Pleyer has been shooting portraits and landscapes for thirty years.  He has perfected the art form; he knows all of the tips and tricks to capture a beautiful photograph.  He understands what makes a camera great, and knows how to unleash its full potential.

*  *  *  *  *

One of the photos Pleyer took with his smartphone

For years, I’ve been interested in photography, and have always wanted to learn the ins and outs.  I’m not much of a photographer, but sometime I luck into a good shot.  Recently, I made the commitment to begin relying less on luck and more on knowledge.
As I’ve mentioned before in this space, it isn’t hard to learn about something when you decide to do it.  In the digital age, we have a wealth of information at our fingertips.  So I made the commitment to begin educating myself on aperture settings and exposures, ISOs and f-stops, metering and white balance and all the rest.

A couple weeks ago, I went out and bought a new thousand-dollar camera—a state-of-the-art DSLR, capable of almost anything.  I brought it home, and started reading up on it.  I’m no expert, but I’ve learned a little in the past couple weeks.  And I’ve committed to learning a lot more.

*  *  *  *  *

  And then, last weekend, I learned about Alfred Pleyer.  Alfred was a finalist in the Mobile Photography Awards, an international contest for smartphone photography.  Recently, Alfred has been relying more and more on his cell phone when traveling abroad.  And he’s discovered that he can capture some great shots on his Android.

Another Android photo of Pleyer’s…

In fact, on a trip to Italy last year, Pleyer carried a large backpack full of camera equipment—yet constantly found himself reaching for his Android to snap photos.  “After one day I was so fascinated that I always wanted to use my phone,” he recently told a blogger.  “For a few days I was confused—I walked around with the camera bag, [but] always used the smartphone.  I could not believe what happened, after 30 years with big cameras, and now I use a crappy smartphone.”

On a few recent trips toIndia, Alfred again carried his trusty camera bag, but took 95 percent of his photos on his Android.  I emailed Pleyer—who is in India again this week on a photo shoot—and, again, he’s shooting on his smartphone.  “I’m using my smartphone because it’s easy to carry,” he told me.  It fits in my pocket and I’m not recognized as a photographer.”

Alfred uses the ProCapture app for his Galaxy S3.  The full-featured version will run you $1.99, but a free version is also available.  Both are incredibly comprehensive, allowing you to tweak the shutter speed and aperture settings, with several handy presets for point-and-shoot convenience.  It can also stitch together as many as twelve hi-res photos for the widest panoramic shot you’ve ever seen.

I began using the free version this week, and the quality and controls are stunning.  It’s incredibly easy to use—even for a novice like me.  And the on-screen display shows you exactly what you’ll get when you snap the photo.

Pleyer edits his mobile photos with Snapseed, which isn’t compatible with my S2, but there are scores of available photo-editing apps that are.  He told me that he enjoys shooting on his phone because he can immediately edit and share his photos.  “My smartphone is kind of a like a Swiss Army Knife for me,” he said.

Alfred has mentioned that he’s considering selling his camera equipment if he continues to rely so heavily on his Android.  “If it works again and I am satisfied with my smartphone, I will probably sell my gear and use my smartphone for all of my photography.”

Originally printed in “Pulse,” 02/21/2013.
© Damien Willis, 2011.  All rights reserved.

In the past week, we have seen a pronounced uptick in the latest prank targeting Hollywood stars.  It’s called swatting—and it’s getting out of control.  (There have been at least three reported instances in the last couple weeks.)  Here’s how it works:

1.  A prankster calls 911 to report an imaginary crime at a celebrity’s house.
2.  A SWAT team is dispatched to deal with the imaginary emergency.
3.  The SWAT team surrounds the celebrity’s home, scaring the crap out of everyone present.

Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus and Ashton Kutcher have all been victims of swatting in recent months.

Anyone with any common sense can see why this is certainly a bad idea, and its potential for creating a dangerous situation.  All it takes is one wrong move, one miscommunication, and somebody gets hurt—or killed.

On January 17^th, a SWAT team responded to a 911 call reporting an armed gunman at Tom Cruise’s home in Beverly Hills.  The following day, a SWAT team was dispatched to the Hidden Hills home of Bruce and Kris Jenner, of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” fame.  The 911 caller reported a shooting at the home, claiming the suspects were still inside.  Then, a few days later, LAPD raided the Hollywood Hills home of Chris Brown, after a 911 caller reported a domestic dispute involving a gun.

