m e g a p e r l s

Hakone, by Dirk Rösler.

Taken back in 2004…

4:40 pm, by Dirk Rösler.

Actually, this looks rubbish on screen. Oh well, just burning through the free use of the phone.

The file size of these images is about 400KB, which is 409600 bytes. As far as I know, a 128 byte packet of 3G mobile data costs 0.2 yen, so this post would cost me at least 640 yen and network data overheads in the data are not even included in this.

There must be a way to resize these, but the user interface on this phone is so sh!te, that I have not figured it out yet. I rotated an image the other day and it would not save it rotated, when you go back to the pic it is always back to what it was. One of the million quirks in this fancy-schmancy Nokia phone that I will not get for personal use.

Gold, by Dirk Rösler.

On the road, by Dirk Rösler.

After a day of use, this phone is deemed complete rubbish. Although picture taking is not completely bad.

loaner, by Dirk Rösler.

I am thinking of the Nokia 6680 as a replacement phone. Good, because I received another loaner from Vodafone to try before buy. Not sure if I like the shape, but it has some good features and I would like to try using it as a Skype cordless phone and my remote control for iTunes using Salling Clicker.

Pictures seem decent, too - yummy.

The other day I received an email by someone, who had taken one of my photos from the web site and, using special software, blew it up to print out and put it on his wall. He said he liked the picture so much.

I find that kind of cool and even though I was quite surprised to see it initially, I am totally OK with it. Would I still be OK with it if someone used my material unauthorised and commercially? I don’t know, but the fact is that if you put it out there, someone can and will come and grab it if they want to. That’s the digital age. It’s a complex discussion, but for me the benefits outweigh the risks. If I was in the business of making money out of copyrighted material (professional photographer, record company, film studio), that attitude would likely be different. Since I am not in the business of making money - oh the joy of the amateur - I am in the privileged position to explore the dynamics of the digital age. I have always said that the amateur is in a more advantageous position compared to the amateur. Ironically the non-money makers can afford to do what the money makers can’t.

Yesterday I put up a lens for sale and within an hour it was sold and paid for by an individual on the other side of the globe.

Thinking back a few years, you had to advertise in a newspaper, for money of course, had to wait for it to be published, get phone calls and all being well, meet and exchange goods versus cash. It is pretty remarkable how much this has changed. Revolutionary I suppose.

Route 6, by Dirk Rösler.

I felt like experimenting a little today, so I did a little flash project.

During a 90 minute lunchtime walk in Abiko I took about 80 photos and edited them down in about another hour. It is a little like a visual scrapbook. I tried to be as spontaneous as possible in shooting and bit rough in editing. Do some things I normally wouldn’t.

Not all pictures are a success, but I am quite pleased with some of them. And I enjoyed myself.

Sometimes and for some people. Yesterday I was asked to take some pictures at an internal event at work, which I was only too happy to comply with. I haven’t done this for several years, but it made me realise a few things.

First, while I have regretted at times the relative size of the Digital Kiss, it is a Canon EOS camera after all and behaves in operation just like my trusty EOS 5. So in terms of handling routine, it all came back to be pretty quickly and could concentrate on the job at hand, ignoring the camera.

Secondly, at occasions like these, why would anyone in their right mind prefer film for this? The instant feedback is priceless. Especially when taking photos of people talking - surprisingly difficult as they are mostly pictures frozen with funny facial expressions - you keep and eye on the LCD or go back through the last shots and see whether you nailed it or not. If you have you can move on, if not keep shooting till you have.

As a third point, a zoom lens will give you the flexibility needed to take a wide shot and from the same position zoom in and get a head shot. In situations where you cannot move around much, this is a must.

Lastly, there is cost and turnaround. This session has not cost me anything and I am able to provide results today.

What else do you need?

The moral of the story is that the tools always have to match the requirements of the task. The requirements of the professional photographer are entirely different from those of the amateur and it is thus pointless to debate what’s “better”. For my personal work, this setup would not satisfy me at all and the advantages are meaningless to me. For someone who does this for money I cannot see any reason whatsoever why you would not want to use digital. You can discuss endlessly about hidden costs or media failures, but those discussions take place on web bulletin boards, where most people are unable to deliver on an assignment even if it meant taking a picture of something in their own back yard.