iPad For Sale

The time has come for me to go ahead and sell my precious first gen iPad. I could go to ebay or something of the sort but after a messy attempted theft of my old 50mm f/1.2L camera lens on ebay I decided to avoid it when possible. I have a lot of trust in my readers and hopefully you guys have trust in me as well. Therefore I decided to use 50ft to see if any readers would be interested in picking up my 64GB wi-fi iPad directly from me. I have thought about it and decided I could throw in a couple of additional accessories with the device. The Apple iPad dock, a hardshell case made by Speck, and the SD card reader from my camera connect kit. The hard shell case is a bit scuffed up but thanks to that shell it’s not the iPad back that is scratched up. I thought about loading it up with every ipad wallpaper I have made up to this point but I thought it would be best if I shipped it totally blank and ready to be re-named and customized to your liking.

Now, I can not tell you that this is a meticulously perfect unit. It has been used a good amount over the past year of owning it and took one fall from my 1ft high coffee table leading to a scratch or two along the edge of the metal back. I have photographed the corner so you can see what your getting into. I want to be as honest as possible about its condition. Other than what I consider to be normal wear for someone who travels with it day after day for an entire year the unit itself functioned flawlessly. The battery life is still killer and the screen is still as bright and beautiful as the day I bought it. Many of you read through my thoughts on the device already so I feel I don’t have to get into too many details about how much I have loved the iPad so I will leave it at that.

As for price, I am flexible on the price and am looking to get at least its going used rate so I decided to have anyone interested to simply email me at fiftyfootshadows-at-gmail.com with your offer or questions, if you don’t have an offer and are interested to hear what I am looking to get for it simple email me. I prefer to keep this part of selling it private so I hope you understand. It will ship in its original box to keep it nice and safe (yes, I am a box hoarder hehe) and the iPad was purchased May 3rd 2010 so you still have a month to purchase Apple Care for it should you choose to do so.

I will ship immediately after payment has been received through PayPal using UPS with tracking and won’t charge you the shipping cost unless its overseas. As for world shipping, I would prefer selling this within the US because I am not so savvy on international shipping policies and customs fees so please understand If I can not ship it to anywhere too remote. I don’t mean to be vague on this point but these are my thoughts on the matter.

Thanks for having a look! I may remove this post or simply update it when it has been sold.

Click the read more link below for more photos of the device.

(more…)

Untitled

I often do my best to find a good title for all the wallpaper images I post here but this time around I simply could not find one that felt quite right so for the first time I will simply leave this image untitled. As with the last beach photos posted I shot this while down south on the Gulf coast. The deep southeast in the U.S., despite its strange reputation, has some beautiful places to explore and discover. I love the big oak trees and the hanging stringy moss like plants on tree branches. Not to mention the marsh lands and their trees with roots poking up out of the water. I don’t get south as often these days but it would be fun to take a short road trip dedicated to shooting sometime in the future. Just one more thing on my, I should do that sometime list.

Those of you keeping track of such things, the photo here was shot wide open at f/1.4 with my 35mm canon lens and my 5D. The original color had a much more exaggerated yellow tint because of my crazy white balance setting I often jump to but I decided to cool things off to make it feel more like I remember it feeling while standing there. I remember walking out onto the pier here just as the sun was making its final move beyond the horizon and luckily my brother was willing to stop for a second so I could steal a couple of shots. I love the feeling I ended up capturing and could not help but want to share it with everyone as a desktop. I think my favorite part of the image, oddly, is the hint of flare there on the railing.

The iPad, A Year Later

I was asked a number of times recently to write about my experiences with the iPad. I set out to write a short something on what it has done for me since having one around and how that use has evolved over time but the writing sort of took off without me. For such a simple device it certainly took a fair amount of thought to focus in on what has made it great. I decided to also use this space to go ahead and talk some about the apps that see the most use.

There are many who still find the iPad to be relatively weak as far as it’s usefulness is concerned. I can admit that when the iPad was first introduced I was drawn to it not because it seemed like an important or useful device but because it looked like a wonderfully fun gadget to have around in my day to day life. By the time I actually ended up investing in one I had come to the conclusion that it would hopefully become a perfect way for me to have access to important information while traveling or simply away from home. I hoped to be able to leave my laptop behind and go about my day as usual with this new, lighter, easier to access device to help me continue to be functional at work as well have a quick way to stay connected to the never ending Internet.

A couple of months into this new foray into iPad living I fought myself still lugging around my laptop everyday as I always had before but not because the iPad was not as useful as I thought it would be but because I failed to realize just how much I rely on tools like Aperture, and other work related needs that simply didn’t really exist yet on touch screen devices. There Was a period of time that I found the iPad rarely seeing any action as my laptop was simply a more viable way to get done what I needed to get done through the day.

Then, I’m not sure what it was that triggered it exactly, but I discovered that I had the iPad out a lot more often than I once did. Somewhere along the line I realized that the applications built for the device were starting to aid the iPad in becoming a much more useful tool. I was able to print out PDF tech riders for concerts I was working as well as store them locally in iBooks. I found myself using the iPad more and more to write distraction free as I am right now using the great writing app iA Writer. More and more apps that I enjoyed but didn’t use often because it was such a pain to get information on and off the iPad were becoming useful as they started to use dropbox as an amazingly simple way to keep things in sync. Now I use it so much that I actually have days where I may find myself with a 30 percent battery life at the end of a busy day which is amazing considering the battery life really is as good as you hear it is.

I discovered I was replacing much of what I was doing with the laptop with my iPad and it feels good to finally feel as though it has caught up to my needs almost fully at this point. I have a simple Manhattan Portage messenger bag with a space that perfectly fits my iPad and it’s lovely cushy sleeve that I wrote about here before and it makes it so very easy to pull out my iPad and instantly be checking my mail, opening up a tech manual for a new piece of gear at work, catching up on the latest news, or sharing a few photos quickly and easily on the big screen. This kind of casual quick approach computing isn’t as accessible on a laptop. Well, maybe on one of those tiny little MacBook airs to an extent but not in the same way.

I think a big part of why I started using the iPad gradually more through the time I have owned it is not just because the apps have become more capable but also because I have grown accustomed to using the simplified approach of using a touch screen device to access and manipulate information. It is largely a single task device and while it really is quite simple to jump between apps I find it does take time to get used to using the iPad after coming off years of laptop and desktop use. It takes a slightly altered mindset to approach it and make it work for you in your own personal workflow from day to day but once its usefulness clicks you won’t look back. I was trying to think of a good real world example of a time when the iPad stood out as being extra ordinary and I think I have a perfect instance.

A few months ago I was hired to shoot individual portraits of a team of employees at an international company whose headquarters are located here in town and the client was willing to take the photos on the campus surrounding the buisness which is a beautiful area surrounded by woods. One by one a team member would come out to a predetermined location where I would have a few minutes with them to capture a handful of images. The iPad came into play when I finished each individual shoot. Using the camera connect kit I pulled off photos between sessions to double check results and gather them all into one place.

The best part of this came when the sessions were over and I could step back into the offices to share the images with those who I took photos of. The iPad excels at this because I am able to put the photos on this big wonderful screen and put them right in their hands. I could then easily transfer the images from the iPad into Aperture in full RAW resolutions.

While I am eagerly waiting for iPhoto to appear on the iPad to allow better on device organization of photos this was still an easy process that made for a great presentation tool while out shooting. Sure, I could have just as easily used a laptop but the personal touch of showing photos this way can add a lot of personality and intimacy to a presentation.

I do have a complaint to lodge as some of you may know already, connecting devices to the USB camera port is fairly limited because apple decided to limit the amount of power the dock connector is able to supply to a device. This really annoyed me when I discovered that I could not use my flash card reader any longer. While I have not tested this under the new iOS update I don’t doubt there is still this limitation in place and its something to be aware of. Connecting to a camera directly works like a charm but it’s a slower process.

Speaking of using the iPad for showing off photos, it makes for a wonderful place to keep a portfolio. I highly recommend an app called minimal folio for this. As soon as they added simple dropbox support it ended up being a fantastic way to showcase images on the iPad.

Of course showing off photos is not at all the core use for my iPad. There are a handful of other apps that see very regular use these days. The built in mail app, while not perfect, is certainly a great way to catch up with new mails and fire off simple replies. One thing that I wish it could do is easily re-size photos from my photo library but it’s not a pressing need, this and it would be nice to be able to flag emails. I know there are some power email users out there that have very strange and specific ways of working and may need something more powerful but for me it’s more than adequate.

Another app that is a daily fixture for me is what I consider to be the best RSS experience anywhere on any device and that is Reeder. Is a brilliantly simple approach and allows me to quickly navigate through my news feeds with ease through the day. If I had one request for this app to improve I would ask that feeds be manageable from within the application. I really hate having to use the web interface for google reader, it’s just a mess. I have tried a number of other RSS apps but they have always come up short of my expectations.

