This is a subject of endless fascination for me.

As technology changes, my attitude to cameras changes considerably.

I’ve just read an article written by an accomplished National Geographic photographer. He took the new iPhone to Scotland, and shot 4000 pics in 4 days. The shots are terrific. Here’s his article: Nat Geo/iPhone 5S pics

Here as well is a review of the new iPhone camera on dpreview.com – the best and most knowledgeable website for digital photography: dpreview.com iPhone 5S review

Here’s my take on it:

As most of you know, I’ve been taking photos professionally since I was 17 years old. I’ve always used Nikons and Leicas. But I love the Fuji digital cameras too for more compact work, principally because they’ve put a huge amount of R&D into their sensors, which is the heart of any camera.

I ummed and aaahed before deciding which camera to take with me on my Camino. I wanted to take my big Nikon D700 – a full frame professional level camera – but it was too heavy. And my smaller D3200 didn’t have exactly the lens I needed. So I settled on a little Fuji X10 camera, which turned out to be ok. Not great, but ok.

The size was good, ease of use was good, but I was always limited by the sensor. The small sensor didn’t allow for a large dynamic range. I shouldn’t blame the camera though – I chose to shoot jpeg and I should have shot RAW, which would have given me the dynamic range I craved.

I dismissed my iPhone 5 as an option for a camera for several reasons –

1. It was a fixed lens, and any zoom functionality would come at the expense of image quality.
2. It was an even smaller sensor than the X10.
3. It wouldn’t allow me to use selective Depth of Field.
4. Using the camera would drain the battery fast, and I needed the phone to work as a phone, too.

Seeing this Nat Geo photographer’s work though has made me reconsider the iPhone somewhat. And reading the reviews is also making me rethink.

The great advantage of using an iPhone as a camera when you’re walking the Camino is of  course that it’s small, light, and it’s always with you.

If I were to do another Camino in the next couple of months, what camera would I take?

I still wouldn’t use the iPhone, for the reasons above. But I have my eye on the new Fuji professional X series of cameras. There will be a new X-Pro2 out soon, and next week the X-E2 is being announced.

Both these cameras have a large APS-C sized sensor which allows for a big dynamic range as well as low light shooting. They also have interchangeable lenses and the lenses are very fine glass. They’re a pro-level camera yet they’re relatively small and light.

All that said – I think now with this new iPhone 5S and its updated camera, it is a very real alternative to a big lumbering expensive camera.

But in the end, choice of camera is so so personal. And as is proven time and again, it’s not the camera that creates a great shot. Look at what that Nat Geo photographer did with his iPhone!

One of our regulars, Debbie, asked me this question in a comment – why isn’t this blog bigger?

Well, I don’t actively seek to make it bigger.

I figure the right people will land here when they’re meant to land here. I’m taking a PGS approach to this. If their PGS brings them here, and tells them it’s right for them, then terrific. Similarly, there might be some who check out this blog and it doesn’t call to them. And so they go away. That’s okay too.

This blog is not to everyone’s tastes, I’m sure!

I don’t tag my posts, nor do I employ Search Optimisation techniques to drive traffic to this site. Occasionally I post on Ivar’s forum, when a milestone is reached. I did that yesterday, in his “Blogs and Photos” forum, to let them know we’d clicked over the 100K mark.

But other than that, I take the view that people will find us when they need to find us.

Also, my grand plan for this blog isn’t to get a huge traffic flow then put up advertising. No way. In fact I don’t have a grand plan. I just write here each day, and hope that every now and then something I write about has some relevance.

Bill

We crossed 100,000 page views.

Today we’ve already had 500 page views.

Thanks to you – this disparate brilliant amazing collective of people who inhabit this crazy place with me.

I love you all.

Bill

Sometimes your PGS doesn’t necessarily guide you, it blocks your way. And in blocking your path, you find the right path.

That’s what happened with me, and the IMAX screening of Gravity. 

I wanted to see the film with my son. I don’t spend a great deal of time with him, and we always used to bond over movies. Lately though that’s changed, and he’s moved on with his life. So I wanted this screening, him and me together, to be something special.

I’d read the reviews coming out of the Venice Film Festival, and I knew the director’s work. It promised to be a cracker of a film. So I wanted to see it in 3D. But when I checked online to find session times, I couldn’t find a cinema that would provide those times.

Here in Australia new movies open on a Thursday. The exhibitors – the cinema owners – have a hair-brained policy of not releasing session times of movies until the Thursday.

I went on every website imaginable – distributors, exhibitors, Rotten Tomatoes, sites where you can pre-book tickets. Strangely, I could not find any session times. It was Monday, and I was trying to book for Friday. Crazy, right?

So in a last desperate attempt, I simply Googled gravity+3D+sydney. 

Up came the IMAX cinema, with all the session times, and the capacity to book immediately for Friday. Which is what I did.

I hadn’t even thought of seeing the film in IMAX – I didn’t even know the film was screening in IMAX, but I was directed there because I couldn’t find a regular 3D cinema that would give me session times.

At the time I railed against the stupidity of the exhibitors, who refuse to give advance session times because they want to channel everyone into this week’s sessions, not next week’s. This is so they can get their bums-on-seats numbers up.

I know how this works. As a producer, I angst over the first week’s numbers when a film of mine opens. The first week is make or break. But the exhibitors’ recalcitrance works against the interests of the cinema-goer, who wants convenience and accessibility. This is why so many people are now avoiding going to the movies.

Anyway, I got mad – and in a last bid attempt, I did the Google search. And I ended up in the IMAX cinema with my son, which as it turned out was by far the best way to see the movie.

I regard this as my PGS guiding me there, so that my son and I could share something special. We’ve been talking about it ever since. It’s something we’ll always remember.

That’s what my PGS told me overnight.

It’s what I am – a writer – a communicator, and a facilitator. This blog facilitates discussion that you often initiate, or contribute to, that allows us all to see the world in a different way.

I’m very privileged to have this venue, and to have you all as teachers – because that’s what happens here for me. I learn from you.

My wife once described me as being like a person with a loaded trolly in a supermarket – but the trolley has one bad wheel, and as I head to the checkout, I keep bumping into the aisles and crashing into groceries that tumble to the floor. That’s how I go through life, she said.

Witness the burning dwarf episode.

My wife goes through life like that white swan I saw on the creek in front of the Samos monastery.

Here’s what I’d like to do though – when appropriate I’d like to discuss the spirit of the Camino, which means those things in life that I believe are relevant to the spirit of a pilgrim, or a pilgrimage, in all its various facets.

Sometimes I feel I have to keep on point and always discuss the Camino – but now having finished my book, I feel as though I’ve said pretty much all I can say about that particular walk, and that period of my life.

The book, to an extent, has given me much needed closure.

Also, I’m very aware that I’ve just done one Camino so I’m by no means an expert – I’ve only ever tried to document my experiences – not set myself up as a Camino guru. Because I’m not.

When I come to do the Portuguese Camino though, I’ll certainly blog on that experience – the preparations, the training, the tour itself. I’m sure it will provide some interesting material for this blog. Especially if I meet up with my mate Peter… 🙂

I’d like to thank those of you who have posted urging me to continue. I won’t respond personally – but just to say that I very much appreciate all those very kind comments.

Those of you who told me to let go the rope – well said!

I’m conscious that this blog serves multiple functions – yes it’s a platform for me to express my views, but perhaps more importantly it’s now a community, and I feel a very real sense of responsibility to the “family” that’s developed here.

I regard you all as very dear friends – and I feel now that I know you all. I can’t walk away from that.

As well though, as I say I’m a facilitator – this blog acts as a conduit for linkages and the forming of bonds and relationships between people that have nothing to do with me. All I do in those instances is provide the venue, which is great. I love that.

I love seeing PGS people meet up on the Camino, and feel like they know each other, just from having been a part of this blog.

Yes, today we’ll hit 100,000 page views. And we’ve now just tipped over the 8,000 comments mark. 8,000 comments in six months. That’s pretty incredible. That’s a testament to your loyalty to this blog, and for that I am deeply grateful.

Out of those 8,000+ comments, I’ve had just one nasty one. Peter, last night. Perhaps given the sometimes provocative nature of this blog, that’s not a bad record.

