Camera, code, coffee | Archive of 2023

Personal ThinkPad...

Although I have a box full of ThinkPads, I'm by no means a ThinkPad hoarder or, worse, collector. I just never had the heart to sell any of my trusty workhorses. Every ThinkPad I owned served me well, but there are several models that stand out. For the record, I use exclusively Linux (mostly Linux Mint and openSUSE), so I can't attest to how any of my ThinkPads perform when paired with Windows. In fact, decent Linux support was a decisive factor in switching to ThinkPads in the first place. Continue reading

Permanent link to “Personal ThinkPad hit parade”
Otto now supports...

Ideally when you travel, you'd want to use a fresh card with your camera each day. This way, if you lose the card, or the data on it becomes corrupted, the damage would be limited to a single day. This strategy might not be feasible for longer travels (if you travel for a month and you use two cameras, you'd need 60 storage cards), but it can be practical for shorter trips. Otto can now handle this particular scenario. Specify the -i parameter, and the script creates a directory with the current date as its name (for example, 2023-05-01) and backs up the content there. The script is clever enough to distinguish between cards coming from different cameras, thus keeping things tidy while avoiding inadvertently overwriting data coming from multiple sources. Here is how it works. Say, you use a Nikon D800, and you use the following command to back up data: otto -i -d "/media/$USER/NIKON D800/DCIM/101ND800" This command creates the 101ND800 directory first, followed by a subdirectory with the current name as its name. The data from the specified source is then backed up to the 101ND800/2023-05-01 subdirectory. In addition to transferring and organizing JPEG and RAW files, Otto can now generate statistics by analyzing the EXIF metadata of files in a given directory. Say, you want to know what lenses you use most. Run the command below, and Otto generates a CSV-formatted text file containing all lenses used to take photos in the given directory along with the count for each lens. otto -d "/path/to/dir/with/photos/" -s LensID Want to know what focal length you use (most)? Here's the command to use: otto -d "/path/to/dir/with/photos/" -s FocalLength How about camera models? There's a command for that, too: otto -d "/path/to/dir/with/photos/" -s Model Each of these commands generates a .csv file that uses the EXIF tag as its name (LensID.csv, FocalLength.csv, Model.csv, etc) in your home directory. You can then import the file into a spreadsheet application like LibreOffice Calc and generate a graph. Or you can use web tools like cvs-graph to create a pie chart using the generated CSV file. You'll find Otto in its own GitHub repository. For all things photography and Linux, read the Linux Photography book.

Permanent link to “Otto now supports backups by date and EXIF stats”

July 2023

Permanent link to “Weekend reading: "Shoes" edition”
Permanent link to “Mejiro is 10 today”
Permanent link to “Weekend reading: "Russian propaganda" edition”
The limits of...

Usually, an article like the one you're about to read would go something like this. First, I'll establish my credentials by telling you how many articles and books about open-source photography I've written. Then I'll tell you how much I rely on open-source software in my photography workflow and how much I appreciate the tools I use. And then there will be the inevitable but segue. Continue reading

Permanent link to “The limits of open-source photography”
Permanent link to “Weekend reading: "Victoria Amelina" edition”
Fürth-Utting on...

Shortly after we moved to Germany, I jokingly told my wife that the moment we get interested in trains, we can consider ourselves completely assimilated. Fast forward seven years, and we're getting up at 05:00 in the morning to catch a train ride organized by Fränkische Museums-Eisenbahn e.V. Nürnberg (FME). Here's what happened. When my wife bought an issue of the Eisenbahn Romantik magazine for her family back in Denmark, she also got a flyer advertising an upcoming train ride from Fürth to Utting am Ammersee organized by the collective responsible for maintaining the Dampflokomotive 52 8195-1 steam locomotive (click the link to geek out on its tech specs). The flyer promised an unforgettable ride in a vintage train set, an optional bus tour to the Andechs monastery (the home of arguably the best beer in Bavaria), and a dinner onboard the train. All of this for a very reasonable price. How can you say no to an offer that tempting? You can't. And neither could we. Continue reading

Permanent link to “Fürth-Utting on Dampflokomotive 52 8195-1 with Nikon D800”
Let's talk about...

