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iPhone

Where I do another phone experiment

That’s my first ever attempt at time lapse photography. This was done on my iPhone using the free Gorillacam app. I learned two valuable lessons.

First, you need a stable mount. No, this didn’t interfere with the drive — promise — but wrapping the phone up in a Gorilla tripod isn’t the best solution. If anyone has an iPhone tripod idea, I’m listening.

The second lesson is shooting a drive isn’t the most dynamic choice. I didn’t expect it would be high art, but I got a lot of trees on a beautiful day. Somehow my time lapse managed to just miss every interesting thing — produce shacks, abandoned buildings, oncoming traffic, bridges with character — along the way.

But, I can now make a time lapse project. With the Gorillacam you can choose the number of pictures and the time increments. You get a bunch of pictures on your phone that you have to produce yourself. So, import, add to iMovie, edit the clips and add some music.

I went into Garageband and threw some beats together, made a few subtle edits and put it all together.

Once you get the workflow down this wouldn’t take long. The art, aside from the subject selection, is how long to make each image. And I’d guess that varies. Obviously, I don’t yet have the deft touch required for that.

Critiqued that study I mentioned yesterday. Here were my observations: the terms “young” and “old” were poorly conceived, the terms short and long (story length) were poorly defined and some of the hypotheses were more intuitive rather than conceptual. Essentially the study was about how story length and pacing impacted comparative recall in the case of young adults and older adults.

Young adults were defined as 18-22 — typical for an on-campus study where college age students are easy to draft as participants. Older adults were defined as 25-81. First of all, by this study’s definition I am old. And while I take playful exception to that, I argued that the idea of pacing and length in stories doesn’t vary that much between these simple measures. The median age in the older adults category was 44, but the remote control has been ubiquitous for most of those adults lives and their viewing habits have been conditioned to contemporary pacing, cuts, edits and story lengths just like the younger viewers. I’d buy the 81-year-old’s experience was difference, but not that the 25-year-old had that much of a marked change than a 22-year-old.

The idea of story length had some overlap. Stories were short if they were between 15 and 83 seconds. Long stories were defined between 40 and 185 seconds. Story length is an important consideration when you discuss cognition, recall and cognitive overload, so it is important to the study. But I can’t think of any good reason why a story that is 46 seconds could be called short, but a story that is 40 seconds could be called long.

And so on. It is a good paper and the results are compelling and practicable. It is one in a series by the Indiana scholars of which I’ve read several papers, so following the progression of their research is interesting.

The rest of the day was more reading, more writing. There was a trip to the grocery story, where I met a young man who was very excited about the football game this weekend. I looked for a business card I’ve hidden from myself. I’ve run out of places to search. Took a late evening nap — one of those drift away during the commercial break and wake up later in the same show affairs — which was wonderful until the 10 minutes after waking up where nothing made much sense.

Naps are funny that way. I seldom wake up disoriented in the morning, but a good nap leaves me confused. But it was refreshing, and now I’m wide awake. That’s always good.

And so I made the time lapse project. But that’s not all. I added a few more pictures to the Tumblr feed. That site is making a comeback and you can follow it there or see it on the right side of this page. The Glom covers will be added momentarily. And, of course, there will be something interesting tomorrow, too.

iPhone / journalism / memories / photo / Samford / Wednesday — Comments Off
27
Oct 10

‘English is a tool for hiding the truth’

That’s part of a spam comment I received yesterday. They snare you with the first part of the phrase, a nice little comment meant to appeal to the author’s ego, and then snap you back with the hard realize that this is all just a lie and you are really just a tool for The Man, and we need to get our people out of Vietnam, man! Johnson is ruining everything.

And then the HUAC is re-formed and things get nasty from there.

I was going to really dissect the spam for fun, but something made me Google it. The 2,740 results suggested that this particular Russian server gets around a bit, but it problem isn’t the most prolific one.

Plus, Dr. Jim Pangborn, a English-lit, poetics, cultural and media history scholar has already done the heavy lifting stretches the idea beyond English. Pangborn takes the idea back to Socrates. You could take the thing all the way back to plumage and scales and cilia.

