I test out my new iPhone 4s camera as I make one last delay on the Loft missionary post: baby and mom, cat, me, four young writer studies
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 11:31PM 
I received advice from two grandmas today, both in response to the fact that I had twice delayed the post I was making to cover what I experienced as I attempted to do a photo essay on Mormon missionaries working in New York City for the David Alan Harvey Workshop.
GrannyJ said this in a comment left on my last post:
"Writing- especially writing that is so close to us- takes as long as it takes. You cannot rush the process. And I love the daily moose, dog and shoveler - while I wait."
Grandma Nancy wrote this to me in an email:
"I too process things through my fingertips -- my mind just works that way. Sometimes it gets incredibly long, and sometimes I simply have to stop because it gets too painful to continue."
I decided that these were words of wisdom that I could take comfort in to justify my delays - especially because I am going to delay one more day. I am almost there, and I could have pushed it and completed it before I went to bed tonight.
But I don't want to push it. So I am going to delay one more day. Instead, I will show you the first test shots that I shot with my new iPhone 4s. The very first image that I took with it was of Lynxton in his mother's arms. I shot it this morning in Anchorage, right after I drove Margie into town so that she could spend the week babysitting.
I am certain that you have figured it out already, but it is the image at the top of this page.
The second image that I shot with the iPhone 4s is this one immediately above, of the cat Chicago, resting on my chest. The third is the same scene, from the opposite angle. I am also trying to rest, because I have experienced one of those infamous "writer's block" moments and I think maybe I can break it with a short nap. For this images, I used the second iPhone 4s camera - the one that allows you to frame yourself in the monitor. I like the feature, but was surprised to see that it produces a much lower resolution image than does the main camera.
Even though I don't think I ever really fell asleep, I believe the little rest did help, because I was able to produce something right afterwards, but it didn't help enough. So, at 4:00 PM, I left my computer, went outside, damn near froze, then jumped in the car and headed for Metro Cafe to see if a cup might bring me around and help me get more done.
I damn near froze because it was - 17 F (-27 C), I had on only the lightest of jackets and a stiff wind had suddenly come up. I knew the wind had been forecast to pick up, but it was also forecast to bring in warmer air, so I was a bit surprised. Here is study #12 of the young writer, Shoshana.
It was amazing to watch the temperature as I drove toward Metro. It stayed at -17 all through the flat down where we live, but as soon as I started to go uphill, it began to rise, fast: -13, -10, -7, - 4, 0... of course it did it one degree at a time, but when I pulled into Metro it had risen all the way to +3. (-16 C).
So here is study # 1001 of the young writer, basking in the warmth as she prepares my order.
;)
Study of the young writer, Shoshana, #2002: She opens the window.
Study of the young writer, Shoshana, #671: one day, she and I will make a book together - you watch and see.
I took my time going home, so I could listen to all the speculation and news coming out of New Hampshire. When I got home, the temperature had climbed all the way to +4, right here at the house. It looks like this latest cold snap has come to an end.
Hopefully, there will be another coming soon.
I like the camera in the iPhone 4s.
I think it is going to change my life.
I guess it already has.
Reader Comments (11)
not bad pictures at all
GrannyJ is absolutely right, and so is Grandma Nancy. Everything happens in its own time. I hope you can banish the word "delay" when describing the process. There is no delay here. The interludes featuring moose, cats, dogs, Lynxton, Shoshana, are just as much part of the overall story. Your workshop retrospective would not make sense otherwise.
To begin with I thought it was just me, but since you changed over to this new blog I have had this strange feeling that the text did not quite match the photos. I had this constant nagging feeling that one or more images were just not there. Today confirms it. There is only one image in this post, the one labelled, "Study of the young writer, Shoshana, #2002: She opens the window". There is no picture of Lynxton and the second "picture" of the young writer is just a caption and a big white space.
Now that's weird, I see 7 pics here.. the front-cat one is stunning btw..
Martin, that is disturbing. There are in fact seven images in the post, just as Eva sees. I do not know why not all the images are loading in your computer. I am pushing the edge a bit band width wise with the number and size of these images, and it might be that your server or package cannot keep up with it. My next post will be really big - about 20 images. I will put an image count on the post and ask anyone who cannot see all the images to let me know.
Thank you, Eva - Chicago is a stunning cat and she knows it.
I'm afraid my situation is identical to Martin's. Ever since the new blog started, I've seen giant gaps of white, with a photo sometimes appearing 'eventually', but I occasionally got the feeling that I missed the photo entirely. In this latest post, the only photo I see is of Shoshana at the window #2002. The caption is to the right of the photo, taking six lines. If it helps, I'm on a new Toshiba laptop, Windows 7, Internet Explorer 8, with Verizon FIOS fiberoptic underground Internet. I'm sorry to be missing the pics of Lynxton and Mom! However, I'm really enjoying hearing about the New York trip - thank you, Bill. And as far as your posts go - - all in due time. I consider each one a welcome gift, as undoubtedly all of your readers do.
Heidi - thank you for the information. I will send it to my blog host and see if it means anything to them. Also, I can't help but note that this post consists entirely of iPhone photos. That shouldn't make a difference and both you and Martin say that to a more limited degree you have experienced this with other posts, but the number of missing photographs sees to be radically high here.
I too can only see one picture...
Bad focus on this camera! I never likes iPhone but this is big degrade) I take photo of my essay services and get very bad photos...
Shoshana - Thanks for the input. Next time I see you, I will ask you about your browser, etc.
Esse: take a look at the photo of the cat and tell me the focus is bad. As for the other pictures, they were all taken under very low light - so low that you could not even have got most of them with a film camera loaded with high speed film, so the exposure is slow and the blur that you see is not focus, but motion blur.
Please visit:
http://theriobook.com/
And see what David Alan Harvey has done with the iPhone 4s. It will cost you $1.99 to join, but it you are interested in photography, it will be well worth it.
Thanks for dropping by.
So far, it seems that everyone who has been experiencing this problem, as far as I have been able to identify, has been using Internet explorer.