iPhone X - 3 months

I thought I might give an update regarding my experience using the new iPhone X after having it for three months. Original impressions can be read here

Face id – I am still impressed with the face id, although it never seems to recognise me when I am bleary-eyed first thing in the morning in the darkness, I usually have to resort to putting in the passcode. I would say it works 75% of the time in the dark which is a little disappointing. My main problem about this feature is that when the phone is sitting on my desk I have to pick it up to unlock it, I am used to just putting my finger onto the touch id to see the messages. It a small complaint…

Wireless charging – I decided to buy the mophie charger (7.5watts) from the Apple store (£55) this was not an impulse by and I took a lot of time to decide to buy it. I decided on the mophie over the Belkin as it took up less real estate on my desk and it also featured a no slip rubber base. It also feels and looks better than the Belkin. The Belkin pad slipped about on the desk and also felt a bit cheaply made. I like the ease of charging this way. I have a small niggle about this feature though; I have a metal strip between the case and the phone so that phone mount on the dashboard in my  car holds the phone in position for the Sat-Nav, meaning I have to be fairly precise about where the phone is positioned when I put it on the charger. I have actually taken to taking the cover off when I am working at my desk. I would imagine most people wouldn't have this problem.

Size – I have gotten so used to the smaller form factor that when I pick up an iPhone 7/8+ I am shocked at the size of it. Reports from the past couple of days suggest that the top of the line iPhone this year will go back to the larger size which might make me want to stay at the smaller form factor.

Camera – I use it on a daily basis and have even posted a few Instagram shots from it lately. It is good, but I am not convinced it is better than the previous model. The portrait modes are nice to have, but from what I can tell they are still in beta and could be doing with some tweaking. If memory serves me correctly Apple also announced that there would be a fake long exposure mode released as well which has failed to materialise. This is a couple of photographs that I have captured recently.

Physical button positions – I take a lot more screen shots by accident due to the position of the physical buttons on this iPhone. To take a screenshot on the iPhone X you are required to press the on/off button on the right side and the volume up button on the left side. Due to my grip on the phone I often press the volume up button when I press the on/off button, causing a screenshot to be taken. 

Animoji – Have yet to use after testing it. Maybe good for kids, but then who would give a child a £1K phone? The fact that this took up 10 mins of the presentation of the new iPhone blows my mind.

Overall? Well, I am not disappointed, yes, I have a few niggling problems due to my own workflow and personal preferences but I have never had it crash on me. Is it revolutionary, no. The face-id is sensational most of the time, but on those occasions when it doesn't work its very annoying having to go back to typing in my alphanumeric password. 

Apple has finally announced the release date of the HomePod and I am eagerly awaiting the pre-order opening... am sure I'll have some views on this as well!

2017 Part 2

Part 2 of my favourite photographs from 2017. I sometimes forget how many photographs I take and it can take time to go through them. I also seem to have good months and bad months in terms of quality. May seemed to be a particularly good month but alas I am only posting one per month.

May

My first visit to the "Still" sculpture at St. Fillans on Loch Earn. This was an impromptu trip where I decided around 7pm to drive to St Fillans as I had nothing better to do. It was a warm night and the midge were biting hard but I persevered until I had a few shots that I was happy with, before, during and after sunset. This was the photograph I took after sunset with just the dusk tones left. I am still a little sad that this sculpture has been taken away.

 

June

Summer saw me take a few impromptu trips, this time all the way to Corpach, near Fort William. I had been meaning to visit this location for a long time and after driving to Glencoe that day I decided to keep going until I got to Corpach. I had no idea where the boat was and had to phone a friend to get directions. It was around this time i the year that I really started to like 'dusky' tones in my photography. 

 

July

Cramond Beach, these are anti-boat pylons that a lot of people mistake fro anti-submarine pylons. I have to bite my tongue when people call them anti-submarine. A remnant of the Second World war they are now starting to fall apart. The island in the distance is Cramond Island which can be reached via the causeway that the photograph is taken from. The tide comes in fast here and people do get stuck on the island overnight due to this. 

 

August

Blackness Castle. If there is one thing that Scotland does not lack, it is castles. Blackness is surprisingly close to where I am living right now and I was surprised that I had never visited before this time. This is an HDR image, I wanted the colour in the sky as well as the detail of the seaweed and the castle in it. It's not a great photograph but I was pleased with the HDR processing on it. Something learned is always useful.

2017 Part 1

I thought it would be a good idea to flick through the photographs that I had been taking through 2017 as this year is drawing to a close. I have selected one of my favourite photographs from each month with a small description of where it came from. Most of them will also be found in my instagram feed.

 

Jens in Mourning.

 It was taken at the Glasgow Necropolis. It was one of the first (of many) instameets that I went on this year. This was the first time that I had been to Glasgow to take photographs, it was a very long day and I think I came back with over 300 photographs, but this was my favourite. It's a bit dark, but then it was a cemetery. The person in it is Jens @jensinscotland

 

 

But Why?

February saw a number of friends meeting up in Edinburgh, all instagrammers of course. Although we started up in the town centre we ended up in Leith. I caught this shot of @alycoste and @davidgulliver_photography at Newhaven Harbour. The way I caught Alayne's hand made me think she was asking for an explanation from David. I didn't really notice this until the day after. Amusingly the first two photographs from the year actually had people in the shots which usually isn't my style.

 

The Cloisters.

Another visit to Glasgow in March, this time with @davidgulliver_photography  and @ashcharlton. There were a number of shots that I liked from this trip, especially the light trails from Charing Cross, but ultimately this was my favourite from the cloisters at Glasgow University. It took a while to get the photograph without any people in it. So many shots are about patience more than anything else.

 

The Working Palace

The first of my many trips to my second home this year allowed me to take a lot of photographs of places that I hadn't shot since 2013. This is the Noordeinde Palace in The Hague, also know as the working palace. See the comment above about patience... I live close to this palace and it has various ceremonies each year which can be nice to watch. Noordeinde is also my favourite street in The Hague, so much to see and do.

Socks

Stance

Something for all those that have teased me about buying expensive Stance socks for the past couple of years, said so well by The Brooks Review:

"Shitty socks are fucking annoying. Spend $30 on a pair, and your socks will go from being annoying to being something you love, because $30 merino wool socks are magic."

It also worth reading the rest of the article. Needless to say my last visit to The Hague involved selecting several pairs of Stance socks.