Best B&W Photo Apps for iOS

I am an unashamed fan of black and white photography. Probably because of my background (I was introduced to serious photography by a college professor who worked in large format and told me about Ansel Adams), I find it easier to visualize shapes and forms in monochrome than I do to anticipate how to handle color.

PuppehWhile I own several cameras (a Contax G1 and a Canon G12 among them), the one camera that’s always with me is the one that’s built into my iPhone. There are tons of great camera apps available for iOS, but relatively few that are geared towards B&W photography. Many apps have a “filter” for B&W, but they don’t actually let you shoot in B&W by default. And most of those filters do things beyond simply converting the image to B&W. Smugmug’s Camera Awesome, for example, has default filters, but they add textures and vignetting that seriously detract from the image. Any app that requires post-processing to achieve B&W didn’t make my list.

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Hack the Fitbit

Like many people who are trying to become more conscious of their health, I have a Fitbit Ultra. This is a small device, equipped with a accelerometer and motion sensors, that tracks how many steps I’ve made, how many stairs I’ve climbed, how many calories I’ve burned, and various other factors. For me, a typical day is around 4,000 steps and 2-3 flights of stairs; on an extraordinary day, I’ve topped 15,000 steps and 5 stairs.

But last Tuesday, I managed to topple all my personal records.

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The Futulele is coming

All the Internet (it seems) is abuzz with the news that Amidio will be releasing the Futulele in April. The Futulele consists of a hardware device that connects an iPhone and an iPad along with apps that run on both devices to simulate the body of the ukulele (on the iPad) and the fretboard (on the iPhone).

It’s a cute trick, and I’m sure it will be fun for the folks that happen to have both devices, but I can’t help to think that, for the combined price of the iPad ($499) and iPhone ($199), you could actually purchase one hell of a hand-made, real Koa ukulele. Here’s their promotional video:

The Taylor Uke

Yes, Taylor Guitars is getting into the ukulele business. Taylor, whose guitars are well-known for their great sound and beautiful looks (as well as their, um, “ample” prices), is offering a limited edition of 30 matched sets that contain a special Koa “Grand Symphony” guitar (with solid KOA lining) and a matched Koa tenor ukulele. This is called their Builder’s Reserve, Series IV, and 15 sets will be available in the USA, while the remaining 15 are targeted for international distribution.

Prices are rumored to be around $8,000.00 for the set.

Taylor has been saving koa wood pieces for years; whenever they’d end up with cuttings that were too small to use in a guitar, they would set them aside, and it’s these pieces that are being used for the ukulele.

Click on the contact form if you need my address to send me one.