Taken w/ Camera 360 app on a Motorola Droid 2.

Bought a Motorola Droid 2 smartphone the other day. I had lost my prior phone sometime last week while on an outing with the fam, so a new one was in order. Good timing on my part, actually – my contract had run it’s course as of June, so an upgrade was due anyhow. To be honest, I was holding out for the rumor to come true Verizon was going to get the iPhone soon, but since it’s just a rumor and I needed a phone now, I opted for the Droid 2. Now, why the Droid 2? Simple really, I didn’t want to have to special order a Droid X, plus aside from the form factor, somewhat larger screen and memory, and better camera, they’re really not that different.

So how do I like it? Not bad actually. It works smoothly, has a nice screen, good audio, and the slide-out keyboard is very handy. Phone calls come in clear and sound good, and no dropped calls etc. so far to date. I will say though, that compared to my iPad, which runs iOS like the iPhone, the Droid is a bit kludgy. While some people will like all the customization that you can do with the Droid, personally, I find it can be a bit busy and somewhat overkill. With the iPad, it was just pull it out of the box, fire it up, and away you go – the interface was very easy and intuitive to pickup quickly, and within minutes I was finding and downloading apps, setting up my mail, bookmarks, etc., and having a grand ole’ time. With the Droid, it took much longer to set all the prefs, setup accounts, erase bloatware, download apps, and get the phone to where I was comfortable with it. It’s not that it was difficult, but for all the extra effort, it really doesn’t have enough advantages to me over iOS to say it was worth the extra time. I also find that the lack of regulation for Droid apps has its effects in that the apps for Droid seem not quite as polished as the iOS ones, there’s MUCH more crap apps to sort through, and there’s more of a scammy feel to them that’s missing from the iOS apps. Oh, and someone should tell Droid developers that free doesn’t mean that you have to dump a lot of shit ads onto my phone to offset your costs. I have many free apps for my iPad that are just that, with no strings attached and often of quality equal or better than some of the paid  apps. Anyway, that’s my take on it – it’s a good phone and I like it, but I’d prefer an iPhone because the apps and user experience are better I think. If/when Verizon gets iPhones, I will likely trade over without to much hesitation.

So what does this have to do with photography? well, the Droid’s got a camera built in, and there’s some nifty camera apps available, so naturally I had to download a few and give them a whirl. One thing to make clear though, the Droid camera is the suxor; it really blows. At 5mp, you’d think it’d be pretty decent, but you’d be wrong. Even at base ISO, it’s so noisy that the NR wipes almost all the small detail into oblivion, and renders most scenes with a watercolor-esque feel that precludes their use for any kind of quality work. None of the cam apps I’ve found so far offer a RAW feature or a way to control the NR, so you’re stuck pretty much. Color is good though, and contrast too, so for small prints it’s probably fine, but anything more is sketchy. With that in mind, I went for the Lomo/vintage type cam apps which can hide a bit of that due to the lo-fi effect, and in that way, the camera becomes pretty usable. I have Retro Camera+ and Camera 360, and so far am quite happy with the results. If you have an Android-based phone, they’re worth checking out.

Here’s some more samples for you from the first few days I’ve had it. These are with Retro Camera+:

First is a night shot taken under the full moon. Pretty much straight from the camera except a minor tone adjustment here and there.

Next are some shots I took while sitting at the park while the Ape ran around and played. Couldn’t go anywhere other than the bench I was on, plus it was getting pretty dark, so played with some high-contrast shots of the leaves overhead. Came out pretty well I’d say, they have a graphic design quality that I like very much. In fact, I’m using the first one as wallpaper on my iPad as we speak.

Lastly, some delicious tomatos from our garden, fresh picked. We’re getting dozens of them this year so far with no signs of stopping yet. Soooo tasty!

Went with the family for the day up to Presque Isle State Park this past Friday. Erie, PA is only about 1.5 hours away due North, so we try to get up to the Isle at least once or twice a year. The beaches are very relaxing and offer a good number of photo ops, plus the Ape can dig, swim, and run to his heart’s content. Of course, I always take a camera with because it’s almost guaranteed to produce some great shots, even when I’m not really trying sometimes. Beach shots are done to death the world over, but that’s fine – it’s more about fun and a day out than scoring an epic beach shot. With that in mind, here are my faves from the day.

