Photography: Galaxyography VS iPhoneography

Law and Money (2012) -- Locky Law
Shot with Galaxy S2
Image from Locky's English Playground

Hello, I am a Galaxyographer.


A Galaxyographer is, of course, is into Galaxyography -- the photography of the Galaxy phones. This is a relatively new term as compared to iPhoneography -- the photography of the iPhones. 
Maybe it's because the first Samsung Galaxy smartphone was launched after the first iPhone, but the iPhones definitely have a larger photography fan base.

Shot with iPhone 4
Image from Maxim Leung

In what ways are iPhoneography and Galaxyography similar? Since both on-phone cameras are pretty wide, it is ideal for landscape photography, together with the panorama functions, the landscape photos can cover even wider angles. 

Shot with iPhone 4
Image by Maxim Leung

These small cameras also come with macro ability, allowing their users to shoot close up shots with a fair amount of magnification. 

Shot with iPhone 4
Image by Maxim Leung

However, the most typical yet amazing advantage of the two types of photography is the ability to carry out on-phone post-processing, that is to tune colours, add filters and effects immediately on the phones without the need to connect to a computer.

Shot with iPhone 4
Image by Maxim Leung

Both the iPhone 4S and the Galaxy S2 and S3 can take photos up to 3264x2448 pixels, meaning that they are supposed to work just as well / as noisy in terms of picture quality.


Then of course, due to the small JPG sizes of the photos taken with these smartphone cameras, sharing on social networks like Facebook is quick and easy.

Then what about the differences between the two?

Other than the fact that the two cameras are used by two very different groups of people, I think the attitude is slightly different.

Maybe the getting filter apps on the App Store is easier, maybe there are really better performing apps for the iPhones and so iPhoneographers tend to process their photos more heavily then Galaxyographers.

(Edited via TiltShiftGen, PlasticBullet & PicGrunger) Image from KateHailey

Image from KateHailey

iPhoneographers can be photographers and also artists or painters, they can jump from one filter app to another, cross-processing their photos multiple times to achieve the desired artistic pieces. The results, as you can see from the above images, can be spectacular!  iPhoneographers  can become a painter without knowing how to dilute their paints, they can create that textures without actually using canvases. Everything can be done, if they are expert enough, in matter of minutes. It is a unique form of art! Amazing indeed!

Mingling At Night (2012) -- Locky Law
Shot with Galaxy S2
Image from Locky's English Playground

But for Galaxyographers, we do not enjoy as much photo-manipulations as the iPhoneographers do. We may have filter apps too, but they are not as well-developed as those in the App Store. Even if we decided to pay and buy some apps, they are simply not good enough. We Galaxyographers are stuck with some a few basic filters which won't degrade the photo quality.

We are stuck with just the on-phone cameras.


Blessed or cursed?

Without the help of all these filters which I, at one time, tried very hard to search for on the Android Market (Now called Google Play), I began to focus more on the techniques of taking a good picture. Learning to compose an image (composition: the ways to arrange subjects and objects in a photograph) is very important indeed but it is not as nearly as critical as "feeling the image".

The Tetons and the Snake River (1942) -- Ansel Adams
Image from Wikipedia

One of THE MOST world-renowned photographer Ansel Adams once said, 

"A photograph is usually looked at -- seldom looked into." 

With this he meant two points, 

1. since "there are always two people: the photographer and the viewer", many viewers simply look at how beautiful a photo is and ignore what is conveyed in the image.
2. the photographers themselves forget to look into the image that they are composing and simply look at the what is presented to them.

Reclaiming? Is It Yours? (2012) -- Locky Law

Shot with Galaxy S2 from the front row of a bus

Image from Locky's English Playground

In order words, does an image have a story in it? What is the story? If a photograph has no story, it has no meaning.


“Life is your art. An open, aware heart is your camera. A oneness with your world is your film. Your bright eyes and easy smile is your museum.” -- Ansel Adams


As such, are you able to capture that deep image?


Skills are always more important than the cameras you have, but the best way to master the skills of a photographer is to be in a situation which the equipment is limited, because only then will one learn to think hard with their brain.


My Galaxy S2 has helped me become a better photographer, that's why I love it.


PS:
If you like my photos, please visit my Digitalrev page at http://www.digitalrev.com/lockyep.
If you like Maxim's photos, please visit her Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/maximle.


