Posts Tagged ‘iphone’

first off I wanted to say a huge thank you to all of you who read these random ramblings of mine, I’ve now reached the landmark of 100 wordpress.com followers and having that support and following has been great. As some of you longer term readers will know I started rambling around on the web in frustration at shoddy customer service and to give poor Mrs Bunny Chow a break from listening to me whining. At the time I’d never even read any blogs and had no idea that this community even existed or dreamed that I could become part of it.

Blogging has become a hobby for me and keeps me out of trouble, I became really down a week or so ago when a close friend began questioning why I would be “doing shit drawings and putting them all over the internet” well my friend I do them because it’s my hobby and I gain pleasure from it and thanks to you good people out here in the blogosphere seem to gain something from my photography and art, I could have retaliated in person and attacked his passions and questioned what led him to do what he does in his free time but I was grown up enough to drop it and remember that art is subjective, just because he might not like what I am doing that’s entirely his right to make that decision and whilst my feelings at the time were deeply deeply hurt and poor Mrs Bunny Chow had to listen to me griping and whining, having allowed myself time to simmer I realise that in reality I would defend to the end his right to his opinions, I may not agree with them but the internet is a wonderful democracy and if he chooses not to enjoy my artistic that’s his prerogative, I’m not going to give up my hobby because it doesn’t float the boat of someone else, be they a real life friend or the occasional internet troll.

Next I’d like to talk about artistic inspiration, it’s a topic I’ve covered a couple of times before in these pages but would like to touch on again inspired by the lovely Patricia over at Pixygiggles who asked about artistic Mojo and how creativity can be commanded, well the simple answer is that it can’t be commanded, well at least not by me, there are plenty of weeks that go by where I battle to keep taking pictures but I keep going. I draw my inspiration and ideas from a variety of sources, Google+ and especially the Project 52 list have thus far inspired at least 34 posts with plenty more to come, Nick and Shannon from www.nickexposed.com and http://seeingspotsphoto.wordpress.com/ have been equally inspiring with their monthly community collaboration projects.

Then there are just people like the aforementioned Patricia who goes out of her way day after day to share her interpretation of the world and what it means to her at any given time, I’ve discovered so many people who inspire me to go out and create on a daily basis, I don’t share every failure with you but I do share plenty of them and do you know what sometimes I cringe but more often I’ll just look back with pride and think I created that, sure I’ve learned a lot about photography in the last year or so and might approach things differently if faced with the same opportunities today but isn’t that what learning is all about, do golfers ever shoot that perfect round and think sod it that’s enough I’ll quit now?

Phew this is turning into something of a rant, deep breath, I started writing today because I wanted to thank all of you who have welcomed me and inspired me to keep going and enjoy myself, at the end of the day this is my little fiefdom but all of you make it a happy little fiefdom so thank-you for being you.

My last little ramble is to ask opinions of phonography and the proliferation of filter apps like instagram and hipstamatic, I keep changing my mind about them, they’re fun, they’re quirky, they’re always in your pocket but the pictures that come out of them are crap, yet it’s that same crapness that I somehow like about them and keep finding myself drawn back to even when editing my photographs from my camera I find myself drawn back to retro feeling editing styles, is this because of the cliché or just because it’s what I’ve always found aesthetically appealing, I’m not sure I can answer that at the moment so I’ll leave the floor open for your thoughts.

The pictures interspersed throughout this post are not new, they’re just a few I’ve chosen because I liked them and felt like sharing them, I’m pretty sure they’ve all been seen in these pages before but if they’re new to you I hope you like them and if you don’t then that’s fine too.

Comment your lives away.

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

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when I first started this blog I’d never even read another blog or even given much thought over to blogging as a means of communication.

My early posts were mostly long rambling complaints about terrible customer service I’d received from a succession of terrible companies and restaurants and I was seething and boiling over to the point of driving my nearest and dearest to distraction so rather than continuing to vent my frustrations on those nearest me, I started ranting, initially on blogger and then shortly after emigrating wholesale to WordPress. Rather than finding a niche early on as my anger faded I began doing a few reviews and even wrote what remains my biggest hit as far as search engine traffic my glowing review of the service provided by the Courtney Boot Company. As a side note, nearly a year on from getting my boots back I’m still wearing them daily.

I also began writing a few posts about becoming a father for the second time and my thoughts and feelings surrounding that as almost everything I read or heard would discuss the mothers thoughts, fears and perspectives, that’s not to put those down it’s simply a comment about the lack or support I could find for us blokes who’re too tough and macho to talk about our feelings with real people, and where there is plenty of support out there for mums there’s not a lot out there for dads.

