I had the misfortune of losing my Canon Powershot s90 while in Kerhonkson, NY.   I was at Soyuzivka Ukrainian Resort on Sunday night, probably in Trembita Lounge, when the camera was lost.  The camera is small and black, with a little metal peg sticking out of the bottom.   If found please email me at Ayaniuk@gmail.com   I am more upset about losing the photos that were on the card, as those cannot be replaced.

Thank you for your Help~

Andrew

Recently I’ve had a few shoots with Chris Clark, a great trials bike rider. Chris puts on an excellent show for the crowd, using a mix of jumps, precision landings and superb balance. Music accompanies his performance to help people get in the mood before the show. Chris is able to preform all the stunts he does using the ramps and equipment he brings in. Here are a few photos from various shows he’s done.

Here are some photos I took on my first day at Walt Disney World using a used Canon 5d purchased the day before.  That night, I got stuck in a storm that crippled my brand new (to me) Canon EOS 5D. It went out for repair to canon and fortunately they were able to fix it, replacing a lot of the parts inside. I guess I should have known better and brought a Op/tec rain cover… Luckily I had brought a Canon G10 point-and-shoot as a back up to use the rest of the trip. I took the  following shots using a Canon 24-70mm 2.8 Lens.

I enjoy making time-lapse videos.  It’s nice to see the things in life that seem to take a long time magically happen before your eyes.  I have experimented with a few of these things, but the world is full of time-lapse worth things:  Flowers blooming, Buildings being built, seasons changing, traffic going by, the list can go on forever.  There are many ways you can do time-lapse photography.  The one I have chosen to write about includes a remote timer.  My method for capturing the images for a video that defies time is a bit time-consuming, but in my opinion well worth it.

Because this is a multi-step lengthy process, I have decided to break it down into a few blog posts.  This post will focus mainly on the equipment used.

I shoot using a Canon 40d, with the Canon BGe2 dual battery Grip (for double battery life) or sometimes the Canon ACK-E2 Ac Power Adapter if an outlet is available.  I have left the camera shooting 1 shot every 30 seconds for about 12 hours while camping (see Timelapse – Camping Blog Post) with the dual battery set up with no problem.  That may vary in colder weather.  The remote of choice for me is the Canon TC80N3 Timer Remote.  This timer allows you to do interval shooting, long exposures, customer self-timer and exposure count.  Couple that with whichever lens suits your needs and you’re ready to start shooting.

When shooting where light will be changing, I trust the camera and put it on Auto White balance.    If the shot is shot all in controlled lighting, i will set the white balance manually so there is no change to the video.    I leave the camera on aperture priority for the most consistent results over long-term shooting.  You may be tempted to shoot RAW, but remember about the volume of images you will be dealing with.  Both card size, hard drive size and time will all be pushed to the limit if set on raw.  I have had excellent results shooting on medium or large quality JPEG.

Experimentation is the only way to find how often you want your camera to snap an image.  My standard time is 30 seconds, but experiment and see what works best for you.  Longer applications may need less shots:  buildings being built, seasons changing, etc.   Faster things, such as flowers blooming may need more frequent shooting.  I have not found a magical number that suits my needs.  Usually i do a bit of math by figuring what frame rate I should use (I guess around 25-30fps, though I have no video training), how long I want to the video , and how long I’m going shooting for.  In there somewhere I would find out how many shots i need  and what the duration would be.  Trust me I’m not a mathmagician.

So if what I’m going to shoot is 1 hour-long (3600 seconds), and i want to have the video be 30 seconds with a frame rate of 30 fps?

Multiply 30 (seconds) x 30 (frames per second)

30 x 30 = 900

I would need to take 900 pictures in that hour.  Divide the total time (3600 seconds) by the number of frames (900)   and you find out how many seconds apart the shots should be.

3600 / 900 = 4

So every 4 seconds my camera should snap a shot.   Again I’m not a math wiz, so this may be off, but it gives me a general idea.  your exposure times will throw this off of course, usually fast shutter speeds wont matter, but longer ones will.

(subject real-time in seconds) / (video length in seconds x frames per second) = interval between shots

I hope this helps set up your next time-lapse.  it will at least give you a frame of reference as to the metrics of the project.  In the next blog post i will show what I do with these photos.

Long exposures are a great way to play with light trails, and “paint” with light. By letting your shutter stay open for a longer period of time, you can use any light emitting device to creatively ad light to your scene. Remember this technique works only if the camera is on a tripod, and some sort of cable release or timer is used to eliminate camera shake.

The blue lines in the photos bellow are made by a small light up Frisbee. Glow sticks and flashing lights on strings create beautiful multi-colored designs. Flashes set off randomly in a field can create the illusion of ghosts (no photoshop was used, its all on one frame in the camera)

Another way of using light creatively is by having the shutter stay open for a longer duration, and moving the CAMERA around instead of the lights, as the photos of the Christmas trees show.

Get creative, Set the camera to 30 seconds, or bulb if you can, and let the lights create the show you hope for. Remember, tripods are your friend.

I had the pleasure of shooting the lovely model Kvita last weekend with my 2004 Jeep Wrangler in the woods of New Jersey.   I shot using a Canon EOS 40D and a Canon 35-350mm Lens.
I lit the shot using a Canon ST-E2 Transmitter & Canon 580 EX II flash with a 1/4 CTO gel to warm the scene and a Honl 1/4 Grid to focus the light. Some shots also had a Canon 580 EX flash as fill on camera.  A small reflector was also used on Kvita to add a bit of highlight.

For information on the Jeep, Please Visit GarageBlog

As avid readers may know, my Jeep is my life. I am constantly working on it, upgrading it or repairing it. Recently I did a time lapse of myself putting on a new front end made by American Expedition Vehicles called the “Highline Kit“. This kit provides more room for larger tires without the need to mess with the suspension. Yet. This was an excellent kit that matched perfectly to every bolt hole already in the truck. Walking around the Jeep, one would think that it came from the factory with that awesome hood and fenders.

The Jeep is a 2004 Jeep Rubicon in Solar Yellow, with 35 inch Goodyear MTR tires, a Jeeperman front bumper, Warn M8000 Winch and lots of extras here and there.

The photos were taken using a Canon 40D with a Tamron 11-18mm Lens, and a Canon TC-80N3 Remote shooting at 1 frame every 30 seconds. Post production was done using Imovie.

My newest time-lapse was taken this past weekend while camping behind the Hudson River Rafting Company in North Creek, New York. I traveled up Saturday evening to do some light camping in preparation for an early day of riding the Hudson’s white water on Sunday. I used a Canon 40D with dual battery grip and and 11-18mm Tamron lens to capture the frames for the time-lapse. The exposures were spaced 45 seconds apart, using the Canon TC-80N3 remote set on aperture priority for approximately 11 hours. Unfortunately a storm came and splashed some water drops on the lens, but you cannot control nature. Luckily the camera was covered my a waterproof housing.

I recently had the pleasure of visiting the newly refurbished Thomas Edison National Historic Park in West Orange, New Jersey. As a child I took the guided tours of the lab, the little that you were able to see at that time, and was amazed at how close to history you can come. Over the past few years the lab has been restored and many areas that had previously been off limits to the public have been opened. Guest may now walk freely among the offices and workshops where Mr. Edison and his employees perfected inventions such as the light bulb, phonograph, Kinetograph, as well as many other inventions that have lead the way to items we use every day without giving any thought about. I highly recommend this piece of American history to everyone, not just photographers or history buffs.