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Thursday, April 30, 2009

Taking pics on my trip to Leeds

Fast

Yesterday I took a wee business trip to Leeds... It was a real whistlestop trip - left Motherwell at 0704hrs and arrived back at 2000hrs. 8 hours on the train... 4 hours in the office... but it was worth it... I got what I needed out of the trip.

Anyway... I took a load of pics while I was travelling... (you can view them here) I was able to play with a couple of fab wee apps for the iPhone :: toycamera and quadcamera. I have post pics from them before but it was fun to have the time to play with them.

In Merrion Way #3

I love the randomness of the toycamera app... you use it like a camera (rather than as a post-pic filter) and a random filter is applied. Its just your Donald Duck as to which one is used and sometimes you need to take the pic a few times to ensure you get the effect you are after... but most times the randomness works and a fab image is captured.

On the train (quad) #1

The quadcamera takes multiple pics in one go... I prefer a fourshot and was pleased with the results... they help to capture the view from a moving train.

Both apps are made by a chap called Takayuki Fukatsu... who was recently interviewed in Michael Surtees' blog design notes (via psfk.com) ::
Takayuki Fukatsu: …When I got an iPhone, I wanted to make something that is both product and interactive thing. The first thing I was interested in is camera. Yes so I thought, there is something, that I can make it more fun. The first concept of ToyCamera is that, make iPhone’s camera more cheap. I don't think cheap is bad. Sometime cheap is very attractive. That’s why I decided to make ToyCamera. ToyCamera like lomo or holga is very cheap.

Michael Surtees [DesignNotes]: ToyCamera and the QuadCamera have made it easy to take great pictures in NYC…

TF: Thanks. So as a first step I want to suggest that “cheap and uncontrollable is fun”. That’s why ToyCamera only has random effect. I wanted to pick up the essence of uncontrollable fun of actual ToyCameras. Also I want to make my ToyCamera as Camera not application. That's why there is no Undo, Redo, and import taken photo from album.
I like the idea that he is making the iPhone's camera "more cheap" - this is strange in the current technological climate but is something I can get behind. The iPhone's camera is what it is... its a 2mp camera with no zoom (unless you get the 4x zoom app). Its an OK camera but its not brilliant... and is downright shameful if you believe the tech geek critic journos whose life it is to compare, contrast & sweat the details. There are better cameras out there on mobile phones... in fact I believe there is an 8mp camera out there somewhere...

York Station #1

But for me... that's not the point. I was disappointed with "vanilla" camera... but absolutely love the apps that allow me to manipulate the images captured. I love the way the apps (including another fave of mine :: camerabag) "cheapens" the image in a way that makes it more valuable... in a polaroid / lomo kind of way, if you know what I mean.

There is an old adage... that the best camera you have is the one you have with you... and I completely agree. Sure I have a Nikon D60 dSLR that I am still learning to use... but, by far, my fave is the iPhone... because I always have it with me... and with the filters, I honestly love the pics I get from it.

Its almost like the iPhone is filling the void left by the withdrawal of the polaroid. Now... if there was a portable printer that enabled a polaroid-like experience... that would be cool.

At the end of the day... its not what you have but what you produce with it that counts... and these apps help me create some nice imagery, imho.


1 comment:

  1. Must be going soft in my old age, but I saw this and thought of you. I think you'll really like it:

    http://gizmodo.com/5231112/best-video-ive-seen-today-will-make-you-smile

    ReplyDelete