PhotowalksTV Podcast with Jefferson Graham

The audio companion to the latest PhotowalksTV episode from New Orleans features extended interviews with some of the folks we met in the Crescent City, including the Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s Ronell Johnson, the street musicians Chris Henry and TyroneJohnson from the One-Way Brass Band, the tour guide Michelle Mashon from Bonmoment, Sean Smith, our Uber driver and local artist Grant Nelson. ICYMI: here’s the link to watch the episode as well. And you can read all about it here: Huge thanks to brother Jez Graham for the song “Grandma’s Rag,” which we used in the podcast. Get full access to Jefferson Graham's PhotowalksTV newsletter - Tech & Travel at www.jeffersongraham.com/subscribe

Longtime readers of this newsletter know that I’m a timelapse video freak. I love using my phone to create videos that see the world fly by at top speeds, with flowing clouds, having day turn night, shadows forming and disappearing, and of course, seeing people running around the world like speedy ants. There’s rarely been an episode of PhotowalksTV that didn’t have a timelapse section to it, and most of the recent ones have been created with my go-to, favorite timelapse app, the free Blackmagic Camera app, which is available for both Apple and Android devices. 📣 So I’m thrilled to announce another great contest with our friends at Blackmagic: Timelapse Across America. 📷 And we’ve got four great potential prizes for you: 🍎 A $2,600 high-end Blackmagic 6K camera for when you want to bring your filmmaking to the next level, and three runner-ups: 🍎 A DaVinci Resolve speed editor for those of you who work with DaVinci Resolve software, 🍎🍎 And two 1 terabyte solid state drives for your backup. 🔥🔥🔥 All you have to do is make a simple timelapse video with the Blackmagic app and upload it to YouTube. When you submit, you’ll paste in the YouTube URL, and from there, Photowalkers will vote to select the winners. (Open to US residents only.) ✅ CONTEST LINK: https://photowalkstv.com/timelapse-across-america/ ✅ As many of you know, the timelapse mode on the Apple Camera app is 100% automatic, only shoots in 1080p and is vastly inferior to what you get with the Blackmagic app. If you let the camera roll for 15 minutes, or one hour or even one full day, Apple’s auto tools will ensure that your video can never be longer than 30 seconds. You get full 4K and creative control with the Blackmagic app. The Android app isn’t as restrictive as Apple’s, but you get way more choices with Blackmagic. ✅ The Blackmagic app can go for days, or even weeks, and you get to decide how long the final product will be. (You know me: I really have let the camera run for days, most recently from the balcony of the fabulous San Diego Sheraton.) In the video above, I announce the contest, and offer a full tutorial on how to use the Blackmagic app for timelapse videos. ✅ In a nutshell, here’s what you need to know: * Open the app. * Go to Settings. * In Record, the first section, click the tab for Timelapse Recording. * Choose your frame interval. Timelapse videos are a series of still photos, stitched together into a video. How often you take new photos determines how fast the world moves. The Apple native app tends to be about one frame every two seconds. If you want to move faster, try 1 frame every 10 seconds, or even 1 frame every minute. (In the video tutorial above, I show the difference between the intervals.) * Go to Camera, compose your shot, click record, and have something to keep yourself busy. You’ll want to record for at least 15-30 minutes, if not longer. 🔥 Voting begins on April 4th, and the winners will be announced April 9th. Subject matter? Up to you. Length? Up to you. Just make a short awesome timelapse video. We can’t wait to see what you come up with! Again, to submit https://photowalkstv.com/timelapse-across-america/ Newsbytes SIRI: Last week we spoke about how Apple was losing the AI wars to Amazon, Google and others and what issues it was having with creating an all-new, more responsive Siri digital assistant. This week, Apple responded by axing the Siri chief and assigning him to another division. Unfortunately, the replacement comes from another rare Apple dud, the $3,500 Vision Pro. No words. NO PORTS: During the spring, rumors about what shape and size the next iPhones will be heat up, and this week was so exception: the latest—could there be a new iPhone in the fall without the USBC/Lightning charging port? I’ve seen several people mention online how they think this is a good idea. Who needs a charging port that seems to always get ruined by water and dust damage, when you can just use wireless...

