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!

*******
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.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N97.

Tues 11.10.09 - I was playing round with the Night Mode on the Nokia N97's camera to see under what light conditions could I get a bit of blurred movement. While I could have used Auto setting with the flash off and gotten a crisp, sharp image of Grace and Magnus in the bright light of Tammy & Ryan's kitchen, I purposely set the N97's camera to Night to see if I could get a bit of doubling or blur.

I am happy with the way this photo turned out.

Tues 11.03.09 - Regardless of whether you are participating in National ________ Posting/Writing Month or just reading/watching others, I think the best part of the November novel writing, blog posting, vlog posting, drawing, and any other permutation, is that daily practice really does hone one's creative skills and ingrains, in a good way, the habit of the activity.

One of my favorite authors of all time, Madeleine L'Engle, frequently in articles, her books, and in writers workshops would encourage folks to write at least 30 minutes every day. She stated that with the daily habit comes the inspiration, not the other way around.

For a few years after taking the workshop with Ms. L'Engle, I would draw for 30 minutes every day. And then by the late 1990s, it became taking photos for at least a total of 15-20 minutes every day.

Rather than attempt to count up time and compare it to one creative activity, now I make sure that I reserve 30 mins to 1 hour every day for a / some creative activity be it writing, drawing, blogging, photography, or mobile blogging. By doing this regardless or schedule or busy-ness, it means that I carve out time time to slow down, time to create and explore.

Today on Twitter I started asking who of my circle of association is doing one of the Na__ __ Mo's? I found that a good variety of folk were participating in the original NaNoWriMo, NaBloPoMo, NaVloPoMo (video blogging), and NaDrawMo (drawing).

One of my Twitter friends made apologies for his lack of participation saying he was not creative, I replied back that one can blog about whatever, it doesn't have to be a story or long post. I would like to reiterate that this month is not about being the best or most polished or even the most creative, but about clearing a space for yourself to establish a new daily habit or even just to challenge yourself in something that you have always wanted to do but never did. So many of the folk who are writing novels this month have never written fiction but are doing the NaNoWriMo to really let go and loose their inhibitions about the activity.

It is not too late to join us.

Here is a list of the folks that I know in real life or via the Internets who are participating in National DoSomething Everyday Month:

NaNoWriMo:
Kasper Jespersen http://www.theasemicdreamer.com/
Steve Lawson http://www.stevelawson.net/wordpress/2009/11/nanowrimo-steve-writes-a-novel-possibly/
James McNally http://twitter.com/jmcnally/
Sudhamshu Hebbar http://www.sudhamshu.com/
Velvet Verbosity http://velvetverbosity.com/2009/11/02/nanowrimo-insane-fun/

NaBloPoMo:
Mrs. K (of course) http://www.fussy.org/
Me
Jessica Spengler http://www.wordridden.com
Vikki Chowney http://www.vikkichowney.com/
Lauren Isaacson http://www.theadnostic.com/
Laurie White http://lauriewrites.typepad.com/
Mauricio Reyes http://www.reyespowered.com/blog/?p=355
Utku Can http://utku.tumblr.com/
Ann McMeekin http://www.pixeldiva.co.uk/
Mike Maddaloni http://www.thehotiron.com

NaVloPoMo:
James Whatley http://whatleydude.com/2009/11/some-jumbled-letters-here/
Lloyd Davis http://perfectpath.co.uk/
Benny Crime http://www.vimeo.com/user1955506
Rupert Howe http://twittervlog.tv/

NaNoDrawMo:
Shaun Inman http://www.flickr.com/photos/shauninman/sets/72157622711146084/
Trey Piepmeier http://www.flickr.com/photos/trey_piepmeier/sets/72157622719962682/

All photos taken today by Ms. Jen with a Nokia n97.

Tues 11.03.09 - Today a white Euro, Nokia N97 entered my life for a bit, what is the first thing I did after making sure it was charged and had the newest firmware version 20 on it? I took it out for a photo walk.