And by "let's talk" I mean I'll do the ranting, and you decide whether you want to stick around. I already have a perfect neck strap. I got it for free when I bought a Nikon FE in Ginza, Tokyo. I think it was in 2013. The strap served me well with a variety of film cameras, and now I'm using it with my Nikon D800. Despite its age, the strap looks like new. While it's the most unremarkable neck strap, it's also everything a good neck strap should be. There is no branding whatsoever to attract attention. It's made of a single piece of webbing, so there is no stitching that can fail. The strap is soft, and its loops are made of strong plastic. This means that 1) I can wrap the strap around the camera or lens, 2) do so without worrying about scratches, and 3) I can loop the strap around my wrist, so it can act as a wrist strap. There is an anti-slip strip on the inside of the strap. In short, it's an affordable, simple, reliable, and functional strap. This is what an affordable, simple, reliable, and functional neck strap looks like Continue reading

Permanent link to “Let's talk about camera straps”

June 2023

Permanent link to “Weekend reading: "Naked Greeks" edition”
Permanent link to “Rome, Florence, Orvieto, and Naples in ten days with Nikon D800 and an iPad”
Permanent link to “Weekend reading: "No wash" edition”
The engineers:...

So the engineers became proud parents. Their chicks grew up fast and pooped a lot. And while we were in Dublin, they left the nest. End of story — or so we thought. Last Friday and Saturday, there was a flurry of activity: it turned out that we'd got a new team of engineers, and they were attempting to build a nest from scratch at the other end of the awning. I say attempting, because Sunday morning, we woke up to this: the entire nest fell down right into a pot on our terrace. 🙄 Continue reading

Permanent link to “The engineers: New team moves in”

May 2023

Powering...

While you can power a Raspberry Pi through the dedicated USB port, it's not always practical. In certain situations, drawing power from a small and thin lithium-polymer (LiPo) battery makes better sense. This is especially true for projects based on Raspberry Pi Zero, because of the board's modest power requirements. The good news is that powering the Raspberry Pi Zero using a regular 3.7V LiPo battery is cheap and relatively straightforward (some soldering is required, though). Incorrect wiring or wrong output voltage can damage the Raspberry Pi or the battery. Working with LiPo batteries can be dangerous. MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING, AND PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK! Continue reading

Permanent link to “Powering Raspberry Pi Zero with a 3.7V lithium-polymer battery”
Permanent link to “Weekend reading: "Dog's life" edition”
Permanent link to “digiKam: Quickly group RAW and JPG files”
Replace your...

Theoretically, the app from your camera manufacturer is supposed to transform your mobile device into a versatile camera companion. In reality, most apps developed by camera makers are too limited and frustrating to be of practical use. Take SnapBridge from Nikon, for example. Geotagging, when it works, is slow at best. The file transfer functionality looks great on paper, but it supports JPEG files only. Worse yet, the app reduces the resolution of transferred photos to 2MP — most likely because transferring full-resolution JPEG or RAW files wirelessly would be excruciatingly slow. The app's only saving grace is the support for remote camera control (assuming you can even make it work reliably). But how often do you actually need this functionality? But if not the camera app, then what? Continue reading

Permanent link to “Replace your camera app with something better”
Permanent link to “Weekend reading: "The spine collector" edition”
Turning an iPad...

If only an iPad or an iPhone could run Linux tools like Rsync, ExifTool, ImageMagick, etc., you wouldn't have to schlep around a Linux notebook when traveling, especially if your photographic needs are limited to keeping your photos and RAW files safe. Enter iSH, an app that bestows Linux powers on Apple devices. Once installed, iSH offers a Linux environment that gives you access to a plethora of Linux tools. More importantly, iSH can access the iPadOS and iOS file systems and external storage devices connected to the iPad or the iPhone. This means that you can run commands and scripts in iSH to back up data from a storage card connected to the Apple device. Better still, if you use a USB-C hub that features both a card reader and USB connectors, you can back up data directly from a card to an external USB storage device, bypassing the iPad's or iPhone's internal storage. Continue reading

Permanent link to “Turning an iPad or an iPhone into a Linux-based photography companion”
Permanent link to “Weekend reading: "Britain is dead" edition”
The engineers...

Remember the engineers, the two collared doves who have been trying to build a nest right above our kitchen window for several years in a row? Well, after another half-hearted attempt at finishing their project, they decided to try something different. This time, they've managed to build a new nest... right on an awning above our terrace door. Actually, they hedged their bets, and they started working on two nests in parallel. But at some point, they probably liked one of them better than the other. I'm not a dove, but I think it's a very good place for a nest: it's hidden, there is not much traffic around, cats can't get to it. The only drawback is two curious humans gawking at it every now and then. The engineers are now sitting on eggs, and by our calculations, they should become proud parents sometime this week (or maybe next week, at the latest). Until then we 1) can't use the awning and 2) have to be very careful and quiet when going out on the terrace. Taking a proper photo of the nest is out of the question, so we all have to make do with a mediocre snapshot.

Permanent link to “The engineers have a new nest now”
digiKam: Find and...

