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.

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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

iPhone app: Hold ‘er steady

At the suggestion of friend Justin Fowler, I thought I’d give the iPhone app Night Camera a try. While I was looking for it, I also ran across the free SteadyCam. Here’s the short answer after an even shorter test: Don’t waste even the 99 cents on Night Camera.

The concept is this: If you use the built-in iPhone camera, you’ll often notice that in low-light situations the camera shake will often blur your photos. These two apps use the camera’s accelerometer (the motion sensors that are normally used to detect the position of the camera) to determine when the camera is at it’s most motionless point – and then it takes the photo.

Before these apps came around, I always used a little-known trick of keeping the camera steady. When you push the camera icon to take the photo, the image is taken ON RELEASE of the button, not when you push it. In other words, push and hold the button until you are ready to take the picture, then let go – that’s when the photo is taken. It’s very effective and I found it comparable to these apps and sometimes a better option than Night Camera.

But while Night Camera is getting rave reviews and is quite popular (and hey, a buck ain’t gonna break the bank), I had much more trouble using it in the short 15 minute test around my house. SteadyCam was simpler and more consistent. While it lacked some bells and whistles of Night Camera, SteadyCam did have a nice motion indicator that gives you an idea of how steady you are. Some of the options on Night Camera were unclear as to what they were actually for, so maybe they are useful, maybe not.

My vote is for the free app, SteadyCam because it’s just as good as Night Camera and certainly no worse. Alas, I’ve lost my $$ to Night Camera – hey Justin, click on some ads for me so I can earn my 99 cents back!

iPhone app: A camera bag in your pocket

Rarely will I purchase an iPhone app. So rare, in fact, that I’ve only purchased one: CameraBag.

If you have low expectations for a cell phone camera like I do, then you’ll find the iPhone camera to be mostly serviceable, especially since it’s always there when you need it. But there are times when a photo just needs a little something extra.

Enter the CameraBag app. Do you love your Holga? Now  you have a Helga filter in your bag. Or a Lolo. Or a Polaroid. Wanna make your office look a little more Yosemite? Just apply a little Ansel.

My favorite is the Helga for it’s saturation and vignetting. Least favorite so far is the infrared – I guess I’m a little spoiled with the real thing.

One of the great things about this app is that it is non-destructive. You can take a photo and apply the filter without ruining the original. That means you can experiment and apply different filters to the same image as many times as you want.

Price was $2.99 when I bought it and I consider it money well spent. It’s currently on a holiday sale, however, for 99 cents (don’t know how long that will last, though).

VeJetta tales: How my mobile office turned greener, cheaper, greasier

I’ve driven a pickup truck for a long time. I love being able to go anywhere anytime and to be able to haul whatever junk I’m collecting at the time. Problem is, when you’re a high-mileage photographer and gas prices soar, the truck starts to hurt a little. Actually, any vehicle that gets under 20 mpg starts to hurt a lot when gas prices rise over $3.

I was in denial for the longest time, refusing to do the math because I needed, wanted my truck. I finally realized I was spending more than $4,000 a year in gas (20,000 miles/year at 17 mpg = 1176 gallons.) Gas prices were in the high $3 range and heading over $4 when I was doing this math. I realized that I wasn’t able to keep up with those fuel bills and my reimbursement rate from the Herald-Leader wasn’t paying my vehicle expenses anymore.

Time to take action. I sold my 2005 Toyota Tacoma on craigslist and snapped up an under-priced high-mileage 2002 Volkswagon Jetta TDI I found online in Cincinnati (and yes, I see the irony here – I did indeed advertise in the Herald-Leader classifieds but didn’t get any calls).

Why the Jetta TDI? It is a diesel engine that gets 35 mpg in the city and well over 40 mpg on the highway. Can’t beat that, despite the higher price of diesel fuel. So now I’ve effectively cut my fuel consumption in half.

But wait – there is another way to beat the price at the pump. Who needs to buy diesel when you can run your car on a common restaurant by-product that you can get for free? It’s known as waste vegetable oil and most diesel engines can use it as a fuel source. Now we’re talking.

All of the sudden, the math turns in my favor. Now, instead of losing money by subsidizing the Herald-Leader with my personal vehicle (grrr), I can make money when I drive. And so far it’s working. My monthly fuel bills have plummeted (I recognize that fuel prices have dropped, but diesel not so much), and my reimbursement dollars from the company more than cover my expenses now.

Here’s the math from a recent trip to Knoxville for the Kentucky/Tennessee game:

300 miles round trip.

150 miles were driven on WVO (I didn’t have enough to take me all the way there and back) and 150 miles on diesel. I figured I spent about $10 on diesel at $2.50/gallon for the whole trip and will receive $112 in reimbursement. Back when my truck was getting 17 mpg on $4 gas, I would have spent $70 in fuel.

But what about the cheap gas we’re enjoying now? Regular unleaded gas can be found for under $1.40 here in Lexington, and I bought some diesel this week for $2.29. So did I move to quickly? My math was based on high fuel prices, right?

Perhaps my conversion was a bit of a gamble, but I have a couple of thoughts on that. For one thing, I can’t imagine that fuel prices will stay so low for very long. Secondly, while burning vegetable oil as a fuel makes economic sense, but it is also a very environmentally friendly thing to do. I know for a fact that I am less dependent on oil, foreign or domestic. I am polluting less. WVO as a fuel is carbon neutral. It reduces emissions and is far less harmful to the environment. So in the end, even if we manage to keep oil prices low, I think the conversion is still a gain.

How it works

There is a bit of a process for converting a diesel car or truck to run on vegetable oil. You need a separate tank to hold the oil and new fuel lines to carry the oil to the engine. So there is some expense to buying the equipment and having it installed. I bought my kit for about $1300 from Greasecar.com and had the kit installed by the Good Oil Boys in Louisville for around $1000. Another good resource is Fryer-to-oil.

And to be clear, WVO is not the same as biodiesel. While biodiesel does use vegetable oils, there is still a refining process and chemicals are involved. What I put in the fuel tank in my trunk comes straight out of a deep fryer at a restaurant down the street. All I have to do is pick it up and run it through a filter in my garage.

Collecting restaurant grease isn’t for everyone. But I think there is a little bit of DIY and MacGyver in most photographers out there. For people who don’t want to collect and filter grease, you can often buy filtered WVO for around $2 a gallon.

My setup consists of a gravity-fed filter bag inside a 16-gallon metal drum. I cut a hole in the top of the drum so I can pour the grease in. At the bottom of the drum I installed a spigot to drain out the filtered oil. I have a container at the back door of the restaurant where they dump their oil once a week when they clean their fryer (they use 100% soy oil to fry falafels). I put it in some 5-gallon plastic cubes that their new oil comes in. I let it settle for a week or two so as much junk as possible goes to the bottom. Then I pour the good stuff off the top and into the filter bag. The oil that comes out of the 5-micron filter can then go directly in the veggie fuel tank in my car or in clean storage containers for use later.

It can be a little messy and care has to be taken not to get oil all over the inside of the car. I also have to remove everything from my trunk whenever I need to refuel the veggie – that actually has a nice byproduct of keeping my trunk clean and organized.

My friends claim they can smell me coming (they can’t), and my wife continues to think I’m a little out there (maybe I am). But as long as I can claim that falafels give me gas without a scowl on my face, I’ll tolerate the grease jokes.

iPhone tethering coming soon says AT&T

Whether or not tethering your laptop to an iPhone will be beneficial remains to be seen. But at least it’s going to be an option soon, according to AT&T.

From Technologizer:

AT&T Mobility President and CEO Ralph De La Vega just told interviewer Michael Arrington that the company is working with Apple to let the iPhone serve as a tethered wireless modem for laptops soon. And he says it’ll be available “soon.”

On the surface it sounds great – having only one cellular device to worry about. Currently the Herald-Leader photogs use Verizon cards for our data transfer. They are fantastic and work practically anywhere we need them. But with 3G in only select locations in Central Kentucky, I’m not sure it will be fast enough for me. Transmiting photos over the Edge network? I don’t want to have to think about that.

However, if I’m the one paying the $70 Verizon unlimited data plan, the iPhone tethering option might not look so slow.