In the run up to the new year I gained a little fervour for food blogging and launched www.mrbunnychowcooks.com which initially gained great traction but fell largely by the wayside when I managed to stab myself and began my Ouch series, I also began my project 52 at the start of the year, rekindling my long-held passion for photography and bringing another change of focus to these pages.

Anyway what I’ve been meaning to get around to with all of this rambling is what initially brought you to www.mrbunnychow.com do you visit regularly, do you know me personally, do you like reading about me blowing a gasket, do you like looking at pretty pictures, do you subscribe or just pop in occasionally having seen a link or comment on another site.

Blogging success has never been and never will be my aim I’m just a curious geek wondering who my readers are and why you are.

Please do comment below and let me know as much or as little about yourself as you are comfortable with.

alternatively you can always send me a private message via rantingmrbunnychow@gmail.com

I hope you’re all well out there

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

continuing on with my quick posts for Nick and Shannon‘s July community collaboration scavenger hunt I want to share this doodle of mine of a Zebu or Brahman style bull to fit the category for what’s your sign.

I have not shown anyone any of my doodling since I was at school many many moons ago and ummed and aaaahed for a long time before posting this but eventually decided that even if you think the drawing sucks then at least I’ve had the courage to show it, better to try and fail than not try at all.

  • “Chuck Norris Was Here”
  • “Big Foot Footprint”
  • Reflected Love
  • Abstract Self Portrait
  • Framed Moon
  • “Whats your sign”
  • Anti-gravity
  • Unusual Perspective
  • Abandoned
  • Silence
  • Pride and Joy
  • Emerging Star
  • Buried Treasure
  • Sparkler fun
  • Clownin Around Upside-down
  • Lyric Quotograph
  • Summer
  • Patriotism
  • Night

Have a Great weekend guys

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

HEY CREATIVES!!  IT IS THAT TIME!!!!

We are excited to bring you this months Community Collaboration Project (CCP? That could catch on ;)  )!!

But first, before we get into the AWESOME project theme, Shannon and I wanted to send out a HUGE thank you to all who have participated in our last couple projects!! With out all of your continued support, these projects would be uber lame. We look forward to continuing to make these projects bigger and better in order to consistently stretch your creative imagination and skill sets. :)

So with that being said… if you’ve been following along on our Facebook pages (you doooo follow the Nick Exposed and Seeing Spots pages, right??) then you know we’ve been leaving you clues about this month’s theme.  The trick was…the fact that we were leaving clues was the clue!  So, without further ado… We bring you this month’s CCP theme…

THE SCAVENGER HUNT!!

Are you excited? Because we sure as hell are!!

Not sure how much explanation this project needs, but here’s the Nitty Gritty:

15 days and more than 15 scavenger ideas to shoot. We are urging you to do as many possible – one per day would be great – but we are including a few extras for those over-achievers out there.  Now we know, this is an ambitious project, but we’re confident that will all give it as much as you can. You can do all 15 as a once a day kind of thing, or you can pick and choose from the list and shoot just a small handful of ideas. We chose a wide range of somewhat off the wall, creative ideas for you guys to pick through, each with endless possibilities on how you can approach it.

The project will go from today June 15th to Sunday June 30th at midnight EST.

Anyone and everyone is welcome to join in on the photography fun.  *hint hint hint* Share with your friends! Spread the word! Post on your Facebook/Twitters/G+/local grocery store community board. Reblog! Scream it from the rooftops! (But make sure it’s before 10pm….otherwise the neighbors get grumpy. :-)  *end hint*  Ahem…now where were we?

Oh yes!  This project is for you, Aunt Betty and your smelly brother Sam.  It’s for your neighbor, your neighbor’s neightbor and their Uncle Bob.  Anyone with a way to capture images is welcome to join us.  Shoot with your slr, dslr, point n shoot or camera phone. Hell we don’t care if you shoot with your little sisters Barbie camera. Just get creative with it.

As always please send an email to submit@nickexposed.com with “Count me in for the Scavenger Hunt” in the subject line. Also include the blog/web address you will want your pictures linked to when we put together the gallery at the end of the month.

Below is the list of scavenger ideas to choose from. We cant wait to see your creative interpretation of the different items.