Tags are great. But no matter how meticulous your are with tagging items in digiKam, you'll inevitably end up having multiple unused tags dangling around. Good thing then that the Tag Manager tool makes it easy to remove unused tags. In digiKam, choose Tag > Tag Manager, then choose Mark Unassigned Tags from the Organize drop-down list. This automatically selects all unused tags, and you can delete them by pressing the Delete selected items button. Want to get the most out of digiKam? Read the digiKam Recipes book.

Permanent link to “digiKam: Find and remove unused tags”

April 2023

Permanent link to “Weekend reading: "Scarlet letter" edition”
Permanent link to “A weekend break in Palermo”
Running a systemd...

A "note to self" post on how to create a systemd service and run it a regular user. Assuming, you're logged in as a regular user, create the ~/.config/systemd/user/ directory using the mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user/ command. Then, create a .service file: nano ~/.config/systemd/user/my_service.service Specify the service options: [Unit] Description=My_service [Service] Restart=always ExecStart=/path/to/executable ExecStop=/usr/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID [Install] WantedBy=default.target It's important that WantedBy is set to default.target. Save the unit file, and reload the systemd daemon using the systemctl --user daemon-reload command. Enable and start the service as the user: systemctl --user enable my_service.service systemctl --user start my_service.service Finally, run the loginctl enable-linger $USER command.

Permanent link to “Running a systemd service as a regular user”
Give the notebook...

Notebook batteries are fickle creatures. They don't like being charged to 100%. But they also not keen on being completely depleted. According to the conventional wisdom, to give your notebook's battery a long, productive, and healthy life, you should avoid charging it above 80% and discharging it below 25%. Sounds simple, but how can you actually accomplish that without keeping your eyes peeled to the battery charge indicator? By letting the TLP worry about that. Install the tool on your system, configure battery charging thresholds, and leave it to TLP to take care of the rest. Here's how to do this on Linux Mint. Continue reading

Permanent link to “Give the notebook battery some TLC with TLP”
Permanent link to “Mejiro: Easter 2023 update”
Permanent link to “Weekend reading: "Luxury water" edition”

March 2023

Permanent link to “Weekend reading: "Naughty nuns" edition”
Girasole: Stoll...

Maybe because I'm not a coder to begin with, it never ceases to amaze me how much I can accomplish with just a few lines of PHP. Girasole PHP script is a case in point. It's so short and simple that it hardly deserves to be called an application. Yet it fulfills a huge need I've had for quite a while. It may have something to do with age, but the older I get, the more I appreciate the joy of reliving memories through my photos. I'm not keen on uploading my entire library to Google Photos or a similar service to make use of their "photos from the past" functionality. Because 1) pushing several terabytes of data would take forever and a day, 2) would be prohibitively expensive, and 3) I'm not enamored with the idea of entrusting my most private data to a third party, no matter how good their privacy protection track record is. Continue reading

Permanent link to “Girasole: Stoll down memory lane with the help of PHP”
Permanent link to “Weekend reading: "Metaverse" edition”
Language learning...

The best way to learn new words and phrases is to use them actively. The next-best way to learn new words is to be exposed to them as much as possible. And since the wallpaper that adorns my graphical desktop environment is what I stare at most of my waking hours, I thought that it'd only make sense to add words and phrases I want to memorize there. Half an hour after the eureka moment, I had a working hack consisting of a plain text file with words and phrases along with their translations, a wallpaper template PNG file, and a simple Bash shell script. The latter pulls a random line from the text file, and uses the template to generate a new wallpaper with the picked line. Below are all the gory details worth knowing if you want to roll out something similar. Continue reading

Permanent link to “Language learning hack: Generate a "Word of the day" wallpaper”
The engineers are...

Three years ago to the day, I wrote about two collared doves, who decided to build a nest right above our kitchen window. I'll be forever thankful to them for brightening our days during the worst pandemic days. But the story didn't end there. In 2020, they didn't manage to finish the nest, so they returned in 2021. They didn't finish the nest then either. So in 2022, they were back. Alas, a storm took down their unfinished work. It's 2023, and guess who is back? We're now lovingly referring to them as "The Engineers" and their nest as "Berlin Airport".

Permanent link to “The engineers are back”
Permanent link to “Weekend reading: "Textpocalypse" edition”
Grab and de-DRM...

Used with the Obok DeDRM plugin, Calibre can easily strip DRM from ebooks bought from the Kobo store. The combo works fine, but it has two downsides: you need to have access to the machine running Calibre, and you must connect your Kobo reader to the machine. While these are not deal-breakers, Kobodl provides a more elegant solution for downloading Kobo ebooks and liberating them from the DRM shackles. Continue reading

Permanent link to “Grab and de-DRM Kobo ebooks with kobodl”
Musou black...

