My GPS Camera Phone

Yesterday morning, we had frost covering everything. It was cold. Really cold. What a great time to visit Paynes Prairie.

Since I live in Florida, I’m not accustomed to cold weather, even though we get some chilly winter nights now and again. In spite of that, I love the freezes. A hard freeze brings with it ice crystals and a white sheet that covers everything – definitely a sight that is rarely seen around here. When this happens, it opens up a whole new realm of photographic subjects, which are a welcome change from the all-year earth tones that Florida experiences.

The overlook was absorbing the growing heat of the rising sun’s rays, quickly melting the frozen dew. I knew this golden photo opportunity was rapidly evaporating, so I hurried the kids out of the house and got them to school.

In the school parking lot, my youngest wanted to finish her snack and then go to class. As we sat in the car, I watched water droplets fall from the tall palm trees next to the road, indicating the fast onset of the brutal Florida sun.

Drip…drip…drip.

With the kids unloaded, I gunned it down US 441 hoping to get a good look at a frozen prairie. As the tree-lined road spilled out into the open prairie, I noticed that it wasn’t too late. Everything had a dusting of white frost. The overlook boardwalk was covered in ice as well, with some parts actually being dangerously slick when walked upon. Better yet, the sun had already melted the ice where it could shine, but anything in the shadows remained frozen, leaving a perfectly angular pattern. Look close at the deck and you can see the lighter frozen parts contrasting with the darker thawed parts.

I left for work after chatting it up with a man on his way to work for a local courier, knowing that there might be more of this waiting for me tomorrow – dead brown foliage blanketed in bright white.

More photos of this adventure to Paynes Prairie can be seen at the Nokia Chronicles site. Photo taken with a Nokia 6650 (courtesy WOM World) and edited with Photoshop CS2 (level adjustments and minor sharpening to highlight the ice crystals).

Its time for another round of new photos with a new phone. The Nokia team at WOM World hooked me up once again, this time with the GPS-enabled Nokia 6650. While it only sports a 2 mega-pixel camera, the quality of the shots are not too bad, at least when compared to the the Nokia 3555.

This shot was taken in the morning at my nature hangout on US441, Paynes Prairie. The exposure color is off a bit and it has quite a lot of noise, but again, not bad for a low-end camera. I would think, though, that a phone with so many features would have at least a 3 mega-pixel camera.

I’m also uploading photos and video clips at the Nokia Chronicles website for their 6650 promotion. Unfortunately, the site doesn’t appear to be fully operational, but keep checking back.

About a month ago, I found these flowers along the fence at my kids’ school. The interesting thing about them is that they were the only things blooming – everything else had already bloomed, including some flowers just like them. They’re long gone now.

In other news, I’ll be reviewing yet another camera phone. This one is a super-sweet Nokia 6650 that’s GPS enabled, so I’m bound to enjoy testing it. Maybe I’ll actually shoot some photos and post GPS coordinates, considering that my blog title implies GPS photography. (I sort of dropped the ball on that part.) There will also be a mini-site featuring yours truly, but that hasn’t gone live yet. I’ll keep you posted.