Yeah I caved in!

Some people have a guilty pleasure, a craving, a collection. Whether it be watches, trainers (sneakers), t-shirts, caps, handbags, shoes… I could go on.

You may have noticed from other blog posts, one of mine is deconstructed tech artwork. Some created by me as part of my hobby, or purchased from the awesome Grid Studio, who inspired me.

Well said Grid Studio 👍🏻

One piece of the Grid artwork I have been watching and considering purchasing, is the iPhone 1st Generation. True it’s one of their most pricey items, mainly due to the ever decreasing supply to tear down (which is why they go SOLD out, as batches become available), but it’s historic and a thing of beauty.

Well, I finally caved in!

This particular model A1203 from 2007 started it’s final journey from China to the UK Tuesday, and arrived Saturday. It was just as well packed as any Grid Studio delivery but this time with a premium twist!

Watch my unboxing video below. I just love it!

A thing of beauty

I never owned the 1st Generation iPhone, in fact my first iPhone was a 3GS, then I became hooked. What does surprise me is the size! It’s so small compared to the more modern iPhones, but it was the start of something big!

So small but it was the start of something big

Getting back into Photography

I sat here, thinking about what to call this blog post, and I called it, Getting back into Photography, but in fact, I’ve never really fallen out of love with photography. Though it’s been through stages.

In my early teenage years, I started off when my parents bought me a Zenith TTL camera. It was an inexpensive but still pretty good SLR that used film. I did an afternoon school club where we used Ilford, black-and-white film and even processed and printed the pictures ourselves.

My main subjects won’t surprise you if you’ve read some of my previous blogs… aircraft when going to airports on day trips with my father and also we used to go to some Grand Prix races in the UK. That was the transition into colour film and on to a Canon A1 camera, multiple lenses and even a motor winder. I’ve got some really good pictures of Grand Prix cars and drivers such as Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet, John Watson, Nigel Mansell etc.

What always got me was, that you could never see what you captured until you had the films processed. That was by sending them away to BonusPrints or other budget processing labs that did the whole process via post. Many a time I was disappointed with the results, but I got better with time.

Then came the age of digital photography, and a few pretty good Fuji cameras that were always upgraded after a few years with the increases of megapixels. Now the great thing was, I could see the results instantaneously and could delete them if I didn’t like the shot. Still with this early digital photography I would print a few for an album.

It’s probably fair to say that where my interest in photography went quiet, was the fact that you couldn’t just go out without taking a lot of kit. You had to plan. Along with other mitigating factors, such as a career in IT & Software Development.

Obviously over the last 10 or more years with the advent of iPhone and the progress of cameras within them it’s got a lot easier. I always have a great camera with me to capture that interesting moment. I don’t print them anymore. I keep them in the Cloud, I can if I want to, but mostly I view them on iPad Apple TV, and of course the iPhone.

But there has been something missing… structure or a project. I love a project!

Recently, I realised that it would be great to have somebody set me some projects and advise me on what I should be doing, what I should be aiming for in composition and more. Then I happened across a good little book on Amazon… it’s called 52 Assignments. iPhone Photography by Jack Hollingsworth.

Basically it does what it says on the cover and I’m slowly working through them. It has some nice tips for each of the assignments and you can do them in any order. The book has been designed so you can check off and what you have completed and it’s small enough to put in your bag/backpack.

I’m enjoying this project so far and I hope to have some examples to share soon.

The mindfulness project corner is complete

Yes, my project is finally complete and I’m really happy how they look.

Project corner – MacBook Air 2013, iPhone 6S, Newton MessagePad 1993 & tv

I put this same picture on my Twitter, and on my LinkedIn. Honestly, I’m a bit overwhelmed with the amount of impressions nearly 18,000, and the likes 350 (as of time of writing). Also the wonderful comments. I’ve never had such impact before😝.

There were some people that asked me if I was selling them, or creating them, like some people do on Etsy, but it’s just my own personal mindfulness project. Something I needed to do during the weekends of lockdown and beyond. What I have said to people is, if they like this sort of thing and they haven’t found Grid Studio online, they should check them out. So professional and so much tech as artwork, they are awesome! I already have four pieces of their artwork already and my project fits in really great with them.

It’s been fun and extremely enlightening, researching how to take these things apart without breaking anything. Realising that they are designed as beautifully inside as well as out. Then creating a shadow box and mounting these parts within it.

Well, it really is time to put my many screwdriver sets, spudgers, glues, tapes and any left over art foam board (black and white) away. There’s no more wall left 🤣

Looking back at looking forward

Today I was checking out my Notes and I found one originally written by me on 25 May 2011 as the Mobile Evangelist at Sybase. It’s title “Mobility in 5 years”. Well it’s just over 11 years since I saved that note, let’s see how I managed.

