Recently in art + photography Category

Photo taken at Bolsa Chica Wetlands by Ms. Jen with her Nikon D800.

Thurs 05.02.13 - While all the other photographers out and about late this afternoon at Bolsa Chica Wetlands had DSLRs with Big Big Big prime lenses mounted (400mm+), I cheekily went to photowalk around the wetlands with my Nikon D800 with the Nikon 50mm 1.4G lens. The high resolution of the D800 plus the sharpness of the 50mm allows me to crop the photo and still get a good clear picture of the egret and the sunlight through it's wings.

I am sure if I stopped traveling and started buying 400mm+ prime lenses, that I would have a clear photo of the mites on the egret's wings, but I do have my priorities. ;o)

This great (white) egret was in the most lovely direct sunlight / backlit pond and then it took off in flight, off it went, but not before I took a few photos.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia 808 PureView.

Sat 04.27.13 - There were a lot of very well taken care of vintage and antique cars at the annual Seal Beach Car Show, but this 1961 Mercury Monterey was very lovely.

The front of the hood dials with the Mercury logo were casting sunlight intrigued me. How could two fairly small metal and plastic dials stay in good shape for 52 years?

Mon 08.20.12 - Photographer and Alchemist Ian Ruhter is travelling the US taking and making big, bold wet colloidal large format photos that are gorgeous, esp. the tree photos.

A quote from the video, "Life grants us a series of opportunities, and those opportunities come with a cost."

Watch the video to be inspired to create and take chances, no matter your medium.

Photo of the bird bath, succulent flowers, and trees taken by Ms. Jen with an ADOX Golf 63 vintage film camera on the deck of Dan's cabin in Idyllwild, CA, on Sunday August 5, 2012 using Fujifilm Velvia 100 film.

Sun 07.22.12 - Testing out my new itty bitty little tripod for camera phones on the moon. I bought it to see if I could get any decent astro-photos with the Nokia 808 PureView.

I am in the last month of finishing up my apps and my blogging has fallen into a deep crevasse since April. I suck. Go look at my Flickr or Twitter for visual and textual updates. Will resume normal service once my apps are submitted.

In the meantime, a couple of thoughts from the weekend:

1) Auto-Focus Lens Calibration: Ever since I bought my Nikon D800 and a few new lenses, I have been surprised how my cheap, $120 nifty fifty Nikon 50mm 1.8D lens has repeatedly shot great, sharp photos but that my 'good', expensive lenses have been a little soft in their focus.

Last week over at The Mansurov's photography, Bob V blogged on "Nikon D800 - Cavier, Sardines, or ... Spam?", of which I am not experiencing a soft left focus on my Nikon D800 but the article did bring to my attention that one could purchase a Datacolor Spyder LensCal and calibrate one's lenses at home.

That is what I did today, as the Datacolor Spyder LensCal (link includes a how-to video) arrived on Friday afternoon. As I expected, my Nikon 50mm 1.8D lens was pretty close to spot on with only a tiny bit of Auto-Focus fine tuning needed (-2), but my other lenses needed between -4 and -12 in fine tuning their focus. I was very pleased with the sharpness of focus that my Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 lens was able to achieve after calibration, but my 50mm 1.4G and 85mm 1.8D remained a bit soft even with calibration and the 85mm has a chromatic aberration issue.

I will not bore you with the tiny details or with the photos that I took to complete the calibration, but I need to do some research to see if the 85mm 1.8D lens is known to have a color shift or does the lens need to go to Nikon servicing.

2) While I am a Sci-Fi/Fantasy book fan and have been so since my late childhood/early teens, I am not a big comic book person nor do I watch TV or Sci-Fi movies. When I first heard of ComicCon and found out that it was not for Sci-Fi book readers also but for comics and film fans, I was a bit sad but happy for my friends who do love comics and film to have their own Con to go to. Other than a few dips into Pern and Discworld Muus and Mudds in the early 90s, I have not found myself involved in any fanfiction, roleplaying, and Con worlds. I spent most of the 90s and early 2000s heavily immersed in music worlds.

Thus when I get asked every year around this time if I am going to ComicCon and I demure, I usually get nods from my friends who are vets of the Con and bewildered expressions from folks who only know about it from the evening news. The second group usually says, "But you like weird hair and dress, you are artsy, AND you are a geek, shouldn't you go?"

I will leave it for my friends for whom it is the highlight of their year.

Speak of friends, BEST. PHOTO. EVER. of Christopher Schmitt taken by Arianne from this weekend at ComicCon 2012:

Wed 05.23.12 - Ever since MWC in February, I have been waiting patiently for the supposed end of April 2012 or sometime in May 2012 release of the Nokia 808 PureView.

While we wait for firm release dates in various countries, I give you the video above on how the Nokia Imaging team conceived of the Nokia 808 PureView and a link to the whitepaper (pdf) on the technology behind the camera.

Fri 04.06.12 - My new remote control cord arrived today, so I had to go out and test it in the light of the full moon this evening from the balcony of neighbor Bruce's place.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nikon D800 and a Nikon 50mm f1.8D lens.

And why has Ms. Jen been so quiet here and relatively quiet on Twitter the last two weeks...

Pre-March 22, 2012 - Work, get lots done, be content.

[geek humor follows /]

All photos taken by Ms. Jen.

Sun 03.25.12 - Now that I am in possession of my Nokia N8, Nokia N9, and a Nokia Lumia 800, I will start a semi-regular photo comparison blog posts where I will take a photo of the same subject under the same conditions with each of the camera phones and post the photos here, with links to the original sizes over at my Flickr account for even greater comparison fun.

Today's photo subject was a macro mode photo of Ms. Belle le Cane taken in the late afternoon light of the 5pm hour with a moderately challenging mix of cloudy outdoor light and interior incandescent light. On each of the camera phones I used the settings of Macro mode, 4:3 aspect ration, and the flash turned off.

The only thing I did not 'normalize' was I kept all three at their maximum megapixels for the 4:3 ratio, thus the Nokia N9 and Lumia 800 are at 8mp and the Nokia N8 is at 12mp. But it is not the megapixels that matter here but how each camera phone dealt with the color & lighting, as well as the subject being less than 8 inches / 20 cm from the camera phone.

All three camera phones did a fine job at a close up subject and there is no distortion with Belle's nose and eyes clear in each photo. In terms of light & color, the Nokia N9 had the best response to the mixed light as photo, the Nokia N8 had the most accurate color albeit a bit dark, and the Lumia 800 had the most interesting color interpretation with a light red-ish wash over half of Belle's face when there was no red.

If you wish to inspect each photo further, go look at the original sizes:
Nokia N8 in the original 4000 x 3000 pixel size
Nokia N9 in the original 3248 x 2448 pixel size
Nokia Lumia 800 in the original 3248 x 2448 pixel size

Wherein I, @msjen, and Richard Sheridan, @sheridan01, have a good natured mobile photography showdown on the best photo app for your mobile over at Nokia Connects...

Should you or shouldn't you use a photo | editing app on your camera phone? Richard and I discuss | write about this over at The Nokia App Photo Editing Showdown at Nokia Connects.

Go read it, put in your two or ten cents in the comments.

Photo of Homai Vyarawalla from the Alkazi Collection of Photography

Homai Vyarawalla passed away in January at 98 years old, a photographer and photojournalist whose career was based out of Delhi and Bombay from the 1930s through to 1970. A woman who blazed paths both as a photographer, an artist, a photo journalist documenting India's struggle for Independence and the years following, as well as a contemporary to many of the great women of the early and mid-20th Century. A woman of vision, strong will and agency.