Next up is twitter. It is currently the only official twitter app that I like to use. While at first I didn’t really see the appeal it has since grown on me and I greatly appreciate it’s layered approach to seeking out content featured in any message as well as following conversations. It takes the mess that Twitter has become and turns it into something a bit more logical and easy to follow.

Then there is Instapaper. I think there is nothing but universal praise for the concept and I love it too, now with readability around as well feeding back to the content makers I can’t think of a reason not to use such a service. I tend to simply read a lot straight in reeder but Instapaper provides me with a great way to come back to articles I want to examine closer.

Last but not least in my short list of most used apps is iA Writer. I have had this for quite a while now but only just recently started to put it to good use. The last few things I have posted were written here in Writer synced over to my laptop with dropbox then formatted and posted with mars edit on my laptop. I tried pairing a bluetooth keyboard with this app and found it was a great environment to write in. It left me to focus on nothing more than the text. No casual trips to the dock to check my mail or twitter like on my Mac. My favorite things about the app are the additional typing tools above the keyboard letting you have access to arrows to skip through text and quick access to punctuation. This and the fact that hiding the keyboard turns what I have written into a book of sorts while in portrait view and makes for a great casual editing environment.

As for the subject of games on the iPad, I love a good game here and there and gaming on my iDevices has pretty much become my sole source for gaming outside of my Wii or old playstation 2 heh, maybe because I don’t own a TV anymore. So as for games on the ipad, I find ones that I enjoy most are ones who’s control structure works well on the iPad. Not all iPhone games work well on the iPad due to the size of the thing. I find that I usually have one game that I come back to for a few weeks and keep closer to the front page of my apps. At the moment that game is Land-a Panda and sometimes an old casual favorite, Sneezies. Simple but a good distraction here and there when I need a break.

All in all, the usefulness of the iPad, for me, has boiled down to the apps available for it. I think its a fairly obvious deduction if you follow the apple world at all but its true. I have written a couple of posts focusing on iPhone photo apps but I am considering starting these back up again with other types of apps as well in the future. A year after its introduction and I feel like the platform is just starting to take shape. There is still a lot of growth left to do. Just look at how the ipads smaller sibling started off. I remember seeing the iPhone rotating in a little glass tube in front of me at Macworld years ago when it was introduced with its meager built in app offerings. Who knew what kind of crazy revolution it would spark in our daily lives. Whether that is for better or for worse is up for interpretation and ill leave that for another day, the simple fact remains that the iPad has been a great addition to my daily life and at this point there is no turning back.

Golden Light

Due to the overwhelming popularity of my mnml beach wallpapers I could not help but make a couple more like minded shots while down in the Gulf coast shooting a wedding for a family member. We were exploring the roads near the coastline and completely lucked out around sunset and came across a gorgeous little stretch of beach we had all to ourselves. I noticed this great cliff-like formation in the sand near the water and knew I had found the perfect spot to shoot. It almost looks like a wave of sand, frozen there in time. I love these moments where a time and subject just suddenly click into place and gives you exactly what you want. There is some crazy saturation here I know but I did not add any in post. It is all the time of day + a nice white balance. Remember, you can do so much with just the basics within the camera. I find many readers think I do a lot of post work but I really do as little as possible as often as I can.

Unfortunately I totally blew a handful of great shots of this spot because of lazy shooting that lead to bad exposures. The sky was totally blown out at its brightest point and had a nasty looking band of white. If I have the time I will write a post specifically talking about the shots and write a little about why it happens and how to avoid it. To the best of my ability that is.

White

I have seen a lot of chatter about the white versus the black iPad 2’s and after a good amount of messing about with both models side by side in an Apple store I drew up my own conclusions on the mildly controversial white iPad and the fact that some seem to think it feels more toy like than the black model.

I feel part of the reason for this is because the white surface takes on the color of the light surrounding the device so the overall feel of the device is altered greatly in different environments. I was trying to think of another product like the white iPad that uses a combination of a glass surface with a white backing but can’t come up with many. Typically when you think of shiny white things you imagine polished, shiny plastic. Largely because of Apples own product line in the past. The soft round bezel on the edges of the new iPad simply add to the mental idea that it is a curvy piece of plastic but it’s all in the mind. This is certainly new territory they are breaking into and I feel it messes a bit with our perception.

