Share Your ‘Journey’ Photos On Coinaphoto – Win £500 Amazon Voucher And More!

To be in witha chance of winning a £500 Amazon voucher, plus an exclusive photography training session, all you have to do is sign up to Coinaphoto and add your great photos to the ‘Journey comp’ section.

For those of you that are unaware, Coinaphoto is a refreshing Social Media Network, especially for photographers of all levels and those that love photography. All networks have realised the potential of sharing photos along with the masses of users, but, coinaphoto rewards everyone involved. Intellectual rights are valued, photographers are valued and everyone worth and sharing is valued.

You can share your pictures globally, online and be rewarded and retain your intellectual rights too.

Get your photos uploaded to the competition this weekend, by Monday 28 July 2014.

Upload, share, and reward. Whatever your take on the word ‘journey’ is I look forward to seeing your photos and I am privileged to help with the judging too. Good luck! 

A Smartphone Fit For Purpose: Sony Xperia Z1 Compact

Another question that arises in my stream, especially when I am sharing live pictures as I travel on the go, to Twitter, Google Plus etc. ‘What phone are you using Paul’? Well, I must admit I have been experimenting a lot lately to find what I need. For me I have a need list of:

Powerful: My phone is my office. Opening, switching between email, camera, video, photos, and apps – especially Social Media apps, needs to be fast.

Size and durability: I hike and trek up mountains for a living, in all weathers, all terrains. I travel in minus temperatures at high altitudes and in the blistering heat-waves of foreign sandy beaches, so my phone needs to be protected.

Camera: The main tool. For those moments to share ‘live’ where I am and what I am up to. Something compact, not the bigger non-smartphone camera for the big articles later. (Note: All pictures in this post are taken with the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact with no editing, straight from the phone)

In the past I have gone for power, bling and size; big HD screen with the speed of a big flagship phone. What I had been finding was that I was letting myself down on size, durability and even the camera quality – There was always something missing. Until, that is, Sony Mobile got in touch and sent me through Sony Xperia Z1 Compact!

Compact. Whilst the rest of the world is cutting corners making ‘mini’ versions of their flagship phones, taking out a lot of the good elements. I had read that Sony’s Xperia Z1 Compact was refreshing in that it kept most of the great flagship qualities of the larger Z1. I plunged and now have found my happy office 

Camera: It still has the 20.7mp camera of the full Z1, no cutting here. And anybody who has used Sony digital cameras and lenses will know this is not ‘just’ a lens/camera with a big number. With the ever-faithful Superior auto in there too, point and shoot means on the phone now, not a middle sized digital camera.

Great in the hands: The 5 inch screens at the moment serve a purpose of course. For me it is just not a priority. Sending a picture tweet for instance, whilst climbing rocky terrain, in minus temperatures, I do not want to be doing thumb gymnastics and having to stop for fear of dropping it. The Compact is a perfect size for me, 4.3-inch screen. Not too small, but reachable everywhere with the thumb. Big bonus for travel and hikes… It is waterproof and dust resistant. Not a gimmick, tweeting from halfway up a mountain in torrential rain is now available to me and I have fully tested 

Kept the power: How did they compact it? It has the same huge processor (Snapdragon 800), it has the same 2GB RAM. Well it’s all unnoticeable to its big sister the big Z1. Reduce the resolution a little on the screen (for it to be unchanged to the viewer for the size), then you can reduce the battery size a little proportionately for less power needed for it. And now I have a phone that is in uber use and lasts me over a day at least between charges.

Features I like:

Info-eye: Turn Info-eye on in the camera and take a shot of a place or landmark where you are. The phone will come back with the name of the landmark, a page you can learn more about it from, plus lots things to see and do nearby eg:

Walkman: My mind ran back to my teenage years when I saw the music player and organiser……… My how things have changed from my walkman of old  For the longer hikes and climbs I can listen away to all my music, plus, yes the phone has an expansion slot for extra space on a micro SD card.

SmartWatch 2 –Smarter Than Your AverageWatch

As I have stated before my current phone of choice is the Sony Xperia Z2. Fantastic for on the go photography to be uploaded to social media ‘live’ from where you are. Of course, these days a whole lot more can be done and measured via a phone and Sony have wearable gadgets to cover all sorts of handy monitoring or for making life that much easier. I have been using recently the Sony Smartwatch 2 with kind courtesy of Sony Mobile..

The smartwatch has become one of my surprises of the year. ‘A gimmick’ I thought, originally. I have found it far from a gimmick. With some research I can see smartwatches on the market that are full of unused or impractical features. Bulky cameras built in or trying to get people to talk through their watch, but Sony seem to be finding the useful, practical and quick ground.

Sitting on your wrist it looks and feels like many a normal digital watch, not too big at all. With a responsive touch screen I was imagining something much bigger or maybe unsightly. Far from it, just as a smartphone must primarily be good as a phone, the smartwatch is a great digital watch with a whole plethora of faces to choose from too.

Within the android-esque swipe screen you can add extensions to all your favourite apps to get notifications and more to your wrist. With a gentle notification vibration you could look at the screen and either read your Gmail, see your friends latest FB picture, also you can ‘like’ that picture there and then. Read your SMS, read your friends latest tweet and of course accept or reject that incoming call. This is all without taking your phone out of your pocket, or stopping what you are doing.

There are many apps and extensions that have become useful to me. The remote shutter app for the phone’s camera is great for those impromptu close up, improvised tripod style phone shots. You can make your watch your own, add or take what you need. I take my phone out of my pocket so much less now, no more kerfuffle getting the phone out on a good hike just to find it was an email of latest offers from whomever.

New app extensions are being added all the time together with the ability to read and even action with just a turn of the wrist, a glance and the odd swipe and touch. It becomes second nature without realising. Super for discreetly and quietly watching for emails and messages too, where the phone out would be just, well, rude. I recommend it highly and look forward to even more progress.