Staying #local – Interacting on Twitter with Apps

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Andrew Stuart

In my previous post on Twitter, I talked about staying local – whether that be in your local geographical area, or in your community of interests. This is about interacting.

Nasa Tweetup participants at the GRAIL launch. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls.

All the people in the above picture are part of a community of interests – this one focusing around space exploration. All of the people on here use various apps and networks to talk to each other and share ideas around their subject.

So, how can you use Apps to make the most of Twitter and other social networks? That question is first answered with another question – what is it that you want to do? What do you want to achieve?

Maybe you attend discussion groups or events regularly. At those events you talk to people, and meet interesting people from all walks of life. So, why not share that discussion with the rest of your twitter followers, who may be not able to attend. How do you do that? The answer is Audioboo.

Audioboo, as I have blogged many times about, is a fantastic tool that utilises sound. You record a small sound clip, and upload it. An audio tweet, essentially. It’s short, and perfect for a small discussion with someone you meet at an event.

But, how can journalists use it? Well, i’m glad you asked. If you attend a protest rally, or a march, you may want to get the news you gather out quickly, and interview lots of people. You don’t have time to write or file copy, so you record it. Instead of using a traditional recorder, use your iPhone, Android, or Nokia device and upload the audio. The desk then puts it on the website, and uses the interview to get the quotes. Sorted.

The next ones you might want to consider for the local area are location based apps. Nowadays, we’re a lot more concerned about who we share our location with, but that doesn’t stop apps like Foursquare and Gowalla. There are others, listed here, but they’re all pretty much the same bar a few things, and all work on the same principle.

So, what is it? It’s a game. Location based point scoring one-upman-ship. You check in to somewhere, and get points. You check in enough times, you become the mayor. You get enough points, you can be top of the leaderboard. What do you win? Nothing.

OK, why is it good? Well, you can leave tips about places. You can suggest things, and you can see where might be popular. If you’re in a crowded area like central London, and you want a coffee, where do you go? You can pop to the first shop, or take a look around on foursquare. Great example here all about coffee in Covent Garden:

So, instead of going to the standard chains, why not try the recommended ones? Who would go into Monmouth Coffee if you didn’t know it existed?

I’ve got that now. Why is good for journalists? Because as people leave tips, they also leave a trail of opinion on a place. It may have something amazing going on you’ve not heard of. They may be really bad at promoting themselves but have a great story. Don’t forget, it’s not just shops. Everywhere can be a foursquare location. A park may have a tip on crime. A community centre may have a tip on someone new to speak to. A bus stop may have a tip on buses not stopping. It’s all stories, and it’s all there waiting for you to see it.

The final one for the moment is Hootsuite. It’s a free app for iPhone, iPad, Blackberry and Android. You can search using geo locations, schedule tweets, run multiple accounts, and track keywords. You can see whats going on in the area, and how people feel about things using the powerful web based service. It’s a very popular tool, and one you can definitely use to your advantage.

As with all the posts on here, I value your feedback. If you have any suggestions as to good apps for journalists starting out to use, then put them below here.

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Aldwych Startrails

Posted on October 15, 2011 by Andrew Stuart

As you’ll know from a previous post, I have decided to take up the challenge of finding a brightly lit urban locations to do star trails. Previously, I did St Paul’s. Now, I try Theatreland.

This is looking over St Clement Danes church, a 9th century church, rebuilt in the 11th century, and then restored in 1955-58. It stands on a traffic island in the middle of the Strand, next to Australia House and the Royal Courts of Justice.

It’s very bright.

Well, to be fair, it’s not lit up as such, but it’s in an area with constant traffic (especially on a Friday night), and lots of light in the sky.

The surrounding buildings are lit up a lot. BBC Bush House was my first attempt, but that had way too much bright street light for this attempt. I will do that one though. Most of the buildings have lights still on inside for workers, and the general pollution in the sky makes this hard to do.

I did it though.

170 30″ exposures, processed in Lightroom, stacked in StarStax for Mac.

And it’s another place off my list. If you have any suggestions, then go to the Star Trail Locations page at the top, and fill in the form for any suggestions.

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Startrails in London – A Challenge Accepted

Posted on October 9, 2011 by Andrew Stuart

There are some things we know about the world. We know taxes are inevitable. We know you can wait ages for a bus, then three come along at once. And, we also know that London is one of the most lit cities in the western world.

The world lit up by artificial lights. Credit: NASA Visible Earth/Craig Mayhew and Robert Simmon, NASA GSFC.

The map above shows the world and how affected it is by light pollution. Every major city, every minor town, every suburban and provincial dwelling, they are all affected. This is one of the biggest problems for the type photography I want to do.

Star Trails

Star trails are amazing. Photographers have been taking them for ages. They are a long exposure of the stars as they move around the night sky and change position. The lights create a streak across the dark night sky. They not only look amazing, but show you a world which we can see but the vast, vast majority of us will never get to (unless Richard Branson lets my use my Oyster card on his Galactic services!).

Previously, I have done star trails in North Wales. There isn’t much light pollution there, and they’re pretty easy to do. You need to know where the best place is, and once you do, they look good. This is one I shot earlier this year:

As you can see very pronounced trails, and a very dark night, despite the light below. The wall was lit up during one shot only, when the car went past. The light at the end didn’t really cause much disturbance.

Now, for my most recent shot.

St Paul’s Cathedral – as you can very clearly see in the picture – is lit up by strong floodlights. It is many a photographers subject for London night photography, because it’s prominent on the horizon, and contrasts well with a dark/evening sky. Indeed, it was a photo that caused outrage amongst a lot of photographers when BBC man Jeff Overs was stopped taking a photo of it, but thats another story.

In this, I was aiming for star trails. I seem crazy and foolish to think that the light pollution in London will let me, but it can be done. It’s true that I am not the first, but I hope to tackle London and see if it is possible to get pronounced star trails through the bright nights and haze of offices lit up.

People like AndWhyNot on Flickr have been doing these images for a while. Another photographer called Iainsr is also taking long exposure star trails over London. It is these photographers I gain inspiration from, and hopefully London will become a great place to do star trails.

Although, from a ‘save-the-world’ point of view it would be nice for the offices to turn the lights off, it is much more of a challenge to try and beat the urbanisation and modern life of London with the immense power of nature – some of the stars we’re looking at are light years away.

And with that, I say it is a challenge accepted. A challenge to prove that star trails can be done in London, routinely, and well.

Saying that, I am looking forward to Earth Hour 2012, when on March 31st, lights will go out, and I can hopefully create an image like this over one of the most powerful cities in the world: