Sx

Homelessness. Les Mis. Fat Dudes. Ricky Gervais. World Wrestler legs and bike shorts.. oh, and a spot of Nuclear Power!  This is sort of funny stuff…

It’s 2006… The only way I knew that was because we were headed home for Christmas, and it was before we moved buildings for work… AND I play Jimi…

Podcast Two – Imogen Heap Kicks off… October the 14th!?

Number two and it’s me again… Not sure “when” it is.. But I’m with “Mr. Nathan” he has “Orange” to say for himself…

John Farnham drops in for a duet, Mince Pies, Mr. Kipling, Snow & Rock…

Podcast Three – Oh baby – the music is amazing! – Rhiannon on Sunday the 29th of October, 2006!

Computers, the users make them what they are in 77% of cases… Surfing50States.com was on my radar, they’ve made it large now! Steve Irwin is dead, South Park suck.

Climate Change, Jailed Bloggers and a Pig is tested for foot and mouth… Oh, and Borat!?…(Oh, and the kid broke my tennis racket 5 years before) AND we speak to Mr. Nathan again!!… Amazing!!..

Good times eh…

You can see more of THAT rockstar at www.nathanpask.com

..are you being watched?

iPhone 4 plays stuff back in the following formats..
AAC (8 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), HE-AAC, MP3 (8 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, 4, Audible Enhanced Audio, AAX, and AAX+), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV

But, what format does it record in?
…um, I dunno?

So, this is a test.. Recorded straight into the iPhone using voice recorder… no mic, no nothin’

Here’s the original m4a file (download it and delete it, make yourself feel good!)

And here’s a version converted to mP3 using Alto Mp3 Gold – 320kbps

What’s the best recording set-up for iPhone? I think I’ll try Sonoma’s “FourTrack” – anyone used it?

Black…

I want to share a little story based loosely around something that happened recently involving www.demotix.com and Mr. Mike Granatt…

Here’s the basis of what went on : “UK Press Card Authority chair Mike Granatt said: “The Demotix ‘press pass’ is nothing of the sort, despite the fact that it is designed to look like a genuine journalists’ identity document.” you can see a little more here.

So, on with the story…

I’ve been a supporter (though I didn’t quite fit really, music related stories not Demotix main market) of Demotix from the off. I could appreciate that a lot of people were not fans as the idea of introducing “citizen journalism” could be seen to be taking work from the current batch of paid journalists and letting “just about anyone with a voice or a camera” do the job… I have many journalist friends and in a mini gtvone-stylie survey, it was suggested that those people didn’t actually care all that much “If there’s news to be reported and someone is there, that’s good, as long as it’s reported fair and true” was the main theme amongst my snap-happy, copy-ridden friends… So I continued to submit my images and follow along on Twitter, meeting up with the guys on occasion and hearing what they had to say as a company (over a cheeky pint of milk) and generally liking everything about them…

So from a general observer with a slight interest in the whole “Press” thing, I became more involved and thought about doing much more “citizen journalism” and submitting my work to Demotix. I thought that having a press card would be a good thing and wondered to myself “what would it take to get a UK Press Card?” and as ever, set about finding out!… As a community manager for a large photography website and a general voice on many things photography, I thought it would be interesting to be in touch with someone at the NUJ and ask a few questions..

Mr. Mike Granatt suggests that Police may be misled by the Demotix press card and that it may be misused? My question to you then, Mike, is why did the NUJ give me an actual, real UK Press Card? All I had to do was join the union, pay a little bit and ask the right people and HEY PRESTO! (I’ve removed my number so that it’s not misused) what makes this card (below) different to the Demotix version in terms of “I could have either” it seems?

I'm not a terrorist, honest!

Now, Mike, I’m certainly not about to pull a crazy stunt and barge my way into an area where I may be less “wanted” but what’s stopping me? I have a Press Card baby! I’m not a news gatherer, or am I? I respect the fact that The NUJ looks after Journos and I’m certainly not out to make any enemies their either, but the question has to be asked “why the hell would they give me a press card?”

Everyone has the right to capture what they see that they deem newsworthy, and to have an organisation like Demotix there to back you up and help you get that news out to the people, that’s a good thing right? I had support from Demotix when I went along to photograph G20 – They advised on what to expect, they had on-site support for uploading etc… For “nobody’s” like me, that is amazing! So if they’re going to advise you on how to get access and help you out with a “Press card” that whilst not being the “official job” it certainly spells out your intentions to those that might ask to see it, right?

I didn’t use my press card at that G20 thing (The photographers demonstration, right?) ..and to be honest I’ve never used it.. oh, wait, there was one time when I showed it to a security guard who didn’t know his bollocks from his forehead, so that was a pointless waste of time, wasn’t it! I’ve been allowed access to most places I needed to get by being a decent human being…

How many cameras?

In short, what I’m saying Mike, is that before you go ranting about organisations like Demotix that are accessible and helpful to “regular Joe” you should make sure that the “official” gate-keepers are looking out for your best interests first, wouldn’t you say?… or are you just worried that Demotix are doing a darn fine job?

*I have no idea why I’ve made bold certain bits of text!

Well, I found that having a camera phone with a half decent (for a phone!) camera, that it saw me doing a lot of “snapping” on my iPhone, and getting out my dSLR for the more serious stuff.. But “why” yeah, a lot of people say, if you have your dSLR, why don’t you just use it for every shot? Well, sometimes I just don’t want to, I just want to snap and send or upload or tweet or flickr or facebook… you know, not process and decide and be serious…. I’ve found, over the last four days that having a very convenient, always with me iPhone with a decent (for a phone!) camera, has been really great!… Here’s a few pictures from the last four days…

Does convenience outweigh quality?