Blog Archives
Photography Tip: Stop. Pull Over. Pay Attention.
Today’s photography tip doesn’t require you to buy any special equipment of grasp any concepts or even practice to get it right. I just want you to slow down in life, notice what’s happening around you and find things you want to capture in your photography. Sometimes when you’re driving, you might want to pull over and park, because you see something that you want to take a photo of. You might want to walk a new area or even your own neighborhood, to seek out interesting subjects.
When you get in this mindset, you’ll see photo opportunities everywhere. While you’re doing that, you’re also training your “eye” and your photo framing will get better and you’ll find interesting perspectives. Don’t worry about any of that now, just remember: STOP. PULL OVER. PAY ATTENTION.
The past few days, I’ve been doing just that with my Lumia 1020. Let’s see what I found! 🙂
My Complaint Email to USDOJ RE: Chase + BofA Anti-Competitive Activity Against Windows Phone
In the last week or so, Microsoft had some really big news with the announcement of Windows 10, HoloLens, and Surface Hub. They were showing true innovation on screens of all sizes and getting good press. The day before the Microsoft event and a couple of days after, something strange happened: Chase and BofA pulled their banking apps from the Windows Phone app store. Considering that they are the headline banks for ApplePay, something seemed a bit fishy to me.
I’ve never written the United States Department of Justice, but I honestly feel like something anti-competitive is being acted on here, with collusion between the banks and Apple. It bothered me so much that I sought out the email to contact the DOJ. Please find that email below.
Tap That – My Tap To Pay Experience
It has been promised for years, but today actually having a wallet in one’s phone is now a real option. The media’s love affair with all things Apple has made Apple Pay very visible in the headlines. Outside of the orchard, there are phones that, for years, have had the proper hardware, NFC (Near Field Communications) to get job done.
How does all of this work in the real world? Does it work at all? Is this all worth it? I will attempt to answer those questions, with first hand experience. I setup my Windows Phone powered Lumia 1020 and…well…no spoilers. Read on to see how it all turned out.
Apps That I’ve Been Playing With on my Lumia
It’s no secret that I rock Windows Phone. Currently, in the form of a Lumia 1020. The media loves to badmouth the platform as having “no apps”. Even owners of Windows Phone jump in when the app they want isn’t available. While there is some truth to that, there are also lots of really great apps and I’d like to showcase some of them here. Don’t worry if you’re stuck on Android and iOS, some of these are available to you, as well.
So read on to see what apps that I’m using that you might not be using.
Images to Video on my Lumia 1020
I needed to be down in Hollywood for an appointment and I decided to do a little tourist walk. I took 10 minutes and gathered some pictures and a couple of videos. Later, I had some Pho for dinner. You don’t know what Pho is? Not to worry, you’ll see it in the second video.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 is perfect for capturing great images. The Windows Phone ecosystem has a ton of apps to use with imaging, as well. Today, I’ll show you examples of two of these apps I used to quickly put together video content to share on social media.
All of those selfies w/ my Nokia Lumia
Ahhh, the selfie. There’s a song about them and even a new TV show that bears the name. I kinda hate most of them, but then I thought I’d take them to another level. Obviously, I’d be in them (BONUS), plus I’d use my Windows Phone as the consistent prop and I’d inject bits of awesome inspiration, into every shot.
There are 25 pictures in this collection that I did over a few weeks, recently. There were kind of a hit and I’ve been asked to put them all in one spot because my friends didn’t always see the “selfie of the day”. Now they are here in one spot. I hope you like them as much as I enjoyed making them.
All 25 images were shot on the phone and edited on the phone.
Tools
- Nokia Lumia 920 (the red one in most shots)
- Nokia Lumia 1020 (the white one in some shots)
- Fhotoroom – my workhorse editing app and also the community where I first displayed these images!
- Fantasia – another editing app I used for tone-mapping and some precise edits
- Melange – app I used for cutting and pasting (see #22 & #25)
- Tripod
Selfies w/ Lumia Series
If you’ve been paying attention to any of my social media channels this past week, you’ve probably noticed a theme. I’ve been taking selfies using the Lumia 1020, of my and my Lumia 920. The 920 display shows a picture that is always the “prop” . I always used language as though each image was showing an “app” that should be available for Windows Phone.
It all started with this picture of me sleeping with a “teddy bear”, that I entered into a selfie w/ phone contest run by www.winphan.net. Alas, the contest was a random drawing and not for having a creative, well-executed shot. I didn’t win, but I got inspired take more. Let’s see what I came up with!
Just PROSHOWing Off Some Fave Lumia 1020 Pictures
The Nokia Lumia devices are not just all work, although you can see the good work that can be done with these phones in my last post. No, today I discovered the ProShow app for making slideshow videos out of you still pictures. Here’s my first one!
Some notes:
Lumia Gets REAL…estate
I have to tell you that the Nokia Lumia 1020 puts in work. I’ve used it on paid video jobs and paid event photography jobs. Now, it just got REAL. My friend asked me to do a shoot of his new real estate listing. I brought along my trusty DSLR because “size matters”, when people are paying for pictures.
I took about half of the photos with the DSLR and half with the Lumia 1020. The Lumia had a wider angle, which is great for capturing smaller rooms where I couldn’t back up any further to frame it properly with the DSLR. That wider view was also great for capturing the totality of the yard spaces.
I’m only going to post pictures taken with the Lumia in this posting. If you are interested in the house, please check out the listing here: 10521 Northvale Rd – Represented by Cory Holtzman.
It’s a Wonderland of Goodness
My friend Melanie’s kids go to this great school called Wonderland, here in Los Angeles. Part of what they do is to give the kids an experience with growing ingredients and making healthy recipes. Why am I droning on? Here’s how it was described to me:
‘Wonderland school is dedicated to providing its students with a quality education. From the Ground Up is the school’s Garden program that informs and teaches students about environmental stewardship and allows them to explore the connectivity of nature’s processes in the garden and the kitchen.’
They’ve filmed some of these tastings before, with parent volunteers, but weren’t sure about this one. Melanie had seen the Lumia devices in action before and contacted me about shooting. Let’s see how that went…
I used both a Lumia 1020 and a Lumia 920. I got a little help from a shotgun microphone plugged in with an XLR to phone adaptor. You will hear that when I used the audio from the phone, that you pick up more of the ambient sound, the children playing.
Here’s the segment on how you can make a citrus salad with freshly harvested rosemary. Be sure to watch in HD.
I can tell you from 1st had experience that this citrus salad is really good. Go ahead and try it at home.
A DalyDose of...Jeff Daly 