Last October, we learned about similar instances involving Justin Bieber and Ashton Kutcher.  In those cases, the swatter was caught.  It was a 12-year-old boy whom sources say comes from a “dysfunctional family,” and who has a history of antisocial behavior.  According to the most report I could find, the District Attorney was deciding whether or not to pursue charges.

A caller reported that Ashton was being kidnapped by the Russian mafia….

Last August, a SWAT team responded to a reported home invasion at Miley Cyrus’s house—and even dispatched a police helicopter to assess the situation.  Miley wasn’t home, and no crime had been committed.

The real victims of swatting are not the celebrities—who are almost never home when police swoop in.  Swatting wastes the time of the police officers forced to respond to the false alarm.  It places a tremendous financial burden on police departments, and wastes taxpayers’ dollars.  And, of course, it prevents police from responding to real emergencies.  After all, we’re not talking about one or two cops—it’s often twenty or thirty.

Police take this very, very seriously.  They are working hard to track down the latest rash of swatters.  In most states, filing a false police report can be a felony if the reported crime is a felony—so the instances above would all qualify.  I suspect that if an adult is caught swatting, the consequences will be severe—in part, as a deterrent to others.

Aside from a likely felony conviction, the swatter could also be forced to pay restitution to the city or county for the resources used in responding to the call.  And, though I’m no lawyer, I would imagine that they would be exposed to civil litigation—to repair any property damages, but also for emotional distress and/or punitive damages.

I suspect that swatting will continue until we see a widely-publicized conviction—with stiff penalties imposed.  Until swatting is viewed as more than a juvenile prank, with real consequences and repercussions, we’ll probably continue to see celebrities’ homes surrounded by armed officers.

Originally printed in “Pulse,” 01/31/2013.
© Damien Willis, 2011.  All rights reserved.

Everything you could ever want to know is just a couple of clicks away.  From Princess Di’s birthday to detailed medical articles about neurosurgery, the world’s wealth of knowledge is at our fingertips.  It’s easy to forget that this is a very new phenomenon.

About twelve years ago, when the internet (as we know it) was still very young and access to it was substantially scarcer than it is today, I received a phone call late one night.  “What was Plessy v.Ferguson?”  My friend, as it turns out, wasn’t on “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.”  A conversation with her co-workers had led to them rattling off all of the notable Supreme Court cases they could remember.

Homer Plessy

Unable to recall that specific lesson from my high school U.S. History class, I turned to my bookshelf and began rifling through several reference books.  I couldn’t find the answer, so I called my dad—and he turned to his bookshelf.  We found the answer that night, but it wasn’t easy.  In the weeks and months that followed, I bought several reference books—all of which passed the “Plessy v.Ferguson” test.

That’s not a scenario that would likely unfold today.  My friend probably wouldn’t have called me that night if the answer she was looking for could be found in her smartphone.

• • • • •

  This past weekend, I decided to teach myself how to use Photoshop.  I can write, I have a rudimentary understanding of web design, and I figured that graphic design was the missing link.  After all, in the Information Age, web graphics are quickly becoming the currency of choice.

Think about your favorite social network, for example.  Whether it’s Facebook or Pinterest or Tumblr, we’ve come to rely on images for both information and entertainment.  Think about USA Today and The Atlantic, and the visuals that they use to deliver information.  It’s easy to digest—and it might signify a transformation in the way we prefer to process information.  Now, perhaps more than any other time in the modern era of a literate populace, we seem to prefer the pictures over the words.

Interestingly enough, this appears to coincide with a perceptible erosion in grammar and spelling.

• • • • •

  In previous columns, I’ve written a lot about the wealth of free knowledge available on the web—college courses from some of America’s top universities, for example.  Because this is the Information Age, when I decided to learn Photoshop, I turned to the abundance of free resources on the internet.  When I turned on my computer Saturday morning, I didn’t know the first thing about the software.  By Saturday evening, thanks to dozens of online tutorials, I was creating graphics for Hot 103’s website and Facebook page.

Over the weekend, I began trying to learn Photoshop.

Photoshop is not a particularly easy program to learn.  Even now, I’d be surprised if I’m utilizing ten percent of its features, its capabilities.  But I’ve got access to all of the resources I’d ever need to make me a pro.  I don’t have to enroll in night courses at the community college.  I don’t have to buy instructional videos.  I can simply turn to Google.

