Walking the Point - © John Kivus, 2010

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Even with Instapaper, Ramona is not Impressed with my Kindle

Since the release of Apple’s iPad I have viewed it as a device that would serve a very specific use case: reading articles I’ve tagged in Instapaper, while I’m sitting on my couch. My general workflow concerning RSS and information in general is to tag in Instapaper anything that I want to read and then take certain blocks of time where I go through my Instapaper queue. The primary problem with this workflow is that I don’t really like having to sit there, with my computer on my laptop, and just read. Reading, for me, is usually an activity that I like to do with other stimuli either turned off, or a least turned down, and reading on a laptop has never given me that experience. The combination of the LCD screen and the temptation of a keyboard that could easily whisk me off to some other application means that I could never fully get into a reading mode. I hoped that an iPad could change that, but at its current $499 price point, it simply is not in the cards for my student budget. On the other hand, a WiFi only Kindle comes in at a mere $139, which I could make work, but could the Kindle fulfill my reading Instapaper articles on the couch use case?

This isn’t an issue of a comic where I need to keep the big reveal to the end: The Kindle is a great device for catching up on your Instapaper queue. I will give a breakdown of the process that I use to allow for a one click “sync” from all seven of my Instapaper folders to the Kindle. Before I get into that analysis though, a few caveats. The process, as I have created it, is Mac only. I use both Automator and Hazel and I have no idea if there are PC equivalents for those things. My Automator script requires the use of Apple Mail, so you’ll have to have that setup and have it be able to send from an account that your Kindle is configured to receive. Additionally, Hazel is not a free product, so if you want to use this process, you’re going to have purchase it. Finally, I have setup my process to use the WiFi delivery mechanism on my Kindle. If you want to use 3G, then this process will not be free. The cost will vary depending on the size of your Instapaper folders and the articles in them. You will want to check on your Amazon Kindle charge limits before really utilizing this process.

Before delving into how I sync all of my Instapaper folders to my Kindle, it’s important to point out that Instapaper does provide a fairly easy to use system to deliver 20 articles to your Kindle.The instructions are pretty easy to follow and if you don’t mind keeping your Unread items in just your “Read Later” folder, you’re good to go. It’s also useful for those times you’re away from your computer and can’t hit the “one click” necessary to trigger the Kindle sync process (though there are numerous ways to automate the one click process, those are beyond the scope of what I’m going to write here). Also, there are some people who will be fine using the Kindle’s built in web browser to use Instapaper. That might be a perfectly acceptable alternative to show people, but to me, the experience just wasn’t what I was looking for.

The first step in creating the Instapaper-to-Kindle process is writing a brief Automator script that will send the files to your Kindle. Open up Automator and create a new workflow. My workflow looks like this: (1) Get Selected Finder Items, (2) New Mail Message (enter your Kindle email address in the To: field (I used my “free.kindle.com” address since I figured I’d always be on WiFi with my Kindle when I did this), give a subject if you want, and choose an account from the list that you have already setup your Kindle to receive emails from), (3) Add Attachments to Front Message, (4) Send outgoing Messages, and (5) Show Growl Notification (I just titled it “Kindle Files Successfully Sent”). Save your Automator workflow to a location you’ll remember in the next step.

The second step is to create a Hazel rule. You’re going to want to create a rule that operates on your Downloads folder (i.e. the folder where your browser will download items. For me, that’s actually my Downloads folder). The rule is pretty straight forward: If Extension is mobi  then: (1) Run the Automator Script  just created and (2) Move the mobi file to the trash (This last step is probably not necessary but I don’t want a bunch of Kindle files hanging around in my Downloads folder after I’ve already sent them to my Kindle).

At this point, you should be able to go to your Instapaper account and either from your general “Read Later” folder, or from any individual folder, click the “Kindle” icon on the right. This will download the Kindle file to your downloads folder, at which point Hazel will see the the file, call the Automator script that sends the email, and then move the file to the trash. You’ll end up getting the file on your Kindle shortly thereafter. For me, having to click the “Kindle” Icon on each of my folders was still too cumbersome. In order to streamline the process, I created a boomark of link from the Kindle icon for each folder (for Read Later, this is probably http://www.instapaper.com/mobi, while each individual folder will be that link with a /FOLDERID (which is just a number Instapaper assigned to your folder) after it.) I put each of these bookmarks, and just these bookmarks, into a folder of bookmarks in Safari. Now, when I want to sync all my Instapaper folders. I just choose my Safari Bookmark Folder and choose “Open in Tabs”. Safari will then download individual Kindle files for each of my Instapaper folders into my Downloads folder, where Hazel will take over.