I first heard of Ms. Vyarawalla passing on PRI's The World yesterday while driving, and her story caused me to search for more information and images today. Several of Vyarawalla's images are recognizable to any afficionado of 20th Century history and culture.

The New York Times has an obituary and an India Ink post entitled Homai Vyarawalla, 'First Lady of the Lens' with photos.

The Hindu has a lovely personal memorial in Farewell Homai Vyarawalla.

The BBC has a great slideshow of Vyarawalla's photography.

Look, read, and celebrate a life well photographed.

Tues 12.27.11 - Photo of Scruffy McDoglet and Belle le Cane taken yesterday at Dog Beach in Huntington Beach, Calif, with Thomas Bertling's ADOX Golf 63 1950s era vintage bellows range finder medium format camera. I used Fujifilm 120 color film at 200 ISO and got the film developed and printed at Fromex in Long Beach.

I am very pleased at the results as Thomas did not think the camera worked any longer as it was given to him by an aunt who had it since the 1950s and neither of us had a manual or much of an idea how it should work. I took the ADOX to Samy's Camera in Santa Ana yesterday morning to see if the folks at the film counter would be able to help me and they did by determining that 120 film would fit in the canister.

The first few shots on the roll were taken by complete trial and error as I tried to figure out how to advance the film, as well as the settings of the f-stop and the shutter speed in conjunction with the focus ring as all three are interconnected at the end of the bellows on the lens with out much explanation and no light meter. When I got to Dog Beach, I used the Nikon D70s' light meter settings to determine that at 200 ISO, I should shoot at f22 and 1/200th shutter speed, as the light declined and the sun set, I switched it to f11 at 1/50th shutter speed.

The ADOX Golf 63 has the following available settings:
F-stops: 6.3, 8, 11, and 22
Shutter speeds: B, 1/25th, 1/50th, and 1/200th
Focal length: 1 meter to 20 meters and an infinity setting
There is no ability to set ISO.

I am very pleased on how well the photos turned out since I was guest-imating on focus, f-stop, and shutter speed. Why was I guessing on focus? The ADOX is a range finder camera and I don't have a siting attachment for it, so I was looking through the little eye hole that does not change in focus at all as you turn the focal ring.

The first roll from the ADOX Golf 63 is here at Flickr so you can see all 12 photos. I just scanned them and did not do any photo editing. The color is pretty accurate to the printed photos, and any grain is from the photo paper and spots on my scanner, as the actual printed photos are wonderfully clear. The vignetting is a result of the square medium format film and the size of the lens/bellows set up.

All in all the whole experiment is/was so successful that I am taking the ADOX on vacation with me, so expect more photos, printed and scanned.

Wed 12.21.11 - Thomas Shahan, a photographer and printmaker from Oklahoma, has an amazing photography high magnification photography practice with garage sale DIY camera set up and his work has been published in National Geographic.

From today's Flickr blog:

Thomas knowledge about his photographic subjects is paired with gear that helps him achieve the stunning results you see throughout this article: "I'm currently using a Pentax K-x body, a set of extension tubes, and either a vintage 50mm f/1.7, or 28mm prime lens reversed to the end of the tubes. For lighting, I have an old Vivitar Thyristor flash mounted to a flash bracket diffused with a homemade softbox constructed from cardboard, tinfoil, and paper towel. In the past, I've used a Pentax K200D body, and before that - a Pentax *ist DL. I've stood by Pentax as their bodies work with just about any lens they've produced, even back through the film era - meaning as a frugal guy, I could easily attain high quality glass for cheap."

Given that Thomas works a lot with reversed lenses, I was curious if he uses a special filter or other means to protect them. But this isn't a big concern of him: "I'm not the guy to ask about protecting lenses - I'm using 20 dollar lenses that are significantly scratched after years of tumbling around in my backpack without proper caps. I usually keep spare lenses in socks. My 28mm, a garage-sale find, is almost solely mounted backwards and never used as it was intended. I admittedly take very poor care of my equipment."

Asked if he uses any equipment that he would call "out of the norm", "DIY", or "repurposed", Thomas explains that "Reverse-lens macrophotography is a pretty odd way to go - but offers a lot of magnification for cheap."

I love it when I see folks working with whatever photo tool that they have at hand and then pushing the medium to make great photos. Bravo, Mr. Shahan!

Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, get your writing fingers and keyboards ready to roar, it that time again... National Blog Posting Month. Wahooo!

For NaBloPoMo 2011, I will be doing my usual mixture of text and photo blog posts with the goal of creating at least one per day if not a combo of both.

Will you be joining in on the NaBloPoMo November blogging?

Explanation here.

Flickr photoset here of images taken by the Space Traveling Nikon D300s.

The Launch video:

Cygnus Launch from Erich Leeth on Vimeo.

Traveling to Space is just not for governments any more...

Fri 10.07.11 - Erika and I went to the Getty Center to see the Pacific Standard Time exhibit and we walked out to the Gardens to see the sculpture. I video'd George Rickey's "Three Squares Gyratory" as it looks unwieldy but the squares moved surprisingly well in little wind. It was lovely and peaceful.

Video taken by Jenifer Hanen with her Nokia N8.

Photos taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N8.

Fri 10.07.11 - This afternoon, Erika and I went to the Getty Center to see the Crosscurrents Paintings in the Pacific Standard Time exhibit and we walked out to the Getty's gardens to see the sculpture that was also a part of the PST exhibition and to wander around the maze area.

The afternoon was the perfect Los Angeles weather right after a rain storm has pulled out and the air is sparkly, the surfaces clean, and the view spectacular. The best time to go to the Getty.

I recommend if you live in SoCal or are visiting any time in the next six months to get out to one or more of the various Pacific Standard Time art exhibitions that are in museums and galleries in LA, Orange County, Palm Springs, San Diego, and Santa Barbara. The scope of modern and contemporary (1945 -1990) that was made in Southern California in so many different spaces is monumental.

Two weeks ago, Erika and I went to see the Sam Maloof PST show at the Huntington, the Crosscurrents Painting exhibition at the Getty today, and sometime within the next few weeks I will be going to MOCA to see "Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974 - 1981" as Kim Vollstedt has recommended it. Anyone want to join me?

Thur 09.29.11 - The long awaited Nokia N9 with much talked about Swipe UI and the Meego/Harmattan OS has now started to ship or will be in a store near you within the next two weeks. Well, in a shop near you if you live in Sweden, Finland, Pakistan, Kazakistan, or China, but if you live in the US, UK, Germany or many other places you are f*ck3d unto the very Ballmer. Yep, only MacroSquish for you if you live in Western Europe or the Western Hemisphere.

Order the Nokia N9 online, even if your local shop doesn't carry it, it is worth it. The Swipe UI is beautiful and very usable, the hardware delish, and Maemo's Harmattan with a touch of Meego goodness hiding behind all the UI swipe is a geek's delight. I have had the Nokia N950 developer phone for two weeks now and it causes mobile envy even in the most dedicated iAddict. If the Nokia N950 turns heads...

Hello lovely little Nokia N9, welcome. Go forth and prosper.

Fri 09.23.11 - Photo of a magnolia blossom by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N8 at the Huntington Library and Gardens.

Thurs 09.08.11 - The contrasts in saturated color caused me to stop, pull out the camera phone, and shoot the dusk framed by Target red. Photo by Ms. Jen with her Nokia n8.