And my favorite:

As I mentioned in my last post, I was in Chicago a week or so back to attend Zack Arias’ OneLight workshop. Unfortunately, I never did get around to going out and shooting the city like I had planned, but did have a great time nonetheless and the workshop itself was excellent. Running from about 9:30a to about 11:30p on Monday, 7/12, it was probably the longest yet fastest day I have ever spent in a long time.

Getting there a bit early, I started out the day greeting and introducing myself to some of the other students, of which there were fifteen total including myself. Around 9:30a, and after a short intro, Zack took us right into the meat of the material with a detailed lecture on basic lighting principals and concepts that ran until 3p or so. We then had a short break for lunch and then jumped right into the shooting setups up ’til about 9p or so. Dinner ensued, and then an hour or so was used for us to go out in groups to shoot our own ideas with whatever modifiers we wanted. We had a short wrap up and Q&A session, and then that was it. Considering we went for almost 14 hours straight, it felt like it flew by and I was actually far from being exhausted afterwards, ending up going out with some friends and staying up late gaming til 3 or 4a.

So how was the class? Absolutely great, and very informative. Truth be told, I knew the majority of it already just from studying on my own, but I wanted to experience a workshop firsthand, shoot in an environment with other photogs, and also meet Zack in person as I really respect him and what he’s done with his photography and career. He’s very personable, laid back, and excellent at explaining and demonstrating his material in a way that is very easy to comprehend for even the most beginning shooter. Our class was a mixed bag of amateurs and pros at various levels, and Zack took the time to ensure that everyone understood the material and were comfortable applying it in various situations. I enjoyed the workshop very much, and would definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to learn off camera flash in an enjoyable environment.

Here are some snaps from the workshop, mostly behind the scenes stuff so you can get an idea of what kind of environment we were working in. The last three are also a few shots from the actual practice setups we used. For more, you can check out my Flickr set from the workshop, which I posted to share with anyone interested in OneLight. Personally, I think the shots are not as good as they could have been b/c I was fairly nervous when it came time to shoot, so I didn’t take the time to really try and get top quality shots; more just to get the lighting example dialed in and understood than anything else.

Lastly, a big thanks to Zack for putting on a such a fine workshop, to the models for being such champs for putting up with all of us, and also to all of the other attendees as you were a great bunch – very friendly and helpful, and making the class very enjoyable to share with you all.

Got into Chicago last night for Zack Arias’ OneLight workshop tomorrow, 7/12. Last time I was here was summer 2007 when I went to pick up my wife and the Ape after their return from visiting her family in Japan. In case you didn’t know, I lived here for nearly 20 years, mostly during my teens-20′s, and then again in my early 30′s when I was here for school. I love this city and have a lot of friends here I haven’t seen in years, so to say I am excited to be here is an understatement. At the same time, I’m also a little bit nervous because I’m not sure what to expect from the workshop and how it’ll go. Probably no problem at all, but still . . .  In Japanese, the word for this feeling is “kinchoushiteru”, which means “nervous” or “apprehensive”, but not quite as strong a feeling as it implies in English. Anyway, should be a great experience, and I look forward to it. I’ll probably post snaps as the days go by here until I return home Wednesday, so enjoy Chicago with me as well!

In the pics below you’ll see the crew working the top of the tower, standing on the floor of the bell room that housed the school’s bell, which was laying nearby rather solemnly. There was a dome and cross above the room that added another 20-30ft in height to the structure, but that had been removed the day before. The entire time, firefighters were spraying water onto the rubble pile in an effort to keep the dust to a minimum, which also added a bit of drama to the scene, and can really be felt in the pics I took of the lonely, fallen bell. Ironically, I also came across an old election sign laying nearby for school director, which together with the fallen bell, gave the scene a strong sense of finality and being a somewhat gritty end to the long era of the school’s existence.