The big October version 20 firmware update has taken care of about 98% of my previous frustrations and complaints about the N97, it is now a very nice little mobile computing machine of which the touchscreen is more responsive and the camera is taking better photos.

The design world, particularly the web design / user interface folk, have been going through a spasm of minimalism / simplicity lately with many top web folk redesigning their blogs to simple text, plain background (usually white or a light color), and a graphic line or two.

Tim Brown at Design Thinking has decided to plunge into the murky waters of design philosophy and semantics to parse out what the difference is between simplicity and minimalism as it pertains to web design / interface design. The articles does not end with his words, but the real debate begins in the comments as various designers debate what do the words and practices really mean.

Read it.

Now if you need a visual for who is the current king of minimalism, view this photo from 1982 which sums up the future of ID/UX 27 years later in one go.

'Sita Sings the Blues' is a very delightful feature indie animation film that combines 1920s jazz vocals with the ancient Indian story of Ram and Sita and the parallel story of the animator Nina Paley and her husband Dave.

Worth watching for the interplay of animation styles and narrative, of which is the interstitial bits of the three humorous arguing narrators. Even more worth watching for the gorgeous visuals.

Sita Sings the Blues

I am not much of a video recording person, I only remember to switch my camera phone or digital camera to the video mode when it occurs to me that the photo I want to take will only make contextual sense if there is sound and the image over time. I usually notice this after the person has started speaking or the action has began, thus my videos tend to be truncated.

Oops.

To top it all off, I really hate the post-production process. In other words, I hate editing video. In grad school, we had to do an intense 2 week course in video and editing, and I hated every moment of it, other than the editing instructor was a hot 40-something Irish gentleman. But not even Gerry could convince me that editing was worth my time, although I did enjoy watching him talk. Luckily for me, in my final project team we had a member in Shonagh Hurley who not only loved editing video and but could spend hours creatively editing.

Unfortunately, Shonagh is in Dublin and I am in SoCal, so when I need to trim or splice together video segments, I am a bit screwed. And why?

These photos were taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N86 and her Nokia N95.

Tues 10.13.09 - This afternoon I decided to conduct a test with the trial Nokia N86 camera phone that is about to go back to the folks at WOM World and my trusty & slightly rusty Nokia N95 camera phone. Originally, I had hoped to conduct the experiment using the Nokia N86 versus itself, by conducting the experiment with the Nokia N86 with the version 11 firmware with the upcoming version 20 firmware, which is rumored to have camera improvements, but alas and alack, the new firmware has not been released yet. Thus, the N86 v. the N95 in close up mode.

I wanted to test the close up / macro mode of the camera as I have noticed that the N86 for all of its 8 megapixel wonder and Carl Zeiss wide angle lens does not get very close or very sharp close ups. It may be in part to the wide angle lens and it may be in part due to the image processing software/algorithms. One of the problems that I have experienced is due to the wide angle lens, if I want to fill the photo with the subject I have to get closer and then the image goes out of focus or you keep the image in focus and it does not fill the frame (see the difference between the non-wide angle lens N95 hibiscus flower photo above and the N86 flower photo).

Photos by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N86.

Sun 10.04.09 - Today Jeremy and Jessica took me to brunch at i gigi's cafe on Western Rd on Hove, Josh Russell and Nik F met us there for a truly delightful brunch.

The food was a fresh riff off the usual breakfast and brunch foods. Each dish was well considered and beautiful as well as tasty. The best part is that each of the servers prepared the dishes on the sideboard right next to us. Fresh. Tasty. Moderately DIY.

Now when is i gigi going to open a Long Beach, Calif. cafe? ;o)

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N86.

Tues 09.29.09 - Upon entering the airplane in Dallas a week ago Monday, my respiratory system was working fine, half way through the flight to London, my nose was running like a spigot and I was chilled. By Saturday, the runny nose and chills had deepened into a sore throat & cough. By Sunday, I could barely speak.

Sunday morning London time, I called American Airlines to see what they thought of someone traveling sick. After talking to a very nice agent named Teresa, we both determined that I should not get on a plane yesterday and fly back home, even though as of yesterday, I had no fever. Due to the vagaries of the Mileage Awards program, the only flight open for me to fly home is next Monday.

So, now I am in London for an extra week. The last two days have been, quite frankly, a bummer as I have been ensconced in my hotel room coughing away and napping. Between coughs and naps, I can hear London outside. My favorite city outside, me inside.

So, I present to you today's photo, a view from my window. Bayswater was lovely this afternoon.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N86.

Sat 09.26.09 - After Over the Air was done, I met up with Abhinav Natarajan for a photo walk in the Park (Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park). I had a fun time playing with the panorama mode on the Nokia N86 and am quite pleased with this photo.

Click on it to see a larger version.

William Neuheisel's Burning Man 2009

The title, it is true. When Mie Yaginuma blogged about how she missed Burning Man this year and included the above photo, I was immediately drawn to William Newheisel's Flickr page to find this photo.

I love it. I love the distance. I love the sky. I love the desert. The photo is evocative of a post-modern American Tibet - high desert with enigmatic decoration and art that suggests ritual and meaning.

As I continued to look at the photo, it made me think of my life right now, as I walk down a path that appears to be going somewhere, but I can't clearly see the end even though there are sign or light or prayer bell posts along the way. Am I on the right road or am I walking down a performance art piece of someone else's device?

All photos taken by Ms. Jen with a Nikon D70s.

Fri. 08.28.09 - Magnolia, aka Bird, aged 3.8 years old, decided yesterday that she was going to organize her first ever party on the behalf of her sister Grace's three month birthday party this evening. Magnolia and Tammy made cupcakes, Magnolia & Gracie were all dressed up, and Magnolia passed out Mardi Gras beads and other fun jewellery to all party attendees.

Upon arrival, I ran back to my apartment to get the Nikon D70s that Thomas lent me so that I could take photos. I had a fun time testing the D70s in a high ISO with no flash and a Nikkor 50mm 1.8F portrait lens. I am quite happy with the above photos.

All photos above were batch resized in Fireworks but no other processing as applied.

As a side note, Dan Callis and I are going to take over hosting the bi-month Seal Beach Salon along with poet Chris Davidson.

Sat 08.15.09 - A triptych of photos of Paige Hernandez, Jackie Ojeda, and Nicole Harrington taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia D70s at Alex's Bar.

Sat 08.15.09 - A diptych of photos of Alex and Paige Hernandez taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia D70s at Alex's Bar.

Photos taken on June 22, 2009 at Carl Zeiss AG by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N86.

The above photo essay is the last bits of Carl Zeiss Lens Factory content I wanted to post, as my videos that I took were not up to scratch. No worries, as every time I go back through my photos, I have more questions that I need to research about Zeiss that leads me deeper into Camera Lens Lust (or Lens Envy).

I would love to get a Distagon lens for my Nikon FM3a film SLF and it looks like Zeiss is working on some nice lenses for the Nikon F mount, which would work both on my SLR and the borrowed Nikon D70s from Thomas. Lens drool.

Best of all, today's find on the Zeiss website was the 'Camera Lens News', a set of articles on lenses and photography. I subscribed.

And the above photo of Stefanos wearing the Cinemizer glasses gave me a good giggle again. All the virtual reality style headsets always make me have a bit of a giggle. While I did not put them on to watch a video from a Nokia Nseries device, the others reported that it was a good to great video experience.

I will now return to drooling over a dream Distagon. ;o)

More on the Carl Zeiss Lens Factory Tour adventure and Nokia N86 (which has a Zeiss Tessar lens):
Carl Zeiss Lens Factory Tour
The Nokia N86 - Review and Photos
Dan Rubin's Spectacular Hasselblad
The Nokia N86: Phil Campbell's Off-the-Cuff Review of Video Features
The Nokia N86: Dotsisx and Ms. Jen Weigh In
Photos Moblogged from the Tour
The Carl Zeiss Factory Tour, Before Departure