Thurs 07.14.11 - Close-up photos of a cactus flower and Scruffy taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N8 in macro mode.

Sat 07.02.11 - This Wednesday, I installed the Meego 1.2 'MidSummer' Community release on to my Nokia N900's microSD memory card. My first act after booting up to the Meego side of the dual boot was to take photos to see how the N900's camera ran on Meego. The outdoor photos of neighbors Ryan and Tammy results were amusing as the light sensor didn't know what to do with strong sun v. shade, but the indoor photo of Belle turned out as nice as any photo taken on the Maemo 5 side of the Nokia N900.

The problem I encounted the last couple of days since Wednesday, is that due to the fact that Meego 1.2 wrote the photo files to the microSD MMC card that the OS itself is living on and I was unable to get the photos off as bluetooth on the Meego partition was not interested in talking to my MacBook and USB cable only saw the N900's Maemo 5 side of the partition, I couldn't get the photos off to show y'all.

At the urging of Jukka Eklund (@jukkaeklund) and Randall Arnold (@texrat) on Twitter, I posted a what is best practices question on the Meego Forum. The nice folks at the Meego forum suggested SCP to transfer my trapped photos to a server, this morning I ended up using SFTP on the N900 Meego's Terminal app to transfer the photos to my server and now to the world, or this blog post as the case may be.

Once I solve my Qt/deb/Meego issues that I talked about in my forum question, I will *hopefully* have a branched version of d-pointer's Quickflickr that will work on the N900's Meego side so I can send my photos directly to Flickr.

But not today, as I am helping my Mom move into her new summer beach apartment this afternoon.

In February 2008, I went to India for the Nokia Urbanista Diaries photo mobile blogging trip. It was great.

My second day in India, I met up with a bunch of Chennai area photographers to participate in the 4th Chennai Photowalk.

As I walked up to the arranged meeting area on Anna Salai, I did not see anyone else with a camera and began to panic a bit about getting the directions wrong in my jetlagged haze when I saw a tall guy wearing cargo shorts and a Quicksilver t-shirt with a big DSLR camera. I walked up to him and asked if he was going to the photowalk, he said yes and that he didn't know where folks were. We introduced ourselves and then he then called and found out the meeting place was around the corner.

Abhi and I have been friends ever since and every time I have come to London in last three years Abhi and I meet up for a meal and sometimes a photowalk. Tomorrow morning I am flying from London, where I am now on a layover, to Chennai to go to his wedding.

Big Congrats in advance to Abhi and Sudha on their wedding this week!

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N8.

Photos taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N8.

One of the things that I most admire about photography and the internet is that anyone can get involved with both.

Within 15 years of the invention of photography, cameras, darkrooms and nascent photographers had bloomed everywhere even in small towns in the 1850s. One of the very first places that a woman could own her own business legitimately in the Victorian era was a photography studio, and women did. For the last 150+ years, photography has grown beyond a specialty into a life, creative outlet, as well as snapshot hobby for billions of people worldwide.

The internet has been much the same in the last 18 years, the barrier to creative entry has been relatively low: access to a machine that can access the internet. Many millions -> billions have taught themselves the rudimentary coding skills necessary to maintain a website or blog online and are expressing themselves thereof.

One of the things that I have loved most about Nokia as a company and as a mobile culture is that they have brought mobile camera phones to millions -> billions worldwide, and regardless of my own personal feelings of the recent (mis)alliance between Steve + Stephen, Nokia has pioneered the mobile camera phone space and will most likely be on the forefront for a least a couple more years.

Beyond the great hardware that Nokia has created for camera phones in the last six years, I have been very excited about the development of Qt and the open source development platforms that Nokia has been rolling out since 2008. My greatest hope is that they will continue pursuing this space and my greatest fear, due to Mr. Ballmer's hate on for all things open, is that they will not.

As humans we are at our best when we are creative and when we share with love. We teach our toddlers and kindergartners to share. Creativity is best served openly, with the transmission of knowledge, mentoring, passion, and the art product freely without restrictions.

If you want to give your art and knowledge away, good. If you want to charge for it, good. If you want to share your source code so others can learn how to code as well, even better. If you want to copyright your material, good. If you want to copyleft it, good. Just create and encourage those around you to do so, be it art, music, photography, code, software, cooking, sewing, knitting, hair coloring, web site creation, writing, blogging, bulding, making, creating, etc. etc. etc.

Regardless, create and share creation.

To that end, my goal for the next six months is to finish my Qt mobile app for photographers, to blog here more often, to photowalk more often, and to get involved in an open source community where I can share my passion and learn from others.

And if at all possible, with all the other travel planned for this spring, I will try to get to EuroPython as I do love the Python community and after all that has gone on the last few bits, I think it is time I participate more fully in the community around my favorite programming language.

What about you?

From yesterday's Sunday LA Times Art & Books section, David Hockney's friends in art: the iPad and iPhone:

"What fascinates me is not just technology but the technology of picture-making," says Hockney. "I spend more time painting, of course, but I treat the iPad as a serious tool. The iPad is influencing the paintings now with its boldness and speed."

One discovery feeds the next. From photography he moved onto photo collages and experiments with office copy machines -- cameras of another kind. His fax art allowed him to send exhibition artworks over telephone lines much as he recently e-mailed an exhibition worth of iPhone and iPad drawings to an art gallery at Paris' Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent (where "David Hockney: Fleurs Fraîches" is on view until Jan. 30.) "Who would have thought the telephone could bring back drawing?" Hockney asks in the Paris show's catalog.

Hockney's iPhone art began in 2008. A rotating group of about 30 friends, curators, dealers and writers regularly receive his e-mailed artworks, and the artist even urged his friends first to get iPhones, then iPads to archive the continuing e-mails. According to Gonçalves de Lima, Hockney has already sent out nearly 400 e-mail drawings on his iPhone and 300 more on his iPad.

"I had to get an iPad so I could receive the drawings on the same platform he used to make them," observes Stephanie Barron, senior curator of modern art at Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Barron, who has already curated three major Hockney shows for the museum, printed out about 20 iPad drawings for her office walls and often uses them as screensavers.

One wonders what would have happened if Ray Johnson had an iPad in the 1960s Mail Art scene, or maybe that is what Hockney and others are creating now.

Mon 01.03.11 - This afternoon I helped my sister and mom pick up Allison's new used Prius at the Penske Toyota dealership in Santa Margarita, as we drove to south east Orange County the rain clouds opened up and blue sky peeped through an avocado grove. It was beautiful.

By the time I got home, it was time for Scruffy's evening walk and off we went. Only two and half hours from the time I took the first photo in the Orange County hills, it was cloudy and ominous in north west oceanic OC. As we set out for our walk, the sun will finished setting and the last refracting blue light of dusk was shooting through the clouds at odd angles on top of the yellow cast street light bouncing off the houses.

Photos taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N8, no post-processing other than resizing done to either image.

Well, this was silly of me. Really silly of me to promise you all that I would go through each year of mobile photo blogging and then highlight the best of each year.

Yesterday, Friday, I went through each post from 2005 and picked out about 12-14 photos that were my favorite. This took over 2 hours. By the time I was done selecting, I didn't have time to make thumbnails and then write the post. Today, I also blanched about taking another couple hours to finish up 2005 and then do 2006, amongst all the other work and personal related things I had to do today.

Sorry to tease y'all with my over-ambition but this week is very busy and I don't think I will get to daily photo essay of each year.

Here is the list of URLs that I selected yesterday, feel free to go view them.