Visit the island community of Galveston, Texas, and meet local podcaster J.R. Shaw, “spice queen” Concetta Maceo and Kat Crain, the owner of the Galveston institution SkyKatz and Ruthtalksfood author Ruth Stroud who join Jeff to explain the appeal of the city with so much history and beauty, where time has seemingly stood still. http://www.photowalkstv.com Get full access to Jefferson Graham's PhotowalksTV newsletter - Tech & Travel at www.jeffersongraham.com/subscribe

In this episode, I put on my best Casey Kasem for a countdown of the 100 locations we’ve visited on PhotowalksTV through the years, from the Hollywood Walk of Fame to the California Gold Country. Along the way, we’ve got some beaches, some France, Spain, Italy, Mexico and Canada, a little Ohio, Florida and Georgia, and the entire West, from Washington to Montana, from Colorado to Utah and then some. Have a listen as I offer tidbits about each visit. And ICYMI, be sure to catch the video companion as well. Get full access to Jefferson Graham's PhotowalksTV newsletter - Tech & Travel at www.jeffersongraham.com/subscribe

The audio companion to the PhotowalksTV episode about California’s Gold Country, with narration by Jefferson Graham about the places visited on the show, where we stayed and ate, and some of our favorites along the way. Also features extended interviews with folks we met during the filming of this episode, including Bronte Wilhelm from the Angel’s Camp Museum, Erica Cookson from Franny’s Farm Table in Placerville, Rebecca Stoddard from Boeger Winery and journalist Odin Rasco. If you enjoyed this episode, let me know, and I’ll do more audio companions in the future. Get full access to Jefferson Graham's PhotowalksTV newsletter - Tech & Travel at www.jeffersongraham.com/subscribe

When both Apple and the photo centric publication PetaPixel in the same week deem that Kino is the smartphone app of the year, I take notice. Kino is an app for iPhone video shooters who want manual controls over what they see, and an alternative to the all-automatic sheen of making videos in the iPhone Camera app. The cost is all of $9.99, and it’s a relative bargain. What Apple said: “Kino shows users how cinematic life can be through its film-inspired filters and advanced controls.” Petapixel: “Kino is just that one small extra step to mobile video capture that makes it a lot more approachable.” Have you heard about iPhone video advancements in the 15 and 16 series that let you shoot video in the “ProRes,” and “Log” formats, for better control over your color and final filmic look to the project? The Kino app helps you make sense of all that and offers tools to make use of them in a way easier fashion than via the iPhone Camera app. On the iPhone Camera app, you have to take the time to process the images. Not so with Kino. You also get the ability to shoot in manual focus and adjust the lighting with more refinement. Kino comes from the folks at Lux, which also makes the Halide app, covered here a few months ago. It’s the still photo app for people who don’t like shooting everything in auto mode on the iPhone, and offers, like Kino, an unprocessed version of what you see in real life. So let’s run down Kino. In a welcome twist for an app developer, Lux actually begins the process with a manual telling you about all the features. But let’s admit it: no one wants to read. They just want to press buttons. So let me tell you what they are. * The tools shown on the main page are basic: Auto focus vs. manual, the choice of lenses (.5 ultra-wide, wide and telephoto, if you have them on your iPhone) the format you want to shoot in (LOG vs. regular processed video) and the welcome sight of audio meters, to let you know that you indeed have audio. * Two other buttons send you to color grade options. Similar to Styles, Apple’s tools to apply different color looks to your photos, before or after the fact, these different kind of film looks are offered, and can be applied to the video before you start shooting. In tech terms, they’re called LUTs, and by having them right there in the app, it makes the editing process a whole lot easier, as they can be added before or after you shoot. * A second arrow on the main page brings up more choices: White Balance lets you adjust the color, and you can also increase the stabilization, use the level tool to make sure your horizon is in check and flip the camera around to selfie mode. Finally, there’s Settings, where you have the ability to apply more color grades (many are available for sale on the internet) and change the quality of your recording. The big deal about the app is shooting in LOG (unprocessed video) and getting to apply the different filmic choices (called LUTs) directly to the video. The look is a little less sharpened and glossy, and more reminiscent of what things looked like in the film days. Let’s be honest though. Most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a graded video and out of the camera automatic on the iPhone. I can, however, and I think it looks great. Since you read this newsletter, I’m guessing you’ll be able to tell the difference too. My go-to video app is still Blackmagic Camera, which offers many of the same features, for free, plus the ability to record great timelapse videos, in a slightly more complicated fashion, but it’s really easy to recommend Kino. The app is for anyone who wants to improve the look of their videos and see what all the fuss is about from the filmmaking community for getting higher grade iPhone videos. For $9.99, you can’t go wrong. You’ll need an iPhone 15 or 16 to get the most of the app. Kino is only available for iPhones. Sorry Android fans. A Watch App too In Petapixel’s best of article, it also...

