Bad jokes about the name aside, I’ll be ordering an iPad just as soon as they are available:
I’ll probably order the 32gb model with 3G radio. Not 100% sure I’d use the 3G network option but I’d rather have the option…especially since it’s unlocked – which is a big deal by the way. This could also be foreshadowing of the next iPhone device. The fact they even mentioned ‘unlocked’ is huge.
More later…like when real humans actually get their hands on it.
Update: This guy nails it with a great post on the iPad as well as a lot of things on the internet.
It was made with the Photo Collage tool that I wrote about previously….such a fun little tool.
While at dinner, we discussed the next details behind the next 12×12 Vancouver Photo Marathon…stay tuned as once we nail down a few more details, we’ll spill the beans…let’s just say you won’t need a winter coat for the next one.
Thanks to an invitation from LG Canada back in December, I was able to meet and photograph some of the team members of the then proposed team for Canada’s Snowboard Cross (SBX) Olympians.
From left: Maëlle Ricker, Rob Fagan, and Drew Neilson
They still had a number of qualifying events to compete in before the team could be officially set. The full national team was officially announced yesterday and includes Maëlle, Rob and Drew.
Congratulations everyone…can’t wait to watch the races!
Here’s a few more photos from that December morning:
I went downtown today for an impromptu photowalk with some friends and we toured some of the Olympic venues. It’s amazing to see the transformation the city is going through right now…including the incredible amount of sponsorship advertising on display like the Samsung ‘billboard’ above.
Over the holidays, I got to check out a friend’s Go Pro HD which really blew me away since you can put it just about anywhere thanks to its numerous mount options, waterproof housing and wicked wide angle lens. Unfortunately it’s about $300 and I just can’t justify that right now but I still wanted to be able to have some fun with the cameras I already have and attach them to different things to shoot HD and timelapse videos.
So this weekend, I picked up a Delkin Fat Gecko Mini-Mount (Amazon link although I bought mine from London Drugs):
It’s a beefy suction cup mount for attaching your camera to all kinds of things…like your car:
I know what you’re thinking…but this mount is much more robust than the $12 mount I found on ebay (which I overloaded).
I wanted to try it out with some ‘safer’ positions first that I could keep an eye on but after spending some time today with it stuck all over my car, driving at different speeds (including taking it on the highway) I trust it to carry my smaller cameras like the Kodak Zx1 and even my trusty Nikon P6000 pretty much while attached in any position to my car, inside or out. Driving from my home to downtown (about 30 minutes on the highway) over all kinds of turns and bumps resulted in no problems with the mount…it’s solid.
Here’s a video showing some of the different angles I shot during my ‘test drive’ today:
The mount also comes with an extension arm which lets you get out and away from the attach point better so I’ll be trying that next. I also need to dig out my wide angle and fisheye lenses to make the field of view on the Zx1 even wider.
UPDATE: Found my fisheye lens and added the extension arm to the Fat Gecko….the results are pretty awesome:
I stumbled across this sticker and figured it was the perfect addition to my car (along with my FSM badge):
It makes me smile everytime I see it…and judging from the smiles on people following behind me (and pointing), it was a good investment. Now if only I could get my car to make the ‘transformer’ sound via my key fob, it would be perfect.
On the weekend after shooting the 12×12 timelapse video, I was talking with Angela who also owns the Nikon P6000. She wanted to know how I shot the timelapse. I figured it would make a good blog post so here you go…keep in mind this is how I do it and there are many other ways/options to create these kinds of movies. I’ve made a lot of ‘test movies’ that have never seen the light of day as I experimented.
One of the reasons why I bought the P6000 was the fact that it had built in support to shoot time lapse movies. With support for large SD cards and a power adaptor, you should have no problem shooting 1000s of frames. I use a 16gb SD card in mine and can get well over 2000 frames with the settings below. The P6000 is also nice and small and easily put on a mini tripod or clamp to tuck it out of the way to make a good timelapse.
It can do this two different ways, one via the Movie mode (on the dial) and by choosing the ‘Time-Lapse Movie’ function or via the method I’m going to outline here. The benefit of using my method is that you have more control over the end result and each frame will be treated like a still photo.
You’ll need to be in something other than the auto mode…I usually use aperture priority but feel free to experiment with the settings as they can create some interesting results.
First thing you’ll want to do is setup your shot using whatever settings you’d use to capture a good still image. This includes focus, exposure, aperature, shutter, etc. Take a few test shots to make sure it works for you.