01.17.05 - http://www.blackphoebe.com/msjen/2005/01/looking-up.html
02.02.05 - http://www.blackphoebe.com/msjen/2005/02/nancy-laughing.html
03.12.05 - http://www.blackphoebe.com/msjen/2005/03/sxsw-day-2-lunc.html
04.09.05 - http://www.blackphoebe.com/msjen/2005/04/at-the-poppy-re.html
06.04.05 - http://www.blackphoebe.com/msjen/2005/06/sat-geek-party.html
06.13.05 - http://www.blackphoebe.com/msjen/2005/06/in-perfect-repo.html
07.01.05 - http://www.blackphoebe.com/msjen/2005/07/at-the-warped-t.html
07.10.05 - http://www.blackphoebe.com/msjen/2005/07/note-to-goat.html
09.10.05 - http://www.blackphoebe.com/msjen/2005/09/frankie.html
10.31.05 - http://www.blackphoebe.com/msjen/2005/10/happy-halloween.html
11.07.05 - http://www.blackphoebe.com/msjen/2005/11/image-46jpg-12.html
11.22.05 - http://www.blackphoebe.com/msjen/2005/11/image-48jpg-11.html
12.03.05 - http://www.blackphoebe.com/msjen/2005/12/image-49jpg-17.html
12.06.05 - http://www.blackphoebe.com/msjen/2005/12/image-49jpg-15.html
12.09.05 - http://www.blackphoebe.com/msjen/2005/12/image-50jpg-3.html
12.19.10 - http://www.blackphoebe.com/msjen/2005/12/scruffy-belle-t.html

All the photos above where taken, to the best of my knowledge, with my Nokia 7610.

The really interesting part about taking the time to go over all of my blog posts from 2005 was how hopeful I was that year. I would like to be that hopeful again.

My two favorite Nokia 7610 camera phone photos from 2004, click on them to go to the original post.

Thurs 12.09.10 - Today is the 6th anniversary of my having a camera phone in my hands and using the phone's camera and internet connectivity to send photos to this blog & Flickr as well as using Nokia's Lifeblog (r.i.p.) to mobile blog photos and text to this blog and others.

This six years has been the most consistently creative six years of my life, as taking photos daily with an internet connected camera that is always on you has honed my eye, sharpened my senses, made me *really* look & observe even in the most mundane moments, and has inspired many other areas of my life both my creative and other parts of my life.

Since SXSW 2003 when I heard Adam Greenfield & Joi Ito talk about how camera phone photography and mobile blogging was taking off in Japan, I yearned for my own camera phone. In July of 2004, Erika and I went to the "Sent" exhibition at The Standard that Xeni Jardin & SixSpace Gallery curated. My desire for a camera phone increased, as I hated that my computer's hard drive had become a cemetery for photos never posted to the web, I just wanted to shoot and send.

On Dec. 9th, 2004, when I picked up the Nokia 7610 and drove to AT&T to re-up my contract with a fancy new, shiny unlimited data plan and then started taking photos and moblogging them, a whole new world opened up to me. A world of mobile photography, mobile creativity, and community that I am very glad to have participated in the last six years.

I would like to thank (then) Nokia's Charlie Schick and (then) Creative Intelligence's Kristen Bennett for taking a chance on me for the Lifeblog Wasabi four month project from Dec 2004 to March 2005. I am grateful that Nokia has continued a six year run of excellence in producing the best camera phones, here is to another six!

To celebrate my 6th Anniversary of camera phone photography & blogging, aka Moblogging, I will be posting my fave photos from each of the six years over the next week, starting with my two favorites from 2004 above.

Celebrate along with me: take a photo or two or three or more with your camera phone and post them to your blog. To life & creativity!

Photos taken by Ms. Jen at Alex's Bar on Fri 11.12.10 with her Nokia N8.

Sat 11.13.10 - Last night I helped out Alex and worked the front door at the bar for the Ill Repute / Fang show that Ron Martinez put on. I used the opportunity of my favorite low light photography challenge to see how the Nokia N8 does at taking photos inside of Alex's, as the walls are all painted a deep red and suck the light out of photos making most photography dashedly difficult even with a flash.

With both the flash turned off and the flash turned on the Nokia N8 did a great job at capturing the scene and not either whiting out with the flash or being completely dark without the flash. Due to being at the door all night, I was not able to see how it performed in taking photos of the bands on stage.

Next time.

Mon 11.01.10 - Actually, what I really love about the Nokia N8 - the amazing low light photos!

View of Catalina Island, the Seal Beach pier parking lot, a container ship, and Palos Verdes taken this evening sometime after 6pm with my Nokia N8. The sunset and dusk was lovely tonight and the air was crystal clear.

The Nokia N8:

The Nokia N86:

Sun 10.10.10 - All week I have been shooting digital photo stills and video comparisons with the 12 megapixel Nokia N8 and the 8 megapixel Nokia N86, of which this post is Part I of III. I will let you all be the judge here, of video quality - not my poor video'ing skills. I made an effort to not change my location but just do a 360 turn with each camera phone.

While I am not the biggest video fan, as I much prefer digital still photography, it is the 12 mp HD 720p video recording capacity on the Nokia N8 that has folks in a hot sweaty internet bother.

The above videos were shot today at Dog Beach in Huntington Beach sometime in the 4-5pm hour. The text introductions were added by me using the on-board native Nokia video editing bit, no extra editing was done, and then uploaded to Flickr.

Photos taken by Ms. Jen with Thomas's Nikon D300.

Sun 09.05.10 - Today I drove down to San Diego to meet up with Erika, who is currently in San Diego for a month. She is staying in a back house of a very cute 1920's spanish bungalow in the North Park section of San Diego.

We walked over to Ranchos Cocina for a lovely, albeit a bit late lunch. The food was very fresh and tasty. I had an excellent shrimp chile relleno and Erika had the asada tacos.

Around 4pm, we meandered over to the Golden Hill section of San Diego to visit with Peter Schrock, a good friend from college and beyond, who showed us his photos from a recent trip to Dhaka, Bangladesh. Peter is one of my favorite street photograthers and his Dhaka photos are wonderful.

The best part of the afternoon, after lunch with Erika, was having geeky photo talk with Peter and Thomas. Getting to hang out with Erika, Peter, and Thomas all together was well worth the drive to San Diego.

And getting to shoot photos with Thomas' Nikon D300, above, and Peter's Canon 5d was also very delightful. More on this tomorrow.

Recently I found myself thinking about camera phone apps, more specifically about Hipstamatic and do folks really use it past the week they bought it out of the App Store?

Amongst the photographers and designers I know and follow on Flickr, I will occasionally see a photo that looks like it was Hipstamatic-d but not often, which makes me to wonder if it is due to the fact that Hipstamatic does not make a back up of the original photo before it is processed or if folks just aren't interested in Lomo like mobile camera phone photos.

My curiosity continued to wander and I started to wonder really how many camera phone apps people were using past the first week of buying them. Furthermore, what iPhone and Android camera phone apps were people buying and using with any regularity. Do folks like the 'toy camera' apps or were they using camera apps with other functionality?

The Camera phone app world has quite exploded on the iPhone and Android is catching up, but when I searched the Ovi Store there were very few camera phone apps for Symbian devices and those that were there were more geared to an East Asian J-Pop photo booth cute overload on neon aesthetic than the Graham Parson-esque Silver Like circa 1972 via a yellow daisy filled green meadow in misty sunlight aesthetic of Hipstamatic.