I’ve got two new New Mexico episodes of Photowalks all cued up for you. We leave Santa Fe for a drive north to tiny Abiquiu, pop. 200, where the beloved artist Georgia O’Keeffe had her home, in both town and the nearby Ghost Ranch. What’s a visit there like? Let me show you. From Abiquiu, we continue further north, to perhaps my favorite spot in the Land of Enchantment, Taos, home to the oldest living continuous community in the United States, the Taos Pueblo, a thriving artist community and some of the best desert landscape you’ll see anywhere. This is a return visit to Taos—the last time I did an episode there two years ago the Pueblo was closed, and I hadn’t yet met Ruthann McCarthy, Sol Lothe or Alberto Real from the amazing Camino Real Imports shop. Ruthann is the friendly woman in the cowgirl hat who runs the Legacy Cafe in the town Plaza—her family has been in the Plaza for over 100 years and no one knows Taos like she does. Sol is the character who takes people up, up and away in his Rio Grande Balloons. He was nice enough to invite me up there for a ride in his beautiful balloon, and do a great interview from the skies. Alberto’s family runs this electric curio shop, with seemingly over 1 million items—everything from sun art, hanging ristras and pottery, to lots and lots of skulls. These episodes were filmed primarily on the iPhone 16 Pro and 15 Pro Max models, with some key balloon shots on the Insta360 X4 and driving shots on the GoPro Hero 12. And ICYMI: Santa Fe Northern New Mexico, as you can see in the videos, is extra magical in late October, with beautiful fall colors, so mark your calendars for next year. I hope to be back in the spring, with visits to Las Cruces, Roswell, White Sands and more, so stay tuned. Thanks as always for watching, reading and listening. Jeff Get full access to Jefferson Graham's PhotowalksTV newsletter - Tech & Travel at www.photowalkstv.com/subscribe

This is the time of year when many blogs and tech news sites start hunting for supposed “deals” and offer “tips” on what to buy for the big Black Friday sales holiday. What they’re really doing is fishing for affiliate link commissions. The “deals” are always subjective, however, it is true that every retailer you know and love will have products discounted. Whether you really want them or not is another story. The discounts are only worth it if it’s something you’re actually looking for. I, for instance, want to buy a new computer, and I know that Apple traditionally only offers (teeny) discounts for Black Friday. So I’m in. I’ll wait and shop, and walk out with a new Mac Mini that may cost less during the sale. Or may not. I do get questions all the time about the mobile gear I use to produce to make a travel series, so since we’re in buying season, I’m going to run down the list—most of what I use is already on sale, with decent savings that might interest you. Do know that like other newsletters, we too get a commission for affiliate links, but the purpose of this piece isn’t to sell, but to enlighten. (The mini commissions do help keep the lights on and pay for those grilled cheese sandwiches!) Photowalks Gear What does it take to produce a travel series on mobile phones, mostly all shot by me? Read on: Phones: I bring the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max as my main cameras on the road, along with a Samsung Galaxy S23. I couldn’t be happier with the quality, except when sunspots put weird marks in the image. A big question this year was on how big an upgrade the iPhone 16 is from the 15 series. Very minimal. The 16 phones have a “Camera Control” button on the side that brings up the camera and settings in what was billed as a quicker response, but in fact it’s awkward and dialing in the settings is no easier. Plus, the 16 phones have artificial intelligence features that mostly do things that don’t greatly improve our lives, like summarizing e-mails and a new, not more responsive Siti. More new features are coming in 2025, so stay tuned, but I’m guessing the iPhone 17 will be more of a substantial upgrade. (The best AI feature is a iOS18 freebie that works on older phones too—the ability to instantly transcribe any recording made in the Voice Memos app.) Rode Wireless Go II Microphones: These little portable mics changed my life, making it much easier to get good audio out in the field, and mic up interview subjects. That said, there is a competing product that many of my fellow YouTubers swear by and it’s the DJI Mic II, a product I’ve thought about switching to, because it’s truly wireless. With my mic, I plug the receiver into the USB-C port via a cable on the iPhone and it connects to the transmitter that is on my lapel. The DJI unit just slips directly into the USB-C port, however, sans wires. Rode just came out with a copy of the DJI Mic called the Wireless Micro, with a pair selling for $149.99. I’d love a pair of those on Black Friday sales! (But how many Mics do I need? I already have four pairs of Rode mics!) Peak Design Travel Tripod. Ever notice how on Photowalks, I address the camera, without having my arm extended in one of those “I’m holding the iPhone at arm’s length” shots? I pull that off by placing the phone atop my trusty tripod, which beyond my “stand-ups” is also vital for timelapses and interviews. I’ve been carrying around heavy tripods for years, but it wasn’t until I started toting the lighter Peak Design travel tripod that I actually enjoyed carrying the thing. It’s pricey, but a hefty Black Friday sale brings the price down to $300 from $379. It’s light, it’s sturdy, it opens and closes quickly and fits into a suitcase. The runner-up is Neewer’s Litetrip LT32, which set out to clone the Peak Design tripod, but with cheaper materials. It too fits into a suitcase, takes a little longer to unfold, but is on sale for just under $170, down from $230. Cages. I house the iPhone 15...

