The Gymbl iPhone Accessory

Capture: BracketMode Process: Autostitch; Snapseed

 The Gymbl is a fun little attachment  I used today to create these images made at The Fire Museum of Maryland in Towson. I have had the Gymbl for a while but just have not had the right time to get out and use it. I attached it to a spare camera plate and was able to use it on my regular tripod. It was easy enough to maneuver with the custom designed case that attaches to the head. I was amazed at how seamlessly the images were stitched because of the deign of the Gymbl accessory.  The Gymbl has a gimbal panoramic head that lets you rotate the iPhone around its optical center.

 Each one of these images began with vertical images and then they were stitched together with the app Autostitch which not only will blend the images but the bracketed exposures at the same time.
I made a few other shots with the iPhone but will get those processed later for another post.

ChromeVis: Free Tool for Chrome Users With Low Vision

ChromeVis is a simple Chrome extension for users with low vision. ChromeVis is simple to use and has many customization options. To use ChromeVis highlight the text you want magnified and then click on the ChromeVis icon in the top right of your Chrome window. To customize the appearance of ChromeVis right click on its icon and select options. To download ChromeVis for free click here.

TextGrabber: Fast, Cheap, Accurate OCR app for iPhone

TextGrabber is a low cost OCR app for iPhone that quickly and accurately converts printed text into digital text that can be edited or read aloud using text-to-speech. Click here to download TextGrabber. The app is easy to use. Snap a photo of the text you want to read then crop the photo and finally read the text. TextGrabber only takes a few seconds to convert the printed text into a digital format. Once the text has been recognized you can have it read aloud to you using VoiceOver. TextGrabber can also translate captured text into many languages. One negative of TextGrabber is it does not have built in text-to-speech,  or Speak Selection, a new iOS 5 feature, does not work. In day-to-day use I found that TextGrabber and ZoomReader offer similar OCR speed and accuracy. To improve the accuracy turn on the flash while taking the picture. TextGrabber does not feature built in text-to-speech with highlighting while ZoomReader does not offer a cropping tool for removing unwanted text. To read more about ZoomReader click here. Click read more below to see screen shots and examples of TextGrabber in action,including a step- by -step depiction of TextGrabber converting a newspaper article.

Picture of Newspaper Article Taken with iPhone 4S camera.

Crop the Section You Want to Read

Press Read and Let it do its Work

Finish Product Ready to be Read by VoiceOver or Emailed.

Below is the text that was extracted. It is not perfect but is a par or better than most other OCR apps for iPhone.

^ Economic Slide Took A Detour at Capital Hill From Page Al group. Congress has never been place for paupers. From planta" tion owners in the pre-Civil War era to industrialists in the 1900s to ex-Wall Street financiers and Internet executives today, it has long been populated with"the rich, including scions of families like the Guggenheims, Hearsts. Kennedys and Rockefellers. But rarely has the divide ap- peared so wide, or the public con- trast so stark, between lawmak- ers and those they represent. The wealth gap may go largely unnoticed in good times. "But with the American public feeling all this economic pain, people just resent it more," said Alan J. Zio- browski, a professor at Georgia State who studied lawmakers' stock investments. There is broad debate about just why the wealth gap appears to be growing. For starters, the prohibitive costs of political cam- paigning may discourage the less affluent from even considering a candidacy. Beyond that, loose ethics controls, shrewd stock picks, profitable land deals, fa- vorable tax laws, inheritances and even marriages to wealthy spouses are all cited as possible explanations for the rising for- tunes on Capitol Hill. What is clear is that members of Congress are getting richer compared not only with the aver- age American worker, but also with other very rich Americans. While the median net worth of members of Congress jumped 15 percent from 2004 to 2010, the net worth of the richest 10 percent of Americans remained essentially Hat. For all Americans, median net worth dropped 8 percent, based on jnflation-adjusted data from Moody's Analytics. Going back further, the median wealth of House members grew some two and a half times be. tween 1984 and 2009 in inflation- adjusted dollars, while the wealth of'the average American family has actuaily declined slightly in that same time period, according Emmarie Huetteman and Derek Willts contributed rfmrtiw SJata cited by The Washington _'"an article published Mon- with millionaire status now the norm, the rarefied air in'the Capi- days is $100 million. lofty level appears to have surpassed by at least 10 members, led by Representative Issa, a California Repub- and former auto alarm mag- nate who is worth somewhere be- tween $195 million and $700 mil- lion. (Because federal law re- quires lawmakers to disclose their assets only in broad dollar ranges, more precise estimates are impossible.) Their wealth has created occa- sional political problems for Con- gress's richest. Mr. Issa, for instance, has faced outside scrutiny because of the overlap of his Congressional work and outside interests, in- eluding extensive investments with Wall Street firms like Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs, as well as land holdings in his San Diego district. In one case, he ob- tained some $800,000 in federal earmarks for a road-widening project running along his com- mercial property. Senator John Kerry, a Mas- sachusetts Democrat who is mar- ried to Teresa Heinz Kerry, set off an uproar last year when it was disclosed that he had docked his S7 million, 76-foot yacht not in his home state but in neighboring Rhode Island, which has no sales or use tax on pleasure boats. (Mr. Kerry, worth at least $181 million, voluntarily paid $400,000 in Mas- sachusetts taxes after criticism.) Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, was challenged about her wealth, as much as $196 million, by a member of her own party a few weeks ago. Representative Laura Richardson, a California Demo- crat who is among the poorest members of Congress with as much as $464,000 in debt, at- tacked Ms. Pelosi at a closed- door Democratic caucus meeting for endorsing a Congressional pay freeze, according to a report in PoHtico that was confirmed by other members. Ms. Richardson angrily told M, n^i^n: ..i--