Vocabulary:

Galaxyography -- (n)[U] the photography of the Galaxy phones.
iPhoneography -- (n)[U] the photography of the iPhones.
panorama -- (n)[C] a view of a wide area
magnification -- (n)[U] the process of making something look bigger than it is, for example by using a magnifying glass
post-processing -- (n) processing an image after it has been taken with a camera
manipulation -- (n)[C or U] mainly disapproving controlling someone or something to your own advantage, often unfairly or dishonestly
are stuck with -- from stick (vb) [I or T] to cause something to become fixed, for example with glue or another similar substance
blessed or cursed? -- is it good or bad?
composition --(n)[C] [C] the way that people or things are arranged in a painting or photograph
renowned -- (adj) famous for something



Resources:
iPhoneography
http://www.iphoneography.com/

iPhoneography @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iphoneography

Locky's EP @ Digitalrev
http://www.digitalrev.com/lockyep

Locky's EP photos @ Digitalrev
http://www.digitalrev.com/lockyep/photos

Maxim Leung @ Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/maximle

An Introduction to iPhoneography @ CreativeLIVE
http://www.creativelive.com/blog/introduction-iphoneography/

Ansel Adams
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansel_Adams


Locky's English Playground @ Digitalrev
http://www.digitalrev.com/lockyep

Maxim Leung @ Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/maximle

Photography: Welding Glass Photography (WGP) Result 2012 @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2012/05/photography-welding-glass-photography.html

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/panorama?q=panorama
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/magnification?q=magnification+
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-processing
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/manipulation_1?q=manipulation
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/stick_4
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/composition_1?q=composition
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/renowned?q=renowned+

Cooking & Health: How To Cook Perfect Scrambled Eggs with Healthy Oil and Good Wok

Locky's healthy creamy scrambled eggs
Image from Locky's English Playground

Hello all Playground players, this is my first article on cooking, and our target dish today is scrambled eggs.

A lot of people know how to cook, but many will say one truly knows how to cook if one can cook an egg. Well, I'm not sure about that, but I do think cooking eggs can get really advanced if you want. For me, I choose scrambled eggs.


Now it would be easy to cook scrambled eggs with bucket-load of oil, but that is really unhealthy and will ruin the taste of the eggs. Then how can we cook scrambled eggs with minimal amount of oil?

First, you need to choose oil that is thick enough, like olive oil.

Olive and oil
Image from insearchofsimplicitytoday

Facts:
Saturated fatty acids (lower better): 13.808%
Mono-unsaturated fatty acids (higher better): 72.961%
Polyunsaturated fatty acids (higher better): 10.523%

• omega-3 fatty acid / linolenic acid: 1%
• omega-6 fatty acid / linoleic acid: 10%

Oleic acid (higher better): 71%



Canola oil is even more healthier, but might be slightly more watery.

Canola and oil
Image from vanessaruns

Facts:
Saturated fatty acids (lower better): 7.365%
Mono-unsaturated fatty acids (higher better): 63.276%
Polyunsaturated fatty acids (higher better): 28.142%

• omega-3 fatty acid / linolenic acid: 10%
• omega-6 fatty acid / linoleic acid: 22%

Oleic acid (higher better): 62%


Benefits:
Saturated fatty acids is associated with heart diseases and caners.
Mono-unsaturated fatty acids protects against heart diseases.
Polyunsaturated fatty acids such as omega-3 fatty acids lowers risk of heart attacks and breast cancer, and is critical to fetal development (baby development during pregnancy). omega-6 fatty acids lowers the risk of heart diseases.
Oleic acid helps the absorption of omega-3 and prevent the effects of bad cholestrol.

My scrambled eggs in multi-layer stainless metal-alloy wok
Image from Locky's English Playground

 After choosing the right kind of oil, you need to understand your wok.

Teflon pans and wok are out of my considerations because they are well-known to cause cancer. Traditional Chinese iron wok is good as it is recommended by the World Health Organization as it helps to prevent iron deficiency, especially for pregnant women, but it usually requires to use of excessive oil. The wok I have at home is a multi-layer stainless metal-alloy wok, it's good as it is scratch-resistant and loses heat very slowly but it's bad as it heats up real slowly, gets overheated later causing the food to get stuck onto it easily, thus lots of work in cleaning afterwards.


Whatever your concerns are, if you know a little physics or the properties of your wok, you can achieve better results in cooking.




Recap:
Alloys, which consists of different elements, conducts heat poorer than elements as the electrons are bouncing off irregularly in different atoms, which explains why the alloy wok heats up more slowly but also loses heat more slowly than iron wok.

