I have been wanting an iPad since they first came out - mostly, because I want to see the capabilities for online magazine and e-photo-book publishing, but until now I have not been able to justify the expense. I justify it now because I had pretty much resigned myself to the idea that I was going to have to purchase a new computer that would cost many times as much as the iPad, but now that I don't have to, then an iPad seems a good investment.
Of course, the iPad comes with a built-in camera. The resolution is low and the quality less than the iPhone, but I love any camera I can get my hands on and I worry less about technical quality than if I can use it to capture a feeling in the picture.
So, all of today's images were taken with my new iPad.
I started out with Margie and me.
Jobe and me next. He and Kalib came yesterday afternoon and will be here through today, maybe into tomorrow. I'm not sure.
Kalib, eating peanut butter and jelly.
I went to bed about midnight and, as always, when these boys overnight, Kalib slept with me and Jobe with Margie in the guest room. I spent an hour reading, Miss New India, a book that I first heard about from an Alan Cheuse review on NPR and he convinced me that I must read it. It is the first book that I will have read on an e-reader - in this case, the iPad.
It was fun, because I did not have to turn any lights on and page turning was instantaneous. At first, I thought I preferred reading a paper book, but after I had been at it for awhile I began to change my mind. I wouldn't want to read a book on an iPad while soaking in the tub, though.
In the morning, when I woke up for good sometime after 7:00 AM, I found Kalib sleeping like this, and so picked up the iPad and shot.
The light was dim in the room. This would be approximately the equivalent of shooting at ISO 10,000 or so.
Chicago had slept on the other side of my head. Here she is.
Chicago and me, in the early hours.
My hand, before I get out of bed.
Me, still in bed. I have to wear that damn thing on my nose if I am to breathe and get any sleep at all. Looks likes its time for a haircut and beard trim again, especially since I will be heading back into the field shortly.
Jim was looking out the window.
Jim - as captured in the early morning with my iPad.
I went into the next room, which was even darker. Jobe woke up and came to greet me.
He was still tired, so he collapsed at his grandma's feet.
Soon, Jobe and I were out in the front room. Kalib slept on. Margie was coming to and would soon join us.
You did not see Pistol in the bedroom because he did not want to share the bed with Kalib, so he pouted and slept in the front room by himself.
Jobe scurries across the living room, carrying the two golf balls.
You can't see them, but this is only a second or so later, so he is still carrying the balls.
Now he is eating them.
Margie and Jobe, immediately after a diaper change.
Gramma and grandson.
Grandson and gramma.
Jobe gets down.
Jobe is ready to go. Gramma is not ready to let him go.
iPad still life: half a small cup of coffee. When Melanie and I went to India for Soundarya's wedding, Murthy gave me a set of small coffee cups. In India, they tend to keep their cups small. Drinking from a small cup helps me to not overdo it.
Plus, I like the cups.
Margie feeds Jobe some Oatmeal Squares.
iPad still life: Artificial flowers on the kitchen table, flanked by math.
But then, isn't math everywhere?
That's what my kindergarten teacher would always tell us, whenever we complained about the difficulty of the latest calculus quiz she had given us.
"Math is everywhere!" she would say. "Around and inside us - in the number of times a bird flaps its wings as it flies overhead - and how many times does your heart beat per minute... how many bites can you take out of a cookie... how many decibels in the croak of a frog...?
"It's all math, students," she would say. "Math is everywhere."
Jobe dumped the garbage on the floor, found the diaper his grandma had just taken off of him and gave it a toss. It took .9128999999999999999999 seconds for the diaper to plop onto the floor.
Sorry I can't be more precise than this. My math skills have been on the wane ever since I graduated from kindergarten and left behind the most brilliant mathematics teacher I ever had.
So ends my first experiment with iPad photography.