I’ve been on the road now since 10/21, with a brief pit stop at home, and this I can tell you: hotels need to charge up. Through stays in Santa Fe, Taos, Flagstaff, Palm Desert, San Francisco and the California Gold Country hamlets of Murphy, Plymouth, Placerville and now, as I write this, Chico, we’ve seen cardless entrances to the room via a text message code, we’ve been welcomed with a personal greeting on the big screen TV, been e-mailed after our stay with online survey requests, but none of these are Guest First issues. What needs to be seriously addressed: charging contemporary devices. Figure the average traveler has at least two phones to contend with, a Watch or two, a laptop and maybe an iPad, and you see the problem. I happen to be a techhead who travels with extension cords, power strips and every conceivable cable you can dream of to charge multiple phones, microphones, GoPros, Insta360 cameras and two laptops (@ruthtalksfood is along for the ride, as always) but I know I’m an outlier. Still, we all start with the same issue: where to find available outlets for charging up. (Even with extension cords, you have to find a place to plug in!) That’s always a challenge in an older B&B, but understandable. These places weren’t built in a time when people like us traveled for overnight stays and power outlets were hidden behind giant poster beds and built-in bookshelves. Many lodging facilities have tried to upgrade their charging options, thankfully, with devices like the CubieMini which worked great in 2020. Many of the hotels and even the B&Bs have even installed lamps and radio with have built-in USB-A ports, to make it easier for us. And that’s great. But the times, they have changed! Who uses USB-A anymore? Very few of us. All these hotel improvements are actually a good five years behind the times. Now it’s all about USB-C, as the industry has settled on one universal connecting cable for seemingly everything. If I’m talking geektalk, know this: the old USB-A cable was the one with the thick silver tip and pin connectors on the bottom side. USB-C is the more streamlined, thinner cable, and both sides fit into your device port. Pretty much every device sold today uses USB-C for charging. I use USB-C to connect my iPhone 16, Samsung Galaxy S23, GoPro Hero 12, Insta360 X4, Rode Wireless Go microphones, iPad, AirPods, DJI Mini 4 Pro drone and Samsung T7 solid state drives. When I livestream, I plug a USB-C cable into my Sony EV-Z10 camera and then directly into one of my MacBook Pro slots (I have 3.) I also connect an iPhone, via USB-C to the Mac, so I can show the iPhone screen during the show. So in other words, hotels aren’t helping us with all those USB-A slots. They’re irrelevant. May I suggest some simple room upgrades: * Companies like Anker, Belkin and Neewer make multiple charging solutions for consumers. Why not think Guest First and install one of these devices in each room? The $39.99 Anker Charging Station has four available USB-C slots, plus, if you’ve got an old iPhone, there are 2 USB-A slots as well, plus 3 AC outlets. * I know many hotels, but not all, like to have alarm clocks in the room, and I’ve scoured Amazon looking for one with multiple USB-C ports. I’ve only found devices with one. Not much help. But it’s a start! (This Sharp radio has both a USB-C and A port.) * How about wireless charging solutions? Many products use the Qi wireless system to power up, and Apple has the MagSafe solution. A plugged in MagSafe adapter would be fantastic. If you have an old iPhone like the X or 11, you have a cable with a USB-A on one side, and the old Lightning on the other side. Apple stopped selling iPhones with Lightning with 2023’s 15 series, while many older iPads, AirPods and Watches still have it. Meanwhile, with holiday travel coming up, it’s doubtful all the hotel chains will have read this edition and decidedto quickly upgrade. So here’s my tips on what not to leave home...

