My Shirt Pocket
This is as close as this blog will come to a shot of me on a beach.
You all should be glad of this discretion.
My most recent field work involved walking on Haida Gwaii beaches all day long.
Searching for archaeological sites in the form of stone tools, rock walls and clearings in the beach, wooden fish traps, etc.
This was one of the easier beaches, not too slippery and no boulder veneer.
Low tide work usually means early starts and low raking light just after sunrise.
My shirt pocket usually holds a phone in a waterproof case.
The case makes it useless as a phone as it is too hard to make myself heard.
That is OK, because field work is usually off grid, and my phone is really a field computer.
I have designed electronic forms to use on it for data entry with GPS referencing and in-built photo acquisition.
The forms upload automatically to a spreadsheet when I am near a wi-fi connection.
The camera is also used apart from the forms for visual documentation,
(especially panoramas which it does better than my other cameras).
The GPS unit combined with GeoTIFF map files are useful for tracking my location, pinning places of interest,
and leading me to predetermined sampling targets.
The coastal navigation software with charts and tide and current tables can save propellers and lives.
Pretty damned good for one button-down shirt pocket.
I chose the phone because it reads GPS (American) and GLONASS (Russian) satellites for greater positional accuracy.
And because it has an extra micro-SD slot for memory expansion and you can change the batteries (I carry a spare).
It also includes a decent camera.
These are all excellent field features.
Sadly Samsung seems to think style trumps functionality and their newer models lack these extras.
Which means they are no longer substantially different from an iPhone.
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Photo taken with Samsung S4
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burnt embers 
As a veritable Luddite I stand amazed at what you are doing with what I might consider a mere phone. Thanks for the info and the
instruction. A teaching moment for me!
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Thanks Sherry. It sounds more complex than it really is. The apps and related software is all quite friendly and easy to use. Much easier than it was 5 or 10 years ago, not to mention 34 yrs ago when I first got a computer.
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My my, Grandpa E. What long legs you have!
Love the way you use technology for your work. Isn’t it all so amazing?
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Now I am like a Grandpa to you? Sheesh, I go from Mr. to Grandpa without any warning.
In reality have short stubby legs, good for lifting but not for running, and these days not even much good for lifting. I think that is why I like this picture – it is flattering in that regard.
And technology is so amazing. I bet though that people said that about photobooths too, long ago. After all, if they were willing to pay that inventor $1m for the rights nearly a hundred years ago, they must have been amazed. (I have that story right don’t I?)
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Yes you do have that story right! Very well done!
Now, you do realise I was trying to parody, Little Red Riding Hood. And referencing the fact that you are actually a grandpa. And of course it was the wolf in grandma’s clothes, therefore maybe I was suggesting that you are a wolf?
I bet your legs are nowhere near as stubby as you think! But I do understand the concept of legs failing to do what you want them to do! X Kate
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It did occur to me! I considered a toothsome response, but didn’t have the energy to put it together, being near the end of a major deadline. Felt like an overdue term paper from undergraduate years. Not sure why I volunteered for that at all…. And actually my legs are that stubby. Buying trousers can be problematic….
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Imagine all of those useful features in something you carry in your pocket. Eat your heart out, Dick Tracy.
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Hi Yvonne – Dick Tracy never imagined it so good. Millions of people carry these things and never realise their full potential. Which is probably why Samsung is dumbing their phones down now.
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