Of all the photography-related paraphernalia I bought in recent times, Musou black KIWAMI fabric proved to be the most useful one. Musou what? Well, ever since I learned about vantablack, I've been mildly obsessed with the idea of absolute black. The only problem with vantablack is that you can't have it. But there is a commercially available product similar to vantablack called Musou Black developed and sold in Japan. I tracked down an EU distributor and splurged for an A4 sheet. Continue reading

Permanent link to “Musou black KIWAMI fabric: back in black”
Permanent link to “Weekend reading: "Messed up hands" edition”
How to use Hald...

Hald CLUT files offer a quick and easy way to apply effects to photos, and there are plenty of desktop applications that can handle the task. But if you want to use your favorite Hald CLUT files on an Android device, you'll quickly discover that there are not that many apps (if any at all) that allow you to do that. No problem: instead of relying on a third-party proprietary app, you can roll out your own solution using Termux. Continue reading

Permanent link to “How to use Hald CLUT files on Android (almost the Linux way)”
Poor man's...

Why spend money on an expensive external HDMI monitor for your camera when an Android device together with the right mix of cables and adapters can do the trick? Of course, if you are doing professional work that requires dedicated tools, then a proper external monitor justifies the expense. For the rest of us mere mortals, though, a slightly less elegant but inexpensive solution would do the job just fine. Continue reading

Permanent link to “Poor man's external camera monitor”
Introducing Gufo

I've decided to get filthy rich by starting my own search engine. I mean, if Google and Microsoft can pull it off, so can I, right? And like any great artist, I started with stealing forking an existing project. So far, I've been taking the code apart to learn how it works, removing stuff I don't need, and tweaking the overall appearance to my liking. Basically, because I don't know what I'm doing most of the time, I've been pulling an Elon Musk: I'd remove a chunk of code and check if the thing still works. Despite my efforts, the thing does seem to work, so ladies and gentlemen, I give you Gufo. Continue reading

Permanent link to “Introducing Gufo”
KOReader:...

Framing language learning as a fun gamified activity apparently works well when you're in the app subscription business, but the jury is still out on whether you can actually reach a reasonable level of language proficiency using an app as your main tool. Me? I'm old school: give me a decent text book, a dictionary, plus something to read, and I'm good to go. There is, though, something else I added to my language learning toolbox not so long ago: a Kobo Libra 2 with KOReader installed on it. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that this combo has taken language learning to a whole new level. Continue reading

Permanent link to “KOReader: language learner's trusty companion”
Permanent link to “Weekend reading: "Why not mars" edition”

February 2023

Permanent link to “TIL: Cut out a shape in Inkscape”
Hald CLUT Pack:...

To paraphrase Sir Mix-A-Lot, I like Hald CLUTs, and I cannot lie. Indeed a handful of Hald CLUT files made with my own fair hands is a staple of my photography workflow. Hald WHAT? you might ask. To oversimplify, it's a preset that any Hald CLUT-capable application (digiKam, RawTherapee, and Darktable, to name a few) can use to apply a specific look to a photo. Here's a much better and more detailed explanation if you want to know more. Continue reading

Permanent link to “Hald CLUT Pack: now with three new presets”
Permanent link to “Weekend reading: "Learn less, faster" edition”
Short notes on...

I'm always fashionably late to the party. So forgive me for being the last to get all excited about Restic. Encryption by default, snapshots, deduplication, support for various storage types—Restic checks all the boxes. Not only that, it is also a supremely easy to use backup tool. While learning how to use Restic, I took notes for future reference. I'm sharing my trivial findings here on the off-chance that someone might find them useful. The notes cover a simple scenario, where Restic backs up data to an external USB storage device. Continue reading

Permanent link to “Short notes on Restic”
Instant offline...

Google Translate is great, until it's not. The quality of translation is undeniably impressive, and the apps have some genuinely useful features. But even if you choose to ignore the fact that Google lives off our data, there is a matter of Google Translate not working offline—not on a Linux system, anyway. And even if it could do that, there is still a case to be made for using and supporting an open-source alternative free from the shackles of surveillance capitalism. Enter Argos Translate, an open-source neural machine translation engine that works offline and is available as a Python library, a command-line tool, a web application, and a desktop utility. Install Argos Translate on your machine, add a simple Bash shell script, and you can instantly translate a text selection from any application. Here is how to do this on Ubuntu and Linux Mint. Continue reading

Permanent link to “Instant offline translation with Argos Translate and a dash of Bash”
Brief look at...

