Technology for The Trip
One of the bigest things I had to figure out for this trip was all the technology I was (or wasn’t going to bring) and how I would be using it. Basically, I didn’t want to bring anything super expensive or heavy with me, and what I ever I brought needed to do its job and do it well. Here’s the list of hardware:
- ASUS Eee PC 904HA running a tweaked version of Windows XP for ULCPC
- Microsoft Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse
- 2nd Generation iPod Nano – 8 GB
- V-MODA Bass Freq Earbuds in Bling Bling Black1
- Nikon D70
- Nikon 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 AF-S DX
- Nikon AF 50mm f/1.8 D
- Nikon AF Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6D ED
- JOBY Gorilla Pod SLR
- AMOD AGL3080 GPS Data Logger
Additionally, I’ve loaded up my Netbook with some software specific for this trip:
- AVG Anti-virus
- GeoSetter
- Google Earth
- Google Chrome
- iTunes
- Skype
- Windows Live Writter
- TweetDeck
- Lightroom
- Meebone
- Flickr Uploader
- GPSBabel
- Launchy
- NotePad++
Many of the software tools on this list are standare fare, others are new to me. GeoSetter is an application that merges GPS data (from the AMOD AGL3080 GPS Data Logger) with photos (from the D70).
Meebone is desktop version of Meebo, which is a web-based instant messaging program.
GPSBabel is a program which can take GPS data (again, from the AMOD AGL3080 GPS Data Logger, which is in NMEA 0183 format) and convert it into any other format, such as Google’s Keyhole Markup Language (KML).
Launchy is a program used for quick access to programs. I just press ALT + Space and type in the name of the program I want to run.
Windows Live Writter is a desktop program for composing and publish blog posts. I’m using this because there will often be times when I cannot connect to the internet, but still want to write up posts. This will let me compose posts and then publish them when I hit a WiFi spot.
One of the other things I’m working on is a revised workflow for photos. I need a workflow that will quickly let me merge GPS data, import photos to Lightroom for processing, export, and upload. I’m still working out the kinks, but the basic process goes like this (based in part on Bryan Villarin’s My new geotagging workflow with the Amod AGL3080 and Lightroom (Windows):
- Move photos from D70 to Netbook
- Move GPS data from Data Logger to Netbook
- Use GeoSetter to merge GPS data with photos (data added to NEF file, not sidecar XMP)
- Import/Move photos into Lightroom
- Pick good photos and apply Auto Tone and/or Punch filters
- Export filters to JPG with High Sharpening for Screen
- Important photos to Flickr Uploadr
- Add photos to group(s), add tag(s) to photos
- Upload photos
- Delete JPG version of photos
We’ll see how that works. My other option is to just backup the RAW photos to my server and not process them until I get home, which I don’t want to do.
0No, I’m not making that color up ↩