To cook a photo better…

I’m loving the iPhone 4S. This photo probably would be impossible with any other cell phone camera. At least none of which I am aware. The ability to alter exposure, meter exactly where I want, focus where I want, then edit how I want, upload it all over the internets, etc… never seen this sort of control before from such simplicity.

Call me late-to-the-party, but I have a tendency to use what is (for the most part) working while the kinks are being ironed out of the newest technologies. For instance, when everyone was struggling with the iPhone signal issues and those “bumper” things, the Droid was getting just fine reception… I could probably count on one hand the number of dropped calls in almost three years of Droid life. So the 4S comes out and I say, “That’ll do, pig.” Still haven’t had a dropped call on it for the month I’ve owned the 4S now.

But I use it because it works. People are surprised when they see me using something extremely old… the Leica M8, for instance, is one of my favorite cameras. I also have a first-gen iPad. I’ll probably wait a month or two after the iPad3 comes out, just after everyone is done stroking out and standing in lines and waiting on waiting lists… I’ll just walk in and buy one, my iPad1 probably still running like the day I bought it.

This is yet another moment brought to you by “Life in Moderation.” Call me a Stoic, but I’ve never camped for days to get a piece of technology, or waited in a line that circles the block to see a movie. Why? Do I not care enough? Well, sure, but I care about something that does the job I need it to do very well…

…but somehow I can never imagine a carpenter waiting in long lines outside the hardware store for the new hammer that will pull a nail out in .2 seconds using 50% less effort that the previous version.

I know my argument there is slightly absurd, but is there anything gained by having the newest thing first? Other than vanity? Other than praise from your friends who are just a little further back in the same line to get the same thing? The search for the nicest, newest, shiniest, sharpest, fastest… “thing”… only brings the un-satisfaction of realizing that, shortly after you make it yours, everyone else can have the exact same thing. Why can’t the pursuit of truly timeless things be done with such passion?

One thing is for certain: in the pursuit of vanity, there is truly nothing new under the sun.

Stay tuned…

-Noah D.