Initially marketed as a continuous light source for video makers, LED panels have been slowly but steadily finding their way into the photo bags of many still photographers. And it's easy to understand why. Light, versatile, energy-efficient, available in many form factors and price brackets. What's not to like? Being new to the dazzling world of LED panels, I decided to play it safe and go with something small and affordable: Godox Litemons LED6Bi. Continue reading

Permanent link to “Brief look at Godox Litemons LED6Bi”

January 2023

Hako: Stupidly...

I can't code to save my life, but that doesn't stop me from trying. One of my latest creations is a case in point. Since stuff tends to disappear unceremoniously from the Web, I usually save local copies of interesting articles. Up until recently, I used the SingleFile Firefox add-on for that, but the process involved too many manual steps for my liking. After several failed attempts to make Archivebox work, I decided to roll out my own tool based on monolith. The latter a simple command-line utility that saves complete web pages as single HTML files. It took me a few hours to cobble together a crude but usable tool that I named Hako (it means box in Japanese, and it sounds a bit like hacky, which I find somewhat appropriate). Continue reading

Permanent link to “Hako: Stupidly simple DIY web archiving tool”
Tiny post about...

I love Bing's daily photo feature, but I don't use Bing. So I whipped up Tiny Page, a simple landing page written in PHP. The operative word being simple. The PHP script pulls the URL of the current Bing photo and its title out of a JSON file and fetches the current weather conditions from the wttr.in service. A dash of CSS styling helps to make the page look not too terrible. That's all there is to it. Wait, actually, the page also shows whatever link you specify as favorite. Continue reading

Permanent link to “Tiny post about Tiny Page”
Android-based...

I use my Android device for a lot of things: from booking train tickets and checking weather forecasts, to... Well, pretty much everything else. But for some reason, I've never seriously considered it to be useful as a camera tool. While I was tinkering with Termux, it occurred to me that it can transform an Android device into a camera companion that can perform both photo backup and processing duties. Continue reading

Permanent link to “Android-based camera companion”
Check battery...

Nothing lasts forever, including laptop batteries. But how do you know when your laptop's battery is ripe for a replacement? Easy: install the acpi package (sudo apt install acpi on Ubuntu and Linux Mint), run the acpi -V command, and check the line that looks something like this: Battery 0: design capacity 4867 mAh, last full capacity 4584 mAh = 94% In this case, the battery is at 94% of its designed capacity, so there is no cause for concern. If the value is nearing 50%, you should probably start saving for a new battery. Since it makes sense to run battery checks regularly, you can create an alias for that. Open the .bashrc file for editing using the nano ~/.bashrc command and add the following alias: alias chkbat="acpi -V | grep Battery" Save the changes, reopen the terminal, and run the chkbat command.

Permanent link to “Check battery health on Linux”
How to make...

I love VU meters. Then again, who doesn't? There is something mesmerizing about the needle or LED segments dancing to the rhythm of the music. So when I stumbled upon PeppyMeter, I knew right away that I must have it running on my machine. Making it work turned out to be a non-trivial matter, but I managed to get it up and running after much experimenting. And I've documented all the steps for your convenience. The following procedure assumes that you're using Ubuntu or Linux Mint. Continue reading

Permanent link to “How to make PeppyMeter work”
Run Pi-hole as a...

There is arguably no better way to protect devices on your local network from unwanted content than Pi-hole. Add a machine running Pi-hole to your network, and it will quietly scrub all incoming traffic from pesky stuff like ads and trackers in the background. As the name suggests, Pi-hole was initially designed to run on a Raspberry Pi. But if you already have a Linux server on your network, you can deploy a Pi-hole container on it instead. That's what I did when I replaced a QNAP NAS appliance with a ThinkPad T410 running Linux Mint. But instead of Docker, I chose to use Podman. Deploying Pi-hole on Linux Mint (and by extension, on any Ubuntu-based Linux distribution) requires a few steps, but it's not beyond the wit of man. Continue reading

Permanent link to “Run Pi-hole as a container with Podman”
A weekend in...

Remember roaming charges? Neither do I. So I wasn't particularly thrilled, when a couple of hours into our weekend trip to Zürich, I hit the roaming ceiling (€60 wasted), and my carrier conveniently disabled mobile data. That caught me completely unprepared, and I would have been royally screwed if it weren't for Organic Maps. Actually, I had the app installed on my Android device for quite a while, but the force of habit kept me using Google Maps. Continue reading

Permanent link to “A weekend in Zurich with Organic Maps”
Permanent link to “LibreSpeed: Open-source speed test tool”
Permanent link to “New year, new blog, new keyboard”