Super clean wok even after cooking eggs
Image from Locky's English Playground

Cooking Procedures:

Finally, if you also want to cook great scrambled eggs with metal alloy wok, here are the steps:

1. heat wok for 2 minutes
2. add just enough olive oil to moist the wok
3. wait for the oil to start smoking
4. off the fire
5. pour whisked eggs into the wok
6. draw "S" (almost immediately after pouring) while the egg starts to coagulate
7. remove scrambled eggs from wok
8. enjoy!

Following my method, you won't be having a tough time washing up your wok after cooking, and your scrambled eggs is as creamy as it gets!

Vocabulary:
scrambled egg -- (n)[C] see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrambled_eggs
-load -- (adj) all the people or goods in the stated type of vehicle or container
olive oil -- (n) [U] see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_oil
canola oil -- (n) [U] see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canola_oil

Saturated fat -- (n) [C] see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturated_fatty_acids
Monounsaturated fat -- (n) [C] see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monounsaturated_fat
Polyunsaturated fat -- (n) [C] see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyunsaturated_fat#Benefits
Oleic acid -- (n) [C] see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleic_acid#Health_effects

fetal -- (adj) a young human being or animal before birth, after the organs have started to develop
Teflon -- (n) see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytetrafluoroethylene
deficiency -- (n)[C] (a) state of not having, or not having enough, of something that is needed
scratch-resistant -- (adj) uneasy to be scratched
metal-alloy -- (n)[C] a metal that is made by mixing two or more metals, or a metal and another substance
coagulate -- (vb) [I or T] to change from liquid to a more solid state, or to cause something to do this


Resources:
Scrambled eggs @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrambled_eggs

Olive Oil @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_oil

Canola Oil @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canola_oil

Saturated fat  @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturated_fatty_acids

Monounsaturated fat @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monounsaturated_fat

Polyunsaturated fat @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyunsaturated_fat#Benefits

Oleic acid @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleic_acid#Health_effects

Teflon @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytetrafluoroethylene

Origins of Chinese Food Culture @ Google Books
http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=ZWggUMKeU6UC&pg=PA19&lpg=PA19&dq=world+health+organisation+chinese+iron+wok&source=bl&ots=VqpxTP4Pjc&sig=ZoG98QLSJNpvM4ckvFoW_FtzwXc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Jhr9T-yELKO5iQf_t5zLBg&ved=0CHkQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=world%20health%20organisation%20chinese%20iron%20wok&f=false

Women and Health @ World Health Organization
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2000/WHO_WKC_W&H_00_women.pdf

Q & A: How Different Metals Conduct Heat | Department of Physics @ University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
http://van.physics.illinois.edu/qa/listing.php?id=1854

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/load_5
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/foetus
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/deficiency?q=deficiency+
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/alloy_1?q=alloy
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/coagulate?q=coagulate

Message: Locky's English Playground @ Google+

Image from Locky's English Playground

Dear all, Locky's English Playground has now added a Google+ page, if you want to stay in touch with me, then do follow me on Google+!

Resources:
Locky's English Playground @ Google+
https://plus.google.com/u/0/106778983332901434418/posts

Academic Research: Critique : Pre-imperial Chinese : Its hurdles towards becoming a world language, Dan Lu (2008)

Image from Locky's English Playground

My apology to Dan Lu, this is nothing personal, it's just an assignment.

Title: Author: Descriptors:  Publication Date:  Pages:  Last Updated:

Critique : Pre-imperial Chinese : Its hurdles towards becoming a world language, Dan Lu (2008) Law, Locky English, Chinese, Lingua Franca, Global language, world language, international language, Culture, Economics, Power 2012-06-12 13 2012-07-10

Introduction:

Lu (2008) claims that the Chinese language (that is, Mandarin Chinese or Putonghua) faces four main obstacles in becoming a worthy competitor of the English language as a global language, including the difficulty of acquiring and using Chinese, the narrow acceptance of Chinese culture, the lack of Chinese publications globally and the hugeness of the English-learning Chinese population, all based on the assumption that China’s growth will have an negligible effect on her premises.

Opinions:
For those of you who would like to read academic papers written by me. Hope this will be useful for those of you researching in related areas as well.


Resources:
Critique : Pre-imperial Chinese : Its hurdles towards becoming a world language, Dan Lu (2008)
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9emHQBd5COmVWZDamRGME9teVE

Pre-imperial Chinese : Its hurdles towards becoming a world language, Dan Lu (2008)
http://benjamins.com/series/japc/18-2/art/13lu.pdf

Technology & News: Free Apps To Recommend Part 4

Image from Google Play

Some people will say they like the iPhones because iOS is easy to use and Android is difficult. Well, actually no. On average, you need to press more buttons on the iOS than on Android to perform the same task, like switching on Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, and the worst, your 3G Data. However, if you insist that the iPhones are better in terms of interface, there is still no reason for you not to use Android, because on Android, you can customise your screen to look exactly like the iPhone. Using iPhone 4S Screen app, you can switch the Android default screen to iOS screen.