The main negative with my process is it’s a one way push. Once I read an article on my Kindle, I have to archive it on Instapaper.com (or the Instapaper iPhone app) if I don’t want that article to show again next time I run my process. This can be an monotonous activity, especially going through all of my folders, but it’s a small price to pay in order to get the reading experience I want on my device.

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When I listen to the Digital Photo Experience podcast, Juan Pons talks a lot about the waterfalls in North Carolina. I believe he may even teach workshops where he takes people these waterfalls. Since I use my glorified point and shoot, Nikon P6000, for all of my shooting, it’s rare that I get the right combination of light and a place to put my Zipshot so I can get the long exposure necessary to get the silky water style waterfall image (If I was using a dSLR I would put on an ND filter to reduce the light and therefore allow for a longer exposure). Lucky for me, I found a place in Maine that had both the right amount of light for a longer exposure and a flat place to my Zipshot (okay, my aunt found it.)

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Intro

In a recent post about HDR News & Education, I mentioned and briefly reviewed Trey Ratcliff’s ebook: Top Ten Mistakes in HDR Processing. My review of that book could probably be classified as  as “luke warm”. I liked the book conceptually, and Trey’s images were beautiful, but I wanted more substantive instruction on the particular techniques required to fix the problems he mentioned.

About a week ago, however, I received an email from Trey (well, his “ecommerce representative”) explaining that there was a new “bonus version” of the Top Ten Mistakes in HDR Processing eBook and that I could upgrade for free. I jumped at this offer, and I have to say, the new “Special Fixes” sections that have been added to the book are a major upgrade. Since the book has been so upgraded, I’ve decided to do a more thorough review of it, as well as a review of Trey’s latest eBook: Composing the Photo.


Top Ten Mistakes in HDR Processing

Trey Ratcliff’s Top Ten Mistakes in HDR Processing eBook is a collection of common problems that crop up in HDR photos. These include things like halos, over saturation of colors, and “dirty clouds”. Each one of these problems is presented with an example image that shows the problem, a brief description of how to fix the problem and a sample image that has been done “correctly”. This was the original content of the eBook (and I believe you can still buy a version that includes just this) and, frankly, it felt a little bit lacking. Though Trey’s images are as gorgeous as ever, some of the problems he described called out for much more detailed explanations of how to fix the problem. The new “bonus version” of the book contains “Special Fix” sections for a number of the problems that are the more detailed explanations I was looking for. These “special fixes” sections contain screenshots from Photoshop and almost step-by-step instructions of how to fix the problem. The addition of these new sections raise the book from “nice to have” status for a HDR photographer to a notch just below “must have”. The only thing keeping this book from fully reaching “must have” status is that some of sections (like “localized halos”) give a basic solution of “clean up in Photoshop after HDR processing” but then do not provide a detailed “special fix” of just what to do in Photoshop.

Composing the Photo

If you watched or listened to any photography podcasts in the last year, you undoubtedly stumbled across David duChemin and his book Within the Frame. TThe book was about the art of taking photographs, talking about vision and expression without going into the minutia of which aperture or shutter speed to use. Composing the Photo is Trey Ratcliff’s version of that type of book.

The book follows up its introduction with a number of photography related exercises to help  start expanding photographic vision. It then goes into sections that could loosely be defined as “rules” (however, Trey makes it clear that none of these particular rules need to always followed (other than “Trey’s Rule of Thirds”)). These sections contain information that is very similar to what one would find in David duChemin’s book, only presented in what I feel is a tighter, easier to understand package.

The “book” section of the eBook (I assume this where the basic version of the book would conclude) concludes with an examination of what elements in landscape photos create the most popular photos. Backed-up with numbers from his own personal Flickr page, Trey expands how to create a picture that people will find pleasing. It’s a solid way to tie the earlier discussed concepts together.

The bonus version of the eBook ends with a collection of “notes” on composition (I assume this section is not in the standard version of the book). These notes could be compared to an FAQ about composition. There are a number of examples of how Trey composed and cropped images to get what he felt was the ideal composition.

When Within the Frame came out, I figured there would be more books on the way that were similar in their style and content. Trey Ratcliff’s latest eBook, Composing the Photo, is the first one that I’ve found that tries climb that proverbial mountain. Though I do not intend to take anything away from David’s book, I found Trey’s takes to be both tighter and easier to understand. While his earlier eBook, Top Ten Mistakes in HDR Processing, focused exclusively on Trey’s bread and butter of HDR photography, this eBook should speak to photographers as a whole. I think that any beginner through intermediate-advanced photographer would learn something from Trey’s book and at a $10 price point for the bonus version, it’s pretty closer to “no-brainer” status.

