Street Vitality

An entry to British Council's "Create Great Cities" Photo Competition 

A liveable city is created with intense vitality, where energy flows through movement, music and diverse passions.

While the liveability of a city is often linked with its healthcare, transportation system and provisions for food and security, a city without vitality is a dead city. Snippets of vitality are seen in city streets where I live - a local band practicing behind the backdrop of the city’s business district, a bike exhibition on a walkway flooded with advertisements, a barefoot runner alongside corporate workers walking to night shift.

There is much to be done to move the community so it can flourish beyond filling in its basic needs. We have space, but we need time. When work chases us wherever we go, it is crucial to allot time to prioritize vitality and encourage expression of physical pursuits and creativity.

Photos by @jcabatuan (IG)

The Timelapse Machine!

The first full novel I read when I was kid was H.G. Wells' the time machine. Aside from figures of the Eloi and Morlocks, what stuck with me was the idea of the fourth dimension: time.

In photography, one can capture the first three dimensions: length, height, depth. These three are sufficient to present a simple story, painted in a thousand words as they say. But if one adds a fourth element the result can be a more complex story that can depict change in a plot or a character.

Taking a video with our camera phones, GoPros and even DSLRs is easy, but taking one that captures a change in a scene in less amount of time has more challenges. First, while the first three gadgets can make good quality photos, the video output won't be that good. Second, doing a fast forward feature on post processing results in even poorer quality videos. The timelapse machine will try to solve these challenges.

The goal of this project is to configure the Canon 70D to shoot a timelapse, a setting that is currently not available with the camera. The timelapse setting is available with other Canon models through Magic Latern and with an external intervalometer attachment. To fully control the timelapse settings, we decided to use a Raspberry Pi with Python programming. A horizontal rail will also be built to ensure that the primary subject in the photo remains in the center of the frame and to create a more dramatic effect on movement.

Here are the materials:
  Canon 70D
  Raspberry Pi 3 Model B
  Bipolar Stepper Motor (EM 295)
  L293D Driver
  Breadboard, batteries, jumper wires

I'll post a sample video once available. The complete how-to will be in another post.

Five Billion Stars

There are numerous posts in the internet showing photos of the milky way so to put a claim that this is an original composition, I'm showcasing the shot with us in the foreground.

A few technical details:

   Camera: Canon 70D

   Lens: Canon 18-135mn Kit Lens

   Exposure: 30 seconds

   Apperture:  3.4f

   ISO:  6400

   Location: Gulugod Baboy, Mabini, Batangas

   Date/Time: April, 8, 2016, 3:00am

I'm going to note that this was the first time we tried shooting the milky way - we are no experts - but here I learned what the phrase "up all night to get lucky" meant. We prepared for the hike a month ahead setting the date with the new moon phase. Apart from the city lights shining in the distance it was very very dark.

At 8:00pm the milky way was supposed to be visible in the South. However at that time it was very cloudy. We were able to take a good shot of the sky with a lot of stars but we couldn't make out the milky way. There were thin layers of clouds and the light from the other campers must have added to the noise.

Before we set camp earlier we overheard a fellow hiker mention that they usually wake up at 3:00am just to look at shooting stars. We took that as a cue, forced ourselves to sleep and awoke at that mysterious hour. When I went out of the tent it felt cold, about 10-15 degrees C. There was also a strip of cloud behind the summit. I was disappointed but we set up and started shooting. Waiting for the 30 seconds exposure, I was holding my breath almost thinking that if I said anything that would add up to the "noise".

Click. Post processing - another few seconds. Then there it was: the strip of cloud that I saw turned out to be the milky way! Five billion stars - these are things worth losing sleep for.

Hi Py!

Hello World!

Today marks my transition from R to Python.

I have been trying to master R for almost a year and though I started making progress I felt that there was something intrinsically wrong with the language. Having used R/ggplot helped me get insights on a number of data sets that I was working on. The visualization capabilities seemed promising.

The cons however:
      - Formatting is "dirty" - you have to exert extra effort in organizing blocks of codes
      - Various ways to write the same code - slows down mastery
      - Less effective in automating data processing and updates

Python on the other hand was love at first sight. About time somebody removed the curly braces and semicolons in the code. The coding structure is well thought out and logical.

Here's to more nights with the Py!

Trick and Truth

I have a toddler niece who is already learning how to talk. She is at the stage where when friends of her parents would ask what her name is she would start reciting her full name.

One holiday, my siblings from different parts of the country came to visit our parents. After dinner, everyone gathered in the living room where the children showcased their question and answer skills. There was the usual barrage of “What is your name?” or “What sound does a cat make?” and the children would dutifully answer the questions.

At one point my father asked my niece, “How old are you?”. My niece giggled for a while, paused and then stuck up two of her fingers while shouting “Three!”. Everyone in the room burst out laughing and applauded.

The audience was entertained. The question wasn’t answered. What was the correct number, we didn’t know. It was a trick. Well played, little girl.  

In several years that I worked as a data analyst and presenter I learned that there are tricks to manipulate data to mask a substandard result, disguise a problematic fact or tell a totally different story. This is not about falsification of data but about conscious misinterpretation – rearranging the sequence of discussion, not explaining context, or leaving out details. The numbers do not lie but the presenter may not tell the whole truth.

On hindsight, the same skills needed for misinterpretation can be used to guide the audience through the presenter’s complex analysis. Give out information in bite sizes. Sequence it starting from the simplest. Use tools to emphasize and visualize. Leave out details – yes if unnecessary. Interpretation is subjective so interpret straight and upfront.  Do not leave room for confusion. Allow however room for interaction and constructive examination.  

In defense of my niece, she was in fact two and a half years old at the time. It was both trick and truth.

Number Wall Game

My brother and I created the Number Wall Game where anyone can keep their mind sharp by practicing arithmetic operations. 

The game has 20 levels with increasing difficulty starting with single digit addition to double digit subtraction. 

We finished the game in six days using a shared laptop and an android phone for testing. Programming was straightforward using LibGDX. What took time was the simulation of the game and adjustment of speed for different levels.

It's still a work in progress but we made it available for download. It's free. Try it here!

Comedians and Words

Words by themselves are not funny at all.

Comedians address the audience as “man” more often than “people” or “women”. While they have a diverse range of topic, the white and black comparison is common. Swear words that pop out of the word cloud are used to give emphasis.

Source: Transcripts from the stand up performances of Louis C.K., Dave Chapelle, Chris Rock and John Mulaney

Tools: R, R tm, R wordcloud