Article from New York Times

Add Quick Text-to-Speech Button to Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word has a hidden text-to-speech button built in. To access add the text-to-speech button to the quick access tool bar click on the down arrow in the top left corner of the screen. Next click on more commands and then click on all commands from the drop down menu. Finally click on speak from the list and then press add. To use the text-to-speech feature select the text you wish to have read and click on the text-to-speech button you just added to the top left corner of the screen. The text will be read allowed instantly. Click the button again to stop the text-to-speech. Watch the video above to learn more. Click read more below for step by step instructions.

iOS 5 Tips: Use Assistive Touch to Replace a Broken Home Button, Lock Button or Volume Button

Assistive Touch is a new feature in iOS 5 that allows people with physical disabilities to better use their iOS device. To learn more about AssistiveTouch click here. To enable Assistive Touch go to Settings>General> Accessibility>Assistive Touch and then turn on Assistive Touch. A small round white button will then appear on your screen. When you touch the white button a list of commands will appear including a software home button, lock button and volume up and down button. You can now use these software buttons to replace your broken home button or any other broken buttons. You can drag the white button to different places on the screen for your convenience. Watch the video below to learn more.

iOS 5 Tip: Look Up Any Word

A new feature in iOS 5 allows you to get a definition of any word from any app. To get a definition of a word simply select the word by holding down on it for a couple of seconds and then tap define. A dictionary will appear with that word defined. When you are done tap done to return to your app.

iPhone at the Silk Mill: Apps: 6x7: Simply Black and White

Last weekend a group of photographers met at the abandoned silk mill to do some shooting, thanks to Tony Sweet for organizing the shoot. I didn't do any shooting on Saturday as I arrived later in the afternoon, but upon arriving at the silk mill I wandered around and behind the mill I found this old TV among the leaves. I told Herb who owns the mill, that I loved the scene and he said one day the TV just rolled down the hill from above and there it stayed. It was a fun weekend!All the shots here were processed with the app Simply Black &White and shot with either 6x7 or CameraPlus Pro, them framed with Crop'n'Frame...and maybe there's a little SnapSeed in there too.

If you live in the Gaithersburg area I hope you can join me for my iPhone workshop at Mac Business Solutions in January or in March at Horizons Photography workshops.  

