Flight Artists

Posted on January 16, 2012 by swansont

High-Speed Animal Flight Videos Show Hidden Aerial World

With good lighting and a little luck, amateur videographers can use inexpensive digital cameras to transform blurred flight into breathtaking glimpses of animal behavior.

In that spirit, a Dutch program called Vilegkunstenaars, or Flight Artists, sent high-speed video tools to amateurs around the world. The challenge: Capture nature in flight.

Over the course of a year, the contest drew 460 amateurs who uploaded more than 2,400 slow-motion video clips shot with their complimentary cameras.

I’m a tad envious of them. The prospect of having a professional-grade camera … (cue Homeresque power-drool)

Oh, It's Right Here!

Posted on December 1, 2011 by swansont

Timelapse: Finding Oregon

I agree that summertime in Oregon can be wonderful. Even on the tight budget of graduate school.

Not sure what’s going on at about 3:10 where one of the meteor-like-lights make a left-hand turn.

I Can't Believe it's not CSI!

Posted on November 29, 2011 by swansont

A New Perspective on Crime Scenes

Moving in the direction of what we see in fictional shows.

In 2009, to better record crime scenes, the New York City Police Department began using the Panoscan, a camera that creates high-resolution, 360-degree panoramic images. Each panorama takes between 3 to 30 minutes to produce, depending on the available light, and is added to a database where detectives can access it. Before the switch to the Panoscan, crime scene images sometimes took days to process. Now, soon after the photos are posted, investigators can point and click over evidence from a scene that they might have missed in the hectic hours after the crime.

Warning: graphic images

Shouldn't this be Stereoscopic?

Posted on November 26, 2011 by swansont

This is a piece created to question whether it was possible to film animation in realtime. Part of my CSM 3rd year disseration project I was looking at proto animation (really early basic animation) in contemporary design.

Finding Nimmo

Posted on November 18, 2011 by swansont

(Yeah, I stole that from Boston Legal)

A 360º panoramic movie shot from a helicopter at/near Nimmo bay in British Columbia, Canada. You can pan the screen like any 360º shot, while the movie is running.

That's a Long Way for a Jaw to Drop

Posted on November 14, 2011 by swansont

JAW DROPPING Space Station time lapse!

Click the HD and watch in full-screen.

Let Me Focus for You

Posted on November 7, 2011 by swansont

What Good Is The Lytro Light-Field Camera?

The fundamental problem for a light-field revolution, though, is that focus is not the limiting factor for most photographers. Fixing focus issues doesn’t add much to a photographer’s tool kit. Light sensitivity, magnification, dynamic range, stabilization, resolution- these are all areas where technological improvements solve immediate hurdles for different genres of photography. Focusing? Not so much.

Um, really? Focusing is not the limiting factor? I think that the author is not looking from the proper perspective. It may not be an issue for a professional photographer or even the accomplished amateur, but the point-and-shoot crowd probably has issue with autofocus grabbing the wrong target, ruining the shot, or the delay from it making you miss it. And this is a product for that crowd.

The included example is quite interesting, allowing you to focus on the fore-, mid- or background, which changes the emphasis of the photo.