camera | Croncast - From Cool to Cul De Sac

sundown flowers #4

Sun, 04 May 2008 19:34:53 -0500

singing backup to the yellow was this blue player.

i mentioned in the other photo post about wondering how the digital camera changed the color of the purple flowers, well, in this shot it was true to life with the blue and yellow in this shot.

i wonder if it could be something in the flower itself and the way it reflects light?

Tags: blue yellow shot flowers life

sundown flowers 5

Sun, 04 May 2008 19:33:40 -0500

i need to learn more about cameras and the software that runs them.

why?

the camera picked up an amazing neon like hue from these flower and they weren't nearly this vibrant in real life.

Tags: flower hue neon weren vibrant

Season 20 Ep 11: Eyeless dolls, Bolex at Goodwill, How did you know?

Fri, 02 May 2008 11:20:55 -0500

Croncast - 2008-05-02.mp3
Show: #486
Length: 31:00
Size: 21.3 mb
Format: mp3

Show us some love and leave us a review at iTunes

Special note: Betsy and Jeanie are having a meetup in San Francisco May 21, 2008 at House of Shields 39 New Montgomery St., Time: 6:30 p.m., stop and have a drink or two!

Short show notes, sorry
The greatest goodwill find of all time
Sure it is
So was the Kirby vacuum
It's a Bolex Video Camera
Spooky stuff on this show
"How did you know?"
I can see you there with two hand fulls of dirt
What about the eyeless dolls?

Tags: Bolex video camera Kirby Vacuum eyeless dolls spooky

dual cam shoot by @chrisbrogan with passionate interviewee

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:44:02 -0500

about to step in front of camera.

Anyone know the interviewee? he was very into it.

Tags: interviewee step camera front passionate

lethargic bee

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:20:10 -0500

On my quick walk this afternoon I came across this bee on the wooden bridge in the park.

It was still for a while and I got this shot. The others were really blurry. My camera seems to be having focusing issues even when in manual mode.

Tags: bee lethargic camera focus sony dsc-r1

Maggers and the dude

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:33:44 -0500

Maggie, aka Gigi, hanging with her favorite of the dogs, Zeus.

Camera is missing anti-green eye flash.

Tags: missing camera anti green flash

Are you going to CES?

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 09:24:20 -0600

If you are making the trip to Vegas for CES 2008 next week I'd like to ask that you do me a favor. You ready?

Maybe it is two favors.

Keep your eyes peeled for:

1) cell phones that have a 5 megapixels or greater camera with a flash and a full QWERTY keypad
2) digital cameras 10+ megapixels that offer evdo, edge, wimax (what have you for connectivity) built in

I know a couple of you will be there and if you see either of these types of products about ping me to let me know if they exist or there is something even cooler along those lines.

In return I will look up to the nights sky and name a star after you. If that won't work then a show shout out and some linkage are in order.

Tags: 10 megapixel CES 2008 Las Vegas evdo edge wimax

Am I, are you, killing photography as art?

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 08:08:31 -0600

JD Lasica had a short post about a Newsweek article by Peter Plagens, "Is Photography Dead?", that caught my attention. With my recent flickr addiction and new found ability to find amazing photographs, art quality, at least once a minute simply by refreshing the public timeline, I thought this piece would be spot on.

Turns out, not so much. But a great start to a discussion, yes.

Article summary and writer's argument in a single sentence:

"The advent of digital technology only exacerbated photography's flight into fable."

Reader comment that sums it up accurately (there are ton but this one works):

"With the advances in digital cameras and film, I think the art of photography is accessible to more than it has ever been today."

Read the article comments.

Tags: photography Peter Plagens JD Lasica digital photography photo art

What is the best camera phone?

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:42:45 -0600

I'm going to be returning my iPhone to my former employer and want to continue mobile live photo blogging. Sure I have my Treo but the photo quality isn't in the same ballpark as the iPhone.

I've looked online at the Sony Ericsson K800i which is supposed to be the best mobile camera. This is great but it is missing a QWERTY keyboard which make the blogging part much easier than having to click the 7 on my phone 4 times to get to the letter S. Lots of letter 's' in the English language.

I've also looked at the Nokia N95 and the Sony Ericsson K850i but sans keyboard I am not as excited.

Do you know of any alternatives that might have a 3.2 megapixel or higher camera and a full keyboard? Maybe something that has yet to be released? How about a camera with EVDO or EDGE support?

Tags: camera phone Sony Ericsson K800i Nokia N95 Sony Ericsson K850i camera phone with qwerty

suited and on the way

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 11:41:04 -0600

Took this while on my way to an interview.

I got some serious jowling in this photo.

Never again will I pill my neck back to get my head in a shot and the camera out of it.

Tags: back head shot camera neck

Think differently about RSS and its uses

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 10:39:03 -0600

Over the weekend, as some of you may of you noticed, I live photo blogged my Saturday afternoon date with Betsy and our trip to Goodwill. For me it was a time to watch Betsy as she navigated her adopted habitat and to see her operate in a way that is far from the norm in our everyday lives.

I knew this was going to be an interesting experience. Why not share it in as many ways as possible (distribution to: Flickr, Twitter, blog and RSS) with as many people as possible? One input with multiple outputs across the various Croncast audiences.

Making it happen is a lot easier than you think with email and RSS.

First. it is the camera phone that takes decent photos. Second, is the phones ability to send email with photo attachments. Third, is a place to email the photos that has an RSS feed or other API connectivity to other applications. Tons of sites like Flickr, Seesmic and Tumblr offer these and can even do some of the distribution for you. Get these three things in place and sharing your experiences in near real-time has never been easier.

Currently, it does take a little more skill to distribute the photos to Twitter. However, if you get creative you can breathe life into photos that wouldn't normally have existed after it was consumed/viewed in a photo sharing site or through an RSS reader. It is worth the effort to figure this out, it's the next stage of content distribution online.

How do I know? Google Reader shared feeds are the perfect example. Typically once someone reads a post in their reader it has reached the end of the line. But if someone shares it with Google Reader it then gets added to the individual users shared RSS feed and resyndicated. A new life for that content. The same goes for photos that end up in Flickr or a Flickr RSS feed.

In my case, live photo blogging and my ability to cast a wider net wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for the Flickr RSS feed from my account. It is the magic API that feeds (pun intended) the river of resyndication that allows me to give that new life to our content.

Here's how it goes down:

1. Upload photo from phone to Flickr with subject line used as image title
2. In the body under the photo begin with an asterisk (*) if I want the photo, title and description to be a blog post also
3. In the body under the photo begin with a carat (^) if I want the title and a link to be a tweet
4. Add both asterisk and carat (*^) for blog and twitter
5. A PHP script grabs the Flickr RSS feed and reads it for asterisks and carats every two minutes and sends the photo, title and description where it needs to go
6. If it goes to the blog the title and description will be run through a keyword generations script
7. If it goes to Twitter only the title is sent and a shortened url is created to link to the photo

What all of this does is allow me to create multiple channels of distribution that can reach the different audiences that follow us. There is a bit of overlap with multiple audience members subscribed to the same services but quite a few are not. We have the Twitter audience, the blog audience, the flickr audience and the RSS audience. We also have our podcast audience but they are not really a part of this type of delivery

Summary: Look for ways to utilize sites like Flickr as a content management portal, if even from your mobile phone, to cast a wider net across your network. Work to find that one point of contact that has the lowest threshold for allowing you to get your media and thoughts online with the ability to resyndicate your content without having to lift a finger. Well, too many fingers. And make sure that it has an RSS feed!

Tags: live photo blogging RSS as API flickr twitter seesmic tumblr

Betsy and her husband Kris Oct 05, 2007

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 09:24:12 -0500

Croncast - 2007-10-05.mp3
Show: #418
Length: 30:21
Size: 20.8mb
Format: mp3

Betsy and her husband Kris Oct 05, 2007

Show us some love and leave us a review at iTunes

It's TFF . . . Tell a Friend Friday
Here's what we got going on
Tons of comments coming in
Today will not be typical show . . . we're reading comments
Lots of entries in my haphazard Google contest
Finding the ones that were for the contest were hard
Now we need to figure out who the hell these people are
Not like your legs are broken
Just your Jaguar
It is the saddest looking thing
Tags are expired, hood ornament torn off, license plate holder Magic Erasered and leaking oil
Did I mention I haven't driven it for about 3 months?
The voting at Blogger's Choice Awards is difficult
Thanks to everyone who visited
We're gonna read the comments and contest entries
Comment - You parents can find you if they want.
Saggy Balls 101 wants to party
Comment - No need for video
He's a purist, like a biker
I would do it as a three camera shoot
5 minute wrap up of week
Comment - The karma comment
I full well expect it
Since I didn't swallow the scope I am not on same page
After they listen to about 3 of these shows, guaranteed
We've had this discussion
Bottom line, I expect it and would respect their decision
Keeping grammy close enough to make things normal
You never cared about me
Let's move on before we bore everyone
Comment - Curl that gun hand into a fist
Comment - Kid getting picked on
Same thing that they were doing already
Mob of gigantic kids jacked up Captain Crunch and Cartoon Network
While he is eating his Kix and watching PBS Sprout
Not to say that my kids are any different
You were picked on as a kids too
Yeah, it made me funnier
Hope your kids use it as material later
When I wrote it on my folder I meant it
Grunge stick figures
You're psycho
Move forward please
Our whole meeting . . . there were many times
I would have caught you slow driving in front of my house
Lesson in beatup karma
The pom-pom squad is not the delicate flowers
Doubt there was delicate flower that hadn't been had in your school
Vickie got her ass kicked by this girl
What brought this on? I know you sister
I'm not saying that it was provoked
My parents came together and went to school
Vickie is now planning class reunion
She gets a hunk of the class list
I tried to find the girl . . . but couldn't after her last arrest
She was offering sexual favors at the court house to pay her tickets
Attorney's are perfect
There is no client, paternity privaleg
Comment - When exactly were you two cool?
Part of my psychosis thinking I have been cool since birth
Probably a social disorder
I proved that I am not cool by taking you to nerd convention
Elbow deep in the back of a goat
Don't you remember goat cervix bangles?
I invented those
My dad was on Montel
And my baby sitter was Cindy Crawford
People have know me for 20-30 minutes before I tell them
We both have a lot of self-confidence
We went through crazy shit together
Captain of the pom-pom squad is not cool
Maybe in Sycamore
They went to drink out of the cow tank

Contest entries - if anyone of these is yours leave a comment with your email and I will get back to you to get your address for stickers

We read all of these on the show and tell some stories in between

1) croncast geek star kris and smoking Betsy are you still doing that? How are you going to locate a winner? by name? Robert
2) kris smith a man who can survive betsy
3) kris smith a man who gets locked in the basement by his loveing family
4) kris smith living the dream in naperville
5) croncast rockin to van halen
6) kris, this is your mom, I have a knife to send to maggie! give me your address!
7) worm farm sex
8) croncast betsy cow print
9) croncast betsy loves dawn
10) croncast Kris -"How are you going to know who submits the search?" -Kore Peterson -"The first to leave a comment for you via google."
11) croncast Kris get out of the basement and live life
12) croncast Kris loves John Elway Dodge
13) pics of sweet ASS street racing cars
14) betsy hates blue hair death to dawn
15) kris, out of puffy cuff goodle ideas
16) puffy cuffs are sexy
17) nerd bearded kris
18) +croncast Leave the comedy to Betsy
19) (kris betsy croncast) -"The blubbery bald bear's brawny baby batter befouled the bountiful, bodacious, bouncing boobies of betsy"

Audience Survey, please fill this out for us
Look for the graphic on "Audience Survey" on the main page

STICKERS!
Here's what it will look like . . . inside the red area with rounded corners
To get your sticker send $2.00 support from the site or get 3 stickers for $5.00

Tags: Cartoon Network Magic Eraser TFF Evo Terra goat cervix bangles

Kris and Betsy Smith

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 18:15:48 -0500

Betsy and I smiling for the camera as NME was wrapping up.

Thanks to Craig for getting this shot.

Also need to say thanks to everyone that we hung out with and shared meals with. Cheers.

Tags: betsy say need hung meals

Smartphone absurdity, I want just one

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 12:23:33 -0500

I didn't realize how absurd this smartphone crap was until the day before yesterday. We have a potential client using Blackberries as podcast players. Which was no big deal since I worked on a solution a few years ago at my day job but I needed to get the same version as the client. Hence a new radiation hot spot for my palm.

Now in the house:

1 Treo 700 (mine, Verizon)
1 xv6700 (Betsy, Verizon)
1 iPhone (work, AT&T)
1 Blackberry 8703e (work, Sprint)

Two of them are for work, like I marked them above, but it is ridiculous. They all do like one thing better than the others, one carrier's plan is better priced or the network makes all the difference. What do I mean?

Best sounding as a phone:
1. Treo
2. iPhone
3. Blackberry
4. xv6700 (horrible)

Ease of use as a phone:
1. iPhone (my mother-in-law could use it)
2. Treo
3. Blackberry
4. xv6700 (need 3 hands to make a call)

Ease of use overall:
1. iPhone
2. Blackberry
3. Treo
4. xv6700

Best OS:
1. xv6700 (windows mobile 5.0, too bad everything else about it sucks)
2. iPhone
3. Treo
4. Blackberry

Best media playback:
1. iPhone (wonder why?)
2. xv6700
3. Treo
4. Blackberry

Best keypad:
1. Blackberry (update: thanks Garrick for pointing out I misspelled it the first time -LOL)
2. Treo
3. xv6700
4. iPhone (it's pretty . . . hard to use quickly)

Best sms device:
1. Treo
2. Blackberry
3. xv6700
4. iPhone

Best email device:
1. Blackberry
2. Treo (would be third if AT&T edge were faster)
3. iPhone (on wifi this is second)
4. xv6700

Best web device (network):
1. Treo (doubles as EV-DO modem, love it)
2. xv6700 (doubles as EV-DO modem, never used it)
3. iPhone
4. Blackberry (locked into a special start page, blah and doubles as EVDO modem but Sprint rates are insane)

Best web device (wifi):
1. iPhone (experience much like real browsing
2. xv6700 (fast but reformats pages)
The other two are AWOL with no wifi capability

Best camera:
1. iPhone
2. Treo
3. xv6700
Blackberry is without

Best network:
1. Verizon
2. Sprint
3. AT&T

Best overall:
1. iPhone
2. Treo
3. Blackberry
4. xv6700

Taking all of this into consideration and my experience with all four operating systems and form factors, I have decided that my ultimate phone and carrier combo would look something like this:

An iPhone on Verizon's network, use as EV-DO modem, with an add on keypad and GPS onboard. That would get an 'ooh la la' and an amen.

Tags: iPhone xv6700 Treo 700 Blackberry 8703e Verizon EVDO Sprint GPS