Techgasm meets snowboarding

Seriously, where do I sign up?? What do I need to do to get good enough (or rich enough) to play with this kind of tech, in spectacular locations!!

If you’re not using helicopters in your shooting, you’re not trying hard enough!! And check out their site, Brain Farm

Space shuttle time lapse gold

Check this out – an amazing time lapse video of an entire shuttle prep and launch. A stellar effort, and a great approach that would have allowed those involved to stay out of the way!!

The Underwater Project

The Underwater Project by Mark Tipple has to be some of the coolest underwater photography I’ve seen for a while – gonna have to give this a go myself, been a while since I hit the surf and this is as good an excuse as any to get back out there!!

The images are for sale on Mark’s site, and there’s a bunch of download stuff too if you Google him (seems to find an alternate older site?)

Time to get building… again

This looks like a cool idea, and sooooo easy – I’ve been mulling over the various ways I could get better remote control of my camera. Currently I use an Eye-Fi card to do live previews of images, particularly in the studio when the models like to see how the images are turning out.

(Yes, many shooters would shudder at the idea that someone would see their images before post, raw off the camera – it’s a story for another day, but I can summarise by safely saying that the models are not looking at the technical quality of the image, they are looking at themselves!! And usually with an overly critical eye, I might add!!)

I’ve also tried tethering, but I’m not a fan of cables in most situations since it increases the chances of some serious damage to gear if someone trips!!

So I was pleased to discover this post talking about using a slightly modified wireless USB transmitter/receiver to eliminate the cable, and still retain tethering control!! GOLD!!!

Check it out if you are interested in all things tech, particularly wireless!! Jamie Carl – Wireless Tethering

Pinhole Camera Calculator

Possibly handy for you pinhole shooters out there, particularly those of you who also build the cameras (23 pinhole cameras to build) – this site has everything you’ll need (mathematically) to set up a pinhole camera!! Check it out, a handy reference to keep… well, handy!!

Just another day at the volcano

Eyjafjallajökull – You might not be able to say it, but you definitely need to watch it!

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull – May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

On a separate tech note, I really need to take a closer look at combining my DIY film dolly with my Canon DSLR, and my timer trigger – just need to rig up some sort of mechanical way to also do the tilt part (since I cannot afford a fancy astronomy star-follower like many awesome time-lapse shooters use)

Head on indeed!

I can hear the cries now – “It’s Photoshop!!”. And you’d be wrong!! Check out the article, all it took was the idea, a helicopter, and a willing owner of a fully restored DC-3D.

Check out the article here for more

Film hurts my head

So I’ve been tinkering with film lately – and I find myself yet again attracted to the complex, the difficult, the troublesome!! My film experience thus far has involved shooting some theatre for various friends, and I’m about to do some short “video clip” style song/theatre numbers that I’m really quite excited about.

I’ve been mulling over ways to shoot music video clips, particularly the different ways I could combine still photography with moving images, and I’ve had some cool ideas I really want to try out (well, I think they’re cool – and of course they’re complex). I’m on delay though, I’m waiting for some equipment to arrive to help me make it happen!!

But in the interim I’ve been mulling over the problems of syncing audio and video – there appears to be 2 main approaches:

• Shoot as a single sequence – no syncing required if you just shoot the whole thing, wholus bolus, in one take!! This is my kind of shooting, lots of technical challenges and much less time in front of the computer editing; or
• Separate audio, and shoot multiple sequences (miming the audio) – this allows editing together the more traditional video clips we are used to and take for granted. It’s easy to do, and generally solves a bunch of problems (but niggles my “get it right in the camera” idealism)

Turns out I’m wrong – there are people out there who have even more complex aspirations than me, and achieve simple brilliance. Case in point – the new Diane Birch video clip for her latest single “Valentino” is definitely going to go viral, simply because the clip is beautifully simple until you check it out behind the scenes….

Seriously, watch the clip first, have a think about how you would solve all the challenges and shoot it, and then watch the BTS version. You won’t regret it!!

Kingfisher goodness with a helping of complex!

Kingfishers – gorgeous tiny little birds, blue and fire orange plumage, super fast moving, and hard to find at the best of times!! So this article and photos are all the more amazing for their sheer awesomeness given the complexity!

Of course, it helps to have a stack of patience, and some tricks to make the process much easier. I’d like to have posted a teaser image, but apparently others who have referred to the images before me got in trouble over copyright (a different discussion for another day in my view!). So, all you get is a link to the article this time!

Shooting fish in a barrel

As a side note, Adrian Groves is clearly an excellent and creative shooter, so kudos to him for a great result!

Ahhh Hasselblad, what are you up to?

Really interesting announcement (leak?) today – Hasselblad seems to have let the H4D-40 out of the bag before it’s official launch! The ‘blad website is updated, and it’s telling us there is a new 40MP ‘blad body with 80mm lens that is the H4D-40 provides the perfect entry point into the Hasselblad world – at only $US 19,995!!

I find this article interesting because it seems to show that even the medium format brands are starting to realise that digital has put photography within reach of far more people than ever before. Of course, statistically that means being able to reach more people with more money – but the gap between the high-end DSLRs and the entry level digital medium formats was huge, until now.

Perhaps I’m reading too much into it, but I do wonder if Hasselblad is also concerned about the uptake of cheap HD video, and the flip side being produced by Red with the rumours surrounding the 24MP Scarlet FF35 that shoots high frame rate video and will allow amazing stills to be lifted (DSMC is the new term, the Digital Still and Motion Camera) – while the FF35 is expected to be closer to $US 30k (for the complete kit), the fact that you can upgrade sensors or other body parts without having to dispose of the whole is a pretty compelling argument for many pro shooters tired of the aggressive upgrade cycle presented by DSLRs.

Check out the Hasselblad site for the full story and a hint at some specs.