the ginkgo blog

CameraBag - A whole bunch of cameras in your iPhone for those snaps on the go - This is a really nice little app to have with you...

I came across an application the other day that was recommended to one my contacts on Facebook. It’s called ‘CameraBag’ and is from ‘NeverCentre Ltd’. And can be found in iTunes App store. And I have to say, I simply love it...

So what is it? Well, the name is a little bit of a clue - It’s a bag of cameras.

In a nutshell, it will render your photographs taken on the iPhone into one of currently 10 distinctive styles seen from cameras over the last 40 years. It’s exceptionally quick, you can take images from within the application, and the results are pretty much, smack on.

Ever since I downloaded this application, all of my iPhone snaps have either been taken in it - or immediately opened in it and converted, while the feel of the moment was still fresh -  before saved, e-mailed or uploading.

Interested? - Read on after the jump...

Canon 50mm lenses - what are they each like and which one should you choose? Or, not choose?

 

Canon have three very capable 50mm lenses over quite a large price range. The very latest addition to this range is the 50mm f1.2L which if I am honest, is one of the most beautiful lenses I have ever used. But at around £930/$1,400 - You’d kind of hope it would be...

There are of course 3rd party 50mm lenses you can look at - which, whilst I will list them, I won’t comment on them, as I haven’t used them personally. I have generally stuck with Canon lenses throughout my career for our Canon bodies, as they have never let me down and I have always been very impressed with what you get for your money.

However, it now appears that Zeiss are getting in on the act for supplying lenses for both Canon and Nikon - So keep watching this space - As I may have to get my hands on a 50mm f1.4 Planar with EOS fit and have a damn good play with it, as I suspect it will be very, very nice if the experience with our Hasselblad lenses are anything to go by.

So - Back to the Canon range...

Click to read on after the jump...

Squeeze the LIME is up, live and starting to post... 'Huh - what you talkin'bout?'

I got strong-armed into signing up with Facebook recently - and to actually use it too. No idea why, but it keeps them happy and more importantly, quiet, so I go along with it.

Whilst looking around trying to figure out what hell all this 'stuff' was that people were doing on there - and why?! I found a group called LIME. Didn't seem to give much away, but I thought I'd join to see what it was going to turn out to be. Along with the other 460 users.

And today they very kindly send me a message letting me know that they had gone live. So I felt it would be rude not to actually find out what I had been waiting for and headed over to their site.

Read on, there's more...

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A couple of Hasselblad shots from yesterday lunch....

Nothing special, but I really quite like them so thought it would be wrong to keep them to myself, in a folder and likely never seen again.

They were done yesterday during a lunchtime smoke break. If you look further down you see some from the previous day - A far less pleasant day too ;-)

   

  

Click to get a larger image in its own window...

  

Click to get a larger image in its own window...

As always, any thoughts, feel free to share them...

Top 10 free & paid for photography applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch...

    

The following links are to an RSS feed for the top 10 free and paid for photography applications for the iPhone (both 2G and 3G) and the iPod Touch.

They will be automatically updated in real time for you so they will always show what are the current top downloaded apps. There are two sets of links - First to the UK top 10's and second to the US top 10's

UK    

Top 10 paid for photography applications for the iPhone & iPod Touch

Top 10 free photography applications for the iPhone & iPod Touch

US

Top 10 paid for photography applications for the iPhone & iPod Touch

Top 10 free photography applications for the iPhone & iPod Touch

Hopefully these will be of some use to you...

Just add them to your normal news feeder and they will keep you up to date with whatever is popular in both the free and paid for photography applications sections of iTunes.

Also... We'll be doing a series of reviews on the tools that we think are potentially excellent for use by both amateur and professional photographers alike early in the new year - so why not subscribe to be kept up to date.

Air Sharing iPhone application - It's a seriously good bit of kit!

I found the Air Sharing application for the iPhone about a month ago - which was rather lucky as it was free then. And I have to say that it has been one of the most useful applications I have used on the iPhone to date.

Given that it is currently on sale for the holiday season - I'd highly recommend taking a look at it.

So what is it? How is it any good for a photographer? Read more after the jump - Go on, click the link, you know you want to...

A few images in the mist outside the studios today with the Hasselblad 503CW...

Having spent all of the morning and most of last week sorting out paperwork. I decided to force myself outside and try to do something remotely creative this lunch-time.

So I grabbed the 'blad and popped out for 15 minutes with the aim of making the mundane interesting and the extremely dull weather work for me.

So here are a few shots I came up with. No idea if I succeeded - Hopefully you'll be so kind as to let me know.

Either way... It meant I actually got outside and away from the company book-work.

   

More images after the jump - click below to view...

Music for the shoot - Wherever you are and whatever you’re shooting... Part 1

If music be the food of love, play on...

Duke Orsino:
If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.

Twelfth Night Act 1, scene 1, 1–3

And play on indeed...  The power of music is well established and the grip that it has hold over us all is experienced frequently. Be it the memories that are evoked or the physiological effects induced, sometimes in a very extreme way as hormones are released in a sudden, unexpected burst into your circulating blood.

So why is it that most photographers, social or commercial ignore this extremely powerful tool, or even worse, misuse it and in turn have it work against them. I have seen it happen rather a lot. 

There is some serious science here. And, what’s more, it is a very quiet field in terms of further investigation. Which in itself is astounding...

When you last created a slideshow of images - whether family or for professional use - Did you add music to it? If so, why?

The most likely answer is you wanted to give the show a personality, gravitas to evoke whatever mixture of emotions you wanted to highlight in the series of images. This is nothing new and countless millions are spent every year by marketing teams to get the same effect from their images - moving or still.

So, if it is that affective when viewing images - why would we think it wouldn’t be as, if not more effective when creating them. Yes you may slap on some music and in most cases it will be a rough compilation to achieve a mood. 

But could we achieve so much more if we learned to use music in the same way that we have learnt to use light?

That is the question I am looking to answer - or at the very least, start paving the road that may eventually lead to the answer. And, who knows - a whole new edge to our work.

   

Read on and get involved - You know you want to.... Click to read on.