  • “Chuck Norris Was Here”
  • “Big Foot Footprint”
  • Reflected Love
  • Abstract Self Portrait
  • Framed Moon
  • “Whats your sign”
  • Anti-gravity
  • Unusual Perspective
  • Abandoned
  • Silence
  • Pride and Joy
  • Emerging Star
  • Buried Treasure
  • Sparkler fun
  • Clownin Around Upside-down
  • Lyric Quotograph
  • Summer
  • Patriotism
  • Night

We are truly excited to see what you can do with this collaborative project.  We know what creative people you are – and it’s a real treat to see how you interpret these challenges.  It’s a great source of inspiration for us, and for the other participants!

Keep checking our pages, FB’s and twitters (SSP & NE) for updates and shout outs!

one of the reasons I decided to expand my camera collection from my excellent FujiHS20EXR is that whilst it does have full manual controls they are hidden away in deep dark recesses and its whole design philosophy is based around let us help you to take brilliant pictures by having lots of set themes that allow you to tell us what you want and then we’ll set the camera up to do just that.

This is the modern way as pioneered by companies like Apple telling us what we want before we know we want it. It’s a brilliant concept and allows mere mortals to do extraordinary things with technology that we would never have dreamed possible just a few years ago.

The difficulty comes in when we decide that we don’t want to take what would normally be deemed an attractive photograph and whilst my Fuji would allow me that manual control it made it as fiddly and awkward as possible. My newly acquired Canon EOS 10D on the other hand was made in a time before the iPhone and whilst it does have fully automated options it will just as happily let you, nay encourage you to push the envelope of accepted dogma and behave like an idiot. It’s like being able to switch off the traction control on a modern car, sure  the car probably knows better and ignoring its advice may mean you kill yourself in a lurid slide of acrid tyre smoke but shouldn’t that be the choice of the consumer not boffins in a lab.

Phew that almost turned into a rant of Mr Bunny Chow of old proportions, you’re really just here to look at some long exposure shots aren’t you.

Right then without further delay Nick of Nick Exposed and Shannon of Seeing Spots set forth another challenge following on from the great success of their Quotography challenge this time challenging us to come up with Long Exposures.

I’ve been exceedingly busy over the last few weeks so haven’t had the opportunity to really push the envelope with a tripod and super steady shots but such is the beauty of the flexibility of the Canon EOS system that I was able to produce some interesting shots none the less.

Cycle Strobe

What’s going on

Racing Corner

Please let me know what you think of them and feel free to leave comment, tips and critique.

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

Another lazy/busy week from me means that I’ve once again neglected you my loyal readers and have little to share aside from my Project 52 shot and a couple of others that I liked from the week. Thankfully I can’t even use illness as an excuse anymore as touch wood I seem to be through my illnesses with just a minor sniffle remaining.

As a bonus I’ve even managed to lose 15kg’s over the last couple of months.

Anyway moving on the theme this week was flowers and I decided that I’d play around with some macro shots and see how I got along.

summer colours

This is the picture I ultimately chose, more for its aesthetic qualities and bright summery colours than any sort of technical brilliance as ultimately I’ve not had time to break out my tripod or even wait for the wind to stop blowing so it’s not perfectly focused and the 7mm spacer I was using also creates incredibly shallow depth of field which also push perhaps more of the photo out of focus than I would have liked. Still I really like the picture so I used it anyway.

I’ve also been thinking about my long exposure collaboration project with Nick over at Nick Exposed and Shannon at Seeing Spots Photo and for pretty much the same reasons I’ve not broken out my tripod but have been thinking and playing a little and thought you might like this shot.

ooh look shiny spinning lights

Sadly the sky is massively overexposed and I was unable to pull it back using my I’m lazy 30 seconds max rule for post production but I think the shot ultimately still works well.

the next group of photo’s are just a few more that I liked from the last week and hope that you will enjoy gawping at. Please let me know what you thing about posting them as a gallery as opposed to inline as I have in the past. (clicking on them should make them bigger)

Next week’s challenge is self-portrait so I may have to subject you to seeing my ugly mug unless I can come up with some sort of thinly disguised artistic excuse to avoid taking my own picture.

Hope you’re all keeping well

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

This week I’m going to keep things very short and sweet as once again I seem to have come down with lurgy and feel much like death only warmed through a little bit and a temperature approaching 40°C (104°F) it’s not been a good couple of weeks for me or the long-suffering, bored of my whining, Mrs Bunny Chow, she’s very good to me on the whole but I’m fed up so you can just imagine how she’s feeling.

In other news tomorrow is my birthday and to celebrate we’ve hired a babysitter and are going out for a meal with friends tonight, what a luxury it will be to eat a meal out without one or the other of us ending up with cold food whilst wrestling with either The Bug or the Monkey Boy. While we’re on the topic of the kids The Bug has learned to crawl pretty much over night and is now getting seriously quick, there’s no going back from here. The Monkey Boy has also reached his stride as a two-year old and is now asserting his wants and desires vociferously and often in the middle of the night.