The black iPad seems to be preferred for many because of the idea that it feels more like you are simply holding a screen, there is nothing else to distract you from the content there in front of you. Not to mention black is the classic geek chic color of choice and to many back means classy. I feel as though black electronics like this have this feeling because of the emotional nature of the color in our minds. The deep black of space, it is a color that consumes light, not one that adds to it. Psychologically, a black iPad appears to be stronger and more solid because of this simple fact. The same goes for the idea that black is somehow less distracting, that it blends into the environment around you. This is a largely circumstantial argument, however and totally boils down to ones own taste.

Then there is the argument that the screen feels further away from the glass which is not actually true at all but you want to think that because of the way the light falls onto the white bezel, it tends to bend in a different way because of the light reflecting back up from the white on the back of the glass giving you the feeling that the content on the scene is further away from you.

There is also a black edge around the content of the screen. This is most likely unavoidable. The screen would have had to be pressed up against the glass to be rid of such a gap. This or the bezel would have to overlap the edge of the screen not unlike the bleed used in print design but this would result in a glowing bezel and lost pixels. I find that the black gap is not as much about the distance from the edge of the bezel to the edge of the first pixel on the screen as it is simply the illusion of a larger gap because of your perspective looking down into the dark behind the bezel or maybe thats just me.

To some this may be a troubling distraction but honestly I think that, like the comfortable feel of black, it is also a matter of what you are used to seeing. What you see as a distraction may simply be your mind wanting to push against something you are not used to seeing, our instincts evolve quickly sometimes and its important to pay attention to the reasoning behind why we make the decisions we make. I feel that with a few days of use that thin black edge would never be noticed again and simply be seen as a border to the screen. It makes for good tech writing to discover things that could be seen as wrong with a new devices design and while things like this do warrant being pointed out I always find it troubling when its not really investigated or thought through well enough before jumping into the group think mentality that leads to assumptions and misguided opinions. Perhaps I am making an assumption myself in saying this, who knows.

Whats my personal taste leaning towards? While after a year of using my first gen iPad with its deep black screen I still feel as though the thick black bezel feels heavy around my screen. I understand the functionality of having a bezel large enough to hold in my hand though, which is a functional compromise for the better in my opinion.

There is also the emotion involved within a color choice. We are all emotional beings after all and so its hard not to bring emotion into the conversation while talking about a device that could end up being so closely intertwined in your every day life.

I find that I like the peacefulness of having lighter colors around me while I work and live my life or at least a nice balance of color. So for that reason alone, the airy lightness of a white iPad seems more appealing than yet another black monolith laying around on my desk. I feel like I have had enough black for now. The white border hardly feels distracting to me personally and in fact feels more natural and welcoming if it’s possible to say such a thing about an electronic device. This, of course, is simply my opinion, and many of you may prefer black for the same reasons I prefer white.

I have really loved having the iPad around and I have discovered that I have been using it more and more as applications continue to progress into new levels of functionality and appeal. I will explore this a bit more in another post soon. The reason for writing this was simply to mention my opinion on the ongoing discussion of the white and black iPads which seemed to vary somewhat from what I have read elsewhere. Funny thing me writing about a product I don’t own though. Thats what opinion articles are about though then aren’t they? What do you think?

50ft Radio Volume Four

Here we are again, another spring is creeping up on us and I felt I should get my next 50ft radio mix out there into the world. This one has been a long time coming. I actually started pulling it together last December at the same time as volume three but felt that it didn’t fit the season well enough. With warmer days upon most of us I felt it was prime time to put the finishing touches on it and make it available. Where the last mix was gentle, more contemplative music this time around I decided to let my love for electronic music hang out in the open. Most of the music found here are favorites from last year and some of you into the genera may be familiar with a lot of it but its just all too good not to share here with anyone looking for a good bounce in their step. I did my best to take the mood up and down through the hour+ of music found here and hopefully there is something for everyone to enjoy.

I was going to post this a few days ago but with the events that took place in Japan I felt strange posting much of anything because nothing I could post felt relevant at the time in the grand scheme of things. It’s hard for me not to get lost in thought imagining what they must be going through over there. I wish the best for everyone fighting through those hardships, and hope for things to settle for them so they can get into the process of sorting through everything that has happened.

The mix is available here in a single AAC file which is enhanced to include album artwork and links straight to the artists so you can find more information on all of the great music found within. There is also a pdf file with a list of songs and artists so you know who you are listening to.

