Futurama is one of my all time favorite television shows. The robot character Bender isn’t my favorite character on the show, but he seems to be quite popular with every other fan of the show. I was able to score this Bender halloween mask from emerchandise.com in 2002 for $7 and it has served as my de facto Halloween costume many times since then.
While celebrating Christmas with my mom’s extended family, my cousin Scott noticed this doosey of a photo on the wall at my parent’s house.
Andy’s cut-off shirt and breezy short shorts can surely be explained by the fact that it was the early 80’s. But why am I wearing gloves and a Spiderman winter mask? Why are Scott & I wearing capes? Why am I wearing no shirt and why is Scott wearing no pants? Why does Andy have a piece of the Death Star on his arm? This photo raises more questions than answers.
A few weeks ago, I started a project where I take (at least) one photo every day and post it to my Flickr account. The idea is simply to practice with the goal of becoming a better photographer.
My Photo of the Day site is here. The most recent photo should always appear on the left side of my blog. If you’re interested in following along, add this feed to your RSS reader (Google Reader, Apple Mail, Safari, etc.). I’m also taking part in a Flickr group called Photo A Day 2009, where (starting yesterday), hundreds of other people are doing something similar.
Here are a few of the most recent photos of the day:
In 2001 or so digital cameras started to go from ridiculously expensive to only moderately expensive. Only the geekiest of people owned them. The rapid drop in prices, though, led to a memorable discussion between my roommate Scott and his friend Jeff, where they wondered how long it would take before disposable cameras went digital. A few years later you could get digital copies from disposable cameras. I don’t think the disposables were actually digital, I think they just scanned the film and provided people with a Picture CD along with the prints.
I was reminded of this discussion while finishing our Christmas shopping. I stumbled upon a keychain digital camera, which normally sold for $15 but was on clearance for $5. $5 for a working digital camera. I purchased one (just one) and now Melissa is questioning my sanity.
The Good
It only cost $5. It is extraordinarily small. It came with the required AAA battery, as well as a USB cable and a case. It also has a keychain built-in.
The Bad
The AAA battery was nearly dead on arrival. The USB cable has some non-standard connector, so it can’t be used for anything else. Rather than do the sensible thing and have it mount as a USB mass storage device, it requires some Windows-only driver. It has 16 mb (that’s mega, with a M) of memory which holds only 20 photos at 352 x 288. It also seemed to randomly overwrite a few of the photos I took (not that they were even worth saving).
The Ugly
The photo quality speaks for itself. These are full size, unedited photos from the $5 camera.
I recently picked up a cheap RF remote for my new Canon 50D.
Unfortunately, it arrived a little bit too late for the two family portraits I was enlisted to take over Thanksgiving. Additionally, the 50D doesn’t have an infrared remote sensor like my old 300D, so I couldn’t use my old infrared remote. My options were limited. I really didn’t want to have to set a 10 second timer then run into the picture, wait, pop, run back, repeat. Instead, I took advantage of the wireless networking capabilities of the attached WFT-E3 (wireless file transmitter) unit and I used my iPhone as a WiFi remote. It wasn’t ideal, but it definitely did the trick in a pinch.
This would have been much easier by connecting to an existing 802.11 network, but I could not rely on a network being present. So I instead chose to use an ad hoc direct wireless network connection between the camera and the phone. Additionally, since the iPhone doesn’t support creating an ad hoc network, I needed to setup the network on the camera first then connect to that network with the phone.
It wasn’t completely obvious how to get this setup working, so I will explain here in case anyone else out there on the internet ever finds themselves in a situation where something like this might come in handy. The required gadgets are:
The first step is to configure the WFT to create an 802.11G Ad Hoc wireless network.
Under the WFT settings > Set up > LAN settings choose Set 2 (assuming Set 1 is your home network) and choose the Change button.
 
 
Under the WFT settings > Set up > LAN settings > Set 2 menu set the LAN type to Wireless.