I thank you all – and hope that some time in the future I get to meet you. Because each one of you, in your own particular way, is quite amazing…

I got an abusive post a couple of hours ago.

From someone called Peter. He had a bigpond email address, which means he’s Australian. As far as I’m aware, it’s the first time he’s posted on the blog.

I’ve deleted his post, but some of you might have received it via email notification. Here’s what he said:

You don’t have to post every 2 minutes to be relevant. I’ve done the Camino the same as you and am doing the Portuguese Camino next year. I don’t need to make it a commercial venture to get the true experience. You my friend are a real phony. Shut up and let people find their own way.

Jennifer suggested that maybe he’s a dwarf.

🙂

I don’ think I’m a phony – I hope I’m not – and I don’t think I’m trying to commercialise any experience by conducting a Camino Tour. My wife and I are paying for Sister Clare to attend the tour, and we are meeting all her costs, including her airfares to and from Canada, out of our own pocket.

And so many of you have been incredibly generous in providing her with clothing and gear for the tour. That wouldn’t have happened without this blog.

Peter said he walked the Camino this year. And he says he’s going to walk the Portuguese Camino next year. I hope I get to meet him. It seems that I’ve provoked him to anger, for some reason.

If I do meet him, I would say to him –

I’m sorry
I love you
Please forgive me
Thank you

Maybe he’s right though. Maybe I have run out of relevancy. Tomorrow this blog will hit 100,000 page views. It’s been six months. Maybe at this milestone it’s a good time to step back, stop blogging, segue across to the forum for a while where you all can start threads on issues that are meaningful to you.

It seems odd that this abusive post by Peter has come literally on the eve of the 100,000 mark.

It’s late here now in Australia. I’m going to bed to think on it. And see what my PGS tells me.

Thank you Peter…

Who knows what “twerking” means?

I try and keep up with things, particularly changes in language. And terms that seep, or slam, into common usage. And lately I’ve come across this term “twerking.”

Curious, I finally looked it up on Google.

Turns out it means “dancing in a sexually provocative manner.” And a young singer/dancer named Miley Cyrus has brought it into the spotlight with a particularly colourful dance routine that was televised recently.

So I went onto YouTube and I saw this dance.

I didn’t find it skilful, nor did I find it alluring in any way. It wasn’t sexy, it wasn’t provocative. it wasn’t even outrageous. It was just… ugly. And demeaning. Do kids get off on this kind of thing?

I’ve lived through the 60s and the 70s. They were wild times. But they were extraordinarily inventive and creative times. There’s never been a more fertile time for music. And for movies. And for artistic expression generally.

I’m glad I found out what twerking means. I feel I can go to sleep tonight knowing that I’m on top of what’s happening outside of the Camino!

Perhaps there is twerking on the Camino. If anyone has seen a twerker on the Camino, can they please post on this blog?

Am I getting old? Yes. Am I getting like my grandparents when I was 16?

God I hope not.

My book The Way, My Way, is now up on iBooks – finally!

Kindle (Amazon) and iBooks (Apple) are the biggest sellers of e-books on the internet. 

Can I ask you all a big favour – the book on iBooks has no reviews. Those of you who kindly posted amazing 5 star reviews on the Kindle site, can I ask you to do the same on the iBooks site?  (You access it through Apple’s iTunes – both from a Mac & PC)

And those of you who haven’t yet written a review – can you do so on iBooks?

Having these reviews helps enormously in getting the book out to a wider audience. 

Thank you, in anticipation…

I'm comfortable with technology.

I love gadgets, I can find my way around most of the software I use, I embrace technological change.

I think we're living through an extraodinary time right now, with the advent of the Internet, and the huge benefits that digital technology can deliver to us.

But sometimes it just confounds me.

Yesterday was just such a day, when it seemed like technology wanted to “flip me the bird,” as they say in some circles in America.

First there was the tv.

All I wanted to do was watch episodes 11 and 12 in the final season of BREAKING BAD. I'd done the right thing and bought the entire season on iTunes. I didn't illegally download it. But do you think I could get it to play on my tv?

There was an issue of streaming, and “the cloud” and it took me 37 minutes to download the first of the episodes onto my tv. I then did the same with episode 12, and it took even longer.

Then when I came to play the episodes, it was as though I'd never pre-loaded them. I had to load them up again, which was going to take another hour or so.

By this stage it was getting late, so I went online, illegally downloaded the episodes off a torrent site, and Jennifer and I watched the shows – finally. I'd paid $25 for the season on iTunes, so I figured I hadn't deprived the show's royalty participants of any revenues. It was just more convenient to do it this way.

Then there was Evernote. I use Evertone all the time. It's software that takes notes and syncs them across my laptop, my desktop, my iPad and my iPhone. I've used it for years now, and it's fantastic.

I've been doing a typo and formatting revision of my book. It took me three days to do a complete sweep of the manuscript, and I noted down very tiny typo, grammatical error, and formatting error in the book.

I had about 5 pages of notes, which I intended to pass onto the formatter in the US.

The next day I got an email from him saying it would be easier (and cheaper) for me to do this work myself, and send him the completed revised manuscript.

OK, it would be tedious, but at least I had my notes.

Yesterday I went to Evernote, and they weren't there. That particular note had been truncated, with a message down the bottom of the page saying: Conflicting Modification On.

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

Three days work, lost.

First time this has ever happened to me with Evernote.

It will take me now another three days to do the work again. But each time you read a manuscript, you read it with different eyes, and I might miss some of the errors that I'd picked up earlier.

Like it or not, we live in a world that requires us to have a certain knowledge and level of understanding of technology.

Jennifer's mother is 85, and she's recently had installed into her house an emergency monitor which can detect if she's in trouble – had a fall, or a heart attack etc.

She came to pay for it, but the only method of payment was via the Internet, which she doesn't have or understand, or via credit card – again, which she doesn't have.

She keeps her money the old fashioned way, in a bank account in a bank, and that's how she wanted to pay – to go to the bank and pay in cash.

But it couldn't be done. It had to be either a credit card or an electronic funds transfer. It took Jennifer nearly a week, speaking to supervisors in Chennai, before she got it sorted.

Even the Camino isn't free of technological hassles. How do you keep in touch? Should you get a SIM card, how do you blog, why doesn't the wifi work – all these issues you have to deal with!

That's why a lot of people look on the Camino as being a tech-free zone – so that for a while, they can escape the petty frustrations that sometimes arise living in these exciting times of ours…

I’m reading these blogs of people currently walking the Camino – and they’ve been walking through rain, or mud, or extreme heat.

I had none of that.

I had maybe two days rain, tops. And the temperature was always cool and refreshing. For the 31 days of my Camino, (28 days walking, 3 rest days) the one day it poured with rain coincided with my rest day in Santo Domingo. The other couple of rainy days, the rain was light and intermittent.

I said jokingly to Steve that I took my weather with me – but I also said I never worried about the weather. If it rained, it rained. If it was sunny, it was sunny. It only ever affected what I wore, and whether I covered my backpack.

I walked the entire Meseta in glorious weather. Only on one day – near Sahagun – did it threaten rain. A storm came and went, and it made the walk very theatrical for me, and I put my rain jacket on for about half an hour, but that was it.

Steve left about three weeks after me, and he had bad weather. So I did my walk in this little pocket of amazing weather.

Here’s the thing though – back in Australia several weeks out before I was due to leave, I was watching the forecasts and they were predicting lousy weather. Lingering snowstorms, rain, cold temps etc.

I seriously considered bumping back my trip by… yes… three weeks. If I’d done that, I would have missed that window of fine weather I had, and I would have walked with Steve in the rain. Because the alternative date I was looking at was around about the time Steve left SJPP.

But my PGS told me to stick to my dates, even though it appeared I’d be walking through horrendous weather. That’s why my pack was loaded up with gaiters and thermals and snow gear. None of which I used. I got to Pamplona and posted them on ahead.

So, funny the way things turned out. Probably if I’d met Steve I would have thought him a meth-dealing biker, and he would have thought me a film-type wanker.

This way we met on the net and we’re good mates!!