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Current owners of the space have rescued one of those ancient audio editing machines – and I love them for it. I used Studers like this when, almost 20 years ago, as a fresh radio reporter I learned the basics of audio recording and reel-to-reel editing. I still remember the shock I got  when my editor shortened my first 50-someting-second long piece to just under 30 seconds – just by editing out the unnecessary gaps and making everything ‘flow’ and sound more dynamic. It took him just a couple of minutes, maybe even less. The difference was striking. And all that using a Studer like the one above. (Almost a decade later, during an induction course for new BBC radio journos, I was grateful for that knowledge when I realised tape was *still* preferred over digital – and most people on the course had never used tape before.) The more time I spend filming using DSLRs with their pathetic sound recording capabilities, the more I realise how important it is nowadays to be able to replace low-quality camera output with better quality, independently recorded audio. Regardless of whether you use tape or digital, the quality of the actual recording is as, if not more, important as good sound editing skills. But sadly, both often seem to be neglected. And I’m not talking here about casual mobile YouTube uploads, but rather videos created with more advanced gear, sometimes for clients. I recently watched a clip by an international video production company (no naming and shaming here), with some fun advice on how to shoot a video using a DSLR. Great clip, pathetic sound. No effort was made to rectify this or even mention this as a potential issue. Which kind of rendered the otherwise good video useless. So what can you do? 1. Invest in good external recorders – from Zoom to Tascam, there’s something for every pocket. 2. Invest in improving your audio editing skills. If you shoot video, you probably know how to edit it too. Basic principles of both are similar. Find an online Lynda course or simply browse YouTube for free advice on levels, noise reduction and audio matching. Or anything else, in fact. 3. Learn how to get audio right from the start – think about the space in which you are recording, about who you are recording and why; avoid background noise like crowds, buzzing air-con units or ringing phones; learn the difference between different types of microphones; and read this excellent duckrabbit blog post which pretty much nails it. Trust me, with a bit of effort, it will improve your audio immensely. And you don’t need a gigantic Studer machine and a splicing block. With so many tools and resources to learn from, you frankly have no excuse. #soundediting #video

An article published by Betabeat claims Spiering is getting ready to unleash the revamped beast by the end of February. This is likely to happen in stages, but, as the screengrab above seems to suggest, the changes are likely to be more dramatic than the previous cosmetic ‘improvements’. So what can we expect? According to Betabeat, who sat down with Spiering to go over the new features, we’re likely to see: much bigger images, and a new layout (judging by the screengrab, it mimicks the Google+ photo albums layout, which confirms everyone’s suspicions that the launch of G+ must have spurred Yahoo!, Flickr owners, into action) new upload page, which “looks more like an app than a website” and offers drag-and-drop capabilities bigger focus on mobile aspects of the site new pricing structure (announced in January) But I guess there will be more features and more catching up with the competitors who’ve been given enough time to attract disillusioned Flickr users over the past few years. In a way, the timing might play into Flickr’s advantage, as those who’ve migrated to 500px and Google+ have had enough time to get familiar with these services, and if Flickr can offer a vastly improved experience, it can still woo them back. After all, it still remains the most popular dedicated photo sharing site and, as Spiering claims, users upload over 3.5 million images to Flickr every day. What I really want to know is whether Fenix, sorry, Flickr in its new incarnation will allow me to take control over what displays where. After all, one of my biggest gripes with the service was its insistence on displaying the latest image as the first one in the stream. Roll on Feb. 28! UPDATE 1 (28 Feb): As promised, Flickr has just rolled out the first change – if you go to your Contacts page, you can now choose between justified view and lightbox. The latter is the traditional Flickr lightbox, the former however gives users options to switch between 1 and 5 most recent images uploaded by your contacts (see screengrab below). The images fill the width of the page neatly and each image displays the author’s name. Mouse over an image and a grey overlay appears, showing some basic info: title, number of likes and comments, plus an option to switch to lightbox view for that image. Pretty neat. I never thought I’d say this, but so far the change has been more successful than the recent 500px refresh, which annoyed many users with its ‘flow’ and endless repetitions of images liked or commented on by others. Now I’m *really* curious about the next wave of Flickr improvements… #flickr #Google #Yahoo