Massive market growth expected for Tablet Devices, mainly iPad and also within the Enterprise space

Tablet usage to overtake Smartphone usage

Long Term Evolution (LTE/4G) to gain momentum and to take off in many countries

NFC usage in Mobile Devices to introduce new innovative apps etc

M-Wallet becomes something that users readily accept

Mobile Internet usage will surpass Desktop internet usage

Increase in mainstream availability of Mobile Business Apps

Increase of Enterprise in-house developer Mobile Apps

Formation of Corporate In House App Stores a norm

Devices to become Smarter, Faster, Slimmer & therefore lighter and more mobile

Increase of Cloud Services usage by Mobile Devices

Security on devices increases to facial recognition

Mobile devices will become more used within Medical such as the ability to integrate more with external peripherals, eg Heart, BP, Blood Sugar Monitors etc.

Micro Payment increase in developing countries

Never say never

In a previous blog post I shared my ‘problem’ with  inspired ‘deconstructed technology artwork’, and lockdown projects both inspired by Grid Studio. I closed on the fact that I had boxed up my tools, though you may remember that I said ‘never say never’ and well I have started planning for… just one more thing.

Here are a few initial photos to keep you guessing.

Just one more thing

I’m going to take some time on this one, but will report back in time. All I will say is the frame is going to have to be bigger than a magenta envelope. 😜

The return of plane spotting

As a boy I grew up in the outskirts of London, and under the easterly arrivals flightpath into London’s Heathrow airport from Europe and beyond, so watching the flights join the Lambourne stack through binoculars was always a pastime. It was my father that would take me to either Heathrow or Gatwick (London’s second airport) that really ticked all the boxes. This usually happened in school holidays or if I were really lucky at a weekend.

Originally I can remember driving with him though central London via Parliament Square, Earls Court, then out to Hounslow via the M4. At that time the M25 was still under construction, so that must have been before October 1986. Arriving at Heathrow was always exciting, parking up on the roof of the Terminal 1 Short Stay car park and eventually spending the rest of the day in the viewing area on top of The Queens Building. They were the great days of plane spotting, with my binoculars and an aviation registration book, to check off the aircraft I had seen. Across Terminals 1, 2 & 3.

Gatwick was also a happy memory, driving with him through the Dartford Tunnel as there was no Queen Elizabeth II Bridge for many years to come (opened October 1991). Gatwick also had a public viewing gallery on the roof of the South Terminal, with its own cafe, making it also a place to watch & listen via an air band radio, to the comings and goings of the day out. Then to return to the car on the roof of the South Terminal Short Stay car park and watch the aircraft until it was time to head home before the rush hour traffic.

Then, with security around the world changing, such facilities were eventually removed and along side it my trips etc, which had continued by myself into adulthood. Heathrow’s viewing area closed around 1996 and Gatwick followed in 2000

It’s really weird, but it took storm Eunice and an internet sensation (Jerry Dyer’s Big Jet TV – https://bigjet.tv) to relight my interest for aviation watching at airports. This time I could do it from the YouTube app on my Tv, or iPad if I were away from home and it has brought back floods of great memories, including those that I mentioned above with my late father. Jerry has the same enthusiasm and gets to stream from locations like those in the past that I enjoyed, that takes me to that happy place.

Thanks Jerry and thank you Big Jet TV. Also check out https://twitter.com/bigjettvlive

I think we’re gonna have a problem here

Yeah, I put my hand up ✋ I love Apple devices and I love what GRID Studios have done creating, what I would term ‘deconstructed technology artwork’. So much so I have a small collection, my first three pieces from GRID being the…

  • iPhone 4S
  • iPhone X
  • watch
Deconstructed technology from GRID and yours truly, aka things of beauty

I was so taken with these that, as a COVID-19 lockdown project, I thought I’d try to take apart three old devices that I had, to create my own take on an iPhone 5S, iPhone 6S and an tv. Firstly before jumping in I had to research how to take them apart without ‘breaking’ the components. I used iFixit, which was really interesting and well documented. What I mean by ‘without breaking’, is that the last thing you want to do, is to display pieces that are twisted, torn or damaged in some way.

That research completed, my next hurdle was the fact that I couldn’t remove the screens and batteries on the iPhones. I didn’t have the equipment and I wasn’t brave enough to pull around and dispose of the li-ion batteries. So I took them to my local phone repair store and asked them. For a small fee they obliged, but I wish I had a picture of the guys face when I explained what I wanted him to do..

“You want me to go through a battery replacement but NOT replace the battery and leave the devices each in two halves?” 🤔

Some of the kit needed and my tear downs

Next was the research for the specialist screw drivers, spudgers and other things I would need for the tear down. Luckily easy to get from Amazon, though not too cheap. Finally how to present them, this step was easy to do with the help of IKEA for the frames and an art shop for white & black presentation boards and glues/tapes. White for the base to stick the components on and the black to build the depth for inside the frames.

My tv teardown, simple but effective

All in, my lockdown project was fun, eye opening with regard to how our devices are designed & constructed and satisfying that I have some complementing pieces for my walls. Though not as excellent as GRID’s. I also have an admiration for what they have produced.

Would I do it again? Maybe not though never say never, but for the time being my acquired equipment has been boxed up 👍🏻

STOP PRESS: Recently I couldn’t resist, my latest and I’ve been told, my last GRID artwork, the awesome iPad Mini, for which I had to remove my tv teardown, for wall space 😝