This week Apple introduced several of it’s new “Apple Intelligence” A.I. features that were touted in June, but finally made it to phones at the tail end of October. The most interesting, and the one that will take AI photo edits mainstream to the masses is “Clean up,” the ability to erase people and distracting objects from your photos, just like you would do with a pencil and paper. However, it’s only available to people who have updated their iOS 18 iPhone software and have the iPhone 15 Pro or 16 series phones. So even if you don’t have one of these phones, odds are that if you’re an iPhone user, you will be upgrading at some point and getting this feature and more in the coming years. Similar tools have been available from Adobe, but at a monthly subscription cost that starts at $9.99 for Photoshop, or Google, via Android phones and the Google Photos app, which has had a confusing rollout. Plus, the Google tools aren’t as easy to use and as effective. I’ve been vocal in my distaste for AI tools from Google that put things easily into photos that were never there in the first place. You could argue that the photo above where I ditched the volleyball net breaks the rule of bending reality into something that’s not photography, and you’d be right. But I’ve been removing distractions like power lines and garbage cans from photos for years, just as so many other photographers have. But it used to be a time-consuming task, one made way easier by Adobe’s upgrade of “Generative Fill” in Photoshop in 2023. And now, thanks to Apple, it’s even simpler, more effective and available to the masses for free. Reader beware: Sometimes you can get rid of the person in the shot, but not their pesky shadow! How Apple Intelligence Clean Up works Take the photo, open it up in Apple Photos on your phone, (late models iPad with the A17 chip, and M1 Macs with Sequoia installed) and click Edit. There you will see a new tab added to select the Clean Up feature. Put your finger over the objects you want to get rid of, and watch them disappear. If you don’t get it right, try again until you do. Most times it works really well—but when I tried to get rid of a post-Halloween skeleton sitting on a beach chair, all those bones were too much for the A.I. I didn’t undertake a complete Photoshop vs. Apple Intelligence test, but Petapixel, the online website that covers photography did, and the results favored the new player. For Android fans, if you haven’t already, check out the Magic Eraser in Google Photos. When I said the rollout was confusing, here’s why. First it was only available for Android users, then it was brought to the iPhone as well, but only if you subscribed to Google One, Google’s backup subscription program. However, in April, 2024 it opened it up to everyone. The process is similar: open photo, select tools, look for Magic Eraser and then erase the person or object with your finger. Have fun playing around and let me know your thoughts. New Macs Apple also introduced several new, more powerful Mac computers this week. The headline was that they were equipped with “Apple Intelligence” those silly e-mail summaries, professional writing cleanup and more chatty and smarter (supposedly) Siri. Forget about it! What I’m interested is the extra power! The revamped Mac Mini and new iMacs come with the M4 processing chip, which is a big boost from the M1 on the MacBook Pro I bought in 2021 for $2,000. The Mini even has a M4 Pro chip, which is said to be even faster. I use my laptop even more than the phone, a good 10 hours daily, every day of the week, mostly processing photos and editing videos—as well as writing. And it’s showing signs of age. So I’ll be buying a new one—interesting that the tiny Mini, which appears to be about half the size of the previous model is more powerful than the giant iMac with a 24 inch screen, so it looks like that will be the purchase for me, boosted with 1 Terabyte of storage. Plus a trackpad,...

This week we’re back on the road, from Los Angeles to Santa Fe and then back again, barreling down route 40 and the sideroads of Route 66, through Barstow, Seligman, Kingman and Flagstaff and many others. As always, I love pulling over and photographing the things that jump out at me. Like the old, once thriving motel that hopes to attract folks with several enticing features. * How does a round bed sound to you? * And if that’s not good enough, free HBO and a color TV by RCA? (I hope it’s a Colortrak!) RCA stopped making TVs in 1986, after the company was sold to General Electric. So this sign has been hanging in Barstow since the 1980s, if not earlier. Passing through Las Vegas, in the bedroom community of Henderson (now the second largest city in Nevada) we had dinner at my favorite restaurant in the world, Juan’s Flaming Fajitas and Cantina, known for their one of a kind fajitas. See the above video for a full 25 second flame show. And they taste great too. We stopped at the Hoover Dam, which finished construction in 1935 and is still one of the modern marvels of the world. It’s in a unique spot, where you park in Nevada, and walk across the water to Arizona. Even though there are two clocks showing different times, Arizona is the one that doesn’t change. It doesn’t observe Daylight Standard Time, except in the Navajo Nation. The Trump Zoltar (yes, there are many large Trump signs, on the side of the road) was spotted at the “Last Stop” gas station somewhere between Hoover Dam and Kingman, and guess what—it wasn’t the last stop. Thanks as always for following the journey! Jeff Get full access to Jefferson Graham's PhotowalksTV newsletter - Tech & Travel at www.photowalkstv.com/subscribe

