Umbrella Today:

umbrellatoday.com/

I have such mixed emotions about this app. Basically, I'm a bit of a

country girl, and this is a real city folk app.

When country folk check the weather they want to know a LOT about it.

If there are high winds or tornadoes, tell me what wind speed, what

direction, what kind of shifts, how fast is the front moving, how many

miles per hour, how many minutes until it reaches me, what is in the

path, what preparations should be taken to protect valuables (people,

property, plants, animals) that are in the path, etc*. If it is cold I

want to know not just how cold it is in real temperature, but what is

the wind chill, the direction of the winds, how many seconds to

frostbite for exposed skin, visibility, how icy is the ground surface,

etc. When I moved to Michigan, that first summer there was a tornado

outside of Ann Arbor, where I live. I thought I had moved to the place

with the stupidest weatherman on earth, since Fox news kept saying

repeatedly, "Tornado sighted outside of Ann Arbor," but never said

which side of Ann Arbor, had it touched down, how fast was it moving,

or anything useful.

But I've lived in Chicago, too, which is primo city-folk territory. In

Chicago we measured the cold by when the downtown suits became furs,

and all most folk really wanted to know was whether or not they needed

to carry an umbrella or wear a coat. That's it. Other than that, they

were indoors or taking public transit or driving. Seldom did you need

to wait outside very long without shelter.

So, if all folks really want or need for their own daily weather

information needs is:

Umbrella? Yes/No

then, why not simplify things to give them only the information they

really need? There was a small debate about this at #SOLO10 earlier

today. (SOLO10 = Science Online London 2010.) @attilacsordas and @mrgunn were talking about

minimum information standards becoming maximum information standards,

and how high or low the bar is set needs to be defined by the

community the information is serving. Well, the folks at ThoughtBot seem to have already been

thinking along the same lines. Umbrella Today answers that one, very

simple, yes or no question about the weather, and does it via web or

iPhone, and will send you daily alerts via email or SMS (texting).

Take the one thing you really want to know, and make it astonishingly

simple and obvious to find out. Pretty darn obvious, now that someone

else has thought of it, isn't it?

* This is also why I absolutely LOVE the Weather Underground and find

it vastly superior to www.weather.com, but that is a

discussion for another time.

175

People nowadays live several lives in one. One in the real world, on the streets, at tables, in bed. And many online. Smartphones make it easy to travel permanently between these worlds. This permanent travelling between world worries me. It causes traffic accidents. It distracts us. It makes us dismindful, which makes us feel tired. It disconnects us. And maybe the most worrying: it desocializes us (according to research of MIT-professor Sherry Turkle 2012-2017).

With my photography series #CaughtintheApp I am welcoming back people to their first - non virtual - life, reconnecting their souls to their bodies.

I'm using my 35mm lens (Nikon D300s) to give the catching a tinge of prey and predator play. The catching works easy: I choose my 'hot zone', make it my place and I just wait for people to get caught in the app. Most of the pictures were taken from a distance of less than three meters between me and the object.

After taking the picture I thank the people for sharing this moment with me and I ask them what they were using their phone for. Most of them thank me in return for pointing them at this awkward addictive habit and admit that they're just scrolling Whatsapp, Instagram, Tinder or one or another news site. Nothing urgent usually.

The series is still in progress. My goal is to expand my series to 100 pieces (or even more).

All of the pictures were taken in Groningen, the Netherlands. A city with about 220.000 citizens. All of my pictures (also less satisfying) are in this Flickr-album: www.flickr.com/photos/ritzotencate/albums/72157674642373921.

Looking forward to get your feedback!

Just a new experimental photo project. I'm trying to catch people people playing with their smartphone in a social environment.

Iedereen met een smartphone kent het moment dat iemand je wijst op dat je - totaal ongepast - met je telefoon zit, loopt of ligt te spelen. In een vergadering, op straat of zelfs in bed naast je geliefde. Soms levert het slechts irritatie op. Niet zelden leidt het ook regelrecht tot gevaarlijke situaties. Want als je met je aandacht bij je Whatsapp, Nu.nl of Snapchat bent, heb je nou eenmaal minder aandacht voor het verkeer of wat collega’s proberen met je te delen. Met mijn Caught in the App / Betrappt foto’s leg ik mensen in dit soort momenten vast en breng ik ze terug in de wereld waarin ze fysiek met hun benen staan.

Voor mijn serie Caught in the App / Betrappt ga ik op jacht naar mensen die in bijzijn van anderen hun telefoon gebruiken. Ik leg ze vast, vlak na het moment dat ze zich door mij betrapt voelen. Voor mijn serie gebruik ik een portretlens, waardoor er een roofdier- en prooi-achtig spel ontstaat. “Van hoe nabij kan ik een onbekende fotograferen, die in zijn telefoon verzonken is?”

Na het maken van de foto bedank ik de deelnemers voor hun medewerking. Bijna iedereen glimlacht en bedankt mij vervolgens dat ik hem of haar even terug in het hier en nu bracht.

Sta je herkenbaar op deze foto en wil je dat liever niet? Mail of bel me even op ritzotencate@gmail.com / 06 519 10 598. Mijn intentie is mooie foto’s maken en niet iets doen wat mensen niet willen.