Under the WFT settings > Set up > LAN settings > Set 2 > TCP/IP menu set:
Under the WFT settings > Set up > LAN settings > Set 2 > Wireless LAN > SSID menu enter the name of the wireless network you are going to create. I called mine ragfield-50D.
Under the WFT settings > Set up > LAN settings > Set 2 > Wireless LAN > Advanced settings menu set:
Now it is time to activate the WFT’s HTTP server. Under the WFT settings menu set Communication mode to HTTP.
In order to access the HTTP server we need to set up an account with a user name and password. Under the WFT settings > Set up > HTTP settings > HTTP account > User 1 set the Login name and Password to your desired login name and password.
At this point the green LAN indicator light on the back of the WFT should be blinking and we can now connect the iPhone (or other device) to the camera. Go ahead and take one last look at WFT settings > Set up > Confirm settings and scroll through the four screens to verify the settings are correct.
The iPhone configuration is much simpler than the camera/WFT configuration, and the user interface is much better so this goes quickly. In the Settings application choose the Wi-Fi list item. A list of available wireless networks will be displayed and, if the WFT is configured correctly and running, the WFT’s network name will appear in this list. Choose this network (in my case ragfield-50D).
After the iPhone switches to your WFT’s ad hoc wireless network click the blue circle button to the right of your network’s name to open the TCP/IP settings. Configure the network by setting:
Now the iPhone is correctly configured to connect to the camera/WFT. One interesting thing to note is that even though the iPhone is using WiFi to connect to the camera the WiFi icon does not appear in the status bar. A 3G or E(dge) icon will appear instead. This is fine.
Press the home button to exit the Settings application and tap on the Safari icon to launch the web browser. Type 192.186.1.2 in the address bar and press Go. Safari should prompt you for the user name and password you entered into the WFT settings > Set up > HTTP settings > HTTP account > User 1 menu. Enter these values and press Log In.
The WFT’s default web page will appear. Press the Capture button next to the image of the camera on the web page.
The button to do a remote capture is the little blue circle on the image of the wired remote control on the web page. Zoom in for a target large enough to hit with your finger while you’re looking at the camera.
It helps if the hand holding the iPhone is hidden behind another person. Thanks for covering for me Melissa!
We spent some time putting up Christmas decorations tonight. I took the opportunity to use the remote timer I built last year for my old camera to shoot a time lapse movie of the process, which I included below. If you pay close attention you can see where we dropped (and broke) one of the ornaments, then swept it up a short while later.
Shortly before stuffing my face at Thanksgiving dinner with my family in Danville, Melissa pointed out this funny picture of me hanging on the wall at my parents’ house. I appear to be very concerned about something (perhaps that there wouldn’t be enough food).
In 2003 I wanted a SLR camera to replace my old Vivitar, but at this point I was already accustomed to the extraordinary convenience of digital cameras. Digital SLR cameras existed, but they were targeted solely at professional photographers (and they were priced accordingly). That is, until the end of 2003, when Canon released the Digital Rebel (EOS 300D). The Digital Rebel was the first digital SLR (DSLR) camera priced under $1000, and it wasn’t targeted at professional photographers. It was targeted at me.
Shortly after the camera was released, Digital Rebels could not be found anywhere. There was a huge demand for this device and it was sold out of every store that carried it. I went to cameras stores. I went to electronics stores. I went to generic stores that carried cameras or electronics. While visiting my grandparents for Christmas my dad accompanied me while I looked at half a dozen stores in Evansville, IN. I think he thought I might be a little crazy looking high and low for a camera. I mean, it’s just a camera right?
Back home in Champaign I put my name on a waiting list at a camera store, and I made daily visits to Best Buy. Eventually, a guy working at Best Buy was kind enough to suggest (quietly) I check back on Wednesday morning. I checked back Wednesday morning, and they had just received two Digital Rebels. I immediately tried to acquire one, but there was some bozo right in front of me (the store had just opened) who was looking at it. Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!! JUST LET ME BUY MY CAMERA!!!
