Thursday, October 14, 2010

Shift Shot 12/05/09

Turtle Bay -is my guess here, or perhaps I just like saying Turtle Bay.
IMG_5278
We're finally getting near the end of the 2009 shots. So when 2009's posts are all up I'll sort through all of them and put together a portfolio of the best of the best of that year, then it's on to the 2010 roll. BTW since the Los Angeles vacation I haven't bought a new camera yet, and I think I'm enjoying keeping my mind more solidly focused on taxi driving when I get behind the wheel.

Through all these years photography has been a great tool to keep my ambition going, to make me feel like I was on this taxi trip as a project of sorts to see the world through a new perspective and always be able to step back from it when the time came. Carrying a camera helped me take anxiety away from uncertainties of the job, and when I was really amiss as to where to turn next I could always turn to the camera, but lately my experience has made me feel more comfortable in the cab than I am with my own two feet pacing the concrete. There is a wonderful feeling in the cab akin to the feeling of dreaming, where I can cover so much ground in a full 10 to 12 hours and never become winded, always sitting back with a cup of coffee and thinking about it all, or simplifying it all so much that I'm not thinking 'about' anything per se, but only thinking about what to do next if anything.

I am not going to drop the recording of images by any means from my habit, but I'm still going to take a bit of a break. Right now I'm contemplating what tool I should get next to record video of my driving during the shifts. This is where I want to go next, but I have my doubts if any device is right for this. The iPhone while it has a good battery life, and a good camera, doesn't have a good GPS for instant directions for a taxi driver. The Android while it has a better GPS seems like a worse device for the other things, really bad battery life, and probably less compatibility with my mac at home. Then there is the GoPro HD which has cool mounting devices, but really I need a smaller device witch could be concealed better and have a decent battery life, for a camera 2 hours of battery seems really crap. I could just get the next generation version of my old camera and use it for video, but I think for the cab I'd rather have a smaller device, and to boot having internet capability would be cool to find things instantly for customers, as well as live internet posting on the taxi lines, but again I have my doubts if the phones while convenient enough for your average person, are convenient enough to use in really fast situations for taxi drivers. And those flip cams: again poor battery life and not enough storage space. Plus the iPhone has the added bonus of quick video editing and posting instantly to the internet.

So that's where I am on the next chapter of this blog, which is still quite far from now I suppose since I still have all of 2010's photos left to publish. Maybe I should just wait another 6 months or so and then get a real GPS device, and then an iphone, or maybe a point and shoot with HD video. For now I'll just get a cheap phone, and yes, when all of it is thought through it really isn't worth while for the money one pays monthly for a smart phone service? it's really quite stupid.

5 comments:

Cloudia said...

All Honolulu drivers want to go "Turtle Bay!"

A resort far on Oahu's North Shore and a GREAT fare!



Warm Aloha from Waikiki

Comfort Spiral
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NYC taxi photo said...

HaHa Cool! Must've been a psychic connection to the Honolulu driver I was feeling then. How much is it to Turtle Bay then?

Star said...

Enjoyed the contemplative post, thanks.

NYC taxi photo said...

Thanks for the comments, which at the least gave me the ambition to go back to the post and brush up the writing a little more. Star, I've gone to your blog, and I'll definitely return to it to give it a good looking through.

Star said...

Thanks so much!