Image from Google Play

You might be thinking, why would anyone do such a thing? If they are iPhone die-hard fans/friends, they wouldn't even try Android. True, but this is a good way to show your friends that Android can do whatever iPhone can do by offering much simpler and more! And you can use this to trick your friend by purposely flashing this iOS screen on your Android devices. Sweet!

Image from Google Play

If you are playing with Google Latitude, which is the best location sharing app ever, but you are slightly worried about the increase in the use of data or battery because of the constant update, you can try this app called Backitude. With this app, you can add tens of settings to customize your Google Latitude updates according to your needs.

One of the best features is that your location can be updated without using extra data by stealing location information from other apps that you are using, thus saving on the battery needed to connect and retrieve your location again.

Very smart indeed!

Image from Google Play

If you want something just as smart, you have the Smart Screen Off Lite. Basically what it does is, if you don't want to press the lock/unlock button again and again but you want to screen to switch itself off automatically to save battery, this app will cleverly handle all that for you. Take a look at the video below.

There is a sister app called Smart Screen On as well, if you want to give it go too, but I think the Smart Screen Off app is more useful.

Image from Google Play

Last but not least, most Android phones already come with a Blacklist function, but if your blacklist isn't working too well or you want a bit more functions added, you can try gX Blacklist. 

That's all for my recommendation today! See you tomorrow!

Resources:
iPhone 4S Screen @ Google Play
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Hace.Iphone4SScreen&feature=search_result


[APP][2.2+] Backitude for Google Latitude - General info and discussion @ XDA-developers
http://www.xda-developers.com/android/backitude-for-google-latitude-released/
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1599791


Smart Screen Off–Automatically Disable Display via Proximity Sensor  @ XDA-developers
http://www.xda-developers.com/android/smart-screen-off-automatically-disable-display-via-proximity-sensor/

Smart Screen Off for Android @ YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6t1Vouumek

Smart Screen On Gives Screen Control via Proximity Sensor @ XDA-developers
http://www.xda-developers.com/android/smart-screen-on-gives-screen-control-via-proximity-sensor/

gX Blacklist @ AppBrain
http://www.appbrain.com/app/gx-blacklist/com.gxapplications.android.gxsuite.blacklist

Vocabulary: Grandma's Sister? -- The Family Tree

The Simpsons
Image from Google Blogger

Last week my student Carol asked me how to call her grandma's sister, I was immediately speechless and could only reply, "I don't know". Well, the fact is that, I think my grandmas do not have sisters, or maybe they have, but I never know they have. At that moment, the Simpsons' family tree crossed my mind,

Featured on:The Simpsons Uncensored Family Album
Image from Simpsons Wiki

 Then of course, it doesn't really help, and so, the best way to find out, is no other than Wikipedia. And here's what I've found.

CousinTree kinship
Image from Wikipedia

And so, it is officially called great-uncle or great-aunt to answer Carol's question, but there is more to that, looking at the green boxes and you will find some funny terms like "once removed" and "twice removed", and what are they?

Reading further and quoting from Cousin in Wikipedia,

"When the cousins are not the same generation, they are described as "removed". In this case, the smaller number of generations to the common ancestor is used to determine the degree, and the difference in generations determines the number of times removed. "

In your opinion, does that make things easier? I think not.

A Little Fact

Quoting from Wikipedia, 

Confucius
Image from Xinhuanet

"The longest family tree in the world today is that of the Chinese philosopher and educator Confucius (551–479 BC), and he is the descendant of King Tang (1675–1646 BC). The tree spans more than 80 generations, and includes more than 2 million members. An international effort involving more than 450 branches around the world was started in 1998 to retrace and revise this family tree. A new edition of the Confucius genealogy was printed in September 2009 by the Confucius Genealogy Compilation Committee, to coincide with the 2560th anniversary of the birth of the Chinese thinker. This latest edition is expected to include some 1.3 million living members who are scattered around the world today."

Vocabulary:

great-uncle/aunt

once /twice removed

Resources:

Simpsons Wiki

http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/File:The_Simpsons-Burns-Krupp-Gobel-Bazaar-Powell-Berneten_family_tree.png

Family Tree @ Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_tree

Cousin @ Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cousin

Confucius @ Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius