I'm sure you've heard the news of the new iPhone 4. Here's a great sentimental feeling video showing off Apple's newest, most technologically advanced smartphone ever:
I've been getting more and more involved with photography over the past few years and with every photoshoot I do I gain a bit of knowledge in some area or another. My next venture is getting into a more professional level of strobe photography. Currently I have two continuous 250 watt lights that I shoot with shoot-though umbrellas, which works... but it's just not enough power to really capture someone in all their essence. I'm still looking for a somewhat cheap solution to this issue, but so far I've found that the best investment seems to be in a strobist system. This is where you actually use standard on-camera flashes and you take them off... your camera...
This allows for the same quality shot you might get with a super expensive studio setup, but for half the cost, plus it gives you the option to go somewhere and shoot someone in a location where you have no access to a wall socket. The other nice benefit of using standard on-camera flashes is that making diy light modifiers (such as softboxes or snoots) is really simple.
So, how cheap is cheap...ish you ask? You can get a Vivitar 285HV for $81 bones on Amazon, a light stand and the connections for another 65 bucks or so, plus maybe an umbrella for $12 at Adorama. So for under $200 bucks you can have yourself a pretty nice little setup. I've been looking over my options recently and I think I'm going to pick up two 285HV's and a two flash strobist kit similar to this one from Midwest Photo Exchange. These kits start at $199 and include everything you need (minus the strobes themselves) to get the most professional lighting system a starving art student can ask for.
Telling a story is always easiest and most effective when you have an image to simply show what you're talking about. pictorymag.com is a new site that exemplifies the exact point. here's what the site looks like, check it out and see for yourself how awesome it is to see incredible imagery that perfectly explains the story attached!
Google Wave is the internet-based communication of the future, no doubt about it. It's like email 2.0. Here's a video from the developers themselves introducing Google Wave. it's a great watch.
I love the ability to have images, videos, and music put right in line with my message. Also being able to have conversations with many people at the same time about the same topic such as planning a trip, then having a private message with just one person about the same topic who's already a part of the conversation; maybe asking Sally if she's okay with us inviting her ex-boyfriend... she might not want to answer that to the whole group involved in the conversation, but to just me she's more than willing to answer so we know what's the best course of action. This can all be done within the same thread. Public and private messages including pictures, video, music, slideshows, links, you name it.
What would your day look like in 140 seconds? That's the question Nikon is asking. Nikon's Film Festival is where you can see the answers other people have posted. They encourage you to use a Nikon dSLR with video to make your movie with either stop motion or in movie mode, but it's not a requirement. A day in the life of photographer Chase Jarvis for example...
Google Voice is a fantastic beta service by Google. Here's a quick video to give a brief explanation:
The first thing all my friends say is, "But I only have one phone line, so why would I want this?" I then start to list off all the other benefits of a Google Voice number, like how when you get a call you can choose to answer it, send it to voicemail, or send it to voicemail and listen in on the message. If you choose to send the call to voicemail it will then transcribe what the person says and then send it to you in an email and text message if you'd like.
The next part is what I love so much: free calls. Call your own Google Voice number from any phone you have set up on the account and you can call any number for free. So say you're at home and you want to call your sister in Seattle but it's only 3:40pm on a Tuesday afternoon so you won't get free minutes on your cell, no problem, go online to your account or call your Google Voice number, hit 2, then dial your sisters number and #. Then you will be connected for a free call.
I use Google Voicemail so when I can just give out one number to everyone: friends, colleagues, family, clients, someone who got my business card or maybe got my number from a friend. When people call I can place them into categories and down the road when I have a work phone or land line I'll never have to bother my friends with new numbers. I control who calls where and when they can reach me.
Say I go on vacation, I can set up a temporary number so all my calls go to my cell for the week. When I get back everything automatically goes back to normal. I can set up do not disturb times as well, so if I want to go to sleep and never get a call from anyone but certain emergency numbers between the hours of 11am and 8am, I just set it up!
To see a full feature list of the incredible and, as always, forward thinking Google Voice service, cheek it out at Google.com/googlevoice/about.
