8
Jul
Time Lapse Experiment
This is a time lapse experiment that I have been tinkering with for the last month. I wanted to try a new work flow based around raw images instead of JPEG images. Every frame was captured as a raw image and imported in to an Aperture 3 library. From there, I batch processed the images to achieve the desired look and from there, exported the images as uncompressed TIFF images, scaled to a more manageable size. Finally, I exported the intermediate file as an insane bit-rate MP4 file and uploaded it to Vimeo. Read more
3
Jul
72,727,200 pixels of Michigan
Here is a high resolution panoramic view of a beach we visited in Michigan. It isn’t a great photo technically, but it is fun to scroll around so I decided to post it.
72 Megapixel Michigan Beach
3
May
Minneapolis Clouds
I’ve been experimenting with ways to take the best time lapse using the Canon 5d Mark II and I’ve come up with two distinct methods that are worth sharing. The first method involves shooting normal video and speeding it up while the second involves a more traditional approach of shooting frames and combining them to a final video. Each method has its benefits and I’ve tried to summarize them below. Read more
28
Mar
Macro Photography
My 500 GB iMac SATA hard drive died the other day. After replacing it, I wanted to have a little fun before discarding the drive. See the disassembly photos after the jump. Read more
5
Mar
Canon 5D Mark II 24P and 29.97
Good news! It looks like Canon is adding 24P video to the 5d Mark II. Even more exciting, in my opinion, is that the audio auto gain control is being modified so users can disable this feature or manually set the gain. If you’ve ever recorded audio on this camera, you will appreciate this feature. Below is the official announcement. Read more
4
Mar
Minneapolis Moon Time Lapse
This video was shot between 10:30PM and 1:30AM starting on 3/3/2010 from the Minneapolis Grain Exchanging looking east. Shots were taken at 10 second intervals and the final playback speed is 30fps. A Sigma 50mm 1:1.4 was used at about f/2.8 allowing for 1/40th second exposures. The frames were rendered in to a high quality H264 video and uploaded to Vimeo.
3
Jan
Smoke Stacks at Night
I love taking photographs at night in the winter. I don’t the the process as much as the results. The cold dry air yields incredibly sharp results and when it is really cold out, the water vapor form building leaves a thick lingering streak in the sky. The video below was filmed on January 3rd using a Sigma 50mm 1.4 and a Canon 5D Mark II.
As far as the video capture goes, I opted to film a 30 FPS and speed up the video in Premiere. (The other method is to use an intervalometer and combine the photos in post.) This method works great when the source footage is short (less than 10 minutes long) and generally gives smoother results. The only downside is that you generate significantly more footage than you will use and it takes a long time to process in post. All of the source clips in this film are played at 5x to 50x their real time speed.
If you are interested in using the source footage, you may be able to find it on iStockPhoto or you may contact me directly.
1
Dec
Hard Drive In Use Video
Last night I was experimenting with an old laptop hard drive. I used a USB to PATA hard drive adapter to recover old data off of a 2.5 inch 20GB Toshiba hard drive. When I was done, I intended to destroy the drive to prevent recovery. After a few seconds – I had a better idea: Read more