Tech Tuesday | Where you been bro?

It's been a few weeks since my last Tech Tuesday post but I am back in the hizouse!

I hate to make excuses.   I just like to make jokes to acknowledge that an excuse should be made, but my recent lack of Tech Tuesdays definitely requires some justification and I realize I can't bail myself out with even the funniest of jokes. 

Speaking of jokes, how about a science and a Halloween joke?

• A neutron walks into a bar and asks "how much for a beer?" The bartender says, "for you? no charge."
• What do you get if you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by its diameter?  Pumpkin Pi

Click here for the answer

As many of you know, I recently left my position as a research scientist at a biotechnology company to return to school for a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology.  This transition was more daunting than I had anticipated and prevented me from doing much else but focus on the transition (and shoot a bunch of awesome weddings).  And since I like to give Tech Tuesday my full attention, I felt that it was 'unfair' to post while so distracted.  I apologize for the delay - I'll try to make this one extra good by throwing in extra pics and even some embarrassing ones of me.

Before I get to the tech part of this post, here is a summary in pics of my transition:

There are a few things that I will miss about my last job...


-Yale, because it is such an amazing and intellectually stimulating environment.
-JANUS, who is JANUS you ask?  She was my secret girlfriend at work.  She was big, bold, beautiful, and had two robotic arms.  Also, she was my trusty robotic liquid handler and never let me down.  Jade, I'm sorry you had to find this out via Tech Tuesday.
-Yale carts, what a selection of delicious food for lunch!  Jade and Sophie came to visit me for 'lunch at da carts' often.  It was something that I really looked forward to and a quick lunch visit at lunchtime helped me get through many a long day.  Thanks guys!  Also, Sophie became very popular at the carts over the last 2.5 years and there were requests made for her to come visit in the future.  We will honor the requests.
-The Caseus Grilled Cheese Truck, for me...this was one of the highlights of New Haven.  New Haven apizza is great but the cheese truck = the bomb.  These guys make a mean grilled cheese and were recently featured on The Food Network.  I used their Twitter feed to track them down so if you're ever in the New Haven area, find out where they are going to be parked and have yourself a try.  They were on vacation during my last week in New Haven so unfortunately I was unable to get a parting cheese.



There are a few things (actually a thing) that I won't miss...
-The commute!  Two accidents, four tickets, two flat tires, one lovely hood dent from a falling tree limb, and 120,000 miles all over the course of four years.



Yup, that's my car impailed in a snow bank.  A garbage truck cut across two lanes to make a right without signaling, and to avoid driving into him, I swerved into a slushy parking lot, hit the brakes, and slammed into a snow bank.  I wasn't injured and there was only minor damage to my car but the only way out of the snow bank was a tow.

Here's me on the first day of school - thanks Jade for making me look like a complete dork (insert 'you don't look like a dork, you are a dork' comment here):


Check out my new backpack, it was given to me as a gift for my first day of school (Thanks Grace!):


This is my 'first day of kindergarten' smile:


And here is my new daily home for the next several years:




Now on to this week's tech - I have two things lined up - broken tech and new tech.

Broken Tech



Recently, while shooting an awesome wedding in Manhattan, I dropped my iPhone on the sidewalk, flat on the face. When I turned it over, this was the result:



Ugh, aesthetically it is a mess (although Soph thinks I have cool spider webs on my phone) but it is fully functional and I've been using it in an impaired state since.

I did some research on repair options. There are many, but only a few are highly recommended.  The cheapest option is to take it to a kiosk in a mall and have the glass replaced for about $60.  This might not be the most reliable option and any non-Apple repair will void the warranty, but it is immediate and is one of the cheaper options.  Another option is to repair it myself using a kit from Direct Fix for $99.99.  They will repair it for $119.98 but that means you're without your phone for a few days. Then, there is Tekserve in NYC.  This store is highly reputable for Apple product repair but you need to be in the vicinity for it to be worth it.  They don't explicitly state their price for iPhone 4S screen repair but I'm going to venture that it is somewhere between Direct Fix and an Apple Store.  Finally, there is the Apple Store. They do not repair phones, they only replace them. If your phone is under warranty, which mine still is, they give you a new phone for $200. If it's not under warranty, you're stuck with full retail price...yikes.

Is anyone getting the iPhone 5?   I won't be...there is not enough of an improvement to warrant an upgrade from a 4S.  Plus, I would have to get a bunch of new accessories like the olloclip because of the thinner size.  Here's a funny video that almost convinced me that I needed an iPhone 5:



New Tech

Jade and I have been eyeing a delicious upgrade from Canon - The 5D Mark III! Well, we pulled the trigger last week and have added a really nice piece of gear to our camera bag.  Here is the unveiling:






TA DA!


We love our 5D Mark II's but the 5D Mark III has some significant upgrades over the 5D Mark II.  A few standout features for us are:

• Low noise at high ISO
• Extremely high ISO (25,600 with custom expandability up to 102,4000)
• In-camera HDR (I love HDR photography and this will be a future Tech Tuesday topic)
• 61 Focus Points
• Compact Flash Card Slot + SD Card Slot for in camera back up
• Faster shutter speed at 6fps whereas 5DII can only shoot 3.9fps
• A locking exposure mode dial (without a lock, this was easy to accidentally change on the 5DII)

We've been using the 5DIII for about 2 weeks now and so far, it's been awesome!  It is a very nice camera and is really nice to shoot with.  Hopefully Jade let's me try it out one of these days ;)

Going forward, I'm going to make Tech Tuesday a monthly event. I hope you enjoyed my September post!  I have lots of ideas for Tech Tuesday so I'm looking forward to October's post!

olloclip of the month (Sophasaurus with a Stegasaurus at The Museum Of Natural History in NYC taken with the olloclip fisheye):


Instagram of the month (Rowing in Mystic, CT):

Tech Tuesday | Instagram

Hello everyone!  I'm back for my second installment of Tech Tuesday, although it is a little bit like Tech Thursday this week.  I apologize for the delay, I have a very legitimate excuse.  I developed a case of spontaneosis fingertypitis which morphed into blogposteritis.  Have no fear, I have overcome both afflictions and am ready to go.  On the agenda for today is Instagram and a few fun things to do with your Instagrams.

Instagram is a social photo sharing smartphone app that allows you to take photos, apply filters, and share in a quick and fun way.  I'd say it's roughly the equivalent of Twitter but with pictures instead of words, and since a picture is worth a thousand words and Twitter only allows about ten words (140 characters divided by about 4 letters per word = about 10 words), an Instagram is 100 times (or two orders of magnitude) more effective as a sharing/communication tool than a Tweet.  As photographers, Jade and I are biased and tend to think pictures tell a better story than words so it's safe to say we're pretty big fans of Instagram.  Jade and I set up individual Instagram accounts and share our pictures with each other only.  It's a nice privacy feature that allows us to kind of go nuts with pictures and not inundate (and bore) the world with the infinite minutia we find interesting.  We just started an Uplift Photography Instagram (@upliftphotography) so be sure to check that out and follow us!

A little background on Instagram - it launched in October of 2010 for iPhone only but in April 2012, it also became available for Android-based phones (version 2.2 aka Froyo or later).  It is hugely popular - as of May 2012, Instagram has about 50 million users.  Apparently, Instagram became so popular that it began to infringe on Facebook's photosharing turf.  So, Facebook stepped in with a billion dollar buyout offer for Instagram.  It's not too bad of a deal for a company that's less than two years old and has only as many employees as you can count on your fingers (that is, if you have 13 fingers).  The takeover has been slowed though recently due to regulatory hurdles and a review by the FTC and it's not entirely clear at this time if the acquistion will actually take place.  The good news is that Instagram will remain an independent unit within Facebook if the takeover is successful.  Normally, Facebook acquires companies for the engineering talent and reassigns them to other projects.

Anyway, besides taking and sharing fun pictures, there are lots of fun things to do with your Instagrams.  Here we go:

Printsgram

This is a great little website that Jade discovered.  It syncs with your Instagram feed and allows you to make collages of various sizes...for free.  Once you make your collage, you export it as a .pdf and then convert it to your desired file type, .jpg for example.  An important tip...it does not work in Internet Explorer but does work in Google Chrome.  Check out the Printsgram I made below - every Saturday, I take Sophie for swimming lessons.  We found this little changing nook in the locker room that has a mirror and she loves to make faces in it.  Here are a few:

Instaprint
This is an awesome Kickstarter project that has great potential.  Instaprint prints out Instagrams by watching out for any photos tagged with a specific location or hashtag. Unfortunately, they failed to achieve their funding goal and it is likely because of the prohibitively expensive pricetag at the moment - a half day rental is $5000 - which probably only makes sense for a large event like a concert.  If the pricetag came down a bit, I could see this being a great item for weddings - and the Uplift Holiday Party.

MoPho

MoPho is an app that allows you to print Instagrams directly for your phone.  It's convenient when you consider the alternative, downloading pics from your phone to a compouter then uploading them to a pic printing website.  It's relatively cheap and shipping is free with the code 'freeship'.

Statigram

Instagram cannot be viewed any where else but on a phone.  However, a few sites, like Statigram, have popped up that allow you see your photos, feed, stats, etc online.

Printstagram

Not to be confused with Printsgram, Printstagram allows you to print a 'tiny book' of Instagram photos.  This was a great recommendation from Kristen of Kristen and Mike.

 

Wall Art
Here is an idea that Jade found on Pinterest for some Instagram wall art.

Angry Julie's 'What Not To Do On Instagram' Tips 
And finally...here are some tips on how to avoid being 'that' Instagrammer.

That's all for now.  Let your inner hipster out and instagram your ass off.  Be sure to follow us so we can follow you back.

Tech Tuesday | olloclip

Hey everyone!  Tim here - if you don't already know, I'm the other half of Uplift Photography and Jade's trusty wedding photography sidekick.  You've probably seen me at weddings following Jade around, carrying an awkward amount of gear, and/or shooting in uncomfortable positions trying to get a 'different' shot than Jade...sometimes all three of these happen simultaneously and it's an interesting sight.  I introduced myself on the blog over a year ago (here).  I had grand aspirations of contributing on a regular basis but sadly, a dog ate my laptop.

Hopefully you guys will get to know me a little better through these posts but just to give you a little background, one of my roles at Uplift Photography is to run the technical side of the business.  I'm into all things gear - computers, phones, apps, and the majority of things that fall into the category of tech.  We use a ton of tech for the business as well as in our personal life so I thought it would be fun to share some of our favorite gear and provide some helpful tips/tricks.  Also, I saw how much fun Jade was having with Monday Updates and wanted to join in.  So I pitched my boss (Jade) the idea of Tech Tuesday and she said it was the best idea she's ever heard.  Well, she didn't exactly say that but she loved the idea so off we go.  So I'm back and I'm fo' real this time. You. Me. Here. Every Tuesday*. Talkin' tech.

Below is the result from above.  We recently spent a weekend in Gloucester, Mass and were treated to this incredible sunset.  My first thought, get the olloclip - perfect opportunity for a fisheye shot.

I got an iPhone 4S when it was released in October.  I had several 'smart' phones prior to the iPhone but I always had issues and was very excited to have a device that not only worked but worked really well.  The iPhone 4S did not disappoint and I loved it right off the bat.  One of the features that I really liked was the upgraded camera.  It has an 8MP rear-facing camera and is capable of rapid fire shooting.  There's no shutter delay - wow, what an improvement over any other phone or point-and-shoot I've ever had.  Anyway, this post is not about the iPhone but an awesome accesory I got for it called the olloclip.  The olloclip was a Kickstarter project that was successfully funded on June 6, 2011.  It is a clip-on lens made specifically for the iPhone 4 and 4S that has an all-in-one wide angle, macro, and fisheye lens.  The wide angle and macro are on one side (unscrew the wide angle and boom, you have a macro), flip it around to the other side for the fisheye.  It's well made and sturdy and has so far withstood the test of everyday life in my pocket.  I tend to reach for the Macro if I see an interesting insect (Doesn't everyone take photos of interesting bugs?  Jade politely said 'no' but I swear I heard her whisper 'you're weird'.) and the Fisheye if I see a great panoramic shot like sunrise or sunset, but I hardly use the Wide.  If you are interested, it is available for purchase from olloclip for ~$70 or you can walk in and pick it up at the Apple Store.  Tell them Uplift Tim sent ya.

Side note: There are other iPhone lenses/lens kits available such as the Magnetic Camera Phone Three Lens Set for ~$50, which Jade bought me for Christmas.  I tried it for a week, returned it, and went with an olloclip instead.  It was flimsy and right off the bat, I had issues with the magnet.  Another option, and at ~$200, a much more expensive option, is the iPro Lens System from Schneider Optics.  This has great reviews and is supposed to have great glass but besides being pricey, it does not have the simplicity and portability that olloclip has.

Another side note:  Since this is my 'first' post, please don't be too hard on me. I'm just getting warmed up.  *Also, I realize it's Wednesday but I had planned to get this posted on Tuesday before 12:00am PST.  I accidentally dosed off around 2:30am EST.  Note to myself...going forward, start your Tech Tuesday post before 11pm on Tuesdays. 

Enough from me for now, here's what the olloclip can do:

MACRO

On a recent trip to the Florida Keys, we stumbled across Spiny-backed Orb Weaving Spiders and an unidentified grasshopper-like insect:

FISHEYE

Here is my awesome Uncle Doc (aka The Doctor) hamming it up for the fisheye on Super Bowl Sunday.

Robert Is Here is one of our favorite places to stop when we're in the Florida Keys.  Jade, during her graduate school days, worked in The Everglades and introduced me to this great fruit stand that makes amazing smoothies.  We always stop in for a mango and strawberry smoothie!

A beautiful view of the horizon from a sunset cruise in the Florida Keys:

An afternoon storm was brewing in the Florida Keys (those little black dots are not spots of dust on the lens, they are kiteboarders):