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This is a handle of a really old cedar chest in our house. I'm not overly impressed with this photo, but it's nice.

I'm going to try and get a better one as the day goes on. March 20th is not over yet.

Nate (Motorola Droid X)

Update March 20th: Here's Photo #2 for March 20th. Liam and I were playing with his trains on the floor and he looked so cute, I decided this would be better than a wooden chest's handle. Perhaps I'm biased?

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I wonder if I can sync my Droid to my Cowboy Studio radio flash triggers. That could get really exciting! Sync this baby to some off "phone camera" flashes. Hmmmmm..... any app developers out there wanna take this on?

Maybe I should tell you a bit about who I am. I am a husband, father, inventor, cyclist, runner, wedding photographer, and budding commercial photographer. I am constantly looking for new things to do and ways to improve my environment. I am inspired by great people and amazing stories. However, I don't like to read. So, the stories I hear are mostly through documentaries and other video formats! ha! I find Chase Jarvis to be a very inspiring photographer. Jasmine Star also makes the short list of inspiring do-it-yourself-ers. Lance Armstrong is an amazing athlete who has ignited a love for endurance sports that will never be extinguished. Speaking of "love," I am also inspired by my amazing 2 year old son who learns more and more everyday. I love to watch him play and try to figure out how his toys work. My wife is an amazing mother to our son and an equally amazing spouse. She is also quite handy with the camera. We started our wedding photography business a few years ago and have built it to an "almost" self-sustaining point now to where we can survive solely on the income from it.

Anyways, thanks for stopping by. I'm sure I'll share more throughout this experiment.

No, this post isn't going to include the answer to one of life's great mysteries... why we are all here. I'm sure there are many blogs and sites out there to deal with that question.

Mine is rhetorical, although you can weigh in if you want in the comments section, but I have a feeling this will be a little one-sided as I am writing this well before you will be reading it.

What we are doing here is expanding the realm of creativity to something we use every day, our phones. There's rarely a minute in the day that we don't have them with us or at least within earshot. It's a mighty tool for working, passing time, gaming, navigating, building, referencing, and oh yeah... talking to someone! There's a thousand things we can do with our phone, but there's one that we are going to be particularly interested in here. The camera.

I've already stated what I'm going to be doing with this blog. What I hope comes out of it, is that somehow I can inspire other people to be creative with their phone and capture some really great images. It doesn't matter if every photo belongs on a wall. What matters is that there's an effort to be creative and that it's ok to do something just for the fun of it. Take a ton of pictures and look for what inspires you to be creative!

Here are the ground rules I'll be following.

1. Only an Android smartphone may be used to take photos for this blog.
2. Photos can be edited with Adobe Photoshop Express (found in Android Market). Adjustments are limited to Exposure, Saturation, Contrast, Brightness, and Tint.
3. Photos are uploaded directly to this blog from my phone with Blogger-Droid (also Android Market)
4. Photos can only be posted from the day they are taken. E.G. No taking 7 days worth of photos in a day and sitting on my butt for a week.
5. At least one photo per day for one year will be posted, starting on Mar 19th, 2011.

I think that's it.

Is the one you have with you.

Just got an Americano from the Starbucks drive-thru, and as I was waiting the rain began collecting on my windshield. I've always liked the look of raindrops on the window, but Ive never had my camera ready. So, today I just took this photo with my Droid X. I'm pretty impressed with this "phone", if we can still call them that nowadays. They're more like a small computer than a phone. The one thing most of them have in common though is that they have a camera. So the next time you see something picture worthy, just remember that the best camera is the one that's with you.

Nate

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So, I just got an Americano from the Starbucks drive-thru, and as I was waiting the rain began collecting on my windshield. I've always liked the look of raindrops on the window, but I've never had my camera ready. So, today I just took this photo with my Droid X. I'm pretty impressed with this "phone", if we can still call them that nowadays. They're more like a small computer than a device solely used for talking.

Then I began thinking that the cameras on these phones are probably much more capable than we give them credit for. I decided that I'm going to explore just how capable they are and push my expectations for photos captured with my phone.

My goal is to take one good quality photo a day with my phone and upload it with the Blogger-Droid app to this blog. I will also be using the Adobe Photoshop Express app for Android to make small tweaks to each photo.

Some days I may feel extra creative and post a series of photos or just random photos taken throughout the day.

So, today (March 19th 2011) marks Day One of Droid Pix. My year long journey into the capabilities of my Droid X's camera.

~Nate (Motorola Droid X)

Update: (March 20th) This is a photo taken on the same day. I will most likely edit text on the computer after posting originally from my phone, since I tend to make a lot more mistakes while typing into my phone. Also, like today, I may want to add another photo to the blog on the day it was taken. In these instances, I will still upload them from my phone and add them to the date they were originally taken. I just want to emphasize that even though they may be added later, the photos have only been taken and edited on a Droid phone.

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Please join us in helping the victims of the earthquake in Japan. The devastation there is beyond anything we can imagine. There are many organizations working hard to raise money and send aid to help all those affected by in the disaster. As of now and until further notice, we are donating a percentage of all our profits to assist Save the Children in their efforts to help the children and families affected by the earthquake.

This isn't exactly related to photography, but I just really wanted to share this anyways. There are pictures involved, so I'll claim that as the connection! :-)

I'm not quite sure where I got it from, my immense love for coffee, perhaps it's that I was born in the Northwest (unlikely) or that I spent almost 5 years stationed near Seattle while I was in the Navy (more likely). Prior to moving back there, I didn't really like the drink. After a while though, it just felt good to walk around with a warm cup of coffee on those drizzly Northwest winter days, it was comforting. From that point I began to learn as much as I could about coffee. I bought numerous books on the subject and I now follow a few different coffee blogs. So, today I figured I'd share a little about the roasting process and how we roast most of our own coffee at home.

I'll continue later and eventually post the entire process from roasting to brewing. The process begins with choosing the right green coffee bean, then goes on to roasting it properly, grinding it to the right size for the brewing method, and then finally brewing it properly at the ideal temperature and for the perfect amount of time. I know this is a lot more effort than many coffee drinkers may prefer to put into their cup of coffee, but for me the experience is just as important as that final delicious cup. Here's a video and some photos of the air roasting method.

~Nate

As does everyone else, we got pretty busy around the holidays! They came and went so quickly, but left us with some great memories :-)

It was Liam's first Christmas where he at least had a little bit of a clue what was going on. He's really been into Thomas the Tank Engine so we got him a huge wooden train track set, and with relatives additions to the set, he's got enough trains to last him til he's 30! He loves it though. He's always got a train in one hand (sometimes both hands) and walks around the house going "woo! woo!" It's REALLY cute :-)

We took him out sledding a little while ago, here's a few pictures of his first sledding trip!

Nate and I decided to make some pretzels (which were delicious!) and to document it with a little time lapse action :-)

We hope you enjoy the video as much as we enjoyed the pretzels!

~Meagan

We've had a the opportunity to photograph a lot of talented seniors. Tarquin is no exception. He plays an array of instruments and has a bright future ahead of him in the music industry! Thanks for the fun couple of hours, we really enjoyed this session Tarquin. :-)

~Nate and Meagan

Brilliant natural sunlight streams though an open window - The curtain blowing gently as the cool air rushes in – Fall is finally here. The wedding dress hangs with anticipation as the bride, busying about, puts the final touches on her makeup. It’s almost time. I snap a few detail shots – delicate blush colored flowers nestled in a bed of tulle and crystals. Her dress is beautiful. He is going to love this, I think to myself with a smile. I turn, and she is radiant. A birdcage veil sits perfectly crooked, just covering one eye – her lips are the classic shade of red. I zoom in as she looks down, admiring her ring. A moment later she steps into her dress, surrounded by women who love her – a circus of excitement as they all want to take part in lacing up the corset. She high fives her sister and they take a sip of champagne. Mom wipes away tear. Today is her day – today she is getting married to the man of her dreams and I am lucky enough to be the fly on the wall. I am a wedding photographer and I love my job. Amongst the chaos of life there is stillness and beauty in everything. You just have to be wiling to look for it. One of the things photography has taught me is to be comfortable in that stillness – to look only at what I see in my viewfinder, and to find beauty in life’s smallest of details.

~Meagan