NOTE: The links I have setup to Trey’s books are affiliate links, which means I get a small percentage of the sale of the books if you get there through my site. I personally do not feel that has impacted my reviews in any way, however, feel free to take this information into account when evaluating my review.

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I have very rarely been harassed when taking pictures, but every so often I do get a strange look when I pull out my camera. I think that on an airplane might be one of those times when people just really don’t expect you to take out the camera, so I did get a few looks. Ultimately, I really don’t care.

This picture came from my flight to Maine, but the better shots would have been on my flight back from Maine. Unfortunately, I was on the wrong side of the plane (where the sun was setting), and I didn’t feel like dealing with asking 3 people if I could crawl over them to take a picture (especially when they had their shade drawn.) Maybe next time.

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I was standing on a bridge in Maine, looking at out the coast lines. There were the rocky coasts, waves crashing against the rocks, and a few boats slowing crossing over the horizon. I took my camera off my eye for a minute to take a break and saw this father, walking with his daughter, down to the water. The father was holding his daughter’s hand and his daughter was wearing a little pink backpack, as they walked down to the edge of the water. To be honest, I was so busy, watching and smiling, that I almost forgot to bring my camera back up to take a picture.

The lens on my Nikon P6000 isn’t so great, so you only end up barely seeing the girl, and barely seeing her pink backpack. But, frankly, I don’t care, this picture just makes me feel good. (Oh, and yeah, I have no idea if it was really father / daughter, but in my story, that’s what they are.)

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Since coming back from Maine, with hundreds of images on multiple memory cards, it has been a struggle not to just throw up all the images I took. I’d say that I have 3-4 that are portfolio worthy, another 50-60 that will eventually be put up as Snapshots. Some people, like Thomas Hawk, take so many photos that they can put up 20-30 a day on Flickr. I just don’t have that kind of picture volume even if I try to take at least a few pictures every day. I wouldn’t mind getting to that level, but for now, I’ve pretty much settled into a photo every other day pace.

In addition to editing photos, I’ve been sending a decent about of time on some new site features. The one new section that I’ve completed is reviews, which consolidates all the reviews I’ve done to date.

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Just some assorted news and notes about the site and some HDR developments:

• I’ve settled into a bi-daily photo posting schedule (the every two days bi-daily, not the twice a day bi-daily). I think I’ve now got enough of a backlog of photos that even if I didn’t take pictures for a while, I should be able to keep that up. My writings, reviews, process documents, etc…won’t count towards this. It will be exclusively front page images and snapshots that will be on the bi-daily schedule.
• Speaking of writings, I’ve added two new tabs to the top navigation: reviews and process. The review page will lead to all of my reviews (some of which I forgot I had even written). The process page will be an examination of how I create certain images, blog postings, and other item. Currently, I’ve got one in the works for my Worldwide Photo Walk submission and one about how I prepare an image for printing using Aperture, Genuine Fractals, and Nik’s Sharpener Pro.
• I made two major HDR related purchases recently: (1) Nik Software’s new HDR plugin, HDR Efex Pro and (2) Trey Ratcliff’s new HDR instructional DVD. HDR Efex Pro became a no-brainer when I learned that if you already had the Nik Complete Collection, you got the new HDR software for $99. As far as the DVD goes, I feel that Trey is the master of HDR, and since there is no way I’d be able to get to one of his workshops, I figured the HDR would be the next best thing. I have pretty high expectations for the DVD and I will be doing a review as soon as I have received my copy and had time to really sit down and process it.

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The Scott Pilgrim comic series by Bryan Lee O’Malley is on the short list of my favorite comic series of all time. When it was announced they were making a movie out of the books, I was both excited and nervous.

At this point, the movie has been out for a couple of weeks, and there are number of stories about it’s particularly low box office (Vanity Fair even has a plea that you go see it this weekend). Personally, I don’t really care, since one of my favorite comic series was made into an unbelievably awesome movie.

The above picture is re-enactment of the party where Scott first meets Ramona, done with the newly available Scott and Ramona plushies.

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One of the major drawbacks of shooting with my Nikon P6000 is the speed at which I can take shots. It takes a bit to focus and then it takes about 5 seconds inbetween shots (when shooting in RAW) in order to get ready for the next shot. This means that I frequently have to anticipate what is going to happen. If it’s sports photography, it means I pre-focus on an area that I think something is going to happen in (which usually isn’t too hard since I’m pretty familiar with the flow of games). In this case, I saw a horse rolling around on the ground, looking ready to stand up. I focused my camera and waited. About 2 second later, I took this picture.

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