Why Mobile Photography

Almost all of us have an iPhone or a similar phone that can take good pictures. The phone is alway with us and we hardly carry a dedicated camera device anymore. For me, it is not just the camera. Using my iPhone as camera has also enabled me to get rid of the bulky power charger and the cables. The ‘lightness of being’ has resulted in me exploring a wider range of photographic creativity.

This course aims to make participants get more perceptive about people, places and situations helping you become more creative mobile photographers. We will explore techniques used by street photographers to get close to our subjects and looking at our subjects differently. We will try the best mobile photography and photo processing apps on iOS, Android and WindowsPhone.

1. Pre-research on what to shoot. Use Flickr to find interesting shots, stories that people have shot about your subject or the place you are visiting.

2. Some of the best photos are one that shows the audience something they don’t see everyday. Looking for the un-obvious, seeing and observing what we may miss otherwise.

3. Knowing your camera, the limitations, the characteristics, best camera apps for your mobile phone.

4. Mobile photo shooting techniques and ideas – composing, playing with light and shadow, waiting for the picture, street photography, telling photo stories.

5. Processing photos with apps – using filters and effects, black and white photography

6. Sharing and publishing – learning about publishing platforms, building and learning from your photo community. Privacy aspects of photography. Copyrights and Creative Commons.

7. Mobile photography at work – use Evernote and scanning apps on your mobile for documentation and archival.

It is a nice feature that the Windows Phone version of Evernote has.

You can pin a note as a tile. I often do this with notes that I need for a meeting or a class.

And here is the note appearing as a tile.

I have been thinking about moving full time to iPad. Earlier this week, I deleted my account from my MacBook Air.

I have been experimenting for some time with iPad as the main computing and publishing device. My work involves running education workshops, talking at events, research and writing. I have been using the iPad for many of these activities. I actually like using Keynote on the iPad and find working on it faster compared to the desktop version. In my presentations, I like to use the pictures that I take. And I shoot solely via iPad camera these days. I have a shorter turnaround time making my content.

The last straw was a Blackboard Collaborate, a software that I had to use to run webinars. The software needed Java so I had to keep a computer around. It is now available as an app. Here is how I work on the iPad.

Keynote, for designing presentations and quick how to guides. I publish the Keynote presentation as a PDF or PowerPoint file onto DropBox and send the links to my students or seminar attendees. IOS6 has a open in feature that is really great for this.

Draft, for writing almost anything long. A lot of my notes are on Google Drive, the eponymous app works well for quick changes to these documents.

Post and Poster for blog writing. Both work well with WordPress. If you post a lot of pictures, I will recommend Post.

Snapseed for image editing. for light editing, I use Instagram. Pro Camera is the photo taking app of choice for me.

Safari and Chrome browsers.

Evernote for archiving stuff and making quick presentations.

Kindle app for ebooks.

Skype and FaceTime for communications.

There is also the constant drive to try out smaller power adapters. This one made by Innergie accommodates two USB cables.

Trying multiple keyboards too. I like keyboards that are not latched on to the iPad. This helps me position the keyboard and the iPad for maximum comfort (and less glare). Microsoft makes the Mobile Keyboard 5000. It is larger than other bluetooth keyboards, but it makes for a comfortable typing experience. I will recommend getting this if you have to type a lot and if your traveling bag can fit it. It does not have iOS specific keys but volume up down and mute keys work and so does scroll keys. It costs around 50USD or less.

Google’s map makes our PyongYang look empty.

Short url: bit.ly/nmc0912

Part 1 Making Videos, Publishing and Promoting

Part 3 Content ideas

Part 6 Gear and Gadgets

You often spot such markings on the walls in Russia and countries that were part of the Soviet Union. The words Цой жив mean Tsoi Lives. Who is this Tsoi? Long before the Korean wave, in the late 1980s, one of he top musician in Soviet Union was Soviet-Korean Viktor Tsoi. Tsoi was the vocalist of a band called Kino and he was much loved. He died in a accident in 1990 at the peak of his musical career. His music is still loved and often remixed, like the video posted below. Hence, Tsoi lives. More about Tsoi on Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Tsoi

Trusting the service.

What is Evernote’s data policy? Who owns your data? Under what conditions will Evernote pass your information to other services? 
How long have they been in business? 
Who are the competitors and alternative services? 

The full lesson plan is here bit.ly/ssevernote

These traveling companions are worn and falling apart. Yet they are comfortable. Such are the times when I miss my Saigon backstreets where an equally weathered man can fix my shoes and gives me the news of the town.