My IOS Photography Workflow
Lately, I have been using my iPhone as my primary walkaround camera for casual photography. I am quite happy with the photographs that it can capture. As I have discussed in the past, my camera application of choice is Camera+ (itunes link, $1.99). While Camera+ has some nice post-processing capabilities for quick editing and sending to Facebook or Twitter, sometimes I want more advanced editing. That is where two additional software products become important: one for the iPad (Filterstorm Pro - above) and the other for both the iPad and iPhone (Pics - below).
Processing the Photo on iPad
I really like the iPad for post-processing of my phones, but the camera on the iPad is terrible and not suitable for photography. My new favorite photography program on the iPad is Filterstorm Pro (itunes link, $14.99). While a pricey app as iOS goes, Filterstorm Pro is like a combination of Lightroom and Photo Mechanic for the iPad. Obviously, it is not as feature-rich as those software programs, but it accomplishes much of the same tasks on the iPad.
It includes various features such as batch processing of images to edit IPTC metadata and transmit multiple images to iPad photo library, FTP, Flickr, Dropbox and email. Filterstorm Pro's editing tools include the standard items like cropping, rotationing and straightening as well as curves, white point and black and white tools. You can use masking tools to apply filters to different areas of an image.
How do you get the image to the iPad?
You won't be taking the photos with the iPad camera. However, you can load photos through Apple's iPad Camera Connection Kit (Apple Store link - $29.99). That is great if I want to unload my photos from my Nikon, which is a discussion for a different blog. What about if I want to get my photos from my iPhone?
Enter Pics (iTunes link - $1.99). Pics is a critical photo management app for iOS that allows you to sort you photos into different albums, protect them with a passcode and most importantly transfer them to your computer through Wifi connection AND to your companion iPad/iPhone via a peer-to-peer (P2P) connection. Now, I can take photos on my iPhone with its outstanding camera and transfer it to my iPad without having to move them to my MacBook Pro! And the app is an universal app so you only need to pay once.
The software has a sync capability over the P2P connection; though I have not yet tested the functionality. Also, there is a Mac application called Pics Assistant (MAS link - Free), but I haven't been able to get it to consistently work effectively.
A Powerful iOS Photography Workflow
The combination of Camera+, Filterstorm Pro and Pics has really changed the way I handle my iPhone photography. If you are serious about yours, I suggest you check out this winning combination.
Lighttrac - A Must-Have iPad App for Any Outdoor Photographer
By: Stephen Terlizzi
Shortly after I received my new iPad 2 several weeks ago, my first activity was to search for some great iPad Photography apps. While the cameras in the iPad 2 (unlike my iPhone 4) are eminently forgettable, it is definitely a great platform for planning your photography and reviewing the resulting photographs. If you are an outdoor photographer, one application that is a must-have is Lighttrac by Rivolu Pte ($4.99 - iTunes Link).
LightTrac helps you find the perfect lighting for your outdoor photos by giving your the information you need on the available light from the Sun and Moon based on the time and location anywhere in the world. LightTrac calculates and plots the angle of Sun and Moon on top of a map, for any location and can save multiple locations and easily switch between them.
As you can see from the above picture, I can get information about any location (in this case the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco) including Sunrise/Sunset and Moonrise/Moonset as well as the angle of the Sun or Moon at a given time. You can choose the date, time and location in advance to plan your photo shoot.
You can save the information for later retrieval and change the map from satellite to Google Street Maps as required. Finally, you can export to email a KML that can be used in Google Earth, Google Maps, etc. It would be nice to have some other export options such as Dropbox.
Also, the application is a universal app and is available on the iPhone, too. In short, if you do outdoor photography and care about taking outstanding photos, this is a must-have application.
RSS Feeds Live with Reeder!
I am a news addict. I admit it...politics, technology, current events...I love reading about what is going on in the world. And I want it from multiple perspectives which means in this age of biased reporting...multiple news sources. To keep on-top of the information, I am a big user of RSS feeds. What is an RSS feed? Geek alert ahead...skip next paragraph if you want.
According to Wikipedia, "RSS (most commonly expanded as Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based. A standardized XML file format allows the information to be published once and viewed by many different programs. The user subscribes to a feed by entering into the reader the feed's URI or by clicking an RSS icon in a web browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds. RSS allows users to avoid manually inspecting all of the websites they are interested in, and instead subscribe to websites such that all new content is pushed onto their browsers when it becomes available."
Geekiness aside, it is a way to have changes from website come to you in a reader rather than you going to various websites. I had been using NetNewsWire on my Mac and iPhone combined with Google Reader to provide syncing. But no longer!
I have moved to a new package on both platforms, Reeder. You can find Reeder for iOS in the App store as a released product and Reeder for Mac in beta, here. Previously, it was unbearable to scan my RSS feeds on my iPhone and now I can make quick work of them on the road. When I am at my mac, it is easy and quick to review the feeds, read the interesting articles and send it off to various sites, like Twitter or Instapaper, or email the link.
