Running Studio Strobes on a UPS for Location Shooting

Well, before spending the $170 in parts for the DYI Vagabond posted on myJTP.com's youtube channel. I always wondered why I couldn't just use my computer's UPS. It's 725VA, self contained, built in charger, really cheap (<$100) why wouldn't this work? Well I got some time to do some testing and found out the following. Using my Photogenic 600ws monolights I was able to get 125 full power pops off of my fully charged UPS (battery in the UPS was about 2years old) til it cut power when the battery reached about 19% charge. Recharge time on the strobe was about 3.5 seconds, so not really as fast as pluging into a good 'ol AC outlet. Not really enough for a full shoot but I could do in a pinch. The battery in the unit is about 1/3 the size as the one in the Vagabond, so that explains why it didn't last that long.
So it worked but there is alot of chatter on the flickr groups about the need for a pure sine inverter to power strobes. I believe my strobes have a transformer rectified front end that charges the capacitor bank which is the worst ones to run off a approximate-sine inverter like my UPS - I didn't fry anything in the process, and nothing even got too hot in the process, but I think to be safe, I'll build the DYI kit with a pure sine.

FITALY for Andriod Code.

For those of you that have asked, and aren't totally won over by Swype (my personal favorite keyboard on Android), I've posted the xml file for the my version of the FITALY layout. You can use this to compile a version of the keyboard for your phone. Or if you wish, I've posted my apk here. It should work for Android 1.5 but I've only tested with the emulator and not on a real phone. Once installed you set it up like any other alternative keyboard in phone settings. You'll need to run the anysoft setup to choose the FITALY layout.
Again, just another reason to love the open-ness of Android in it's ability to be able to pull apps from non-market place sources.
Enjoy.

DYI Vagabond

Was planning on doing this for a long time, nice to see someone proved it out - and doesn't need as big a batter as I was going to use. Still want to see if a simple UPS would work as well. They can be had for cheap and have a built in charger. But this DYI has a nice look to it as well.

Fitaly Keyboard running on Nexus One

Well I couldn't wait til my next lunch hour to work on this, so when I got home I did a little search and found an open source project called softkeyboard which is a really nice soft keyboard with multi-language support and lots of great functionality including the predictive text function and user defined dictionary support I was looking for. Since it's quite a bit more complicated than Google's little sample keyboard it took me a bit to figure out how to get my FITALY layout integrated into it but I got it going in about an hour (while watching 24). Here it is running on my Nexus One:

Yea, I was pretty proud of my first hack of an Android app. But now that I got it on my phone how's it work? Well, to be honest, not as great as I thought it'd be. First, as you can see, the 6 row format takes quite a bit of screen real estate and the keys are already too small to 'thumbtype' like I wanted so making them any smaller is out. I'll give it a try for a week and see how I like it.

DYI - Fitaly Keyboard for Android

A little departure from photography in this post to get a little 'geeky'. I've had my Android Nexus One phone for about a month now and I'm still loving it. One thing that I had to get use to coming from the blackberry is the N1's virtual keyboard. I'd like to be able to type quick messages out one handed using just my thumb to peck at the keyboard but a QWERTY keyboard is not suited for this. Back in my Palm OS days, I used a keyboard layout that was designed for a stylus, and transfers well to one finger typing. The layout is called FITALY and is based on grouping the most common keys in the center of the layout and the least used at the edges with the intent of minimizing the distance your finger has to travel to type out a message.

In looking at the Android marketplace, I found all sorts of alternative keyboards but no FITALY. The original makers of fitaly for the palm still have a webpage but no signs of plans for porting it to Android - So I decided to see how tough it'd be to write my own. After all, Android is supposed to be and open platform and Google gives you all the tools you need to get started writing apps - so let see...

As it turns out, it was amazingly simple, Google even had an example of a virtual QWERTY keyboard in their SDK. The keyboard layout is defined by a simple XML file. So without any programming, I got fitaly running over a lunch break. Now it's pretty basic, but after seeing what's involved I think I'll adapt the layout to one of the more elaborate soft keyboards that are open source projects to take advantage of the predictive text and user dictionary functions they provide. Maybe done by next lunch break?

Anyway, this little exercise cemented my love for the Android OS - I think its going to take over the small device market over the next couple years.

Step away from the delete key...

Was doing a shoot this afternoon experimenting with fill flash and when I was back at the computer culling the images I came across this one were the flash didn't fire leaving the subject under exposed. Usually I'd hit the old 'x' on lightroom to mark for deletion but I really liked the lines created by the headband. When I started to play with some levels, I got struck with some inspiration (or copycatitus) and pulled the image into photoshop for some channel work, masking and....

bam! instant poster. Moral of the story is it doesn't always have to be a great photograph to be a keeper - with a little creativity you can save those bits from the delete key...

My hiking rig

Here's my light weight rig I use while hiking. G9, super pod, and a ex580. Yes, the flash is grotesquely large, it does an excellent job fighting the Arizona sun. Using its high speed mode, I can still use fast shutter speeds and wider apertures with fill flash performance the built in can't touch.

I know I've knocked the G9 before but it's got its place. The rig is light weight and easy to carry - the folded tripod makes a good carry handle.