Bubbles

I'd like to thank the P30+, Mamiya 120 Secor D macro lens and my washing up for making that shot possible.

Woe Is My iPhone!

I'm sitting on the tube writing this post with a pen and paper, oh, and I'm late for work.

Why? Two reasons:

1. iPhones take Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long to restore from a backup. (Think that waaa... ...aaay was annoying? Read on!)
   
2. The iPhone does so much you become dependent upon it.
   

So, from the beginning...

6:30 am. I'm woken from my slumber. The first thing I hear is the alarm on my iPhone. I wonder to my office and turn it off. Yep, the iPhone is my alarm clock and it's loud enough to do that job from two rooms away.

My mind goes through the semi-automatic dock clicking that starts Mail and iTunes syncing and downloading. Off I go to the bathroom.

I return.

Mail.app: Oooo Canon have announced a new DSLR, the 50D. Mmm, it's not the 5D replacement we were expecting. But, it does have face recognition AF in live view mode, interesting.

iTunes: The phone is done syncing but I see that there are some podcasts downloading. Let's see if there are any app updates while I'm waiting... There are, may as well have them too.

Bag packing time.

Just need to make sure all the bits of the Phase One camera I borrowed over the weekend are back in place, including the not so good UV filters the rental department uses.

Back to iTunes and a final sync. Even though there are five apps, it's only 7am so plenty of time to sync.

Get dressed, spend ages looking for shop keys, notice iPhone is synced and rebooting.

Eventually find keys, ironically, under keyboard.

Oh Dear! iPhone is still rebooting.

10 minutes later, not good! Still rebooting.

A quick google informs me of the need to initiate restore mode. Oh well, I might miss the 7:30 but the 8:00 still gets me in on time.

Unplug iPhone.

Restart iTunes.

Hold home button.

Plug in phone.

Yay! Life! But what? It's downloading the firmware, but it did that about a week ago, surely it keeps it? And why is it downloading it so slowly, 246KB/s when my DSL will do 860KB/s? Are so many users restoring their iPhones that Appl is throttling bandwidth?

Half an hour later and the firmware and software are on. Now to restore from the backup (fortunately done at 0:31 this morning, just before I went to bed.)

At this point I'll probably be a little late for work, but I may as well hang around, how long can it take to copy 6GB over USB 2.0?

Answer: I have no idea!

After another 30 minutes of waiting, the progress bar stopped moving. It was moving so slowly before that it actually took five minutes to notice that it had stopped!

So I gave up. E-mailed the shop to let them know I'd be there soon (normally I'd text, but not today it seems.)

In the end my commute today consisted not of Diggnation, Twitter and mobile e-mail, but of writing exhaustively long blog posts and reading a book (Aperture 2 (Apple Pro Training))

I haven't written this much since I was forced to at school (not with a pen anyway)!

Kinda fun though.

Maybe we all need a bit of unreliability once in a while.....

MotoCross Photography Workshop

Just uploaded details of a MotoCross photography workshop to the TFC website.
At £199 it doesn't sound cheap but when you consider that 32 people will have a motocross track and world class riders at their beck and call it's actually a pretty good deal.

The teacher, Adam Duckworth is the 2007 Commercial Photographer of the year, has worked for (and been editor) on the best biking mags AND came 4th in the 2007 Veteran motocross championship. Blimey, he's been a busy boy! I can't think of someone better placed to teach you how to not only shoot this subject, but also how to get your pictures published.


If you're interested, get in quick, I have a feeling it'll book up quickly.

All images © Adam Duckworth

Napping at your desk is the right thing to do!

Thanks to the soporific drone of my landrover's engine, I've recently found that a 15 minute snooze at a service station can change me from a dozy, slow, danger to an alert driver.
Well it seems that we should all be taking a midday nap. Scientists have found that not only does it have the more obvious benefits of alertness and performance but it also improves memory, lowers the risk of heart attack and stroke, diabetes and weight gain. That's right, you can nap yourself thinner!

Zzzzzzzzz

I wish I could GTD (Get things Done)

David Allen gives a great explanation of the Getting Things Done method an FastCompany TV.
I've read the book a couple of times and although I haven't implimented the whole system there are parts of if that I find very useful:

• Listing to-dos by context - in other words, not so much what do I need to do or when, but where do I need to do it. This way, if I have a minute spare at my computer, I can list everything I can do using it, without being confused by other errands, grocery lists etc.
• Next actions - Big, long term projects are daunting, but, the only thing you need to worry about is the next small thing in the chain to complete the project. That is the 'next action'.

If you haven't read the book, get it now Getting Things Done: How to Achieve Stress-free Productivity
Here's the interview:

First Part of the Joe Craig DVD on TFC TV

I've just opened up the first 6 (of 13ish) chapters of the Joe Craig DVD on TFC TV.
This video was made way back in the '90s, you can tell that from the period dress. :-)
Even with the bad fashion, all the techniques are just as valid now as they were then. In fact, given that the price of good lighting equipment has come down over the years (an EL500 kit was around £1000, a D-Lite kit is £400), the results show in this DVD are more accessible than ever.
Thinking about it, an Elinchrom Octa was £500+VAT then, and it still is now. I don't know many products that have stayed the same price for so long!
Click here for the complete playlist.