Hiking is one of my favorite Summer pastimes!  If you’ve ever watched me play most any organized sport, you’d think me to be out of shape.  Hiking is different for me.  I’m in shape enough for some real eight hour hiking excursions and that’s in shape enough for me!

Anyway, I love hiking in the Adirondacks of Upstate New York, especially in the High Peaks region around Lake Placid.  While hiking mountains in the region, there are some beautiful summit views.  If I can capture even just a part of those scenes (it’s impossible to really capture them, you have to see it in real life), I am happy.

There are several Android apps in my current arsenal that can really be an asset in capturing the beauty of an Adirondack hike (or any hike for that matter).  Check these out and don’t be caught on a hike without them!

1. EveryTrail

EveryTrail is an awesome app that actually uses your Android’s GPS to track and record your journey.  If you take pictures along the way, and I hope you would, it places them on the map where they were taken.  When you get home you’ve got this really cool map and pics telling the whole story so you can save your memories and share them with anyone.  Check out the article I already wrote about it.

2. Photaf

If you go on a hike with some sort of summit or another type of cool 360 degree view, wouldn’t it be awesome to be able to take a panorama shot?  Photaf is an app that makes it super-duper easy to do it!  With it you can create the panorama (it steps you through taking the photos and then it stitches them for you), share the stitched panorama, and even upload it to their site for further sharing choices.

Personally, I had real issues uploading to their site (like, it never uploaded) but you can also take the JPG file and upload it to another panorama site such as ClevR.com (for ClevR, make sure you resize the JPG to at least 400 pixels).

via: AndroidTipguys

3. Pro HDR Camera

If you’re not sure what HDR is all about, you’re not alone.  I didn’t either until I read up on it.  Basically, HDR stands for high dynamic range and it’s taking several pictures at different brightnesses and putting them together to make one picture with a lot of detail.  Done right, photographs come out beautiful bringing out wonderful colors.

This Android app makes the process quite simple.  Just take the photo through the app, hold the camera very still throughout the capturing process (you’ll probably want to use a tripod for best results), and the app takes several pics and puts them together for you.  Think about the hiking photos you’ll have after using such an app!

via: AndroidTipguys

4. PhotoCloud

This app ought to sound familiar seeing as though I just mentioned it in a recent post.  Basically, as you’re taking all of these awesome hiking photos, you may want to have them automatically backed up to your Picasa or Facebook account.  This way, even if something happens to your precious Android, you’ve still got the photos when you get back to civilization.

via: me @ AndroidTipguys

There you have it!  Now go on out hiking and bring back those memories!  With your Android in hand you have no excuse!  Oh, and don’t forget to bring extra batteries, or a solar charger, just in case!

Taken with my HTC Evo and edited using the Photoshop Express Android App

Times, they are a-changin’, aren’t they? A while back I wrote an article about how I don’t need a watch anymore because my cell phone had taken that job over.  I think the same has happened in many people’s lives.  Today I can see a similar trend when it comes to picture taking.  When all you are looking for is a quick, point-and-shoot camera, people are moving towards not carrying an extra electronic device and just using their cell phone’s camera.

OK, I know there are some limitations when it comes to moving away from the point-and-shoot cameras, such as optical zooming, but the convenience of the cell phone camera wins over in many cases.  This is because of the improvements in cell phones and their picture taking features.  Here are a few reasons my phone has taken away my desire to pick up my ol’ point-and-shoot:

1. One less device – One less device means less bulk, less batteries, and one less item to worry about damaging or being stolen.  One less device also means less fumbling when a quick pic needs to be taken.
2. Easy sharing – Now with my phone I can very quickly, drop it in my Drop Box folder, post it on Facebook, Twitter, and even my WordPress site in just a few seconds.  Even with my old phone I could MMS my photos either to my email address or even my Posterous site.  All this means freedom from messing with uploading via a USB cable or switching in and out memory cards or sticks.  ”You cannot take my freedom!”
3. On-the fly editing – With many phones these days you can do some quick tweaking right from your phone.  There’s even an app that Photoshop puts out for free that makes many tweaks even easier.
4. I’m sure there are more reasons so if you can think of any more, post in the comments!

Like I said, cell phones obviously cannot take over the whole photography scene, especially when you get past the point-and-shoot category.  In fact, some day I would LOVE to get into photography as a hobby.  One problem for me is the cost of real digital SLR cameras.  I guess I wouldn’t mind learning a bit before investing all of that money.  ShopWiki has some guides worth looking at:

• Cameras and photography
• Digital cameras (in general)
• Digital SLR cameras

Another resource I have enjoyed trickling through is Digital Photography School run by Darren Rowse (who also runs ProBlogger.net).

Basically it comes down to your needs. Do you need some of the features only available on the SLRs?  Do you need only the features available on point-and-shoot cameras?  Or is the convenience of the cell phone camera good enough for you?  Oh, this sounds like another poll question doesn’t it?  How about it?

(this poll will allow multiple answers so you can explain in the comments)

In my humble opinion, some of the best photos and videos out there are those either containing time and motion or somehow using them to cause some sort of illusion. Because of that opinion, I would like to introduce you to some of these techniques and how to find examples and tutorials about them on the Internet.

In this article I will be covering speed photography, time-lapse photography, extreme slow motion videos, and stop-motion videos. Check out the links and be amazed!

