About 6 months ago I was given a gift of some really expensive jeans ($100+), they were so comfortable that I bought another $100+ pair of jeans, far more than I’d ever spent on jeans before.
This has moved me from a 6-8 pairs of $20-30 out-of-style jeans guy, to a two pairs of really nice comfortable jeans that get me lots of compliments kind of guy.
The problem is, in the last couple of weeks both of my nice jeans have started to fall apart. Between the two pairs I have a knee torn through, two buttons torn off, a belt loop ripped off, and a pocket that has torn several times. Crap.
So now what do I do - go back to the cheap, uncomfortable, and fashionably inadequate jeans that last me for years? Or buy another pair of over-priced, but incredibly comfortable jeans that may not last past Christmas?
Just a couple of weeks ago, Vincent Laforet shook up the world of photography when he posted this image, later revealing that it was merely a screen grab from an all natural light, 96 fps video shot with the new RED EPIC M digital cinema camera.
Some of you will ask: “Is this a GAME CHANGER?”
I’m going to stay away from that term. It’s been far too over used in the past few years anyway. I’m also going to stay away from making any claims or proclamations – but I will ask a few questions openly. What I CAN says is: this camera has made me think A LOT. And ask a lot of “big” questions… such as: “Does the challenge of capturing “THE DECISIVE MOMENT” still exist when you can capture a 14 megapixel image at 120 frames per second? ” For someone who idolized Henri Cartier Bresson and worked on mastering the capture of that “decisive moment” for most of my career – it is not a question I ask lightly.
Yesterday, Mountain View startup Lytro announced it’s revolutionary light-field camera which allows you to instantly change the focus of your photography in post-production. It has to be seen to be believed, simply unreal.
This means capturing that perfect shot of your fast-moving pet or squirming child could soon get a whole lot easier. Instead of having to manually focus or wait for autofocus to kick in and hopefully center on the right thing, pictures can be taken immediately and in rapid succession. Once the picture is on a computer or phone, the focus can be adjusted to center on any object in the image, also allowing for cool artsy shots where one shifts between a blurry foreground and sharp background and vice versa.
Editing is going to become one of the most important, sought after skill sets in the next five to 10 years. I think we’re going to see such an incredible amount of data coming in, to the likes of which we’ve never seen before that editors are going to become one of the most important job positions out there.
I'm not going to belabor the point, it's been awhile. I've avoided the site for awhile, a bit embarrassed to recognize how long it's been silent. So, this post is to clear my conscience and free me to start posting regularly again.
Stay tuned. •
I wrote a review for collidemagazine.com of the new ESV Bible iPhone app.
If you have an iPhone and you’re a Christian, there’s a high likelihood that you have LifeChurch.tv’s YouVersion Bible app installed on your phone. Not only was the YouVersion Bible app one of the first available iPhone Bible apps, it has remained one of the very best as updates continue to bring new features. Plus, it’s price is hard to beat—free. Though there are other fine Bible iPhone apps out there, YouVersion’s has been at the top of the list.
When I heard that Crossway teamed up with Subsplash (creators of the Mars Hill Church & Saddleback Church apps) to release a new Bible app, my first thought was, “Why? The YouVersion Bible app already does everything I want in a Bible app. What else could you add to make me want to switch?” But, seeing as I am the type of person who always wants to try the latest and greatest, I gave it a download. Much to my surprise, I’ve now replaced YouVersion Bible with the new ESV Bible.
That day has finally come. The long rumored Apple Tablet has finally been announced as the iPad. Though many have expressed disappointment with the new device, not grasping the potential that is locked within the 9.7 inches of glass and regarding it as “just a big iPod”, the truth is this is a revolutionary device that will change the face of computing forever.
But I won’t try convincing you of how revolutionary this new Apple device is, instead I’ll just point you to some other people much smarter than myself and let them do the talking.
With that out of the way - I think one place that is going to be turned upside down by the iPad is the church.
Presentation Control + Live Sermon Notes
There will be the Keynote app available at launch, and soon there will be many apps for the iPad that allow someone to wirelessly control ProPresenter and other presentation apps. This will allow a pastor to easily flip between slides without turning his back to the audience. Though perhaps not ideal at larger churches where there is a lot to control and there are teams dedicated to keeping them in control… but for the small to medium church where they may not be a dedicated team this is an easy way for the pastor to keep things top notch.
With the larger screen size one might hope that an iPad app for controlling ProPresenter or MediaShout would have a “pastor” mode which would allow the pastor to have all of his sermon notes on the screen, with a sidebar to enabling skipping to the next slide. It could even work dynamically - say a pastor decides he wants to share a bible verse listed in his notes that he hadn’t prepared in his slides. The app could automatically create slide based on the presentations template and instantly display it on the screen.
Worship Leader Planning & Performing
Imagine an app that contains all your worship charts, you can easily scroll through all your inputted songs, listen to a quick preview, and then drag a few to create next weeks playlist. As you’re going through the music you remember that your lead singer has a lightly lower voice so you quickly adjust the key to your charts, bringing it into a better register. You hit “sync” and it auto updates all your musicians apps which you can use on stage in portrait mode, tapping the screen to get to your next song.
This is actually my favorite use for an iPad in church, one that I would love to create myself, if I could just find an app developer to partner with (if you’re a developer and interested - contact me!).
New Musical Instruments
This one remains to be seen but based on the history of the iPhone, the iPad will likely be a breeding ground for tons of new music applications. The larger screen allows a lot of possible applications. At a churchplant I was once a part of we had a hard time finding a good drummer, though we had excellent musicians other than that. I would’ve loved the ability to program a live drum-machine beat from the stage.
Conspicuous Soundboard
Many churches have a large soundboard box which is either tucked off in a corner where it gets an inaccurate reading on the sound in the room, or it is this big ugly cubicle sitting amongst the crowd.
What if the sound guy was just sitting in a seat, somewhere in the middle with just an iPad in his hand - getting a perfect bearing on the sound in the room and being able to adjust volumes on the fly with his portable touch interface. No need to handle a giant soundboard, simply tap through different screens to adjust all the volumes and tones of everything on stage.
Like magic.
Other Uses
And those are just a few, there are tons of other uses - lighting/video control, portable hearing impaired solution for churches that are unable to support a deaf ministry, children check-in stations… the possibilities are endless!
How do you see the iPad affecting your church or ministry?
I am a sarcastic, opinionated Christian designer who loves making stuff that looks awesome. Whether it’s web design, print, photography, video, or motion graphics - I always strive to keep getting better at what I create.
I love my two girls: my wife Danielle and my daughter Vera Jade.