(This newsletter is sponsored by me, alerting you about the three mobile photography video courses I have available: beginning iPhone, iPhone 16 and Google Pixel. http://www.jeffersongraham.com/courses) You gotta love a photography application that calls itself the “Anti-AI” app. Halide has my name written all over it. The app has actually been around for several years, since 2017, but recently added a new feature called “Process Zero,” which lets us photograph things the way we actually see them, as opposed to how we’d like to remember the world. That means no fake blue skies, no artificially enhanced colors, no over-sharpened images. The app, which costs $19.99 yearly or $2.99 monthly, produces “zero computational photography to produce natural, film-like photos,” Halide says. Yay! (Sorry Galaxy and Pixel fans—Halide is only available for the iPhone and iPad.) Top, iPhone 16 Pro Apple fake blue sky, over sharpened. The bottom shot, again on the iPhone 16 Pro, is with the Halide app. All the photos shown here are unedited. My beef on the AI revolution is that it’s great for looking up things, transcribing interviews, getting cars to drive automatically and for photo editing—but not for photo taking. I’ve written about how Google has taken a step towards ruining photography as we know it with the new Pixel 9 series of photos that offers features to add people to the photo, and do things that just aren’t there. Google’s “Add Me,” lets you take a photo of say, the two of you, and add a third person to the image after the fact, while the really controversial one is called Remagine, which turns ordinary photos into unlabeled generative AI artwork. Yuck. Apple has made a big deal of new AI features coming to the iPhone, but luckily they don’t include altering major reality as part of the deal. However, what Apple, Samsung and Google have done is to take a basic camera and turn it into something that never produces an image that’s out of focus, rarely too dark or light, with computational skills. The phone cameras take 9 images every time you click the shutter and merges them into one master photo with few flaws. As the Verge noted in an iPhone review about Halide: “If you’re one of the many people who think that iPhone photos look overprocessed lately, then this is the feature for you.” The New Yorker, of all places, did a feature on Halide this week that you should check out. When’s the last time the New Yorker did a piece on an app? Just wondering. “Process Zero has made me enjoy taking photos with my phone again, because I don’t feel like I’m constantly fighting against algorithmic editing that I can’t control or predict,” writes the author Kyle Chayka in the New Yorker. Halide notes that turning off the auto features has tradeoffs. It admits that it can’t handle low light well and cannot access some features of the iPhone, notably the 2x zoom feature that crops a portion of the 48 megapixel sensor to “zoom” in and get closer. Top, iPhone, with enhanced orange and flag, bottom shot is with Halide. I’ve included here many examples of Apple vs. Halide, so you can see for yourself. You may prefer the Apple approach, which has its place—in many of these shots, the extra color is nice to have, but as a rule, I’d rather have the option to add those looks myself in editing afterwards, and have a cleaner image to play with. Top: Apple Photos shot, bottom via the Halide app. You can see how the colors are actually crisper in the Halide photo, minus the fake darkened sky. If you have the new iPhone 16, you might have heard about the “Camera Control” button on the side of the phone which lets you click to open the camera, without having to use FaceID. The button can be programmed to make Halide the default camera. Meanwhile, let me tell you more about the Halide app. It’s incredibly simple. At the top of the screen you click the drop-down menu to select “Process Zero” or “Apple Processed” photos. Another tool lets you...

I picked up DJI’s new $200 Neo drone this week, and parents, you heard it here first, this is the holiday gift for kids and young-at-heart parents. Nothing else comes close. DJI is the longtime leader in making “flying cameras,” of all sizes and price points. I bought my latest, the DJI Mini 4 Pro for $1,000 last year after the ocean ate my Mavic Air 2S. When I saw the specs for this new one, I had to add it to the collection. Just $200 for a drone? One that flies in the air and records 4K content? Yes, indeedy. The trick is that unlike other drones, which require being connected to a controller with joysticks to operate it, the Neo takes off all by itself, based on six pre-programmed modes of operation. The big calling card is the “Follow” mode, which takes after you as you walk down the street, go running, perhaps cycling, skating, you name it. Here’s how it works: * Turn on the drone and connect it to the smartphone app. * Choose one of the six flying modes. (They include the Follow Mode and short flights through the air called Rocket, Dronie and Circle.) * Hold the drone in front of your face in your hand, wait for the countdown and then the drone takes off and goes into the air. When you’re ready for it to come back down, hold up your palm so the camera sees it, and it lands in your hand. (Watch the video above and see for yourself.) Quibbis: * It can be hard to connect the drone to the app, and have it be recognized. Expect to try it a few times. * Because you’re not able to truly control the drone manually, it is likely to crash. Yup, I’ve already crashed twice, but because it’s covered with propeller guards, you’re better protected than with the bigger, adult drones. * You won’t be to soar down the coast, or go up in the air hundreds of feet like other drones, due to the automatic program modes of the system. But then again, it’s only $200. For $289, there’s a “combo” package, with two extra batteries, and that’s highly recommended as these batteries only last about 18 minutes or so. (Buyer beware: the sample footage shown on the DJI site is something to aspire to, with extra gear and accessories that don’t come with the Neo package most of us will be buying.) A word from our sponsor Want to level up your phone photography skills? I’ve got three video courses available for you online: beginner iPhone photography, all about the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro and the Google Pixel. Check them out at http://www.jeffersongraham.com/courses Elon’s Robots I’m no fan of Elon Musk and his disinformation machine that used to be Twitter, but I’ve got to admit, his Thursday evening event was pretty spectacular, even if it was fantasyland. He introduced a new self-driving car, a $30,000 two-seater Robotaxi that he claims would wheel people around town by an incredibly optimistic 2027—just like Waymo and Cruise cars have been doing in small tests for the last few years, to limited success. (Good luck cutting through government red tape for approvals on this one in 2 and a half years.) But from what I could see on the livestream presentation, the audience really ate up his army of human like Optimus robots which walked around and handed out swag to attendees. Musk said he was using the same technology from Tesla cars to build the robots, which he predicted would cost $20,000 to $30,000 to purchase and could do all sorts of things. Try babysitting, dog walking, clean the house and just be a companion. “It will be the biggest product ever, of any kind,” he boasted. Maybe. But not so fast. I’ve been around, and I have seen so many robot announcements, it’s hard to keep up. They make good copy, but rarely succeed. Amazon introduced a consumer robot named Astro in 2021 “by invitation only,” and even though I applied, I still haven’t been accepted 3 years later. It could have something to do with the fact that the product wasn’t ready for prime time and still isn’t. Musk has a habit of announcing things that get delayed or...

Jeff explains why the new AI photo tools in Google’s Pixel 9 series are so dangerous and need to be labeled. Get full access to Jefferson Graham's PhotowalksTV newsletter - Tech & Travel at www.photowalkstv.com/subscribe

I’ve got the first of many promised courses available for paid subscribers, with a deep dive about the camera and photo features of the under-rated Google Pixel phone. The Google Pixel has many critics saying that it has the best camera of any smartphone, which may or may not be true. But I can tell you this: Google has the lowest priced full-featured phone from a major competitor, at $499, several hundred dollars less than entry level phones from Apple and Samsung. And the Pixel has many cool features for photography that are different from the pack, yet, instructions for how to use them are scant. * Have an out of focus photo you’d like to fix? No problem. Let’s unblur it. * Arte there too many weird expressions and closed eyes in your group shots? Google has a fix for it. * Hate having to reach over and snap the shutter when posing for a selfie? The Pixel will take the photo automatically, setting the timer after just as long as you show your hand. * Love making videos, but don’t like how jerky your panning of the scene is? Good news–Google will make the shot smoother. And on and on. In this course, I’ll walk you through the maze of menus on the Pixel, showing you the best settings for photos and video, and tour the camera and video modes, so you’ll get a better idea about what you’ve got to work with. Everything is broken up into short lessons, so watch at your own pace. There are no tests or quizzes, but if you have questions, you can always e-mail me: photowalkstv@gmail.com Substack paid subscribers can also access the chat service and get right to me. There will be more courses in the coming weeks about the camera features of the Samsung Galaxy and iPhone, so stay tuned. Also, I’d love to hear from you—are there other photography related courses you’d be interested in as part of your paid subscription? CLICK BELOW FOR THE COURSE 🗞️ 💥 NEWS! People ask me all the time about what apps I use to snap photos on the phone, and I usually disappoint them when I tell them it’s the native photo apps on iPhone, Galaxy and Pixel. But for video, it’s a different story. On Thursday’s Live Show at 5 p.m. PT on YouTube, I’ll be discussing how you can use third-party apps to get way better results for your videos. I have also some big NEWS to reveal on the show, so be sure to tune in and hear all about it. See you there? Get full access to Jefferson Graham's PhotowalksTV newsletter - Tech & Travel at www.photowalkstv.com/subscribe

This week, Jeff tells you all about why Park City, Utah is such a cool place to visit and photograph, on the PhotowalksTV companion podcast. Watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/photowalkstv Get full access to Jefferson Graham's PhotowalksTV newsletter - Tech & Travel at www.photowalkstv.com/subscribe

Jeff offers tips on what to see , do and photograph when visiting the Heber Valley in Utah, which is near Park City, Salt Lake City and Provo. Be sure to watch the companion video on YouTube: Get full access to Jefferson Graham's PhotowalksTV newsletter - Tech & Travel at www.photowalkstv.com/subscribe

Juliana and Martin Gomez, who just celebrated their 10th anniversary on YouTube, have a fantastic travel channel called Tourist to Local. They have traveled to 27 countries over this time, (including most recently Argentina, Italy and Mexico) and joined Jeff to talk about their travel photography tips and tricks for shooting all over the world, and travel in general. Check out their recent episodes from Argentina on YouTube, and listen to our chat! Get full access to Jefferson Graham's PhotowalksTV newsletter - Tech & Travel at www.photowalkstv.com/subscribe

I’m Jeff, a Los Angeles writer-photographer, host of the PhotowalksTV series and former USA TODAY columnist, with my photo meets tech meets travel newsletter. As always, the edition is free, and supported by our friends at SmugMug, which hosts my photo website and allows me to sell prints to clients. Get access to our full archive of posts with a paid subscription. Apple touts how “water resistant” the iPhone is, good for droplets falling on the device without ruining it. But in its fine print, it cautions against taking the iPhone for a swim, a bath or anything like that. Jefferson Graham's PhotowalksTV newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. I’ve taken the iPhone 14 Pro Max into fountains and under rainfalls, dunked it in a river during a rafting trip and in the water on the Narrows hike in Zion National Park without any issues. I filmed my friends Zadie, Maia and Esme Kruglov swimming with their dad’s iPhone. I’ve shown the footage. People chalked it up to AI, or something like that. They didn’t believe it was real. So I met up with the girls and their parents again recently at a Los Angeles backyard pool (more on that in a minute,) and gave them my iPhone 14 Pro Max to work with, to see how it would fare for a more extended time in the pool. Would the iPhone recharge afterwards, or would the charging port fall victim to water damage? Were there any other issues that would come up? The answers, dear readers, are all revealed in the latest video. And yes, the downsides are addressed as well. (Click the link to find out how we fared!) Swimply For this shoot, I tried getting into a public pool first, but in my area of Los Angeles, they all tended to be closed on the weekend (!$#@!!!) for swim meets. That they were closed was probably for the better, as I needed to find a pool I could bring the girls to, without someone screaming at me to put the phones away—i.e., a no photography rule. Luckily, there was an app for this. Swimply is an AirBNB of sorts for local pool rentals. I found one near the Kruglov’s home and was able to nab it for an hour, which is all I needed. For the purposes of this project, $50 an hour was rather pricey, but having the pool to ourselves made it a lot easier for me to have my subjects photographed without worry of getting other people in the shot or lifeguards yelling at us. For the $50, we got private use of the pool, beach chairs and inflatables and private area to change. The service is available in hundreds of locations—way too numerous for me to even list highlights. Fees are set by the local pool owner. SmugMug and Swimming After the pool shoot, I came home and had all the photos and videos ready to work with for the edit—SmugMug’s app automatically uploads everything shot. In the case of my iPhone 14, it’s a wifi phone—I only have service on my iPhone 15 Pro Max—so everything uploaded when I got home, put the phone down and sat down to work a little later. Unlike Big Tech, SmugMug doesn’t have storage limits on the uploads or send me nag messages that I’ve run out of room. I use the site as a virtual hard drive to back up everything, run my photo centric website and sell prints to clients. (Not the Kruglovs though—they get prints for free, for life!) New Macs in the works This shouldn’t exactly be a surprise, but Apple has some new, even more powerful Macintosh laptops in the works, per Bloomberg. The current flavor of the chip maxes at M3, but a new breed of AI-powered M4 chips are coming later this year to new 14 and 16 inch MacBook Pros, an iMac and the Mac Mini. NAB! Hey I’ll be speaking over the next few days at the NAB convention in Las Vegas. NAB (the National Association of Broadcasters) was always a place where local stations used to come every year to shop for new, huge TV cameras. Now, reflecting the changes in the world, the show seems more tailored towards the...

Eclipse selfies, analog locks, Siri photo tip, how to get Peacock free and YouTube thumbnail fun. Get full access to Jefferson Graham's PhotowalksTV newsletter - Tech & Travel at www.photowalkstv.com/subscribe