Photowalk #56 March 7th, 2010
March roared in like a lamb this year. Here in Northeast Indiana we were treated to successive days of sunshine and warm temperatures. For us, warm temperatures in March means 40-ish Fahrenheit. For many of my West Coast acquaintances, that’s not a big deal. However after suffering through the coldest winter in recent memory, a bright sunny day with temps in the 40s feels awesome. So awesome in fact, I capitalized on a sunny afternoon to search for signs of spring.
Photowalk #55 February 23rd, 2010
Last Saturday I had the pleasure of visiting the Wright-Patterson Air Museum in Dayton, Ohio. This national museum of the US Air Force sports an impressive display of military and civilian aircraft packed into three giant hangers. Visiting this museum is an all day affair, and we didn’t make it to all of the exhibits. Admission is free, and photography is encouraged. I can’t think of a better place for a photowalk in February. It was very tough choosing 18 pictures from this photowalk, since this site presents many great photo opportunities.
My New Film Project February 21st, 2010
I’ve started work on a new film project I’m calling Beast from Haunted Planet. This feature film project will create a 1950s sci-fi creature feature. It’s a celebration of the age of rockets, ray guns, and robots. It’s very early in this project, so I don’t have much to show yet. There is no trailer, no behind the scenes video, or even a script for that matter. In the past I would have kept this project quiet, and not publicized anything until it was near complete. However I’m taking a different approach this time. I plan to blog, podcast, and post video throughout the production process.
My Timelapse Workflow February 18th, 2010
Over the last few months, I’ve shot a number of timelapses. I have dabbled in timelapse photography over the years, and now have a renewed interested with my Canon DSLR cameras. So I head out into the cold (it being winter here) and fire off exposures until my battery dies (approximately 90 minutes). After having bagged my trophy images, I’m then faced with the age old question of…now what?
Photowalk #54 February 15th, 2010
Yesterday was a sunny, blue bird day in NE Indiana. Even though I have many things on my to-do list that need attention, I just had to get out to shoot some photos. Nearby Roush Lake has a few man-made ponds that are good fishing locations. I’ve seen numerous vehicles parked at a trail head, so I grabbed my Canon 7D and walked the trail to investigate.
Winter Walk February 14th, 2010
Yesterday it dawned on me that I hadn’t shot any video with my Canon 7D yet. I’ve shot a few timelapses and plenty of pictures, but no actual video that I process, edit, and render. We had decent weather here in NE Indiana yesterday, so I headed out into to the woods to shoot some snowy video. I attached a Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 L lens to my 7D body, and placed the camera setup on a monopod for stability. The 7D was set to record video in HD at 23.976 frames per second. I edited the shots in Premiere Pro, and finished in After Effects. I did some color correcting with the Magic Bullet Mojo plugin in After Effects. The music comes from incompetech.com. Read the rest of this entry »
Photowalk #53 February 8th, 2010
People who know me personally understand that I complain a lot about the weather in the Midwest. I find the mostly gray days of winter to be very depressing. I don’t mind cold and snow. I do mind day after day of gray, featureless skies. However the one thing that I dislike the most about the Midwest (the weather) often yields amazing photo opportunities. The snowstorm that hammered the East Coast mostly missed the Midwest, and yesterday’s bright sun warmed the ground enough to cause evening fog. Overnight, though, temperatures dropped below the dew point, thus causing an amazing display of frost to appear by morning.
Sunset and Astro Timelapses February 7th, 2010
The recent snow storm that blasted the east coast did little damage here in NE Indiana. However, once the winds died down, the sky cleared and yesterday presented a good opportunity for a sunset timelapse. This type of timelapse is very challenging because of the wide range of brightness between direct sunlight and dusk. I had read on timescapes.org that sunset timelapses are good candidates for aperture priority, so I dialed my camera to Av and headed out to setup the tripod. My sunset location of choice is the pavilion on the north side of the Salamonie Reservoir dam. This location has a great view of the sky, and serves as a good location for sunset or astro timelapse photography. I set the intravalometer to take pictures every 20 seconds. The aperture was set to f/2.8 and the ISO set to 250. I attached a 24-70mm f/2.8 L lens to my Canon 5D Mark II and set the lens for a wide angle view at 24mm. The resulting timelapse came out as follows: Read the rest of this entry »
Opportunistic Timelapses from NY and NH February 3rd, 2010
Last week I traveled to New Hampshire to spend a long weekend with some old friends. On the way there, I decided to stop at Farmington, near Rochester, in Upstate New York for the night. I had arrived in the mid afternoon, so I took advantage of the decent weather to go on a photowalk. After returning to my motel, there were a few hours of daylight left. So I setup my Canon 7D for a timelapse of the sky. Although there were few clouds at this time, I thought clouds might roll in as the sun set.
Photowalk #52 January 31st, 2010
Yesterday started with a brisk cold morning. Despite the sun shining, it was a very cold day. However there was a graveyard nearby I wanted to check out, so I bundled up and headed out into the arctic tundra. With the recent snowfall, there wasn’t anywhere to park. I found a spot at a nearby trail head and walked the few hundred yards to the cemetery.