You will learn how to get interesting shots with the best apps, explore processing options and more!

iOS 5 Tips: Reader Eliminates Distractions

A new feature in iOS 5 called Reader makes reading articles on the web much easier. Many articles on the web are hard to read on the iPhone and iPod Touch's small screen. Reader also works on the iPad. To read the articles you must zoom in and deal with distractions such as advertisements. Reader solves this problem by taking out the advertisements and formatting the text perfectly. To activate Reader simply tap the Reader button in the address field. The address field is where you type the website address. After pressing the Reader button the article will appear perfectly formatted for your screen. To change the size of the text simply press the text size button in the top left of the screen then tap on the little A to make the text smaller and the big A to make the text bigger. When you are done reading the article simply tap done to continue to browse the web. Reader can enlarge the font substantially to assist people that have trouble reading small print. Click read more below to see more screen shots.

Google Dictionary Defines Any Word on the Web

Google Dictionary is a free extension available for Google Chrome. To download the extension click here. Once downloaded simply double click on any word on a web page to view its definition or hear the word read aloud. Google Dictionary is perfect for quickly looking up unfamiliar words. To learn about other Chrome extensions click here.

iPhone Artist of the Day

Yesterday I was named iPhone Artist of the Day on the fabulous iPhone art site iPhoneart.com
Tonight I was looking through some apps I had downloaded and came across one I had not explored as yet~ Slideshow+HD. So I opened it and began exploring its functions.To test it out I grabbed the sequential processing files on my iPad from the image that the iPhoneart.com folks selected as the image to post along with the announcement of my AOTD selection. The slideshow looked pretty cool with fun transitions and the ability to add music...so I downloaded some cool jazz from Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd and added it to the slide show. Then I saved the file as a Quicktime movie on my iPad, transferred the file to my laptop using the app PhotoTransfer and tried adding it to the blog. NOT! For some reason Blogger would not accept the QT movie as it was, from the file on my laptop..so I went to You Tube and opened an account, posted the movie there and clipped the HTML code to add to the Blog...Well that worked but the colors look a tad off...so I learned a few things tonight and am sharing this crazy process of making images on the iPhone with you in the experimental slide show. I hope you can join me either for my iPhone workshop in January at Mac Business Solutions in Gaithersburg or Horizon Photography Workshops in March and June.

Hipstamatic's New Foodie Pak

Capture: Hipstamatic~Loftus Lens: DC Film: Crop'n'Frame: SnapSeed inner white mat

Hipstamatic has added a new lens and film SnapPak inspired by David Loftus......which I really like. The film has a great tone for food and the selctive focus is a nice touch although you have no control over where it is placed it works fine. I love that Hipsta chose not to add a frame, unlike all the other SnapPacks Hipsta offers which have frame edges on them. Hipsta is also offering now a Retro Pak so if you missed some lens pack offerings many are available this weekend. Lens like Labatique which is also a fav of mine.
Wednesday I met the trainer from Penn Camera in Old Town Alexandria, VA. to plan some outings in 2012. We met at this wonderful French cafe called Le Pain Quotidien. Theatmosphere of the cafe was delightful to dine in and the food and coffee were fabulous.
I made the opening shot through the case glass with the Hipstamatic Foodie pak. I cleaned up some crumbs that were laying on the tray with TouchRetouch and brightened it up a bit in Iris. I will be posting links to the great workshops we planned out as they become live on the Penn Camera Website.

Capture: Hipstamatic~Loftus Lens DC Film Process: PerfectPhoto ~sharpen a bit: Crop'n'Frame: SnapSeed inner white mat.

Captured: Hipstamatic

Capture: BracketMode : Process: TrueHDR: PerfectPhoto~Sharpen: Iris: Crop'n'Frame: SnapSeed inner white mat..

Percolator 2.0 Just Released~ New Textures~Filters~and Opacitiy

Capture: Hipstamatic: Process: Percolator2.0: Iris Color Sense~masked: PerfectPhoto~sharpen

