A recent Newscientist article discussed an app that makes it easier for the blind to take pictures. See the following links for more information.

• A Qualitative Study to Support a Blind Photography Mobile Application by Dustin Adams Lourdes Morales Sri Kurniawan
• The Newscientist article: App helps blind photographers take the perfect snap

The idea is interesting since it simplifies the biggest problem I have with taking photographs namely labeling them for later uploading. The current implementation though does not seem to provide any mechanism for transfering the labels or exporting the image to wordpress or any other platforms.

In addition, what if I do not want to photograph people? Most of my photos are of objects, structures watterbodies etc.

I do not get any experiential feedback on lighting conditions and its impact on my subjects.

My tool of photography is the vOICe which allows me to both frame the subject and to experientially get a feel of how light is falling on a subject and how something will look. For example, I can sense the reflection of light from a stream and capture that. The same applies to trees and other objects. Moreovger, I can look around like anyone else and find objects of interest to photograph.

You may say “what about audio description?” Yes, it does help but lacks the detail required to make a determination of its photographic interest. For example, you can tell me that the trees look very nice and the light is very soft but how do I decide that I want to photograph this set of intertwined branches and leaves from these 2 trees? If I photograph based on your description, then sorry, it is your judgement I am using. Yes, I may have some input but the esthetics are yours. If I have an experiential way of perceiving the scene, then I can decide for myself.

I would like to see a photography helper app with the following features.

• Allow me to tag the images I take and to carry over the tags when I transport the images out of the device which I have used to capture them. I usually rename the files on my camera and or phone such that a description is contained in the file name.
• Allow me to perceive the scene so that I can decide what I want to photograph. This includes detecting the level of light falling on to my subject.
• Help in framing the object of interest and face detection is certainly useful and is welcome.
• Give me a warning about camera orientation.
• Feedback on color would also be a welcome bonus.

App developers, are you listening?