Freezing Fast Motion (or high speed photography)

This type of photography consists of photos taken at the time of high speed activity. For example, have you seen those photos of fruit exploding or water balloons popping? That is speed photography. It’s done via a process using darkness, an external flash and a flash trigger, whether it’s triggered by sound, light, or actual contact with a trigger). The results of this form of art are very cool, freezing the object at the very moment of its action. Notice the photo above (by Avi Abrams) and how the photo was taken at the exact moment of impact? Very cool!

Here are some links containing examples and even some how-to tutorials showing how it’s done:

• Flickr: High Speed Photography – A great collection of high speed photographs by many different photographers
• DIY – High Speed Photography at Home (at diyphotography.net)
• Speed Photography – How to Photograph Exploding Fruit and Balloons Popping (Digital Photography School)

Time-lapse photography (or cinematography)

This technique consists of recording an event at a slower than normal rate but played back at a faster rate. The result is a video that is high speed. There are several forms this may take, like a crowd of people seeming to run very fast, fruit rotting at a rate that you can actually watch it (or flowers growing or opening), and even watching time pass quickly by recording the sky. There are even some instances where people take pictures of something once a day for a prolonged period of time and string them together to watch the changes occur right before your eyes. Also, check out this MakeUseOf article about a time lapse tool every parent should love.

Here are some YouTube videos showing time lapse techniques and also a how-to tutorial showing how it’s done.

Here’s a video showing security camera footage sped up of a man stuck in an elevator for an extended period of time:

This video shows the passage of time as years go by. The man took a picture of himself every morning and now the photos are strung together to make a time lapse video:

And the tutorial I promised: An Introduction to Time-Lapse Photography (also from DPS)

Extreme Slow Motion Video

A similar technique to time-lapse, slow motion video does the opposite. The video is recorded at a high rate but played back at a very slow rate. The result is almost like a video version of high speed photography showing many details that are normally missed at a normal rate of speed.

Here are some YouTube videos demonstrating extreme slow motion:

A lightning strike:

Water balloon to the face:

Slap in the face:

Stop-motion animation

This is a form of animation where actual objects are made to seem like they are actually moving. This is done by taking photos and moving the object between frames in a way that would make them seem to be moving on their own. There have been many cool animations made using this technique and I’d like to share a few with you.

This is actually a video tutorial showing how it is done:

Iron Man vs Bruce Lee:

Human Skateboard:

There you have it, 4 photography and video techniques which take time and motion and make something awesome out of them. What other techniques can you think of? Also, if you have anymore examples of these 4, let me know in the comments.

Hooray for MorgueFile!!!

After a bit of down time, they are finally back up running!  Check out this blog post explaining what it is that happened.  In the post, they outlined several lessons they learned from the experience and I think they are worth analyzing.  Let’s check them out:

1. Backing up is important. This is so important that I did a post on the subject awhile back outlining several options available for backing up.  The people at MorgueFile were also quick to suggest coming up with a recovery plan.  What good is a backup if you have no plan for how to retrieve the backup?
2. “Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of backup tapes.” This statement is interesting!  Basically, there are some pluses to having an off-site backup but there is also a minus: the use of bandwidth.  For MorgueFile, the amount of data they were attempting to recover remotely became a real issue.  When thinking of the type of backup you want, PLEASE consider the amount of data and bandwidth because you may end up chewing your fingernails for days or weeks waiting for the download!
3. The Internet’s community is a powerful thing. Apparently even competitors even stretched out their hands and offered assistance!  Now that’s good sportsmanship!  The principle to learn here is that people really will treat you the same way you treat them.  If you go around burning bridges, sooner or later your britches will get burned!  On the other hand, if you forge relationships that are symbiotic, you’ll be glad you did!

Good for MorgueFile, home of the greatest photography community and the greatest source of free photography on the internet (IMHO) for coming out of this with lessons learned!  Tribulation usually teaches something, if we are willing to listen!

What tribulation taught you lessons you were able to take with you?  Share in the comments!

I’m kind of interested in the capabilities of Google Picasa Web Albums‘ to track people down in photos using facial recognition.  I tried it out with some good success while tagging people in my own albums.  I also did a review and how-to for MakeUseOf.com.  Today I was thinking of another way this technology can work to my benefit.

This week I go to camp with the teen group from my church (this post was actually written before leaving but I scheduled it to post while I’m away from the internet).  One thing the camp does is have photographers taking pictures all week so we can bring a CD home to enjoy (great idea, right?).  The only thing is that is is usually tedious finding the teens from our group for the slide show to show in church.

Well, what I think I will do is fallow this procedure:

1. Re-size the photos in order that they will take up less space so uploading them will be a snap.
2. Upload them to Google Picasa Web Album (keeping them private for safety reasons)
3. Use a group photo to grab familiar faces from
4. Hopefully tag just the teens we know
5. Note the name of the file (so I can go to the high-res photos on my HD and snag them)

What do you think, will it work?  I’ll let you know once I try it!

It’s vacation time again and with Fourth of July coming up, I thought a post about vacation photography (of the tips type) would come in handy!

Today I want to share a roundup of links I found with some photography tips that can help anyone looking to take home some good photographs from their summer vacation.  Check these out and let me know if I missed some!

The first four links I found on Digital Photography School which is an awesome blog containing many many tips for photographers.  These particular posts cover subjects that may help those of us going on vacation:

1. How To Photograph Fireworks Displays
2. 8 Guidelines To Taking Panoramic Photos With Any Camera
3. Digital Photo Storage On the Road
4. Travel Photography Tips
5. Take Better Vacation Pictures
6. How To Be a Better Photographer When On Vacation

Finally, check out this YouTube video with some more tips:

There you have it, tips to help you capture those unforgettable moments of your vacation!  Have a good time!