It’s easy to forget how remarkable this is, because it has become so commonplace.  It has become our reality.  Within seconds, I can find out that “Plessy v.Ferguson” was the Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation in public places, and added the phrase “separate but equal” to our American vernacular—only to be overturned 58 years later by “Brown v. Board of Education.”

This weekend, commit yourself to learning a new skill.  It can be anything—a friend of mine recently learned to crochet by watching YouTube videos.  Make that decision, and start learning!

Originally printed in “Pulse,” 01/24/2013.
© Damien Willis, 2011.  All rights reserved.

So I won’t be tackling any of the great debates that our country is engaged in this week; it seems unlikely that I’d be able to sway many opinions, anyway.  Instead, I feel like sharing some of the cool things I’ve learned while neglecting my civic responsibility to help resolve the most pressing issues of the day.  Besides, you deserve a break from these national conversations—at least for a moment.

A story in The Atlantic detailed how, in an 1899 exchange with Jack London, the magazine suggested that the then-unknown writer use his Christian name, John—which, the editors believed, was “better suited than Jack to literary purposes.” London was irked by the suggestion.

Britney Spears and her fiancé, Jason Trawick, reportedly called off their wedding; meanwhile, Kobe Bryant and his wife, Vanessa, called off their divorce.  Netflix, it became clear, seeks to revolutionize television.  With the “Arrested Development” reboot, a Netflix-exclusive, the episodes can be watched in any order.  And while all episodes are roughly thirty minutes long, the exact lengths vary, causing some critics to explore what creative liberties might be taken with a new generation of online television shows—shows that are produced without the inherent constraints of network or cable TV.

Over the weekend, a reporter writing in The New York Times sounded the death knell for courtship.  Bemoaning the notion that the “hook-up” has rendered an entire generation “unhappy, sexually unfulfilled, and confused about intimacy”—as one expert puts it—Alex Williams’ article stirred a bevy of social critics from their winter slumber, and into a tizzy over gender roles in 2013, “charm” versus “sexism,” and whether chivalry is dead.

A 23-year-old MIT graduate student named Dhairya Dand had too much to drink, blacked out, and woke up in a hospital.  The young inventor, determined to never let it happen again, created smart ice cubes.  Equipped with LED lights which flicker with ambient sound, the cubes flash green, then orange, and finally red, based on how frequently you’re raising your glass to take a drink.  And that’s not all.  If things begin to get out of hand, the ice cubes can send a text message to his best friend, using his smartphone.

On a related note, someone has also invented a “smart fork,” which vibrates to let you know when you’re eating too quickly.  It also pairs with a mobile phone app, which tracks your bites, total eating time, and “fork duration”—just in case that’s information you need.

Slate.com has created a Supreme Court Justice Death Calculator, which computes the probability of a justice dying during the upcoming administration.  It also calculates complex probabilities—including multiple deaths, any liberal, any conservative, or any combination of judges.  It’s morbid, but brilliant.  And, speaking of which, Slate has also partnered with the Twitter feed @GunDeaths to track, in real time, the number of people shot and killed in America since the Newtown massacre.  (As of this writing, it’s 917.)  It also breaks down gender and age, and features a map to show gun fatalities by location.

At any given time, there are usually three or four or five big stories in the news.  But, if we take a little time, and dig deeper, we may discover interesting innovations, fascinating conversations, and remarkable revelations occurring all around us.

Originally printed in “Pulse,” 01/17/2013.
© Damien Willis, 2011.  All rights reserved.

Perhaps you’ve heard that “Happy Birthday to You,” though penned in 1893, is not in the public domain.  It’s true; it’s still copyrighted.  And every year, Warner Chappel Music rakes in about $2 million off its use in television and movies. 

This year, Creative Commons is turning ten years old, and WFMU wanted to celebrate.

The reason that your Hooters waitresses have to sing a different song is because Hooters is a public space—and, at least technically, a “public performance” would violate copyright laws.  (Another argument is that singing “Happy Birthday” would constitute a “service,” and using the song to that end would also be a violation.)  While it seems unlikely that anyone would get sued for singing “Happy Birthday” to a customer, most restaurants don’t take that chance.  And, as a result, they’ve each come up with their own obnoxious birthday song with which to serenade you on your special day.

It seems bizarre—even absurd—that a song like “Happy Birthday to You,” a song sung hundreds of millions of times every year, could be protected by copyright after 120 years.  One problem that creates is for filmmakers.  According to a story in The New York Times, when Steve James was making the documentary “Hoop Dreams” in 1994, he needed to include a scene in which a main character was turning 18—against long odds.  He had shot footage of a birthday party for the young man, during which “Happy Birthday” was sung.  Even as a then-unknown filmmaker, producing a documentary that no one expected to succeed the way it did, James had to pay $5,000 to license the song for the film.