A really smart move by Spotify this morning. The service allowed its users, even those using the free, ad-supported version, to create profiles and share their playlists with friends. Not just one track or album – the entire library. Once you create your profile you can decide which playlists to share and which should remain private (some of mine will certainly remain private, no doubt about that). The same applies to the most popular artists you listen to and the most frequently played tracks. And in a really clever move Spotify also allowed importing your music library from iTunes and Windows Media Player. In fact, any “legally purchased” mp3 track can be added to your library and synchronised across multiple devices. And I think that bit actually excites me the most. I’m getting tired of iTunes and its restrictive policy regarding sharing and using music I paid for. Subscribing to others’ playlists is easy, and so is sharing – you just drag and drop. The shared tracks end up in the newly created ‘inbox’. And if that’s not enough, you can stalk your friends through The Feed, which collects information on all tracks your contacts share on Facebook. Marvellous. Spotify still hasn’t addressed the issue of navigation though. I don’t have that many playlists, yet I find it really annoying scrolling up and down the page trying to find something. Can’t imagine what it’s like searching through hundreds of playlists. Now, should I consider paying for their premium service? It may even make sense… Related articles by Zemanta Spotify – the next generation (spotify.com) Spotify Now Allows iTunes Libraries To Be Uploaded [Music Streaming] (gizmodo.com) #itunes #spotify

The prize? There are two in fact. A camera – not any camera, of course, but a Leica one. The winning image will also be published in the magazine. Unfortunately, you’ll need to pay $22 dollars per each single submission, I guess they’re doing it to eliminate the really bad and random pictures, but still, that’s quite a lot to pay for the privilege. Even if you don’t want to submit your images, the site is worth a peek. Some stunning images there and you can also see the past winners. #contest #nationalgeographic #photography

After my recent Dartmoor post, here comes the Beachy Head lighthouse. I’ve always wanted to do the East Dean to Eastbourne walk along the Seven Sisters path. I eventually managed last weekend. The weather was ideal, my camera was ready and I wasn’t afraid to use it. And a word of warning. This one here nearly stole my lunch. You’ve been warned. Like these? See my other pictures here. #beachyhead #landscape #lighthouse #photography

London is in the middle of the Fashion Week, and today I visited a showcase for emerging designers from around the world at 180 The Strand. The group exhibition brings 80 designers from countries like Portugal, China, Vietnam, Qatar and Hungary together in this amazing venue. It’s a fascinating site – an old office space converted into a (temporary?) gallery, opposite the Australian High Commission and the old BBC World Service headquarters, Bush House. I know as much about fashion as I do about space exploration, but I was fascinated by some of the designs – and the venue. Then there were other, less intricate designs, like this minimalistic set by Jo Nurm from Estonia: Jo kindly agreed to pose for me with her multipurpose garments, which are created to be adjusted and transformed to avoid excess supply in life. How refreshing. The two floors of the brutalist building in The Strand have been used by the London Fashion Week since 2009. I’m not sure whether the light installation is a permanent feature, but I love how it guides visitors from the ground floor to the first floor. Oh, and did I mention I loved their space rocket-style heaters? #fashion #BritishCouncil #londonfashionweek #JoNurm #internationalfashionshowcase

