While on the road to the collodion workshop in Lacock, I decided to make use of my time and test the iPhone’s hipstamatic filter. And yes, it is rather fascinating. I do actually own both an Holga and a Diana but being a child of the digital age, I totally enjoy the filter’s instant results – please forget for an instant, that I am travelling to England to take an 19th century technique workshop …
To criticize the filter a bit: I found it unnecessarily difficult (if not impossible) to frame the image correctly – guesswork, experience and luck is needed – most likely the software is programmed this way on purpose. Annoying nonetheless. It is NOT a Holga after all, but a digital device. If I WANT a lucky shot, I can close my eyes.
After a couple of shots (= too few) my iPhone was sucked dry. So I switched over to the iPad to cover the actual crossing via train through the Eurotunnel. The dog was our main reason for choosing this means of transportation but it did not go half as smoothly as we had hoped for. Due to an incident earlier that day another train got stuck halfway through the tunnel, delaying everything. Nightmarish for the passengers, no doubt about this. But also for us. Instead of approx 30 min, we were in those coffin like carriages for way over two hours. Our only advantage was that we could still see the sky when we looked out of the small windows.
I will upload some images of that the next time. We just arrived at Lacock and I have not yet downloaded the files from the iPad.
I am thinking about covering the collodion workshop with digital hipstamatic. It would be so incredibly off, to actually be interesting again. Will ask if it is ok.
Not really. But looks fun, does it not?
We are having the Women’s World Cup (soccer) in Germany and part of the show is right in front of our house at the riverside. Bad for walking the dog.
The night I took the picture above, they were installing the spot lights.
So you see: most of the explanations are trivial and boring.
Best to stick with the UFOs …
Guess what?!
YES!
It toke me a long way to finally press the purchase button on the iPad. But I did it. And I do not regret it a bit, now that I finally got to this stage.
The main points for me are clearly that I can update my presentations in no time and look professional. While I was carrying paper presentations around with me, I would actually have to reprint them time after time because they would get messy in my bag and when people leafed through them. Depending on whom you want to show your work to, a coffee stain and crease might be acceptable – or not.
Secondly, I can actually fit the iPad into most of my handbags while still being able to use my 10finger system with the keyboard. It feels a bit like playing on a piccolo flute, but it works, and that is the most important. Every one who learned to type with 10 fingers knows how lost you get, when you all of the sudden have to switch to two fingers: takes me forever and I never know where the letters are. I sincerely do not manage to type with two fingers without loosing my good mood (and the train of thought).
As I am working on three books right now, I have a lot of writing to do, so always having the iPad with me is less of an issue than carrying my large screen macbook pro around or typing stuff into the tiny iPhone. And you probably know how it is with the “perfect expressions and statements”: they do not tend to come when one is sitting at a desk, ready to type, but when one is standing in the ticket line, going out to walk with the dog, having a latte in a little street corner coffeeshop or just sitting at the river or in the subway. Now I flip open the iPad, jot the thought down in no time, send myself an eMail as backup and there I am! Perfect.
Obviously the iPad has more to offer than just this. But even if I merely counted the points mentioned above, I did a good deal with it. Considering the sheer amount of presentations ahead of me, I actually saved money if I use it for more than 9 months.
Amazing thought.