“Mine are better, softer, sturdier more colorful, more bountiful. Whatever you need, babe. Clearly life with me is going to be better than life with that guy. How droll.”

Then the female, having been impressed with the dance and the spontaneous sense of the male’s dance interpretation, takes a chance. And now the male is at the bowling alley four nights a week, coming home late reeking of booze and cigars. And she thinks Maybe, just maybe, the male with less scales or feathers wouldn’t have been so bad after all. She goes to look him up on Protozoabook and thinks Still less plumage/scales/cilia but he is a senior developer at Endoderm, so there’s that.

You never really think of Darwinism with that particular brand of cynicism.

Back to the Lomophotography. I took two pictures today on my iPhone for comparison’s sake, one using the Lomo app, and the other with the conventional technique.

I like the effect, but it is always going to be a novelty to me. I blame the years of rational empiricism training.

Critiqued the Crimson this afternoon. This year’s staff has grown into putting together strong papers pretty rapidly. Very proud. There was one or two minor problems, but I figure if the editors discover them before I point them out they are on the right track.

I showed them the new template for the website re-launch, as designed by the online editor. The mock-up has turned into a working page that will go live sooner than later. Now we begin the talks of more photography, more video, more social media, more, more, more. Dream big, I say, because the answer is frequently yes.

Picked up the Wall of Fame plaques today. They’ll be given out at Homecoming in two weeks. Another good class of inductees, and now I have to write blurbs for their displays. It is no easy challenge to distill a career of success into 30 words. Guess what I’ll be doing this weekend?

Studied. Read. For class tomorrow I am critiquing Lang et al. (2005) “Wait! Don’t turn that dial! More excitement to come! The effects of story length and production pacing in local television news on channel changing behavior and information processing in a free-choice environment.” This is not the longest journal title I’ve ever encountered.

My professor, an internationally respected scholar and a talented and kind man, studied under the author. (Lang is mentioned mid-way through this spiel from one of my former professors. I recorded that in the spring of 2009, which seems a long time ago now. Indeed, I’d almost forgotten I had it.) I know one of the co-authors. It is a good paper and I can only find three or four things to mention in class tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a worthwhile critique.

For this class I’ve now almost filled two large three-ring binders with papers on cognition, method and effects. My three-hole punch is getting dull under the strain. I didn’t realize you could do that.

More from the 1939 World’s Fair will come along shortly.

Auburn / iPhone / links / photo / Samford / Tuesday — 1 Comment
26
Oct 10

Stormy weather

Beautiful, isn’t it? That’s the library on the Samford campus. Spent a fair amount of time in there this evening. I shot that picture on my iPhone, running it through something called the MoreLomo app. I didn’t know what Lomo was, but I look through the app store every so often for the next big, free thing.

Lomo, or lomography, is a photographic subculture based on a poor quality Russian camera. Just think of them as film and slide hipsters. The finished product, legitimate in the film version or manufactured in the digital, is intriguing. You can get one of the camera’s here.

I appreciate the classic essence of what they’re doing. I miss the smell of the darkroom, as most old school print people do. (There’s one just down the hall from my office. Sometimes I linger, hoping to catch the chemistry in the air. But I’ve been shooting digital for a decade and I could never go back. Especially when my phone will try to give me random interpretations of a poor, but interesting, processing technique. I’ll take a few more, I’m sure. But I’ll also have to take pictures in the traditional style, because I’m a realist.

Now I’m looking for a good time lapse app. Let me know if you find one.

Taught my class, rushed through all those slides so they could have some time to work on a story they have due next week.

Spent time reading and writing. The student-journalists at the Crimson are putting their paper together tonight. We got a look at the soon-to-rollout new version of the Crimson site. That’s going to look nice.

Storms rolled through. Started with high winds this morning and seemed to storm all day thereafter. It isn’t just your neighborhood. This was part of a huge mid-latitude cyclone, probably one of the largest, stronger storms we have on record in the U.S. This graphic will have changed by the time you look at it, but just imagine the southeast lit up with lighting strikes.

I cause trouble again. The al.com roundtable is back:

Auburn question 2: Ole Miss has certainly improved since losing to Jacksonville State, but is still last in the SEC West. Any chance Auburn suffers a letdown after three tough games in a row?

The most heartening thing about Auburn, when it comes to questions like this, are the attitudes on the sideline. People watching on television saw it better than those in Jordan-Hare Stadium, Saturday, but Gene Chizik looked at ease at the half. Chizik and offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn were chatting late in a one score game like it was a 30 point blowout. There’s a calm demeanor in the leadership that bodes well for potential trap games. Of course that could have just been an appearance of peace opposite the Les Miles Psycho Road Show going on across the field.

Fifty-five incendiary comments and I didn’t even say anything controversial. Sports fans are entertaining. I suppose the Alabama side of that will be up tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be busy. I should start now.

Auburn / football / iPhone / photo / Twitter / video / weekend — 1 Comment
23
Oct 10

Eight and oh!

Strike a pose, Cameron Newton. 24-17 and Auburn is the lone SEC team still undefeated.

This is the Twitter feed during the LSU-Auburn game. Because Twitter will drop these comments eventually, and brilliant play and wry observations should be remembered forever. Pictures are included, as are after-the-fact thoughts included in bold.

One tailgating party has a musician playing the Van Helsing song from Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It is really good.

At the RBD library they are playing Brickhouse. If you walk up those steps on the side of the parking deck and just as you reach the landing you here the baseline kick in you may count yourself as having a good day. You might then knock over a Direct TV dish, as I did. And then apologize to the people who’s tailgate you’ve just disturbed. They were nice people.

Another day, another blimp. I also counted a light wing plane, a helicopter, two small hawks and a yellow butterfly. And also Nova, who flew right overhead. I’ve got great pictures in the photo gallery.

I smell corndog people!

Fighter planes overhead, a tank under center. Let’s play!

No better place than Jordan-Hare Stadium today!

@Z_Etheridge4‘s third down interception return to midfield sets the tone.

@cameronnewton laughs at your idea of broken plays.

Let’s review: Terrell Zachery, Mike Dyer, Cam Newton. TOUCHDOWN AUBURN 7-0.

What do Cam Newton and Heisman trophy winner Pat Sullivan have in common? They’ve scored the same amount of TDs in one season. And of course Newton would have that bit of poetry later in the game, and still four more games. Sullivan’s record stood for four decades. How old will we be when someone breaks Newton’s eventual number?

Lucky there wasn’t an unfair decapitation of the quarterback penalty there. How did he get up from that? Lucky, too, there was no roughing the quarterback penalty on that deadball dead lift and body slam. I suppose you could argue no one heard the whistle, but everyone else on the field stopped and I heard the referee blow it dead from the stands. Dodged a bullet there.

RT @wennybrown: Announcer: “Clock. Management. Problems. Where have we heard that before??”

Auburn’s defense holds, LSU settles for a figgie. 7-3.

Just so you know, there are a couple of Superman shirts in the north end zone, to which Auburn is now driving.

@wesbyrum boots a field goal. He is now Auburn’s all time leading scorer. 10-7.

Or 10-3. Accurate and it sounds better. Pardon me, we’re in the section of the stadium that goes delirious for field goals.

Finally get a kickoff out of the back of the end zone … and have to re-kick. Penalties still must be a concern, this just being one more example of something that a championship caliber team needs to cure. This resulted in a net of 16-yard gain for the Bengal Tigers. They’d drive to midfield and then punt, starting that sequence of drives Auburn began at the goalline. A competent offense takes advantage of this 16 yard gift.

Nick Fairley does not like Cajun food. He does like bayou quarterbacks.

@CameronNewton would run for class president, but he is too busy running through LSU.

@supurmario27 also makes it look easy.

Auburn, from their own 1, slices through a generous LSU defense, but the field goal try is missed left.

Do not make Nick Fairley mad. He will only haunt your daydreams, too.

“Hi. There’s no one within 10 yards of me, I don’t need this football.” How many of these gifts will the Auburn team (generally) and the secondary (specifically) get this year? How deep does this karma cache go?

The Miles Quatum Singularity: four minute drives last three days, and refs stop the game clock for reasons they can’t explain.

