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How to Take Perfect Photos When Hiking Solo Using a Mobile Phone

Edward Mjelde — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 19:31:14 +0000

It is possible to take great pictures when hiking solo with a mobile phone without the hassle of using timers. The method is called “Film and Grab”, where video is taken of a moment and then from any portion of the film a single frame can be used as a picture.

NO TIMERS! You heard me!

It’s really simple.

Requirments (2):

iPhone or Andriod Smartphone Device
One of the following applications that can grab video frames

The following applications are just a few of the options that are available on the marketplace that can be used:

Android: AndroVid

AndroVid can be purchased off the Google “Play” application market. The free version will allow you to do all the operations required to select any image as a photo from a video, Pro will gives you additional features.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.androvid

Apple: Video 2 Photo

Video 2 Photo allows you to export one or more high quality photos from your videos on your apple device.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/video-2-photo-extract-still/id487353844?mt=8

How It’s Done

Step One: Set up your Camera

One of the most common methods I use to set up my camera in the back country is to attach my phone to one of my trekking poles using a hair-tie or rubber band. However, you can set your phone up on any improvised set up.

Get innovative to achieve the angle you want, sometimes I’ll lean my phone against a rock, stick, or up in the branches of a tree. Get creative but be careful with your device!

In this picture I rest my camera above me towards the top of the fire tower and place a small amount of weight on the phone to keep it from teetering off. Get creative on how you set up your camera but be careful with your device!

Step Two: Take the Video

Click record and show the world what you do! Remember that you can choose any frame from the video that you are filming, so if you are looking for the perfect picture don’t forget to give your video some variety. You may thank yourself later!

Tips:

-Set the screen brightness on low to help conserve battery

-Check the cameras resolution settings, the higher the resolution the more space the video will take up. Make sure you have enough space available for the video before you go live your moment.

Step Three: Use the Application

Follow your applications directions for grabbing a photo from the video. The following example is for Android devices using AndroVid.

1. Go to the device’s gallery and find the video taken.

2. Click the video and the phone will prompt about the different applications that you can choose to open it. Choose AndroVid.

3.In AndroVid, on the top tool bar, click the camera image that says “Grab”.

4. Search the video for the desired frame for the picture. Click the camera icon on the top right to grab the image.

5. Save the image, directly upload it, or open up the new image in a different program for further processing.

Tips:

-If battery conservation is important while traveling you can choose to select your photos later when the time is more appropriate.

-Low on storage space? After you retrieve the picture from the video you can delete the video to create more available space.

How to Tell if you have a Cold or the Flu

SurvivalMagazine — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 19:12:46 +0000

Cold or Flu Symptoms

Pretty simple little rough guideline to help you tell if you have a cold that you’ll get over soon, or the Flu where you’ll be down for the count for awhile and probably need to see a doctor

Winter Survival Tips

SurvivalMagazine — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:30:58 +0000

Thought I would share some of my fav Winter Survival Tips & Tricks

Winter is one of the harshest seasons of all, but yet it’s on of my favorites! If properly prepared it can be one of the most beautiful, peaceful and enjoyable.

