — sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset, etc. however, it's most useful tool for me has been it's three-dimensional map (known as the Sun, Moon, and Planet Tracker) that allows me to easily predict the angle of the sun at any given moment. For landscape work it has become indispensable.

Here's an example: I am at some place that promises photographic potential in better light. But, when? I pull out my smart phone, startup Sundroid, navigate to the Sun, Moon, and Planet Tracker, and then align my phone so the current position of the sun matches Sundroid's sun location indicator — the yellow line with the circle at the end. Then, without moving my phone, I can drag the timeline in the bottom slider so the sun indicator points to the position I need for the photograph. Once this is done, I simply note the time and that's when I need to return to make the photograph. Easy, intuitive, brainless. And so far, it's been flawless in helping me find the perfect time and the perfect angle of illumination. If you have a smartphone or tablet that you carry with you when you are out photographing, you really should find an app for your device that works like this one. Trust me, while out in the world making art you'll use it more than Angry Birds.

Downloading Should Be Easy

Come on iPad, Downloading Should Be Easy

As long-time readers already know, we are all PC and Windows here. This presents us a challenge when we receive the occasional request for tech-support from one of our readers who is a Mac user. Today, I received the simplest request for help which I couldn't resolve without some research. The woman on the other end of the phone wanted to simply download an MP3 file from our lensworkonline.com website to her MacBook Pro and couldn't figure out how to do it. Every time she clicked on the link, a new window would open up her browser and the file would play. She didn't want to play it; she wanted to download it to her computer so she could transfer it to her iPad.

I thought this was done with Cmd-click, but was wrong. It didn't work for her. I was stumped. After a little research and a phone call to a friend who's an accomplished Mac user, I learned the solution was a simple Option-click on the link which then downloads the MP3 file rather than playing it. It probably sounds incredibly silly to you Mac aficionados, but this was news to me. We Windows folks have always used right-click and the "Save link as. . ." selection. I'm embarrassed that I couldn't help this Mac user, so I guess I'm the one with egg on my face.

However, this prompted an even more fundamental question — how do you download an MP3 file directly to an iPad? Why should it be necessary to go through the computer at all? I fired up my iPad, launched Safari, logged in to our website, and tried the obvious — a tap-and-hold on the link. As I expected, up popped a dialog box — but it prompted me to select whether I wanted to open the file, open it in a new window, or copy it (meaning, I believe, the link URL, not the link content). But that's not what I wanted to do! I wanted to download the file to the iPad so that I could play it later when I don't have a connection to the source. Unfortunately, tap-and-hold isn't the answer.

Some 45 minutes later, I still hadn't found a way to accomplish this simple task. I found it impossible to believe that it simply couldn't be done. I turned to the App Store for a solution and sure enough found several. One of them — an app called Downloads HD, $2.99 — looked attractive so I purchased it and installed it on my iPad. I was a bit surprised when I realized it had its own browser and file manager, completely independent from Safari. Browsing with Downloads HD, I did find a tap-and-hold download option and it worked as expected. Well, that's fine as long as you use Downloads HD for browsing, but using Safari still does not make downloads available as an option. I was incredulous. I have to use a different browser if I want to download a link? This simply can't be right.

Somewhat in disbelief, I hopped over to my Android tablet, an ASUS Transformer, to see if this same problem exists in the Android world. I tested the default browser, Firefox, and my preferred browser, Dolphin. Every single one of them included a tap-and-hold option to download the MP3 file from pop-up dialog box. Every single one of them. So what gives with the iPad version of Safari? Why no download option? Why is this so hard?

I'm still incredulous. I must be missing something. There has to be a way that iPad users know about that has escaped me. I'm open to suggestions and would love to know the easy method I'm overlooking. My brain just does not work like those at Apple and I seem to be constantly bumping up against silly stuff like this that drive me nuts. All I want to do is download and MP3 link from web page. Anyone have an answer?

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