10-10 at the half. This game should be SO much different. Corollary: it will be in the second half.

Mike Dyer is a cannonball. Darvin Adams is, in fact, smooth.

@cameronnewton is coming to Baton Rouge to walk old ladies across the street. He will score many touchdowns in the process.

@cameronnewton runs 50 yards for a score, runs upstairs to review the play and back to the field to call it a touchdown. Should have sent a poet.

Little known ref fact: side judges are Bama fans. Not a conspiracy theory, but fact. He waved and we saw the colors peep through his uniform.

Best not to talk about the fumble. The only team that can beat Auburn’s offense is Auburn’s offense.

Fear the LSU kick team. Everything else appears manageable.

Aubie had a Trojan horse contraption. Mike the Tiger tore the head off. Ahh, the pageantry of football.

Worst spot of the game. The ref’s stripes are purple and gold. This being the Kodi Burns forward progress abomination. The fair reaction: this is the an unintended consequence of better camera angles and, ultimately, the huge network deals the SEC has signed. Everyone sees the officiating. Officiating has always been hit or miss, of course, but it isn’t improving as the game gets faster. There have always been calls made and others missed. Now every play can be closely scrutinized, even as unfair as that criticism of officials may (or may not) be. The unfair reaction: is that guy from Louisiana?

The fans are wishing the officials a booooootiful Halloween.

Someone text the Auburn coaches and tell them Lee can’t throw on the run.

A hasty tilt-shift shot of the crowd at Jordan-Hare.

What is this? Every year of SEC football before Gus Malzahn showed up? #fieldpositionfootball

@cameronnewton is not an Ent, but he did inspire Tolkien.

Mike Dyer also plays rugby.

And we start the fourth quarter feeling in control, but Les Miles is eating chlorox pellets. There is no control.

Auburn has 364 total yards through three quarters. 278 of them on the ground. LSU has 192 total yards.

Les Miles strikes with his first bout of successful irrationality. Let us hope it is not diarrheal. 17-17.

Third and long? Run a draw!

This game now enters Bizzaroland, population: the SEC. Les Miles, mayor.

@wisematize, a Texas Tech man, asks “When did you re-hire Tuberville?”

@wisematize In a moment I’ll tell you we were just doing what we do. Whatever that is this week.

Nick Fairley dislikes the color yellow. He thinks you look stupid in purple, too.

TOUCHDOWN AUBURN! Onterio McCalebb! 70 yards! 24-17!

Auburn over 500 yards of offense tonight so far, the fourth SEC game in a row the Tigers have done that. Never before. Savor it, because it can’t last forever. A few more years isn’t too much to ask, is it Gus?

6:10 left on the clock. Just to counteract Les Miles Auburn needs a 6:35 drive.

This place is the thunder dome.

This is a fourth quarter defense, designed to wear you down early and tear out your heart late.

If @cameronnewton doesn’t win the Heisman the Eufaula Tribune will give him the inaugural Camsman Trophy.

Eight and OH! Auburn sits all alone atop the SEC the Tigers get ready for Ole Miss. 24-17.

On to vict’ry! I believe in Auburn (and it has nothing to do with football).

Gene Chizik just leaped the rail to get to the student body. And the Heisman chants are echoing to the Downtown Athletic Club.

It is remarkable how many people are lingering in Jordan-Hare Stadium.

This post-game video on @AUHD is great.

Like that.

iPhone / photo / weekend — Comments Off
3
Oct 10

Catching up

Elevator

The most basic of elevator controls. But, then, this elevator might be half-a-century old.

Sunset

Sunset behind me, over Montgomery, Ala.

Sunset

Sunset over western Florida.

Sign

The bathroom was less than clean.

I downloaded Diptic since it showed up in the iTunes top 50 (free, of course). You can take pictures, new or old, and throw them in one of 19 templates to get a multi-shot effect. I just pulled these pictures off my phone to see how well it worked. I suspect this could be useful, and saves you a bit on Photoshop. You can also alter the border properties with ease. It is just another app aiming to help you tell a story with pictures. Almost like they are important or something … This could be a useful app. For inspiration, check out their Flickr group.