And this is where it gets interesting.  First, a word on the players.  WFMU-FM is a non-commercial radio station in Jersey City,NJ.  It’s the longest-running freeform radio station in America, and its massive signal and translators cover parts of New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.  The station also operates the Free Music Archive (FreeMusicArchive.org), a website devoted to offering high-quality, free and legal audio downloads.  And Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that facilitates the free and legal usage of creative works, in accordance with the artist’s wishes.

This year, Creative Commons is turning ten years old, and WFMU wanted to celebrate.  So the station has launched a campaign to create a new birthday song—a copyright-free ditty to replace “Happy Birthday to You.”  Between now and Sunday (01/13), songwriters can submit their alternate birthday songs at WFMU.org.  The station has compiled a panel of judges, who will review the entries and select three winners, to be announced on January 29^th.

Once the winners are chosen, WFMU will distribute the songs to “the most powerful media companies on earth with colorful, Ross Perot-style financial incentive charts encouraging the recipients to better their bottom line by using one of these shiny new Happy Birthday replacement tracks.”  The station intends to also distribute the songs to movie studios, restaurant chains, sports leagues, and bowling alleys—as well as music journalists, bloggers and radio stations, in order to maximize publicity in hopes that one of these winners “sticks.”

To think that any song could replace “Happy Birthday to You” in the American psyche seems against all odds.  But, then again, crazier things have happened.

Originally printed in “Pulse,” 01/10/2013.
© Damien Willis, 2011.  All rights reserved.

This week, however, I retired from the checkout line game. One evening, I actually chose one of the longest lines, a register manned by a cashier who must have been in training. This was not some sort of Zen exercise to develop greater patience, nor was it an act of penitence, an attempt to atone for past sins. It’s not a resolution for the New Year, or an effort to build character. I simply discovered a new app for my smartphone that makes waiting in line, well, not so bad.

You have to experience Flipboard to truly experience its beauty.

It’s called Flipboard, it’s free, and it might be the best app ever. In the simplest terms, it takes everything on the internet that you might care about and delivers it through the most beautifully-designed platform that you’ve ever seen. It is like a digital magazine, constantly updated, and remarkably simple to use. And it’s fully customizable.

While Flipboard has been available for the iPhone for a while, it was only released for Androids on December 20th. And though a lot of Android apps are glitchier and less intuitive, clumsier with fewer features, than their iPhone counterparts—think Instagram, for example—Flipboard is just about perfect.

Not only does Flipboard pull in some of the most popular stories from The New York Times, Politico, NBC News, the Associated Press, Reuters, and more, it also seeks out the web’s most viral content. As you flip through, you might learn what kind of progress is being made on fiscal cliff negotiations, learn about Kim Kardashian’s pregnancy, discover a photo essay of breathtaking New Year’s Eve celebrations from around the globe, and see the latest YouTube video that everyone is chattering about.

But that’s not all. Flipboard also integrates all of your social networks into one place, too. With a few easy steps, I was able to link it to my Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and Google Plus accounts. I use Google Reader to follow all of my favorite blogs from across the web, and Flipboard can integrate those stories, too. If you see something that you’d like to share with your friends, you can easily post it to your Facebook wall, tweet it to your followers, or share it on Tumblr.

Flipboard set out to “let people discover and share content in beautiful, simple, and meaningful ways,” and hit a homerun.

It’s also got dozens of curated video channels from across the web, if you’re waiting for a friend to get out of work, and want to watch a few TEDTalks or short films from YouTube. There is also an audio feature which allows you to stream podcasts, news, audio books, and music selected by artists and record labels while you flip.

Flipboard set out to “let people discover and share content in beautiful, simple, and meaningful ways,” and hit a homerun. It’s easy to explain the app’s great features, but the beauty of it must be seen to be appreciated. You’ve never seen Facebook look so gorgeous. You’ve never seen Twitter this striking. Trust me.

I don’t know how long I stood in that long line at the grocery store. But when it was time to check out, I wasn’t quite ready.

If you have a smartphone, grab Flipboard. And find a long line to stand in.

Originally printed in “Pulse,” 01/03/2013.
© Damien Willis, 2011.  All rights reserved.