So get out there and enjoy, just be safe & PREPARED

Eat a large dinner before you go to bed. The human body is essentially a furnace, and digesting calories generates heat, carbs are the best
Stay warmer longer by elevating your internal body core temps, get out and go for a quick brisk hike before hitting the sack
Wear a beanie to bed, while science has proven that we don’t loose 80% of our body heat through our head like previously thought, it’s more like 7-10%. It’s it’s still a good idea and an easy way to retain some body heat
Bring a Pee Bottle to bed, nobody wants to get out of their warm sleeping bag in the middle of the night and lose heat just to pee. Just Make SURE you have this bottle specially marked or identifiable in the dark, i.e something taped to it.
To keep your water bottles from freezing place them in a wool sock or something insulated, also I like to stash a couple of mine in the foot of my sleeping bag
Another tip to keep your water bottles from freezing is to turn them upside down, water will freeze at the bottom of the bottle first now
If you are melting snow for water, put a small amount of water in the pot first to keep from “scorching” the pot before the snow starts to melt
Absolutely avoid cotton if you can, once it gets wet it’s about useless for retaining heat, infact it will do more harm than good with wicking action
You can’t have enough extra pairs of dry socks. Wool blend is imparitive in the winter, I will often double my socks for warmth and to prevent blisters
Don’t forget the gloves, I usually have several pairs because they are so crucial yet easy to lose. We often take them off for moments of needed dexterity, so try a tether so as not to l
When setting up a camp site, think about wind protection, avoid high ridges
In snow it’s often hard to use stakes to anchor a tent, try filling bags or sacks with snow or rocks and burrying them in the snow
Ground insulation is almost more important than what you have on top of you, the more ground pad and insulation you have the warmer you will be
When setting up a winter campsite pack down any snow as best as you can, and dig down into the snow a couple feet if possible the snow will act as a barrier to wind & help retain heat
Remember the loft in your sleeping bag is what traps air and insulates, so loft/fluff your bag before bet time
One of my fav tips is before you go to bed boil water and fill a nalgene bottle with it. Place it in a sock and in the foot of your sleeping bag, it will keep you warm most of the night as the feet won’t require as much blood and heating
Avoid drinking alcohol,while it may burn going down it does nothing to keep you warm, infact it thins your blood making you colder.
Snow usually contains between 10-40% water by volume, making melting it for water inefficient. Ice if available is a much better option
If you must melt snow for water, put some water in the bottom of the pot or container first to prevent scorching the pot and the snow
If you are intentionally heading out into the wilderness in Winter, then try and bring a insulated thermos of hot soup or drink to keep you warm and your spirits up

If you enjoy learning about & talking Survival & Preparedness be sure to jump on our very active forum full of great tips, info and like minded people Survival Forum

Field Expedient Encryption – Part One

H-Minus — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 23:49:31 +0000

The power has been out for the three months. No one knows what happened. The stores ran out of food after the first week. The water stopped flowing soon after that. Many large towns and cities are becoming uninhabitable. There is no law and no one to call for help. There is talk of terrible atrocities being committed by armed gangs.

You are lucky, your town happens to be remote enough and small enough to manage the chaos. Folks from all walks of life are pulling together to make the best of this difficult time. An ad-hoc committee was elected to represent the town and you have been asked to help with security. Agreements were made to help a local farmer protect and harvest his crops in return for a share of the food.

You have one problem. Although you have a decent security program, you worry about using the handheld radios. A few nights ago, one of the checkpoints could hear some chatter on the same frequency. Your radios are not the expensive ones with “secure” frequencies. You worry that if you can hear others, then others can hear you. Some of the information passed to shifts is sensitive to the security needs of the community. How do you pass on information without risk of interception?

Today, you were discussing the possibility of bad guys listening in on your conversations, when someone mentions cryptography as a solution.

Now the old days in the military started flashing in your head… yes… we had this thing called a CEOI (Communications-Electronics Operating Instructions).

This person claims you can use a variation of the Vernam Cipher. A Vernam Cipher allows for the substitution of a plain text message with a random series of text or numbers from a “One Time Pad”. The resulting encrypted message is secure enough to be sent over the airwaves, without risk of being deciphered by an interceptor. Once it reaches its destination, the intended receiver will use the same “One Time Pad” to “unmix” the message.

A true Vernam Cipher, if used properly is thought to be unbreakable. The reason is because the cipher key constantly changes. This randomness makes it very difficult to decipher.

A poor mans version of this type of cipher can be something simple like a book. Each person intending to receive the secret message uses the book as a tool for decryption. As long as the bad guys don’t know that you are using the book as a tool, you should be secure.

Lets say you wish to send the following message over the radio to a friend:

GET BACK TO THE BUILDING

Using a book as a “One Time Pad” you simply look for each of the words in the book. As you find a word, note the page number, line number and word number in the line.

For simplicity, we will choose words all on the same page. “GET BACK TO THE BUILDING” encrypted will look like this:

11-1-25 / 11-32-8 / 11-1-10 / 11-8-2 / 11-7-7

The first three numbers (11-1-25) indicate the word you are looking for will be on page 11, line 1, and word 25.

You simply conduct this find and replace operation with each sequence of numbers. What you end up with is a message.

“Get back to the building”

Although this type of cipher is not a true Vernam Cipher, it will work as a field expedient method of secure communications. That is unless the bad guys find out what you are using for encryption. To keep them from figuring this out, never mark inside the book or leave any trace of encrypted messages in the book. If any of these clues were left in the book, it wouldn’t take much for the bad guys to figure it out.

The next article will dicuss a slightly more difficult, but secure version of the Vernam Cipher.