So anyway I was supposed to be keeping this one quick, my theme this week was Sky and Clouds which actually proved rather challenging as we’ve had weeks of grey miserable overcast sky’s with little or no interest within them. Bleurgh, see I’m even whining at you lot can you imagine how Mrs BC feels.

 

Sky and Clouds

 Anyway I managed to get some interesting shots in the end but chose this one because I liked my blessed Bunny Chow poking her nose into the bottom edge of the shot.

Next weeks theme is contrasting colours

Hope you’re all well

 TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

 

 

Howdy to all you wordpressers,

I hope that you’ll be pleased to know that I am now on the mend and my manflu seems to be mostly in recession, although I’m still very tired I’m back at work and back to carrying a camera around most of the time. Thank you for all your kind messages and thoughts, they really did help.

This week’s theme was symmetry and I like to think that my rather surreal shot portrays this. The question I’m going to ask you though is can you tell what the big picture is, do you know what the shot is actually of? I can’t wait to hear your guesses.

There will be a couple of other posts from me coming up today and tomorrow discussing the quotography project I’ve been participating in for Nick Exposed and Seeing Spots.

Hope you’re all well and happy.

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

 

This week I’m going to talk to you a little about technology, which was the suggested theme for this weeks project 52 post.

Things may get a little geeky at points and I apologise for that I’m passionate about a number of geeky things though so you’ll either have to skip this one or put up with it, you never know you might learn something that will be useful in your life. Actually I doubt that you will unless you are slightly geeky.

left to right we have FujiFilm HS20EXR, Canon EOS 10d, Canon EOS 650

I mentioned recently that I’d managed to buy an old Canon EOS 650 film camera but wanted to borrow a lens to ensure that it all worked before investing any further in it, well I put out the shout and an old friend who I’ll call Mr Falkland came through and has leant me not only three of his lenses but his incredibly beautiful Canon EOS 10d semi professional body so that I can have an idea of what the lenses to before wasting valuable time and money on film and shooting blind. I know he’s an occasional reader so thank you Mr Falkland, I am hugely touched that you trust me not to break it. I plan to make the most of your incredibly generous loan and learn as much as I can.

Going into a little more detail about the picture contents included we have my trusty HS20EXR which looks dwarfed in this company, I still love her though, she’s a great camera and hugely flexible. The strap is obviously not original and is a retro look GoTo strap purchased for me by Mrs Bunny Chow as a 4th anniversary present.

Squashed into the middle and barely visible is Mr Falklands EOS10d fitted with a Sigma 30-100mm (I’m working from memory here so could be wrong) lense.

and then finally my Canon EOS650 in this instance fitted with Mr Falklands Sigma 18-30mm wide-angle lens and another GoTo vintage strap bought again by Mrs Bunny Chow.

I’ve not had much opportunity to play with either the loan or film camera as yet but will endeavour to get some shots done over the weekend to share with you all next week. (longer for the film stuff I suspect)

moving on.

The rather poor quality picture was taken with my new phone a HTC One X running Android in its latest Ice Cream Sandwich incarnation then skinned with HTC’s own sense interface. As many of my longer term readers will know I have been an iPhone user for a number of years now and decided to make the switch for a number of reasons which I’m going to list.

  1. I’m a geek and no self-respecting geek is entirely happy with how iOS locks you into doing things they way they see as being the right way.
  2. I couldn’t see enough of an update between the iPhone 4 that I had and the iPhone 4S to justify making the swap but wasn’t prepared to wait for the theoretical iPhone 5.
  3. 3. I wanted to see what all they hype about android was all about and if I’m honest just fancied a change.

So what do I think so far?

Pro’s so far:

  • The huge 4.7inch screen is beautiful to behold and the colours really pop, the iPhone’s retina display still has smaller pixels and deeper blacks though.
  • It’s different, I had an iPhone 3G followed by an iPhone 4 and other than the semi regular iOS updates which were evolutionary not revolutionary I’ve had the same basic concept for four years now or an eon in technological terms.
  • Widgets and live wallpapers are an amusing/fun thing even if not much more useful than a red circle reminding me that I have more emails to check than I have time for.

