March 04, 2005

Caution! Deer Ahead!

Last spring John Kerry and Howard Dean came to town and I went to the rally at Pioneer Courthouse Square. There are animal statues and fountains all around the Pioneer Courthouse and the police used them to wrap their caution tape around. I found this one particularly sad/disturbing.

John, one of my few regular readers and a co-worker, sent me a link to an article called Cameraphones as Personal Storytelling Media. The article talks a lot about a study in Japan about how people use cameraphones. It is very interesting, but the part I think has the most relevance to my recent cameraphone experiment is below:

In contrast to the traditional camera, "cameraphones capture the more fleeting and unexpected moments of surprise, beauty and adoration in the everyday...Users are still working out the social protocols for appropriate visual sharing, but seem to take pleasure in the adding of visual information to the stream of friendly and intimate exchange of opinions and news."
Posted by Noah Brimhall at March 4, 2005 09:21 AM
Comments

I wish I could have a cameraphone that uploads images to the blog instantly without the PHONE part.

Posted by: al at March 4, 2005 12:37 PM

Well, my system is far from instant, but the small camera part sure is fun. Here are the steps I have to do to get an image on the web:

1. Download picture from phone via Bluetooth (one at a time)
2. Open image in Photoshop to crop, correct and save at 320x240
3. Upload to my site via FTP
4. Create entry with link to image

The real convience of the camera phone for me is not having to remember carry a larger camera around. It adds to the instant nature of the photographs.

Posted by: Noah at March 4, 2005 12:54 PM

Now I REALLY want a cameraphone! What's your make/model again?

Posted by: Eddie Hargreaves at March 6, 2005 01:59 PM

I use a Nokia 3650 which is no longer made and has been replaced by the Nokia 3660. The only difference between the two is the keypad. Mine has a funky circular keypad which is really hard to get used to, and the 3660 has a pretty standard keypad. Both have bluetooth (which is the main reason I got mine) and can take photos and short videos.

Posted by: Noah Brimhall at March 7, 2005 08:27 AM