The best according to me, I hasten to add, as this is a very subjective list of my favourite iPhone photo applications. I know there are hundreds of apps for photographers, but I’ve been using these for months and can pretty much say these are the best in terms of creativity, fun and functionality. The order is random, although as you will see, I use some of these more often than others. One of those applications which capture the imagination of both photographers and casual users. The Hipstamatic for iPhone is, according to its creators, an application that brings back the look, feel, unpredictable beauty, and fun of plastic toy cameras from the past. And indeed, it’s both fun and unpredictable. The basic version of the app comes with three interchangeable lenses, three different types of film and two flashes. Each of the components produces different results and when combined they offer some amazing ‘analogue’ images. They come out slightly darkish, blotchy and discoloured. And this old-fashioned, sentimental quality of Hipstamatic prints is exactly what appeals to so many users. I like: the interface is lovely and easy to use you can choose to develop high quality prints the choice of extras – lenses, films, flashes – gives users a lot of flexibility you can also enter your photos to various Hipstamatic competitions I don’t like: the classic viewfinder can be annoying due to its size; you can switch to ‘precision framing’, but it’s equally small you need to pay for every extra lens, film or flash, but you can’t really blame the creators for wanting to make some extra money on what is a very successful application Also known as fauxlaroid. Like with Hipstamatic, it’s all about sentimentality and recreating the analogue past on your iPhone. In this case, it’s about getting Polaroid prints on your screen. Having tested several photo apps, I’ve recently realised that what I really value about the best ones is their simplicity. And ShakeIt couldn’t be simpler. You take a photo, decide whether to use it or not, then wait a few seconds (you can shake the phone to develop it faster – this is an unnecessary gimmick, IMHO) and you get a nice Polaroid-like print. Slightly saturated, with a bit of vignetting and the characteristic white frame. Currently ShakeIt has replaces Hipstamatic as my top photo app. Mainly thanks to the fact that it doesn’t require any additional settings and is simple to use. Which is important bearing in mind we’re talking about mobile photos here. I like: virtually no options, which is actually an advantage, makes it very easy to use and enjoy prints come out quite big I don’t like: the ‘shake it’ function only justifies the app’s name and makes use of iPhone functionality, but doesn’t contribute anything and is theferore a useless gimmick (it doesn’t really recreate the Polaroid experience, IMHO) For a long long time, Chase Jarvis’s ‘simplified Photoshop’ app was my favourite photo app. Not only does it allow users to modify images in a simple way, but also adds a social element to the whole experience. Each photo can automatically be published no only to individually configurable social networking sites, but also to the Best Camera ongoing contest page. Each user also gets a mini-portfolio, where all Best Cam uploads are collected. I’ve seen some really good professional photographers having fun with The Best Cam pictures. Its very simple interface allows users to apply one of several available effects (Vignette, Warm, Candy, etc.), crop and frame an existing image. (Unlike the previous two apps, The Best Cam doesn’t allow users to take new photos, it only works with existing images.) It’s actually pretty amazing to see what this little app can do to seemingly mundane pictures – I took the pic above during my lunch break – the original looked like this: The Best Cam version of the pic got 21 thumbs up and over 240 views during the time it was displayed on the Best Camera home page. Not bad for a random lunchtime shot, eh? I like: its simplicity its social aspect it allows you to stumble upon and discover new photographers via their mini-portfolios I don’t like: it would be nice to have more options sometimes – I wouldn’t even mind paying for some more advanced extras the tile mosaic which displays recently uploaded pictures sometimes crashes or displays the same pictures over and over again Another application which helps develop rather than take pictures. SwankoLab, from the makers of Hisptamatic, is another “let’s go back to analogue” app, which attempts to recreate the analogue darkroom experience on the tiny Apple screen. And swanky it is indeed. This is the app for which the iPhone was invented. As its makes say, SwankoLab is a darkroom kit […]; a loving recreation of the pre-digital era classic. Choose chemicals, process photos, and experiment! And that’s exactly what you do. You choose the picture you want to ‘develop’, then reach for the chemicals you want to use (they come with useful descriptions which use modern, Photoshop-compatible terminology), mix them together and see what happens. If you’re not particularly adventurous, you can always use some ready-made formulas. The app comes with its own sound effects and also offers the ability to annotate prints, email them or save to your photo library. You can extend the app by purchasing additional ‘chemicals’ from Uncle Stu’s darkroom catalog. I like: the virtually endless possibilities – mix’n’match till you find your perfect formula slick interface, likely to appeal to sentimental photographers trying to re-live pre-digital darkroom experiences and to those who care less about photography but simply like their apps funky I don’t like: this is my personal preference, but the simplicity of apps like ShakeIt makes SwankoLab seem a bit gimmicky missing the ability to share on Facebook or Twitter straight from the app no Flickr integration despite all these formulas, the prints don’t have a distinctive feel and look and look a bit bland Need I say more? Probably the most widely-used photography software in the world, yet the iPhone/mobile version doesn’t seem to have that many fans. I rarely use it, if I have to be honest. If and when I do, I reach for it when I need functionality which is not available elsewhere, like a flexible crop tool. It is a decent application which offers most of the very basic tools that are available to Photoshop users and more. Apart from cropping you can also straighten images (very useful and very easy to apply), you can flip and rotate them too. Adjusting exposure is very simple – just move your finger across the screen to change the values and see the final outcome. Adjusting everything else – from saturation to contrast – is equally simple. The iPhone/mobile version of Photoshop also comes with a few effects and a choice of borders, but its best asset is definitely its choice of the classic Photoshop tools. You can’t beat that. I like: Facebook integration, you can also use your Adobe ID if you’ve got one no need to use sliders to make adjustments instant preview I don’t like: it integrates with Twitpic, but why only TwitPic? it doesn’t remember the last image, always starts from zero, which I find annoying #SwankoLab #bestcamera #photography #shakeitphoto #hipstamatic #Smartphone #shakeit #photoshop #iphone

A blast from the past. Literally. 41 years ago a camera, running at 500 frames per second (yes, I know), captured the launch of Apollo 11 on a 16mm tape. Thanks to the use of the 500 fps camera, the actual 30-second take-off  sequence is stretched to eight minutes. (And recently converted to HD too). The resulting footage is mesmerising and terrifying in equal measure. Listen to the commentary for more details and insights. http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4366695&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1 Apollo 11 Saturn V Launch (HD) Camera E-8 from Mark Gray on Vimeo. #hd #video

On a sunny day it’s a nice, 30-minute stroll along the pebbly beach. But nothing prepares you for the sheer ugliness of the place. Cause if you’re a pedestrian, you walk through some of the coldest, ugliest and unfriendliest public space you are likely to experience, before you reach the above-mentioned bars for a well-deserved pint. Cars approach the marina via a series of bridges leading straight to a multi-storey car park. It’s a different story though if – instead of driving –  you walk from Brighton itself. First you pass a piece of no-man’s land. It’s partly fenced-off and fugly. There’s no better way of describing it. Then you negotiate the lovely concrete tunnel… …before finding yourself in the middle of a car-park (with a car-washing facility in the corner). From there, the quickest way to the Marina leads via, yes, you’ve guessed it, another car park. It’s the multi-storey one I mentioned earlier. And unless you go to the cinema (on the other side of the car park), you need to walk (no lifts, but maybe that’s actually good) to the 4th floor as this is the only level from which you can access all the bars and restaurants. According to Wikipedia, a planning application to redevelop the west side of the Marina was submitted four years ago and subsequently refused. Those who opposed the redevelopment claimed it would spoil the views and called it inappropriate. There was a separate plan to redevelop the eyesore, but it was put on hold too. As a consequence, Brighton has been left with this monstrosity which even on a warm and sunny day looks cold, unattractive and uninviting. Brighton Marina. Sounds exciting, eh? #Brighton #Marina #street

I installed WordPress for iPhone when I first got the phone, but, apart from comment moderation, I haven’t used the app for blogging as such. Which is as shame, as the plans were grand. As always. But maybe my long commute will motivate me to use it more often. Let’s see whether I perservere or go back to reading Metro. (Oh, and I can upload pics too? Marvellous! Here’s one from the weekend by the river). #iphone

A few weeks ago I mentioned that the New York Times had chosen a picture I took at the beginning of November during a weekend away in Petersfield, Hampshire to promote their “A world at 7 billion” project on their Facebook page. The paper wanted to create a time capsule for those who were born around the time when we broke the 7 billion people barrier and looked for submissions from all over the world. That picture, even though not my typical urban shot, was the only relatively decent – and vaguely relevant – one I took around that time. I’m pleased to see it made the final selection and – along with many others – will now be preserved in a time capsule for those who were born at the end of 2011. And when they grow up, what will they see when they look back at the recession-ravaged English corner of the world at odds with the rest of the European Union? This: And if you live in or around Petersfield, pick up a copy of the Petersfield Herald today. They were very excited to discover their town had made it onto the pages of the New York Times… #lens #NewYorkTimes #Petersfield

I remember the first time I saw The Milky Way. Not an image in a book or online. In real life. Right in front of my eyes. Or rather way above my head. It’s a mind-blowing experience, something we never see in big, light-polluted cities like London. I was in South Africa, in the middle of the African bush, and one night while sitting by the fire we looked up and saw this: It does put everything into perspective. You realise where you are in the Universe, or rather how insignificant you are in the context of what’s around you. I had my DSLR with me, but I didn’t have a fast lens. I was ready for animal shots in the bright African sunshine, but not for long exposures in the middle of the night. That’s why the above image doesn’t do The Milky Way I saw any justice. It was multi-coloured, really rich, dense and indescribably beautiful. If you’ve never seen the Milky Way in real life, the following timelapse video is a pretty good substitute. It was filmed between 4th and 11th April 2011 by Terje Sorgjerd atop El Teide, Spain´s highest mountain. As he wrote, the mountain “is one of the best places in the world to photograph the stars and is also the location of Teide Observatories, considered to be one of the world´s best observatories. The goal was to capture the beautiful Milky Way galaxy along with one of the most amazing mountains I know El Teide.” And the result is breathtaking. As always with Vimeo, go full screen and don’t miss the Sahara sandstorm some 30 seconds in: http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=22439234&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=1&color=00adef&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0 The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo. And if you liked it, here’s another video Terje shot – at the famous Maeklong Market in Bangkok, where market stalls share their space with a railway line. Life on this planet has so many amazing aspects… #TerjeSorgjerd #timelapse #video