Then enter the MENU and under the SHOOTING option, choose CONTINUOUS:
Then choose INTVL TIMER SHOOTING:
Then choose your interval time:
Depending on what you’re hoping to capture, this can vary and you’ll want to experiment. Unfortunately, the P6000 can only do intervals as short as one frame every 30 seconds. I wish this went lower but it’s probably a safety measure to ensure the sensor doesn’t burn out. I almost always choose 30s. You’ll want to think about how long the end resulting video will be. In the case of the 12×12 timelapse (at the end of this post), I planned for about 5 hours of shooting (the length of the event).
You’ll also want to adjust the image quality for your timelapses:
I always set it to FINE (jpeg)…it yields great image quality without excess filesize….as I usually shoot in RAW for stills, make sure you check this before starting or you’ll fill your memory card up faster and also run into issues later when creating the movie.
I usually set the IMAGE SIZE to 1600×1200 which gives me slightly better than HD image sizes that gives me a little room for cropping/letterboxing the image frame for HD later (iMovie 09 handles this without doing anything). As the P6000 doesn’t shoot HD video natively, this is the best way to do it that I’ve found.
Hit the shutter button and get ready to wait for awhile to get a substantial amount of frames. This could be a few hours or all day. Ideally you won’t move the camera at all but if you plan it right, it can add some interesting results to the video.
Once you’ve finished shooting your timelapse, you’ll have to turn the camera off to stop it from shooting anymore or navigate to the menu and change the shooting mode from CONTINUOUS.
Creating the Movie
I’m using a Mac with Quicktime 7 to create my video but there are probably a bunch of different apps to do this on a PC or Linux. If you’re running OSX Snow Leopard, you’ll need to install Quicktime 7 from your Snow Leopard disc as it’s not installed by default (Quicktime 8 is).
Upon launching Quicktime 7, you’ll want to open an IMAGE SEQUENCE:
Point this at the folder of your memory card and choose the first image in the sequence. Quicktime will know to import the rest of the sequence. This can also be fun to do with still images to create a fun movie but that’s a topic for another post.
Another minor shortcoming of the P6000 is that time lapse sequences are limited to 200 images per folder. This means you’ll have to create multiple image sequences (depending on the length of your timelapse) and join them later in your editing software. Repeat this process for each of the folders of images, again depending on how many frames you shot.
You’ll then be prompted to choose a frame rate. Once again, this will require some experimentation depending on what you’ve shot.
Once you’ve selected the frame rate, Quicktime will build a movie from your images. This can take some time and if you used the settings I described, it may not even be very playable on your computer due to the high resolution nature of the sequence. Make sure you save the file as it doesn’t do this by default. If you have multiple sequence folders, repeat this process and name the movies accordingly.
The end result looks something like this once dropped into an editing package (in this case iMovie 09 where I added titles, music and fades):
I exported the resulting video in HD from iMovie and then uploaded it to Flickr which supports short HD movies. I’m also a fan of Vimeo and occasionally use YouTube.
Keep in mind that while I’m using the P6000 in this example, similar functions exist in other cameras and the basic concepts should apply to them all. I recently bought an intravalometer for my DSLR to accomplish the same thing with the added flexibility of other lens options….something which the P6000 is also capable of, albeit more limited.
This past weekend was the showcase exhibition and awards presentation for the 12×12 Photo Marathon that took place last December.
On Friday, the organizing committee hung just over 600 photos at the Vancouver Photo Workshops space. Judging from the feedback from the attendees on Saturday, it was well worth the effort.
The marathon winners:
I setup my Nikon P6000 above the exit in the main studio room and shot this timelapse video of the event in one of the exhibition rooms (there were 7 in total!):
Keep an eye on the marathon website for a more detailed wrapup of the event (and detailed winners list) soon. All the photos taken during the marathon have now been made public on Flickr if you’d like to see all the entries.
Thanks to everyone that came out to see the results of the first Vancouver Photo Marathon…we’ve already started talking about the next one.
Tonight, Chris Heuer and I recorded a brief podcast as part of the lead up to our SXSWi Core Conversation, called “Do cool kids leave when the suits arrive?”. It’s intended to give attendees a little insight into the session we’ll be having on Friday, March 12, 2010.
You can read my original submission (from back in July). Unfortunately, our session won’t be a full panel with all the speakers I had originally proposed, but a few of them are hoping to still come out and be a part of the conversation. If you’re going to be in Austin, we’d love to have you come out at 3:30pm and join us. Have a listen:
Amazon link