When I first saw this app in its original design I really enjoyed it. It had fun settings, but I always wanted some opacity adjustments..well voila in 2.0 there are some cool adjustments. I was notified today that the app had gone live and I wanted to see what the new enhancements would do so, I spent a few moments (hours) today working the new updates with some images already on my camera roll. The one thing I didn't take time to do was right down all the settings I used to get the effects so I am sorry I can't share those with you...but just play you will discover some great combo's between new texture options, opacity and effects its just fabulous! I was reminded though that it is a 3 mp image file when using a traditional format like the piano below. However I successfully blended back the saved file from Percolator 2.0 with the original larger file in ImageBlender and the result was the larger of the two files blended beautifully with the Percolator file. We will have to put increased resolution on our next request when they get to making another upgrade,  but for now this is fine. It handles resolution on square images better at 2048 x 2048 but shrinks a large iPhone 4 file image from 1936 x 2592 (a 5mp file) to1528 x 2048 (a 3.1mp file). No reason not to work with Percolator,  as you can always do a blend back with a large file, adjust opacity and blend mode in ImageBlender if you need a larger file. This file size manipulation resulted in a 13.1MB file on the piano below. Have some fun and play with the new improved Percolator App........

Capture: BracketMode Process: TrueHDR: Percolator 2.0: ImageBlender: PerfectPhoto~sharpen

Capture 6x7: Process: PhotoWizard~crack texture: Percolator 2.0 Stars

Great List of Apps to Support Literacy

Greg O'Connor has put together a great list of apps for literacy support on spectronicsinoz.com. To view the list click here. The list is broken into categories reading support, OCR, writing and notetaking support, mind mapping, organizational and study support and reference. Check out the list here.

Relax... 6x7: Snapseed:FX PhotoStudio

Capture: 6 x 7 Processed: SnapSeed: FX PhotoStudio

  When I worked in retail really long hours and I needed to relax once I got home, I made a hot tub of water, lit some candles, fixed a little Amaretto drink and climbed in. Well, last night I needed a little relaxation. I love the way the candle light danced on the bathroom walls and hardware, casting deep shadows and always thought it would make a cool shot. But, I never made the shot because it would have just been too much trouble with the big camera...so last night, as I filled a tub of hot water and I made some iPhone shots! Call me crazy! All shot and processed on the iPhone! (no I didn't process them in the tub!)
Check out my new iPhone Workshops on January 20 and 28 at Mac Business Solutions in Gaithersburg, Maryland

Capture: 6x7 Processing: LensLight; CrossProcess: FX PhotoStudio: ScratchCam

Now that my holiday decorations outside are done I have to get out and test the Gymbl..I have had for a while!

iBooks Update Adds Useful New Features

Apple recently updated its iBooks app to add more add more features and make reading easier. One of features adds a night time reading theme to make reading in the dark easier on you eyes. The new update also add several new fonts and makes highlighting and taking notes easier. Yet another new feature allows you to read your book in full screen mode. iBooks is available here for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. 

PhotoStudio~ Percolator~ 6x6

Last week I made a run to Longwood. When I ran through the Tropical Room the leaves of the ground vegetation caught my eye. So I made some shots with the iPhone app 6x6. PhotoStudio is an app that I don't usually go to right away for processing, but I wanted to challenge myself to work with it and explore more of what it can do. What I found was that I really like the masking and erasing feature for effects. Its very easy to work with and you can see the effects while masking. I used that process extensively on the first two of these leaf images.
I also received notice this week that the fun app Percolator will be updated soon with more choices. Coincidentally I had just made an image with percolator after running it through PhotoStudio. I hope you can join me on Saturday March 10 and June 9th at Horizon Photography Workshops for my one day iPhoneography Workshop.

iOS 5 Camera Accessibility

iOS 5 introduced many new accessibility features including Assistive Touch, Siri and Speak Selection. One hidden feature gives blind and visually impaired the ability to take pictures with VoiceOver and the built in camera on the iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone. Your iOS device will tell you how many people are in your picture and if the people are in the center of the screen so you can get the best shot. This is just on feature in a growing list of iOS accessibility features.

Android Becomes More Accessible With 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich has improved the accessibility of Android. Ice Cream Sandwich is not available on all Android devices but will become more widespread through out the coming months. Google has added a feature to Android called Explore-By-Touch. The new built in screen reader allows users to navigate on screen items without seeing the screen. The new addition will enable disabled users to use the many thousands of Android devices. While Google is attempting to compete with Apple's iOS software in accessibility the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch still offer more accessibility options for disabled users. To learn more about VoiceOver click here.