After five or so of the most impatient minutes of my life the bozo walked away and I was able to purchase the camera. Finally. I left the next day with my parents to go to Texas to visit my brothers for Christmas, where I was first able to test it out. It was amazing.
I’ve now had the camera for almost five years. A few days ago the four-digit photo counter reset to zero, meaning I’ve taken over 10,000 photos with it. It’s still great, but it’s showing its age. So I’ve decided to retire the Rebel. Two days ago its replacement arrived, a brand new Canon 50D. This new camera takes (significantly) higher resolution photos, has better low light (high ISO range) performance, has a gigantic high-res LCD screen (the 3″ display has the same resolution as my first 15″ computer monitor), works with all my old accessories (lenses & flash), and (thanks to an extra attachment) can wirelessly transfer photos to my computer and phone (which I’ve wanted for quite some time), and can directly geotag photos.
Hopefully the next 10,000 photos will be as great as the last 10,000.
What a day. First we headed over to the Freedom 5K at the Assembly Hall. This race is huge and neither of us had ever done it before. Since we ran over there we didn’t have any place to put our race t-shirts, so we stuck them in a bush and picked them up after the race. It started at 11 am, rather late for a summer running event. The temperature was much cooler than usual for this race (though it was still hot for running, in my opinion) so there was a rather large turnout (by far the largest I’ve seen for a Champaign-Urbana race).
I started out a little fast, but not ridiculous. We ran down the fresh asphalt of Kirby/Florida before turning north on Lincoln. There were lots of spectators on Lincoln. They weren’t necessarily there to see the race, but rather to reserve the best locations to watch the 4th of July parade that would be starting in a couple hours. Almost two miles into the race we passed a popcorn stand, the smell of which kind of made me want to hork. By the time we turned back onto Florida and crossed over into Champaign again the smell of the fresh asphalt was really getting to me. This was the third mile of a 5k and my heart rate hit 193 (the highest it’s been in years). Fortunately, the end was in site.
I finished in 17:46. In most other area races this would be good enough for a placing somewhere in the 3-5 range, but in this huge race (with lots of good high school aged competitors) it was good enough for 23rd. I’m a little skeptical the race was actually 5k. A couple mile markers were definitely in the wrong place and my GPS indicated the course might be a little short.
Melissa had a good run as well, finishing in her fastest time ever for a 5k. I stuck around for a while after the race to pick up medals for both us, each placing 3rd in our respective age groups. Unfortunately, I passed most of the time waiting for the awards ceremony by standing in the sun and now I have a painful tank-top shaped sunburn on my back and shoulders to show for it.
After the race we ran home, showered, ate, then hopped on Big Red to ride the couple blocks over to the parade. Champaign County Bikes was again part of the parade so we found the other bicyclists and joined them riding in the parade. We covered the 2 mile route at very slow speed, seeing lots of friendly faces (including a few we recognized) along the way.
Our tandem (Big Red) was one of the crowd favorites, but there were a few other neat bikes which the crowd liked even better. In particular, the tandem-recumbent-one-rider-rides-backwards bike and the custom-welded-double-tall bike received the lion’s share of attention. It was a good time.
After the parade we walked a few houses down the street to a neighborhood block party/cookout. Our neighbors are all very friendly, and generally much older than us. It was kind of funny when one of them mentioned how nice it was to have people under age 50 at the party. Again, a good time was had by all.
Finally, we got Big Red back out and headed over to Parkland to watch the fireworks. They used to be held within walking distance at Memorial Stadium, but since the stadium is under construction they moved them across town to Parkland. It was a long haul, but the roads were relatively traffic free (I think most people arrived early).
The fireworks were pretty good. We sat on a little blanket in the grass. Afterward we had a long ride home. We avoided most of the traffic by sticking to side streets. We arrived home late. It was a long, exhausting, fun day. It’s a good thing we got to sleep in until 5 am this morning.
