Getting Pictures from the Camera to the Droid

I started investigating how I was going to upload imagery from my new camera to illustrate this blog, and to post to social media sites while hiking the Appalachian Trail. The weight of a laptop makes packing one out of the question. So I figured I'd just plug a an SD card reader into my Droid's USB port, transfer the files, tweak them with the Photoshop app, and then upload photos when I had a signal

I figured wrong.

A Backpacking Camera

No, this ain't it ...

You see, I've been a photographer most of my life.  I had a Brownie Hawkeye in grade school. In high school, I was the yearbook/ school newspaper geek, and spent all my spare time in the darkroom. I was an Art/Photo/Film major in college where I developed a street photographer's style and ethic. I dropped out to join the Navy and went to the Navy School of Photography. I served as a combat cameraman, and 23 years later retired from the Navy as a Photo Officer. So you might understand why I ain't inclined to hike the trail with just the camera in my Droid.

Now, to be fair, that's not a bad camera, I use it a lot, and it would be a rational choice not to add the weight of another camera on a long hike. But, to try and capture the essence of the trail and the people hiking it, I want a camera that allows more creative control, and that is capable of producing high quality imagery. Heck, I may try and get a coffee table book outta it ...

Posting Waypoints Along the Way

I thought it would be cool if I could put a map on here that showed my progress as I hiked the Appalachian Trail. I started looking to find a way to create a map that could be embedded in the blog, and update it by placing a waypoint at my current position each day, using my Android smart phone.

Keeping Electronics Alive When There's No AC

When considering how to maintain this blog while hiking the Appalachian Trail, I decided to get an Android-based, HTC Incredible 2.  Its a 3G, single core phone with a 4" screen, and that adds up to better 'n' average battery life.  Unfortunately, better 'n' average is relative.  With heavy use, I find it needs to be recharged daily.  With light use, it can go two days between charges.

An advantage of Droids is that you can carrying a spare battery for them.  This is a fine option for someone who leaves the phone turned off, and only makes a few calls.  For the usage I envision, I'd have to carry and recharge fistfuls of them!

Blogging Via Droid

Picked up my HTC Incredible 2 Android cell phone today. I'm using the Blogger app, with Flex T9 by Nuance Communications to do a speech to text input to this blog.




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Internal Battle Over Electronics

My inner geek has been struggling with my inner curmudgeon over my desire to carry electronic devices during our Appalachian Trail thru-hike. I thought it would be nice to have some ability to take pictures, send email, update blogs, read ebooks, refer to scanned pdf files, upload pics, listen to music, find my way when lost, and find the occasional geocache ... Humping a separate camera, GPS, iPod, smartphone, and all the batteries and chargers seemed like a lot of weight, and a smartphone could do it all, if not as well as the stand-alone devices.

I'm a photographer, and I can not imagine settling for any camera in a smart phone. My Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5 is an excellent, if not eggsactly an ultra-lightweight camera, with a great wide-range lens. If I didn't already have it, I'd get their DMC-LX5 which is a few ozs lighter and allows RAW capture.