chapter 544

12/23/2019

Smart Phone

they are smarter than us

My iPhone 6S Plus took this sunrise picture while I was on top of Pinnacle Mountain and I didn't even know it was doing it. When I turned on the gps program it had been tracking me up the mountain as well. Got up at 5 am to accomplish this short climb at Lake George.

Last chapter I had picked up a cheap LG but the camera was not good enough, so I got money back and got the Apple via Tracfone, thus keeping my 8000 minutes unused over the last decade. You could say my brand new (but 5 year old $200 Apple) is obsolete but it's more than I'll ever need. The specs seem pretty close to their latest $1000 model. I historically opt for the cheap $100 per year plan to just have mobile capability without making many calls. I've saved over $11,000 by not having a "typical monthly smart phone plan" over the last decade so I guess I can continue with my $100 per year plan and throw in $60 worth of data a year. Mostly I'm using WiFi hot spots so I'll use very little data. Frugal is my middle name.

I never pay for online data storage. Although I take more than 10,000 pictures a year I downsize for free storage. The pan above was 85 Megabytes original, downsized to 300 Kilobytes is just fine for me.

I gotta give a shout out to my old crank phone technology. In my youth we had this phone in our house for making calls. Three short cranks and Grandma down the party line knew it was for her and would pick up. I wanted to buy this one from the Facebook listing $150 but then thought twice and chickened out. It's in great condition for a 1910 Western Electric model and I'm guessing the guy used a smart phone to photograph it.

Believe there were four parties on our line, each with a code. If you wanted to go long distance you cranked one very long ring and the local NY Bell telephone switchboard operator would answer and patch you through to wherever.

Dale reminded me that after our phone was retired we attached the bell wires to two welding rods stuck into the ground, cranked and shockingly earth worms would come to the surface that we could use for fish bait. I remembered doing that but had forgotten the generator was from the phone. We also used to stretch a string between two empty soup cans for communication. Don't think youth do that today. Oh the lost wisdoms.

Uncle Nelson worked for Ma Bell so we had extra equipment. I was fascinated by the technology. Once climbed up our telephone pole with the iron climbers, taped into the bare copper wires and could hear other party lines.

The technology is now unfathomable. For example the built in gps capabilities bounce signals off Russian satellites 20,000 miles up to provide data to Google telling them normal traffic speeds on routes. When they sense abnormal slow downs they can issue live congestion alerts.

The panorama function is remarkable. It's like a wide angle lens but I don't want to carry around lenses for a camera so this fits the bill. Still gotta use pocket cam for my many telephotos. The Sagamore at Bolton Landing just has an awesome setting. Was gonna reward myself with breakfast there after my sunrise photo but ended up at the more comfortable trolly diner.

Did a recent snowshoe trip to Ballston Creek above Round Lake just to get out of the house for some exercise and have forced myself to learn the cell phone capabilities. Loving the rich textures and tonal qualities.

Forgot my amazing gorilla tripod that will cling to any tree but found a branch that would hold well enough for a timer photo. Have purchased the ProCamera App that allows for full manual settings but have not gotten into it yet. There's a large beaver house down there but a much bigger one is upstream.

A test on my backyard maybe 170 degrees wide late in the day. It will go 240 degrees wide but aspect ratio becomes very narrow without shooting two layers and stitching. Oh yea, I post process everything still to get the most out of the photo.

A cloudy day walk up to the end of the street. I like to call this the yin and yang inspiration. Their two hundred year old farm is a nice spread. Before Walt Smacklo died he let me cut some of his trees for firewood.

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