Con’s so far:

  • The camera on paper at least should offer superior performance to the iPhone with an aperture of f2.0 (smaller number means more light hitting the sensor) and 8mp as opposed to the iPhone 4’s aperture of f2.8 and 5mp. The reality is though that the picture quality from the iPhone’s sensor seems to offer much lower levels of noise (sparkly bits) in low and even medium light levels. This noise is obvious and apparent on the phone’s screen never mind when blown up to its full size on a computer screen. As a camera guy this is a big deal to me and time will tell if software updates and improve this major flaw. 
  • The 4.7 inch screen despite being a beauty to behold is just a tiny bit too big for my hands to comfortably type on single-handed. Not a big deal 90% of the time but if you have lady like hands something to be conscious of before considering one of these.
  • The screen is not as sensitive or as accurate as that of the iPhone, I’m sure that I’ll get used to this one as my friend who’s always been an Android man thinks it’s fine but to me at least it’s still a niggle, the difference is subtle but still there.
  • Despite its quad-core +1 processors, the fact that apps etc continue to run in the background unless you force them to stop means that it’s no faster than iOS the majority of the time. 

I’m still happy with the phone and realise that a lot of my niggles are more things just being different from what I have become accustomed to. Time will tell if they are things that affect my next phone upgrade and whether I go back to iOS or stick with Android in the future, but that day is at least a couple of years away so we’ll have to see how things unfold and where technology has gone by then.

If you’d like to see more of my pictures there are plenty available through my Google+ account, be sure to introduce yourself as not everything is posted publicly.

Next week the suggested theme will be in the Kitchen so as well as taking some pictures for you I may even make an effort to revive the fortunes of www.mrbunnychowcooks.com

Until then

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

For those of you out of the loop Grandma Bunny Chow normally resides in my home country of Zimbabwe and had travelled to the UK as the Zimbabwean representative of Alzheimer’s Disease International at their annual conference. I don’t profess to be an expert on the disease or it’s challenges but I do know that ADI do excellent work in overcoming prejudices and providing support to those suffering from dementia so please do show them support if you ever come into contact with them.

On Saturday afternoon I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to spend an afternoon following my mother and a group of representatives from Alzheimer’s Disease International as they embarked on a walking tour around The City of London.

it was the vibrant colour of these tights that made me decide that I couldn't stick to just black and white

Strictly speaking I wasn’t supposed to be there as I wasn’t part of the party so to speak but they allowed me to follow them around without complaint whist I took pictures of the group, as well as passers-by and The City.

this guy had such knowledge etched into his face

Street photography is a style I greatly admire and one day hope to become proficient in but for this walk it was really just me playing with my camera settings and seeing what worked best. The pictures I have chosen to share in this post are some of the ones I thought worked out best although they vary hugely in style.

just look at that hair

I definitely appreciate any creative input or idea’s from my readers as to what you like and also what you think of when you think street photography, are you all about the gritty black and white or do you prefer to capture the vibrancy and colours of springtime in the metropolis? I know it’s something I’m torn about which is why many of these photo’s work individually but I’m not so sure how well they work as a collective.

I have no idea what she was up to either, she just stopped did this funny move and then carried on without a by your leave or care in the world

anyway I’ve only been waffling on this long so that I can break up the pictures a bit and keep you reading, but I’ll just let the captions do the talking from here on in.

I don't know if this guy had Tourette's syndrome or was just a nutter but he kept marching up and down swearing to himself and muttering threats of intended violence.

Self importance is always an interesting subject

am I casting the next Doctor Who or just being a RayBan fanboy?

no story here I just like this picture

why so serious?

Looking back I'm beginning to think that my walk might have taken place further back in the past than Saturday.

Bob Geldof doing the funky chicken?

Happy Birthday Conita wherever you may be

completely out of context and definitely not street photography but I like the shot and couldn't think of anywhere else to use it.

She's listening intently

I told you Granny Bunny Chow was here, she's also listening intently unlike the bloke in the background who just looks bored.

deep in thought

and back to colour, this guy was just too cool for school

so cool that he deserved two shots

another completely out of context random architecture shot but I liked it so it's here.

so the kids do still skate, last time I got on a skateboard I ended up in a cast (15+ years ago) so have stayed away ever since despite thinking that they always looked cool.

somehow this lady transmagorfed herself from a Parisian cafe in order for me to take her picture.

an attempt at artistic blur

something to smile about

I wonder if they'd noticed that they were sitting in bright sunshine on a beautiful spring day or were just on their way back from Siberia.

 such attitude, makes you wonder if he/she was actually throwing a hissy fit or I was just lucky

well that’s it from me for now, as always I love to hear from you and know what your thoughts are, should I stick to one style or keep flitting between or just give up on the street thing altogether?

Many thanks for looking and TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow