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New Years Eve with the iPhone

We felt like doing something different this New Year's Eve and the Newcastle Winter Carnival seemed a perfect way to spend the last afternoon and evening of 2009.

I had taken along my Nikon P6000, hoping to get some decent photographs of the whole event, including the fireworks display taking place after the procession, however after about 6 shots and using the flash on the camera, the battery was completely flat. Due to being used over the Christmas period i hadn't taken the precaution of charging the camera before leaving the house.

I didn't hold too much hope for having to resort back to the iPhone 3GS camera for night time shots but i'm pleasantly surprised with the results. 

For the photos taken last night on the iPhone, using Photoshop Mobile for some post processing I was able to increase the colour saturation (as in this shot to the left) to try and highlight the atmosphere and vibrancy of the carnival colours through a dark wintry city. 

I'm getting more and more confidence in using the iPhone camera on a more regular basis, particularly with the wealth of camera Apps and utilities available from the App Store and i'm getting quite excited to think that the next generation iPhone and it's rumoured 5MP camera may well be something to really look forward to, particularly if they manage get a Flash into the device too

My Flickr Photostream has a sample of shots taken from both the Nikon and iPhone for comparison from the event.

Happy Apple Christmas

I can't help but admire Apple's style, it's been like that since around mid-2003 when i purchased my first iPod and what was then Apple's 3rd generation version of the iconic music player. At that point I was pretty much a convert, now to a point where I've a growing collection of Apple hardware and continue to get excited by every new rumuor and release.

Apple Gifts for 2009

So this Christmas, with people recognising that fact,  I was given even more in the way of Apple related gifts. Aside from receiving iTunes vouchers I was also lucky enough to receive some quite lovely cufflinks from my fiancée;

Shaped and styled like a pair of silver plated iPhone's, I think they are great. I wear cufflinks regularly, they can express the type of person you are or how your feeling on a particular day and these sum me up perfectly. There are a few variants of iPhone styled cufflinks available but these are one of the nicer pairs in my opinion, I particularly like the silver frame representing the iPhone casing, it makes them stand out just a little bit more. I'll be wearing them quiet a lot in 2010.

I was given the new Apple Remote and it's just perfect in it's simplicity. It's build quality is amazing, particularly at the price it goes for. Gone is the white plastic remote and the annoying 'clicking' that it makes with every press, this remote is silent when operated, feels great in the hand too and nicely matches my AppleTV and MacBook Pro with it's aluminium unibody look and black buttons. I taken close up photographs of both these items using my Nikon P6000, and larger versions can be found over on my Flickr site for closer inspection.

Apple in 2010

I can't wait to see what Apple bring along in 2010. There is now a very strong rumour that they will be releasing their own Tablet (the Apple Slate?) in late January and this is going to be interesting.

People are saying it will change technology again, just as the iPhone did. I'm hoping it's an advancement in terms of interface to the current iPhone OS as I think that is in need of a slight refresh. Some of the competitors to the iPhone (Android, Palm OS and HTC's skinned Windows Mobile) all make use of widgets on the home screens, i would love to see something like this within the iSlate and potentially rolled out to the iPhone next summer, something that shows the latest weather, news, Twitter or Facebook feeds would be really nice.

The new iPhone will likely be released (as every year) around June time and I've read it will coincide with the release date of the original iPhone. Seeing that o2 are trialling 4G in the UK at the moment, it may well support the latest in mobile internet speeds, along with a front facing camera (particularly seeing that a lot of video streaming Apps have come about as late on the App Store).

I'd also dearly love to see a BluRay drive for the AppleTV, it's the only thing I feel that it misses to be a true home media entertainment device, although this is the least likely of them all i feel. One thing is for certain however, my admiration of all things Apple looks set to continue into what will be an exciting tech related 2010.

First Nikon P6000 Shots Capture Dramatic Skyline

I've only just started to show a real interest in Photography and being gadget mad, if i were to choose a digital camera it would have to have some nice cool features.

So around a week ago i decided to purchase the Nikon P6000. It's main pull for me was the Geotagging feature and seeing that I've recently installed iPhoto 09 on my MacBook Pro,the places function just made the P6000 a great camera to compliment the feature.

As part of my steps into learning photography i'll blog around photos taken with this camera and whatever i learn along the way as my Photography skills increase. Just last night the sky over my house was an amazing colour, something i haven't seen in a long time, so it became a great opportunity to capture a shot that i would be proud of.

Albeit a complete 'newbie' fluke, I was really pleased with the outcome, these haven't had any post-processing, the whole shot including colours are exactly as taken.