iPhone App: QuadCamera

[Updated with more photos]

On another tip from Justin, I took another leap of faith and actually spent money again on an iPhone app. Now after the less-than-satisfying experience with NightCamera, I was a bit hesitant to try QuadCamera from the same company. But I only hesitated for about 2 seconds, ’cause the description and sample photos were so intriguing.

I think it was long about THE FIRST IMAGE that I took with QuadCamera that I decided it was well work the $1.99. The app uses the iPhone camera and takes 4-8 photos in sequence and makes a grid-like single image out of all the images. It’s part of the ToyCamera line of iPhone apps from Takayuki Fukatsu You can customize how many images you take and the interval at which you take them. The app also applies a Holga-ish vignette and desaturation to each image.

The first few images I shot, I used the default interval between images, which is pretty fast. Moving subjects or moving the camera helps in this case.

Then, I tried slowing down the interval and shooting photos that when combined would appear like they were stitched together.

Ah, but wait! There’s more. Head to Fukatsu’s website and you can download the QuadAnimator. After loading an image taken with QuadCamera, it makes it into an animated gif.

This is going to be a fun app. Thanks Justin for the tip.

•

Lessons in life and basketball

Update: Coach Sallee passed away today, Jan. 23, 2009. I will try to think of his positive message as often as I can.

•••

East Jessamine Coach Ralph Sallee, while battling late-stage cancer, kept teaching lessons in life and faith while bringing his girls’ basketball team closer.

This is the second video I’ve shot and produced using the Canon 5D Mark II. It started with reporter Mike Fields asking the well-known and much-loved coach if he’d be willing to talk to us about his fight with cancer. I thought it might make for a nice video and I knew I could get good frame grabs for the paper.

I lit the interview and recorded it using the 70-200 2.8 IS on a tripod. The light was a single White Lightning 800 with a large softbox. The modeling light was the source, so I set the white balance to incandescent.

We arranged to shoot his next practice for some b-roll and so I could interview some of his players. This all was happening right around Christmas break, so I couldn’t shoot a game for nearly three weeks. The third time I photographed coach Sallee was during his team’s rivalry game against West Jessamine.

Each time, coach let me put my Sennheiser wireless lav on him which worked out quite well for the audio. In the loud gym during the game, it peaked out a few times, though.

Production in Final Cut Pro went very smoothly this time now that I have all my settings worked out.

Overall, I think the video came out pretty well. I’m happy to be able to give Coach Sallee a voice and to document a place and time in his life that I hope they will cherish.

The full story can be read on Kentucky.com.

Many thank-yous to coach, his wife and family for letting us tell his story.

Covering Obama’s Inauguration

I arrived in D.C. Sunday night to cover Barack Obama’s Inauguration for McClatchy, the parent company of the Herald-Leader. It was a long drive through treacherous, icy roads and once we got to Washington, the traffic in the city was insane. It took two hours to get to the convention center to pick up credentials, and then to the McClatchy bureau.

I also learned today that my primary assignment on Tuesday is from the south window of the top of the Washington Monument. How cool is that? There will be nine photographers allowed up there and we will rotate every few minutes before having to come down.

Walking about town Sunday night, I shot a few frames of some of the imagery of Obama that I expect I’ll be seeing a lot of in the next few days. I’ll add more of some of my favorite images to this post over the next few days.

Update: Here are a few more shots from Monday. Most of my day was spent walking, but I also had to shoot an assignment for the Idaho Statesman. While I was looking for the Idahoans(?) I stumbled on the Frankfort High Schoolers – good mojo there.

KNPA winners announced

The Herald-Leader and yours truly fared pretty darn well this year. Check out the results and the winning photos at knpa.org

iPhone app: Inauguration Guide

Shortly I’ll be heading off to Obama’s inauguration along with about 10 billion other people. I’ve been to D.C., but not recently. And certainly not during a presidential inauguration. I’m having hopes that this little iPhone app, called the 2009 Presidential Inauguration Guide, will help me out. Let’s just hope that AT&T’s network can handle it all.

Made by Patton Boggs, Qorvis Communications and PointAbout, it features transportation information, dining, parties, and gala info, and what I hope to be most useful: a guide to free wireless hot-spots. The interface is nice and the opening page even has a count-down timer and plots your current distance from D.C. (as I write this, I’m 658.14 miles from the Inaguration).

From the app-makers:

We created this app to help you navigate our nation’s capital during the inauguration of Barack Obama. With a record number of people descending on our city for this historic event, our app will help you find information about inauguration events, galas and parties, as well as local restaurants, parking, metro transport information, and even where the nearest Wi-Fi hotspots are to you. It is THE guide to the Inauguration.

Landing Screen Features:
• Countdown to the inauguration
• Distance you are from the steps of the inauguration

App Gallery Features include:
(press the PointAbout logo in the header to access this list)
• Metro Service and Locations
• Zagat Guide
• Parking Garage Locations
• Free Wi-Fi Zones

Canon releases “black dot” fix with firmware update

Some have been reporting odd little black dots which appear on the right side of point light sources in images from the 5D Mark II. I personally haven’t had a problem with this frankly because I haven’t taken the time to analyze my photos pixel-by-pixel. So they might be there, might not. I’ve seen examples from others and while the dots obviously shouldn’t be there, I’ve not found it worth much worry.

Regardless, Canon says their new 1.0.7 firmware update will take care of the problem and also addresses some vertical banding noise.