Well, finished day 1 of the Red Cloud Days Photography course. So far I’m pretty impressed.

Simon Bolton, the instructor is quite good, sometimes the material gets a bit dry, but what can you do, there are some technical aspects that need explaining.  Simon has done quite well at not going into techno overload whilst explaining various bits to us, which is good.  I think he’s got it a bit easy on this course. He’d mentioned normally they have classes of 12, but this weekend there are only 4 of us on there.  I’m the only non-local, as the others are from the Nottingham / Beeston area.

I’ve picked up a load of very good info that finally brings together how Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO settings all gel to make photos what they are. On their own I suppose they’re all very simple concepts and I’ve read a lot about each of them, but I’ve had a problem getting good explanations on how they work together in what’s known as the Exposure Triangle. This was explained to us in the class room, then we put it into practice and saw the results back in the class room.  It was a very basic exercise to say the least but one which made us see how it all works.

First thing we covered really was Focal Length (simply put, the distance between the lens and the sensor / film in the camera body).  That lead into Depth of Field (DOF) and how that can be used and abused in photos both to improve the focus on the target and for artistic points of view.  This also included some discussion on how various sized lens will affect the perspective shown in the photo, ie, a wider angle lens such as an 18-55mm will give a good depth and show details such as ground contours in a landscape, but a long lens such as a 200-300mm will be flat and show nearly no contours.  This was something I’d noticed myself but never really gave much thought as to why this was, but that was explained in the class and I get it now  haha

Focus on the fence and blur the background – f/5.6 @ 1/1600th @ ISO 3200

Focus on the fence with less blur to the background - f/16 @ 1/200th @ ISO 3200

Next we’d gone into ISO (film speed, or how sensitive the camera sensor is to light) and how that affects photos.  Simply put, the higher the ISO the more sensitive to light the sensor becomes, but you trade off the high sensitivity for quality by risking a “noisy” photo with a more grainy look.  Lower ISO’s provide the higher quality photos, but in low light they won’t perform as well, so either more lighting (natural or artificial) will required.  It was explained that ISO really should be a last resort change when making setting changes in the camera.  Aperture and Shutter Speed plus the correct lens for the job should be used to get the job done.

We also discussed White Balance (WB) settings too.  This is certainly something I’d not really considered playing with and on all my cameras I’d simply left that on Auto, but having played a little today with the settings and seeing the results I can certainly see some uses for changing that when the situation requires it.

In these two photos the WB is set to “incandescent” for indoor photos, because of the programming you end up with these blue sort of photos.

 

Shutter Speed was something we’d spent some time on in the class room using some props (a ping pong ball on a table), using various speed settings to see the effects with the goal to using a speed that would completely freeze the ball in the air with no indication of movement.  We’d started at 1/60th of a second and worked up to 1/1000th of a second, very noticeable differences.  Then we’d stepped outside to do the same exercise but this time with cars as they passed the entrance of the building, we were shooting out the covered entrance (about 15 foot long and 10-12 feet wide).  So the window area to shoot through was rather small with lots of traffic passing by.  Again, some very noticeable differences in speeds, from 1/20th right up to 1/4000th of a second.  For these exercises I’ve got a bunch of pics HERE.  I’ve added descriptions to the photos of the basic camera settings (of course you can look at the EXIF data to get all the settings used).

That was pretty much it for day one.  Tomorrow we head out to Wollaton Hall & Deer Park.  Here, we’ll put what we learned today to the test.  We have a list of photos that we should get using the different techniques we learned.  That should take a couple hours in the park, then it’s back to the class room to go through our photos and pick our 10 best pictures to review and critique.  There will even be a little competition for best photo of the day with the winner getting a gift voucher for £10!

So, watch this space for another update either Sunday night (if I’m not too tired) or early next week.

Tags: Photography, Red Cloud Days, Simon Bolton

I say “lists” because I find I have different needs at different times.  This depends on if I’m using my Android devices for work or play.

 

Essential apps for “play”

Social Network / Chat Apps

 

Facebook

It goes without saying, Facebook is one of the required apps by “most” people these days.  There are many Facebook apps to pick from in the Android Market, but the one I’ve stuck with is Facebook for Android.  This app has been updated quite a bit since the first version I’d seen 2 years ago when I first got my Samsung Galaxy S (I-9000).  The latest versions of the application include access to pretty much every feature on Facebook now, including Facebook Chat.

Trillian

That brings me the next app, Trillian (by Cerulean Studios, LLC).  I’ve been using Trillian off and on pretty much since it came out, must be the best part of 10 years now.  This is a great mutli-IM platform with lots of features (a few drawbacks too, but what “all-in-one” tool doesn’t have it’s drawbacks).  When Trillian came out for Android I jumped on it right away.  Some of the features of Trillian that I find useful are the I can now share my chat history between all my devices (Android, PC, Web).  You can debate with yourself if storing your chat history either locally or in the cloud is a good or bad thing.  I’ve been down that road and have found that in general having my chat history has been a good thing.  Searching for shared URL’s or other info has been a time savings for me.

Tweetdeck

Twitter (<- click to get to my twitter ID) is another social network I frequently use. For this I choose to use Tweetdeck.  I also use Tweetdeck on the PC so this works very well when I’m also using it on my Android devices.  My preferences are stored and shared with my various devices that use the app, also making things convenient, just sign in and you’re good to go.

 

Pingchat

The final chat application Pingchat, is a mobile device only application, but it’s cross platform, making it quite useful.  This app should save you loads over using SMS to communicate with your friends, especially International friends.  It works very much like RIM’s BlackBerry Messenger, but it’s not limited to only one platform.  You can send messages, pictures, videos, voice messages, etc.  It’s very similar to another application called WhatsApp Messenger, I also use this, but not as much as Pingchat.

 

Everyday apps

 

Kindle

The Kindle app from Amazon is a very nicely done application for reading.  However, from my personal experience reading on a phone or even an a tablet isn’t nearly as good as using a real Kindle Device.  The screens are just not as nice to read from as that which is offered by the E-Ink technology used by Kindle.  However, it’s still a very good and simple application to use an easy to browse the Kindle Bookstore and purchase new books for immediate delivery to your device.

Dropbox

The Dropbox app is another must have if you want easy document access between devices.  I have been a long time user of JungleDisk, and even though they have decided to completely abandon Android users, but they have got a iPhone/iPad version available and I would still recommend it for PC and the Apple devices, it really is worth the small price.  Anyhow, since i don’t have JungleDisk for Android I’ve been forced to use Dropbox (<- click for my affiliate link, it’ll get you some extra space when you sign up).  I have to stay that Dropbox does work very well but the cost of space beyond the free space is more expensive then Amazon S3 Storage, which JungleDisk uses.

Quickoffice Pro

Quickoffice Pro is my mobile Office application of choice.  It provides all the usual tools for creating, editing, viewing Microsoft Office documents.  It supports Word, Excel, Powerpoint and PDF’s.  When it comes to documents you can use local documents stored on your device (Android, iPhone/iPad) or stored in various cloud storage services such as Dropbox, Google Docs, Box.net, etc.

 

Titanium Backup Pro

Titanium Backup Pro is a fantastic application but it will only worked on rooted devices, which is something I think most people will do to their Android devices, it makes them more usable (in my Opinion).  This application will also allow you to remove some of the  bloatware that comes on some Android devices.   You can not only back up to your local storage on the device but also to Dropbox for all it’s cloudy goodness.

 

Tasker

Tasker is a full automation application for your Android device.  Think CRON for unix, but inject Schwarzenegger levels of steroids into it.  Some of the automation I use on my phone include, keeping my GPS turned off at all times but Tasker will turn it on when I start an application that needs it, then switches it off again when I exit the app.  When my phone connects to my home Wifi network it will switch off Bluetooth and force GPS off since I don’t need at home, also, while at home, between 11pm and 7am if the device is plugged in it will silence the phone so I’m not annoyed at night.  The possibilities are just about endless for this app, and it’s worth every penny.

 

Games

There are so many games available it’s really hard to list the ones I’ve played and liked, but I suppose a short list would have to be:

Angry Birds.  There are different versions and personally, I think they should all be downloaded and played 

• Angry Birds
• Angry Birds Rio
• Angry Birds Seasons

Airport Mania (Free) – You get to control the process of incoming and outgoing air planes.  It’s not as simple as landing them and taking them off though, you need to get to them to the terminals, get them fuelled up, cargo loaded, washed if their dirty and repaired if they need maintenance.  I’m considering buying the paid for version as I’ve completed the free version, it really was quite addictive.

Jewellust is another must have game.  Spring for the paid for version, you won’t be disappointed.  The kids also love playing this game.

 

Essential apps for “work” (or geeks)

These are a few apps that I feel are a must off for work or just geeking about on the Internet

ConnectBot

ConnectBot is a must for SSH.  It not only supports SSH Keys but also port tunnelling.  This is very useful to get access to internal destinations on a network that allows you to SSH into.

LogMeIn Ignition

LogMeIn Ignition isn’t a cheap app, and it’s about the only thing people complain the most about, the price.  But, if you have a load of machines setup to use LogMeIn you will not regret paying the price for the application.  I have 5 or 6 PC’s configured with LogMeIn (Free) and I find this tool simply awesome.  I can access my PC’s with the phone (or tablet) over pretty much any sort of connection and it just works.  GPRS is a bit slow but it does work, which is impressive.

Wyse PocketCloud (Pro)

This is the best RDP/VNC client I’ve used on Android, it also supports VMWare View if your company uses this.  I’ve not actually tried this function myself, but the VNC and RDP are very good, couple this with ConnectBot and you can tunnel your way into a network and access RDP over the SSH tunnels.

Wifi Analyzer

This is a great tool for doing Wifi surveys with, you will need an additional installed app to use it.  Check out the screen shots of it on the Market, it really does a very nice job.

 

A few others I must also mention are:

Shark for Root – Wireshark network sniffer (also get Shark Reader to read the output on the Android Device)

Net Scan – Scan your local network for devices and open ports

Root Explorer (for rooted devices) – Poke through everything on your Android and mount areas Read/Write so you can modify system files – Danger Will Robinson, Danger

 

I hope you find this helpful, and I’d love to hear what apps you MUST have on your Android, and tell us why.

Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve updated my blog with anything remotely interesting.  I can’t say this will posting will change that, but who knows haha

On September 1st we took the kids to LEGOLAND Windsor for the day.  There was 5 of us, the kids, Yuki’s Father and Yuki and I.  The trip was a complete surprise to the kids.  They only realized where we were going when we pulled into the park.  That made the last 2 miles of driving a bit of a loud nightmare haha so glad we didn’t tell them before hand. 

The kids aren’t looking so happy here because we took this as we were leaving and not going in haha

This is a list of the rides we went on during the day, including links to the LEGOLAND site and who went on them)

• Sky Rider (All five of us)
• Extreme Team Challenge (Emma and I, Lisa went down with someone else, Yuki chickened out)
• Chopper Squadron (Rob and Lisa in one and Yuki and Emma in another)
• Fairy Tail Brook (All five of us)
• Drivers School (Kids only ride, no adults allowed)
• Atlantis Submarine Voyage (All five of us)
• Dino Safari (Rob and Emma in one car and Yuki and Lisa in another)
• Remote Control Trucks (Lisa and Emma controlling)
• Thunder Blazer (Lisa and Emma only)
• Aero Nomad (All five of us)
• Pirate Training Camp (Kids only)
• The Dragon (Lisa and Yuki in one car, Me and some random person in another)
• Longboat Invader (Lisa, Emma, Yuki and Rob)
• Loki’s Labyrinth (All five of us)
• Hill Train (All five of us)
• Rocket Racers (All five of us)

You can see all the photos by clicking here.  Most have descriptions on them.

The park was quite good, quite well laid out I suppose.  We went around the park backwards (if you go by the attraction numbers on the map).  I suppose to some degree this worked well for us.  There is hardly a flat area in the park, so those that tire quickly or just struggle with constant hills, then this isn’t really the place for you. We were all pretty knackered.  We arrived at the park just after 930am and got inside just after 10am.  We finally left the park around 730pm.  It was long day and late night, the kids slept pretty much all the way home

 

The kids really liked the Atlantis Submarine Voyage.  They got to see loads of sharks and manta rays swimming around the “sub”, plus all the other usual sorts of fish you’d expect to see in an exhibit like this.

 

But, without a doubt the one ride they both looked forward to was the Driving School.  This is a kids only ride, no adults allowed.  The kids sit and watch a video that explains how to drive a car and the rules of the road including road signs.  After that there is a small oral test before they’re let loose on the cars.

 

The girls with their LEGOLAND Drivers Licenses.  Emma isn’t mad, she was trying to be funny haha don’t think it worked so good shhh don’t tell her

Well that’s about it.. I could more but it’s late, I’m tired and don’t wanna bore folks more then necessary Check out the rest of the pics.

I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve made a blog posting. I suppose it’s a matter of not really having much happen that’s blog worthy.

Hopefully over the coming months I’ll have something more to write about.

At around 0430 AM on Monday April 11th we set out for nearly a week long holiday on the continent. The trip started by driving from Cambridge to Dover where we got the ferry for Calais, France. We’d arrived nearly an hour early due to a bit of bad planning on my part but also due to no traffic on the roads at that insane hour. We’d arrived at the ferry port an hour early and managed to get put on an earlier ferry.  This was was great as it meant we could get to Disney that much earlier and also avoid more rush hour traffic around Paris.

Once in France it was a very straightforward drive to get to Disneyland Paris.  I think we got checked into the hotel, “Disneyland Hotel”, about 90 mins early. Not a problem as the kept our cases for us and gave us our park tickets so we could start to enjoy the park without delay.

The kids (and you can safely assume for the rest of this posting that I am including Yuki as one of "the kids") were mental and wanted to see the characters and get on some rides.

Read on if you want to read all the details of trip This is a long read .. so brace for it

Read the rest of this entry »