There was one Symbian app, Joyeye, that promised Lomo style photos, but it did not work on my Nokia N86 and I did not try to download a version for the N97. It may be that it is only for touchscreen Symbian devices or it may be that the Ovi Store seems dead set on thinking my N86 is an N97.

Two weeks ago to satisfy my curiosity, I conducted a very small survey on Twitter by asking:

msjen: iPhone folk, what is your favorite camera or photo app & why?

Happy Day. I received an email today saying that Sports Tracker is back and ready to be downloaded.

Sports Tracker has been on hiatus the last year or so, after it was spun off as a beta software product at Nokia to become its own company. The nice folk behind Sports Tracker have updated the website, ported over all of the data from folks' accounts at Nokia's Sports Tracker server, and have created mobile apps for all the current Nokia phones with GPS on board.

I am quite excited as I have missed Sports Tracker on my Nokia N86. I have missed mapping my route as Scruffy and I walk each day and I take photos. It is good fun to have a record both in terms of a map and a data record of how fast or slow one walked, the altitude and other fun geo-athletic details.

Sports Tracker ported about 95% of my 'routes' to the new server, only leaving out all routes before the Chennai photowalk, of which those previous routes were when Sports Tracker was in beta and I was testing SP before departing for the Urbanista Trip to India.

My only two minor objections to the new Sports Tracker is that the new website is in Flash and the mobile app I downloaded from the Ovi Store for my Nokia N86 doesn't have an obvious way for me to log into the new Sports Tracker website to pair my routes with the site. Hopefully, the mobile app will ask me to pair the mobile to the server when I start my first 'workout'.

I look forward to seeing what the Sports Tracker team will do and am excited that I can now pair my photos with a mapped route of my photo walks again. Thanks, Sports Tracker!

Photo by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N900.

Thurs 08.05.10 - Belle, after being quite lovely and quiet this week, decided to step up & out in noise and activity level this afternoon and evening. I used the Nokia N900 to take this photo, as I like the grain when the light is a bit low.

Today on Twitter in the name of research for tomorrow's blog post, I asked iPhone and Android owners what their favorite camera or photo apps are? Now I will ask you all...

Do you have a favorite camera or photo app for your iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Nokia or other camera phone? If so, please tell me what it is and why you like it in the comments.

If you don't have any special apps but like the native camera & photo apps that come with the camera, say so.

Yes, I know that my Facebook Connect is not working for comments, I am sorry but I have been unable to troubleshoot why. Will work on it later in the week.

Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nikon D70s

Sat 07.24.10 - At Traci's sister Kristin's baby shower. More photos when I am less tired.

To follow up on last week's post, 2,045 Days with a Camera Phone, I would like to write a bit more on why I have loved camera phone photography and mobile blogging so much in the last 5.5 years and that can be summed up in one word: constraints.

The old adage in design, photography, and many other arts is that it is not unlimited creative freedom that sparks the best in a designer or artist, but it is limits and constraints that the artist or designer has to push at, be challenged by, and get around that create great art and design or at least cause the artist in question to grow in their craft.

It has been very easy the last 8-10 years to hone one's craft with a DSLR camera almost to the point where too many photographers get obsessed with megapixels, lenses, and processing in Photoshop than the actual act of taking the photo becomes secondary or farther down the line.

By choosing to shoot more than 90% of my photos of the last half decade with a small camera phone and then choosing to send them directly from the phone to the internet with no stops at Photoshop, means that I purposefully chose to constrain myself to a small camera that in many cases had less megapixels and less of a lens & digital sensor system than the contemporary point & shoots, not even considering what the comparable time period of DSLRs could do.

But the magic of setting the self-imposed discipline of the constraints of a camera phone plus no or very little post-phone processing seriously, meant that I had to really hone my eye, my composition, my observation of the scene, and then just shoot and shoot and shoot. I have shot a lot of bad photos in the last 5+ years, but I have also shot a lot of good to wonderful photos with my camera phones.

And it is the discipline of the constraints of a camera phone that make the great photos all the more sweeter than when I shoot a good photo with a Nikon film SLR or DSLR.

All of that being said, I have some to quite a bit of trepidation about the next generation of camera phones, particularly the Nokia N8, as it really is better than the point & shoots out on the market right now. The photos from its big 12 megapixel digital sensor & Zeiss lens are extraordinarily good.

After 5.5 years of pushing, working around, thinking, changing the angle, doing whatever I could to capture the vision in my head with a camera phone, to have a camera phone that will be not just good enough, but great... ...that is why I said in the last article that I started to think seriously about film rangefinders or purchasing a high end Nikon. My thoughts were - if the Nokia N8 is so spectacular then I won't have much in the way of constraints, then whole rubric for why I have shot with camera phones since 2004 will be over.

Yes, as I said in 2,045 Days with a Camera Phone, the Nokia N8 is the arrival of the maturity of camera phones as a photographing instrument and the pioneering era is mostly over, particularly if one was shooting with camera phones from the perspective of constraints or enjoying the toy quality of some camera phone's imagery.

But I am not going to run away. Why? Because I trust Damian. I trust Mr. Dinning's vision that he has had the last 6 years to push the technology of camera phones to meet that of the highest quality levels. He and I had several interesting conversations over meals at the big adventure in May that gave me an insight to his desire to make the Nokia Nseries line of cameras cross from good to great. Damian and his team have not failed me in the Nokia N86 or any other Nseries camera phones that I have taken photos with since 2004.

So, I will let go of my imposed constraints and walk into a new era and see how good camera phones can really get for the photographer who wants a camera on one at all times, with the N8 I will just have to find a few new challenges to set for myself.

Here's to the future.

On Dec. 9, 2004, I drove to Beverly Hills to pick up my first camera phone, a Nokia 7610 with a 1 megapixel camera. I was ecstatic.

In 2003, I first heard of mobile phone / camera phone photography and mobile blogging from Adam Greenfield & Mie Kennedy's blogs, as well as Joi Ito mentioning it at SXSW. I really really really wanted to start taking photos with my phone and upload the photos directly from my phone to the internet.

The last 2,045 days of mobile phone photography have been wonderful. I don't use the word wonderful lightly here. By wonderful, I mean a whole new world of wonder. A world of exploration, of pushing the boundaries of and of purposefully constricting the boundaries of photography.

In 2003-2004, most of my photographer friends were moving from their film SLRs to DSLRs and thought I was crazy for showing up at concerts and shows with a crazy little camera phone rather than my Nikon or my Sony Mavica digital camera. But as they watched me upload the photos directly from the phone to Flickr or Barflies.net or to this blog while I was still at the show, then their sense of wonder was activated.

In the nearly six years of taking photos and mobile blogging with a Nokia camera phone much has changed. In 2004, my Nokia 7610 was only 1 megapixel, but it was connected to the internet. I had a browser, email, and most importantly, I had Lifeblog - all the better to mobile blog with.

Today, I have a Nokia N86 8 megapixel camera phone which takes fantastic photos. It has a browser, email, GPS, and many more features, but unfortunately no Lifeblog so mobile blogging is more than a wee bit more difficult than it was 2004-2008. But I love the photos that the N86 takes, so I won't complain about the lack of direct phone to blog with no stops at 3rd party server mobile apps.

Having a camera on my phone in my hand, in my pocket, or in my purse has opened up many creative doors and worlds in my life the last 6 years - I wrote my masters degree thesis on how creative people use their mobile phones, I did a whole mobile geo-photo master's project by photo & video'ing while traveling around Ireland with a Nokia N80 and my brother's Garmin GPS (sorry, no GPS in phones in 2006). I have gotten to travel to India, Austria, Helsinki, and San Francisco as well as many other places in the name of mobile phone photography.

Lately, as I think about the upcoming Nokia N8, a 12 megapixel, HD video monster of a camera phone, I have been reflecting about how the camera phone has arrived. With the Nokia 5, 8 & 12 megapixel camera phones, the Samsungs & Sonys, and the just released iPhone 4, camera phones are now good enough that one does not need to carry a separate point & shoot and in many cases they can be better in crowds or public places than a bulky DSLR. And the camera phone in hand is always better than the DSLR that you left locked up at home or in the car.

The last few months, part of me has wondered if it is time to creatively move on, to purchase a high end Nikon DSLR, like the D700, with a few prime lenses or start exploring medium & large format film photography with a used Mamiya or pick up a rangefinder camera and explore that world.

As I researched other photography avenues, I kept asking myself if it is time to say goodbye to the now past frontiers of the camera phone photography world and move on? Is it time to say goodbye to the frustrations of sub-standard mobile blogging software and the further frustrations of trying to convince various industry folks that good software matters? Is it time to move away entirely and take back up with my paint brush, of which no software is necessary?

Then I met a Nokia N8 in the wild. What a beauty. I can't say more due to an NDA and complete respect for the owner of said device... but... Oh my, what a camera. Color, clarity, oh my.

Rather than get sappy at this point or descend into a drooling heap of gadget lust, I will refer y'all to the man behind the N8's camera, the man with 215 more days in camera phone world than I and more days in the Nikon world - Mr. Damian Dinning - who has penned a very thoughtful and thorough series of articles on camera phones, photography and the upcoming Nokia N8 for the Nokia Conversations blog:

Nokia N8 Camera - 2,260 days in the making Part 1/2

Nokia N8 Camera - 2,260 days in the making Part 2/2

Nokia N8 photography - all the FAQs

And yes, come release date in a couple of months, I will be purchasing a Nokia N8 and then tracking down a QT developer to help me flesh out the code of my mobile app idea. Here's to 2,045 more days of camera phone photography. ;o)

Follow up Post: Camera Phone Photography: Celebrating Constraints

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N86. Click for original sized image.

Wed 07.14.10 - This morning, as I woke up, I noticed a scarab beetle making out with my carpet, right on the edge of the area that I steam cleaned yesterday. The beetle was about 2cm (nearly 1 inch long) and when it had its head in the carpet, its butt was in the air. Very silly little creature.

Me being me, meant that I had to get up, walk past the beetle without disturbing it, grab my Nokia N86 8MP camera phone to take a photo or two. I put the camera settings on "Close Up" and zoomed in a bit to take two photos of which the one above was the one with the most clarity - click on the photo to see the original large size for details.

Oh what clarity the N86 captured! The hairs on the head of a 2cm beetle.

Of course the beetle got camera shy and lowered its butt by the time I got the camera to it, but the Nokia out performed my wishes. Not even my borrowed Nikon D70s could have taken the above photo.

Bravo!

Watch the video.
Read the Story: Young Americans Embrace Rigors of the Bolshoi
Look at the slideshow.
Be encouraged.
Be challenged.

Photos taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N86.

Thurs 05.20.10 - Erika and Thomas just got back from three weeks in New Zealand, so Erika and I decided to meet up today to go for a long walk. When I arrived at her house, I suggested that since it was late May and the weather had started to warm up, that we should go to the Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino to see if the Rose Garden was in full bloom.

Oh was it ever in full bloom! We came the very right week to see every rose bush in full, over the top, bloom. It was amazing. The afternoon was warm at 84F/29F, clear, and sunny. We walked purposefully around the Rose Garden, all the while sniffing the roses and taking photos.

Luckily, the Huntington was not very crowded. My suggestion is if you live in the LA area, go the Huntington in the next 3-4 days to see the roses at their first bloom peak. It is truly amazing.

And the lotus flowers in the Japanese, Chinese and North Lawn ponds/fountains are also in bloom.

Do go. It is lovely.

Sat. 05.15.10 - The Just for Fun camera phone / DSLR comparison is back. Given that the Camera Phone Fairy showed up this week with a Nokia N900 under my pillow, I decided today to shoot a local gerba daily with a water droplet in the sun, as well as Scruffy and Magnus playing with the Nokia N97, Nokia N86, Nokia N900, and Nikon D70s with a 50mm f1.8 lens.

Remember all the above photo comparisons are for fun on a lovely Saturday afternoon, and if you came over from a serious DSLR forum, please read the title, enjoy the images, and then when you go to rant about this back at the forum, the photographer & site owner here at Black Phoebe is a woman not a guy. A cheeky one at that. Just sayin'...

;o)

Until yesterday the only thing that has been intriguing to me about the iPad is the ability to create drawings and digital paintings mostly due to James's posts on iPad Creative, so screen size would be paramount.

After watching Valdis Krebs and Shawn Joyner use their iPads this week at the Nokia workshop event, I must say that I am not that intrigued.

For some reason, it must have been the angles of Apple's adverts, I thought that the actual screen size would be larger more like a sheet of 8.5x11 / A4 paper and not the size of a medium-ish moleskine or my current small-ish Wacom tablet. Why pay $499 for an animated version of my 7 year old Wacom tablet?

I would be much more intrigued by a mobile device the size of a Nokia N97/N900 or an iPhone that had a 8.5x11/A4 sized screen that folded out, so that it could both fit in one's pocket and also fold out to a full paper sheet size for drawing, writing, multiple apps open at once, plus a larger viewing area.

Photos taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N86.

Fri 04.30.10 - This morning after several days of watching for the UPS man, two birthday gifts arrived with a thump on the front step: my new PacSafe travel camera bag that will hold a DSLR plus several lenses and Two, count 'em - two, camera phones in their own special area; and more importantly my very own Nokia N86 8 Megapixel camera phone. Not a trial N86 that will have to be returned to WOMWorld/Nokia, but my own, my very own.

Now those of you who read this blog with any regularity know that I have a camera phone and moblogging addiction, in the course of the last 5 years and 5 months that I have been in possession of a mobile phone with a camera and a data connection to mobile blog with. And in those 5 and a bit years, I have tried out many, many camera phones but have only owned 5 of my own camera phones, of which the arrival today of the Nokia N86 was the 5th.

Welcome lovely little 8 megapixel bundle of glass, metal, and plastic kick-ass camera phone joy.

Photos taken by Ms. Jen with a Nikon D70s using a 50mm 1.8D lens.

Wed 04.28.10 - During the Nokia N8 Q&A CoverItLive Event today, panelists were asked to slow down on questions to give the Nokia folk time to answer, so I took photos of my birthday tulips while waiting for my turn to ask a question.

I shot the tulips in natural indoor light with no other lights on or using the flash, the curtains were open and it was clear & sunny outside. I do wish that I had a light coming up through the tulips to illuminate the purple ones better.

The official Nokia N8 pages with tech specs - Looking pretty darned camera-licious tasty!

I will write up my thoughts later today, the N8's camera specs are very exciting, particularly with the return of the Xenon flash. Until I can use the final released product, I will hold my opinion on Symbian ^3.

Initial news & blog reactions:

Nokia: misguided or misunderstood?

Some thoughts on Nokia N8 and Nokia's device strategy

Photos by Ms. Jen, Nokia N82 photos on the Left and the Nokia N86 on the Right.

Mon. 04.12.10 - Once again, I will let you the gentle reader be the judge of this contest between the Nokia N82 and the Nokia N86 8MP. The contest for this set of photos was a very bright, mid-day sun while at the Huntington Library & Gardens in San Marino, California.

The question I wanted to raise in this set was how would each camera phone titan do in bright mid-day sun (very unforgiving) in terms of color, clarity, close-up and far away, as well as light handling with no flash. As with last week's Part I of the Nokia N82 vs. the Nokia N86, I did my best to make sure both cameras had the exact same settings and distance from the subject, and I did not alter the photos in post-production in any way other than to reduce all of them to 640x480.

Which camera phone do you prefer?

Animated peview for a new book by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess.

My favorite Instruction: "Remember you name."

Wed 04.07.10 - Photo of the crabapple blossoms taken by Ms. Jen in the Chinese Lily Pond area at the Huntington Library and Gardens around 4:30pm. I really love the ease of taking photos with the Nokia N86 and the clarity & color of the resulting photos. 8 megapixel camera phone, I kiss you.

I send this one back to WOMWorld tomorrow, but within the week, I will, crossing fingers, have my own.

Also, tomorrow, I will post up the Part II of the Nokia N82 vs. the Nokia N86, as I took 86 photos with each of the two camera phones at the Huntington's Gardens today.

Photos by Ms. Jen, the Nokia N82 on the Left and the Nokia N86 on the Right.

To Read the review, continue on...

Photos by Ms. Jen on the Left with the Nokia N86 and on the Right by the Nikon D70s.

Sat 04.03.10 - This afternoon my Mom and I took Les Doggies for a walk about Seal Beach and I decided to take both the Nokia N86 8 megapixel camera phone and the Nikon D70s DSLR camera out so that I could take photos of the same things to then see the comparison of how each camera would perform.

Jen, are you high to compare the photos of a camera phone and a respected DSLR? Why yes, I am. I decided to do it for the fun of it but also wanted to see how each would perform.

Panorama photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N86 at the annual Wine & Cheese Party.

Every year at SXSW, I take tons of photos, many years I attempt to get most to all of them up here or at Flickr and don't quite make it to the end of the week's worth of photos. This year, I did and here they are, plus a few of my patented Ms. Jen transcribed session notes:

Day 0 - Thurs 03.11.10
Day 1 - Fri 03.12.10
Day 2 - Sat 03.13.10
Day 3 - Sun 03.14.10
Day 4 - Mon 03.15.10
Day 5 - Tues 03.16.10
The Day After - Wed 03.17.10

Per the usual, click on the photos to start the slideshow and read the captions. Big thanks to the WomWorldNokia folks for loaning me the Nokia N86 8mp camera phone so that I could take so many great photos.

Photos by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N97.

Thurs 02.25.10 - Today was the first day in many weeks that Scruffy, Belle, and I went down to Dog Beach, the lack of which has been a combination of winter storms and Scruffy's being a bit ill a few weeks back. When we arrived today in time for the afternoon low tide a very different Dog Beach greeted us. There has been a great deal of beach erosion and re-contouring of the sand & beach due to the powerful El Nino storms we have had the last two months.

Tues. 02.23.10 - If you aren't already a fan of Heather Champ's photography, please bookmark | favorite | subscribe to the feed of her Flickr Photostream, as Heather takes delightful photographs.

I love this photo of her dog Chieka. I love the framing. I love the composition. Formally this is a brilliant piece with almost all the tones in mid to dark and then a spot of bright Chihuahua.

Lovely.

Project 52 : Week 5

If you haven't read Paul Graham's essay "Hackers and Painters" yet, and you are a maker / creator / creative, go read it.

I read it about 4 or 5 years ago for the first time and reread it this morning. Today it resounded as I have been frustrated at myself for what I perceive to be my failure at software engineering, as I when I code, I think of how I would apply paint. When I get stuck with trying to code in Python or PHP, I draw in my sketch book until I can get unstuck. Many times if I can't solve a problem, I do something else or go to bed and my brain will serve me the answer or solution while in the other activity or when I wake up.

Much like Mr. Graham describes in the essay, I build web apps and web sites much like I would build a painting or a whole dinner, I think about the whole idea, I get the ingredients or supplies ready, and then I start to make | code | create | sketch | paint. Scrub out what does not work and repaint | recode. I don't plan it the app out extensively before hand, I code in the browser. I am not the type who writes out pseudo code beforehand, or does wire frames, or designs in photoshop.

For a couple of years now, I have jokingly called myself a 'Professional Art Weirdo' whenever someone asks what I do for the living. This title always confuses other web professionals who know that I am a web / mobile developer. In 2007, I found myself at a programmer's conference full of Java folk, while in a small group setting everyone said their names and very detailed descriptions of their Java skill sets, when it was my turn, I cheekily said, "Hi, I am Jen and I am a painter." Then I passed on to the next person.

All jokes aside, I was delighted and relieved to read this essay this morning, as Mr. Graham quite nicely makes a defense for the intersection of programming and art as creative | maker disciplines rather than programming as engineering or science. I would love to see more artists learning to program and more programmers learning to paint.

Go read it.

Photos taken by Ms. Jen on Sat 01.02.10 with a Nokia N97.

Sat 01.02.09 - The thing that is either most wonderful or most baffling about Southern California, 32º to 35º latitude north, is that we don't really have a real winter, but in the time period of December and January when the rest of the northern hemisphere is socked in with snow and cold, we are having a mixed fall | spring.

January in SoCal has some trees are still shedding their yellow and red leaves just as some trees, bushes and flowers are just starting their spring blooming cycle. For years, I found this maddening, as I wanted a real fall with a real winter and then after time a real spring, not all three mashed up layered over each other in a course of 4-6 weeks.

This day after New Years Day trip to the Huntington with Erika and Julie Wanda showed me again, through the lens of the Nikon, how delightful the overlapping of autumn and spring can be when experienced in California's mixed up mediterranean climate.

Photo of Julie Wanda and Erika taken by Ms. Jen with a Nikon D70s.

Sat 01.02.10 - A week and a half ago, Julie Wanda and I go talking about what would be fun to do for New Year's Eve, I suggested that we go to dim sum and then to the Huntington Library to visit the gardens. She reminded me that she had to work on New Year's Eve until 4pm. Julie Wanda and I have a tradition to go to dim sum for lunch on New Year's Day, as we mused our options, Erika pointed out that the Huntington would be closed on New Year's Day.

After a bit of too-ing and fro-ing with the idea, we all decided that today would be the day to go to dim sum lunch at Elite Restaurant in Monterey Park and then proceed to the Huntington for a good toddle about the gardens. I brought the Nikon D70s as well as the ever present Nokia camera phone and took over 300 photos between both cameras.

A truly delightful day in lovely gardens (the camelias are blooming!) with good friends.

The above is my favorite photo of the 300, but I have about 20 more photos that I really like, but I will post them tomorrow.

Photos taken by ms. Jen with a Nokia N97.

Mon 12.28.09 - The last Monday of 2009 was an eventful day in Seal Beach, as the early morning high tide was really high and flooded the south end of Seal Beach as well as Seal Way near the pier. My morning walk route with the dogs was a bit interrupted by the water, but the wonder of it all was amazing. Most of the home owners were in good spirits as the water did not come up to their doors, but only to the first step or so.

Winter Solstice, where the Northern Hemisphere has the longest night and shortest day of the year, happened today at 9:47am PST / 17:47 UTC.

Today ushers in my favorite season of the year: Winter.

I love it. I love the chill. I love being outside at night while snow is falling. I love skiing. I love walking in the winter. I love wearing more clothes. I love the lack of sun and heat. Love it.

My greatest disappointment in living in Southern California is the lack of snow.

I realize that the reason that everyone else, all the other 16-19 million folks who share this metro area with me, lives here is the utter lack of the snow. Saturday's weather is the real reason they live here: 80F at the beach.

I can have my fantasies. Yes, I can. The last few days I have watching my European, British, and East Coast friends' Flickrstreams for photos of snow falling in the night.

Here are a few of the truly lovely winter scenes from various locales that are not SoCal from the last 48 or so hours:

All photos from friends on Flickr, please click on the photo for the larger version.

Photos taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N97.

Sun 12.20.09 - After a heavy work week, I found myself a bit stuffed up this weekend with an attendant sore throat, all the while praying that I not get fully sick. Today, I met up with Julie Wanda at her house so that we could go to lunch. I wanted to take photos of Figaro and Miss Kitty Le Meux, as I was taking the photos of Figaro he kept coming up to my nose and sniffing my nostrils and mouth, then backing up with a look on his face. Yes, Dr. Figaro, I have the beginnings of a cold or something.

After a stop by my brother's house and my return to home, the sunset came early as we are only one day from the winter solstice. Scruffy and I went on a walk along Seal Way and along the pier. Today it was very warm, 77F / 25C, and the air was so very clear, as I could see the mountains in full detail and Catalina Island in sharp contrast. Three oil supertankers were sitting out on the bay waiting their turn in at the Port of LB/LA, the air was so clear that one could see their names on the sides of the ship even though they were several miles out to sea.

The best of all was the couple who were having their wedding photos taken on the beach on the north side of the Seal Beach pier. A bunch of folks were standing in the parking lot and on the pier taking photos of the sunset, Catalina and the bridal couple. Truly lovely.

Mazel Tov!

Photos taken with a Nokia N97.

Sun 12.13.09 - Little did a certain Mr. G.F. Handel know that one day far in the future humans would make an annual Advent season pilgrimage to the nose bleed section of concert halls worldwide to sing along under their breaths to the Hallelujah Chorus all the while fighting a case of vertigo.

Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N97.

Fri 12.11.09 - The big difference that clouds can make in a photo, yesterday was nice & bright & sunny and I could not get the N97 to focus on the rose. Today was raining, grey, and dull in light, and the N97 was able to focus beautifully on the rose.

Obviously, this Nokia N97 is from Finland and prefers cloudy, rainy weather to capture nice crystal clear images. ;o)

Fri 12.04.09 - I realize that this video is not new as it is from 2003, but I found it via a bizarre internet blackhole of which lead me to Erykah Badu at the Def Jam Poetry. Not only is the poem on the nature of fans, friends, and artists good, pointed, and twisty, but Ms. Badu's delivery drives the twists home with delightful results.

If you know of any other sources of Erykah Badu performing her poetry, please put the link in the comments.

Also highly recommended:
Bassey Ikpi's Apology to My Unborn

Tues 12.01.09 - By a chance of delicious WOM/Nokia induced trial phone fate, I currently have both a Nokia N900 and a Nokia N97 in my hot little mitts, so I have been putting both through their photographic paces to see which one is the better Nokia Nseries flagship phone / mobile device of the year 2009.

While I do love the petite-r size, design of the phone, and the lovely flip hinge (thwack!) of the Nokia N97, the Maemo operating system of the Nokia N900 is winning me over even though the form factor of the N900 is a chunky monkey with a non-thwacking sliding qwerty keyobard. Delightful form over amazing brains?

Which to choose, as both the N900 and the N97 have 5 megapixel cameras with a Carl Zeiss lens, though the N97s seems to be more wide angled than the N900, both devices have LED flashes, and good sensors as well as software to render the images and video.

Which is better in real life rather than on a tech spec? Well, let's see how the pretty form vs. hot brains perform in the all important Photo and Video departments:

November has been both a good month and a bit of a struggle. The struggle has been family/holiday/death related, as blogged about here, and the Good has been friend/family/art/music/mobile/travel/wedding/baby related.

The three bits about November that were really delightful are as follows:

1) The weather *finally* took a turn for the better. Better in my book is colder. I am happiest when the days are 55-65 F (10-17C) and when the nights are 35-50 F (3-13C). For a lady who loves a good bout of chilly weather, I am not sure why I live in Southern California. The weather here in SoCal will be happy for me through December and then will unfortunately warm up in January. Gah.

I am still interested in working in London if anyone has an opening.

2) Milestones: Lauren and Dave's wedding weekend in Seattle was lovely. I am very glad to see them married. It was also delightful to see Cindy & Matt that weekend as they were fresh of the married dept themselves. And even more delightful is that Seattle's weather was in the 40s F all weekend!

3) November has been a very creative month for me, both in terms of professional web dev/coding bits and in my creative art life of mobile photography, writing, and drawing, as well as day dreaming.

It was also inspirational, funny, and heartening to read/watch my various friends and friends of friends daily blog posts or vlog posts for NaBloPoMo or the other variations on the daily creativity theme thereof.

So all of you who participated in NaBloPoMo or NaNoWriMo or NaVloPoMo officially or unofficially, Bravo! Good job and keep up the good creative work!

Drawing and Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N900.

Fri. 11.27.09 - Different folks will approach the same mobile device from a variety of perspectives, and I am here to tell you as a Professional Art Weirdo, the Nokia N900 exceeds my hopes as an Art Phone.

Yes. People. OMG. Creativity. Not. Consumption. This. Phone. Rocks.

I have spent all evening drawing, taking photos and trying out the browser. Tomorrow, I will get on X-Term and download Maemo Python and try some programming out.

The Nokia N900 has a native phone app called "Sketch", and while other mobiles I have used have had a sketch program, this is the first time that I have found the app to be usable as an actual sketching device. The feel of the N900 in my hand plus the screen ratio, on top of the line control in the sketch app, makes me feel like I am using a wee moleskine notebook. While the N900 is about a centimeter smaller in width & height as my moleskine, it does not need to be opened, instead I can use the stylus to draw with the device comfortably in my hand.

Comfortably after 20 minutes of sketching Scruffy's paw while he slept. The N900 did not feel weighty or get uncomfortable. I was able to switch between drawing with a fine line and then erasing to get the white space back. A true delight for an artist with small hands.

Then I used the camera on the N900 to take a close-up/macro photo with no flash of Scruffy's paw and the camera accurately captured the paw in the low light.

This is the mobile phone that I and other creatives dreamed of when I was doing my interviews in 2005 & 2006 for my master's thesis, 'Moleskine to Mobile: How Creative Professions Are Using Their Mobile Phones', has now arrived in one kick ass device. Multi-faceted creativity has returned to the N-Series.

Bravo!

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Related N900 Posts:
Nokia N900 : The Artist Phone
Nokia N900 : The Gold Standard Test
Nokia N900 - Views from the Pundit Analysts, Maemo & Python
The Nokia Flagship Face Off : Nokia N900 vs. Nokia N97 : Part I, Night Video

Photos taken by Ms. Jen with a Nikon D70s.

Tues 11.24.09 - How close can I get to my front stoop climbing rose with Thomas's Nikon D70 with a Nikkor 50mm f1.8 lens set at 1.8 f-stop before I loose all focus? That was today's experiment: how to balance up close while keeping a small area of focus and getting a lovely bokeh in the rest of the frame.

Turned out nice and dreamy.