I suggest that you check out Reeder if you are a heavy RSS user.
Neglecting My Mayoral Duties
With the November elections coming up, I realized that I have been neglecting my mayoral duties at the four establishments where I have mayorship in foursquare. Now do I really care about these mayorships? No, but I thought it would be fun to highlight them:
1) El Calderon Restaurant -- http://www.yelp.com/biz/el-calderon-restaurant-mountain-view
El Calderon Restaurant is a small, family-owned place in Mountain View off of El Camino Real. If you want authentic El Salvadorian food, then this is the place to go. And when you think about El Salvadorian food, you think Pupusas. I really enjoyed the Pupusa here...very cheesy and not too oily. In fact, from the salsa chips to the hard taco shells, this place knows how to keep everything light. Service is great and the family is very friendly. Worth visiting.
2) Main Street Cafe -- http://www.yelp.com/biz/main-street-cafe-and-books-los-altos
Main Street Cafe and Books in Downtown Los Altos is half bookstore, half restaurant. I must confess that I have never bought a book here, but am a sucker for either their All-American or BLT sandwich. The bread on the sandwich is very tasty and filling. Add an ice-tea and you have a good lunch at a place where you can have a sane conversation.
3) New Wing Wah -- http://www.yelp.com/biz/new-wing-wah-restaurant-los-altos
New Wing Wah on State Street in Los Altos is your typical Chinese-American fare. It is not the place I would go for authentic Chinese food...that is reserved for places like Hunan Homes, Su Hong and Hong Kong Restaurant, all on El Camino Real. However, the service at New Wing Wah is good and the food was good - unlike so many others in its classification. They have a nice family menu.
4) Peers Park -- http://www.yelp.com/biz/peers-park-palo-alto
Peers Park is a great park for kids and sports. On the sports end, it has tennis and basketball courts as well as a lot of room to kick the soccer ball around. For the kids, there are two play structures - one for toddlers and one for big kids. Also, they have two swing sets as well as a lot of sandboxes. They have a lot of benches for tired mommies and daddies. It is near the Caltrain line so my daughter goes crazy for the train and it has nice clean restrooms.
So there you have it. My current mayorships; though who knows whether or not I will retain my office in the long-term!
MacJournal For iPhone
About two weeks ago, I replaced Journler with MacJournal, which I received in the latest MacHeist NanoBundle. I have added the new MacJournal iPhone application and it has improved my journaling tremendously. I can now write my journal entries at any time, any place. When I am on the same wifi network as my Mac, I can then synchronize it.
As much as I like the MacJournal for the iPhone, there are a number of improvements that need to be made. First, remote syncing via MobileMe and/or Webdav would be great. I can do it with Omnifocus today and would love to see it with MacJournal. Also, better tagging capabilities is a must as well as support for rich datatypes like voice, photos and video.
One particularly annoying bug is, when a sync is initiated, you need to determine how the sync will run - i.e. who overwrites whom or sync differences - at the Mac. This requires you to be at your Mac when you sync. Since I can remote-trigger macros using Keyboard Maestro and its iPhone application, I can wake up my Mac, start MacJournal and then initiate a sync from my MacJournal on the iPhone. However, it doesn't run because it depends on an input on the Mac. Please fix soon!
Nevertheless, for a first release of an iPhone app, it has a lot of utility. I just want to see more features, particularly given its $4.99 price.
Airport Express, Airfoil, iTunes and Remote
Since I haven't been doing much traveling lately, my old Airport Express B/G hasn't been getting much use. I finally got around to hooking it up to my Bose stereo in the living room to share my iTunes library. Thanks to AirPort Express and iTunes I can listen to Rush, Zeppelin and Warren Zevon anytime...much to the dismay of my wife.
What makes it even better is the addition of the Remote app on my iPhone. You can use it to control your iTunes library from any room in the house. Browse music, control the volume and turn on the speakers in the living room are all possible. Also the price is right...free. Since I already had all the equipment, I have created a "poor man's" Sonos music system.
The kicker was the addition of Airfoil by Rogue Amoeba for only $25. This software allows you to send any audio from your Mac to the Airport Express as well as other devices such as Apple TVs, iPhones and other Macs and PCs. Now, I can not only send iTunes wirelessly through the house, but also web-based audio from Pandora and shared music services such as Spotify. All very cool!
I consider this a very successful Sunday afternoon project.
Done Solely on iPhone
I have been playing recently with the camera on my iPhone. It is not a great camera, but, with some skill and apps like CameraBag and Photogene, you can make some good pictures.
A Local Photoshop in Palo Alto color-enhanced using Photogene
A Rose distorted using a Fisheye filter from CameraBag
Save the Planet using a B&W filter from CameraBag
Rubber Ducky color-enhanced using Photogene
Shoup Park in Los Altos using an Infrared Filter from CameraBag