The music here is for your personal enjoyment only, do not re-host the mix anywhere else online. The songs will not be made available as individual tracks because this is made for sharing music and introducing you to new artists you may have otherwise never discovered. I feel this is one of the best ways to discover great new music these days. So much of the music I find is through others recommendations and mixes like these and I love to do my part to share great music with those who love it as much as I do. Please have respect for the artists and if you do love anything on here simply pick up their album on iTunes or start a vinyl collection. Music makes the world go round and the only way to keep it spinning is to support it.

The mix is available in a simple zip file which can be downloaded here.

Light Falls

I made a stop by a state park near Raleigh the last time I was there to see what was around and managed to find a couple of nice spots to shoot. The park was pretty over run by locals so it was not a stop particularly full of solitude but hey, with the limited view of a camera and the right moment you can make anywhere seem peaceful. This shot ended up getting a fair amount of contrast tossed in and I decided to keep the white balance in a more neutral space for once so I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought I would when I first shot it. This is the kind of thing that always manage to catch my eye, not particularly the fallen tree itself but the way the light was passing through the other trees and falling onto the ground. The overcast day caused a very subtle change in stops between the shadows and the cloud filtered sunlight making its way to the earth. It made for the subtle balance of exposure I was able to capture here. The contrast was simply added as a way to make things pop but I love discovering those perfect spots just begging to be photographed, it never gets old.

Café Noir

I have a lot of readers that love it when I take photos of coffee and I this weekend while at one of my favorite little coffee shops I decided to bring in my 5D for a few shots to share as wallpapers. The shop is called Third Place, in Raleigh, NC. It’s a small shop selling fresh and delicious coffee, sandwiches, and pastries and I always make a point to stop by when I am in town. I love the stone table tops and the atmosphere is not unlike a cozy room in your own home. At any rate, I ordered a simple drip coffee and a croissant and sat down to take a few photos. The combination of the artificial lighting inside and the wonderful light from the window ended up leading to some messy color temperatures so when in post I decided to make the lead desktop a deep black and white film noir looking image. Perhaps a bit heavy but I thought it was still nice enough to share. (desktop number 2 is the color version seen below.)

My Custom iPad Sleeve

I have wanted to share my great iPad sleeve for quite a while now it seems and finally took a couple of minutes to snap a couple of photos. When using my iPad I like the natural feel of holding it without a case strapped onto its back so a sleeve was something I knew I wanted to carry it around with me. At first I had a friend sew one together of my own design but the problem there was that I didn’t have access to any decent fabric. A few months later YoungDoo mentioned she was planning on making a few iPad sleeves with her sister using materials found locally in Seoul. Turns out Seoul must have some great fabric suppliers because the sleeves they put together were amazing. The beautiful and durable fabrics they found to use were wonderful and the dimensions of the sleeve were perfect, snug but not tight and I am thrilled to be able to have one around which is one of a kind. The inner fabric is like a cloud, fluffy white fabric that is gentle and smooth giving me confidence it will not scratch the screen. I specifically asked for a design that allowed me to have it loaded inside my shoulder bag and be able to pull it out without needing to remove the whole sleeve all the time and as you can see its exactly what I have here.

It is a perfect way to carry around an iPad casually and while I can not offer anywhere for you to get your own (see update info below) I can suggest a nice sleeve as a great option for your iPad and I know there are a few great sleeve makers out there. I was tossing around the idea of making a few of these for sale here on 50ft in the future would anyone be interested in such a thing?

In other news, I will be selling this ipad soon. Probably here on 50ft, look for a post in the next few days ;)

Update: There was a good amount more interest than I thought there would be for something like this which is wonderful. It will be a while before I can sell any of these here on the site, at least not until I get my store page set up and going, and even then they would be pretty limited in their availability because I have no plans of starting up a sleeve company ;)

In the mean time to those of you who may be interested in a great cushy iPad sleeve like the one above I would highly suggest you check out Foof sleeves. An Australian company that I love. I own two of their sleeves for an iphone and my macbook that I have used for years now and have pointed friends to buy their sleeves time after time. I had recommended them in the past here on 50ft way back in ’08! Heres a photo of it in use on Flickr.  The idea to make some sleeves of our own stemmed from their beautiful simplicity and if you are in the market for one right now for your shiny new iPad check them out!  Additionally another great sleeve I had my eye on for my iPad for a while was this one here.