A little video segment nabbed during today’s commute. Shot on my old iPhone 4s and cleaned up in After Effects.
Tag: photos
Viewpoint at the Edge of the World
It looks like it has meaning and quality till you look closer.
Adding New Things
One of my favorite activities is to go back and see what I can add to old photos. Sometimes to try to make them work better, others just for the sake of the action of adding something. This definitely falls into the later category.
I also spend a lot of time toying around an experimenting with ideas. 99% of These never get finished and remain hidden little bits of practice. They’re one of my favorite things though. It’s a good mental reset to space out and see what your hands can make. 
The best part of Valentines Day
The best part of Valentines Day is after Valentines Day I can finally buy Cadbury Eggs. Valentines Day candy is okay as well I guess, but really it’s just fun to look at because of the bright colors. That being said, let’s look at some brightly colored Valentines Day candy!
These were all shot with lens extenders on an 18-135mm. Below is the end of the lens without the extenders! Also, all these were shot on the back of my toilet. As always.
The Campthing
Here are a few more from camping. (Click the images to see them larger) This was right as we were leaving. I got my camera set up right as we were about to leave to do a quick time-lapse of our camping spot. About three pictures into that, this thing appeared. I stopped the water from moving to focus the attention on the mirrored thing.
Soon as a few of the wide shots snapped the glow above the object disappeared. A couple of minutes after it disappeared I got closer to get a few close-up shots. This is about as close to a selfie I’ll ever take. You can see my shadow in the reflection of the mirrored thing.
In this one I was managed to catch the final camp chair and bags to be put away and the other two campers. After this, last time-lapse we took one of the last loads of stuff up to the car. By the time we got back from the car, the object was gone.
More experiments with reflections, AE, and C4d.
Super Cereal
A short time back I got to spend a night with my dream. Lens. It was a quite unexpected engagement, but that made it all the more exciting. Even though it will be quite awhile before you’re in my arms again, I’ll always love you, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 macro lens. We met while working on a job. The job ended up running quite late so it was asked if the lens could just spend the night at my house, then I could run it back to its rental house in the morning.
We got back to my place around 10:30. Having so little time to plan our night I was left with only what was at hand. So, like any other normal person would, I set up lights in the bathroom and hit the cupboards!
Naturally, the back of the toilet is the easiest place to set up and shoot object photos. The bathroom is nice and bright and easy to bounce lots of light. The first thing I saw in the cupboards were all the various cereals that had somehow amassed there. I don’t know how it got there, but it was exactly what I was looking for.
Familiar enough that just about anyone can recognize it at a glance.
But strange enough close up to look alien.
Though other times, they look exactly like we expect them too.
Which is still weird looking.
Well, it was the start of a good night, but the rest will have to wait. One thing I know for sure though, the next time 100mm macro comes over, I’m going to ask if ring flash can come too.
Where Wine Goes to Age
Last week I was shooting working on some interviews for a winery. When we were done, I had a chance to pull out my camera for a couple minutes.
The room containing all the wine aging in various barrels looked to be near the size of a football field. Through much of the room, the barrels were stacked almost to the ceiling.
The barrels all had stains that told of all the times that they’ve been tasted, sampled, and changed.
Toilet Playtime
Sometimes it’s good to switch things up a little. So today I wanted to see what I could shoot on the back of the toilet. So here is todays toilet toilet play time.
This fellow has been living on the back of the toilet longer than I’ve lived here. After so long, it only seems natural that it would be here to introduce it’s tank.
Everything was shot all in one spot, most everything involved is a vase of water, some tea bags, and some chia seeds. And this is the result.
Camera, Tripod, Intervalometer, and lit with the bathroom heat lamp. Post was in Bridge, After Effects, and Photoshop.
Nothing like making the most of a little!
Dinorama Retouched
This is a really old photo from college that I just fiddled with the post on a little bit. This was part of a project that I had a lot of fun with, and still is one of my favorite photos that I’ve take. Though I think thats more for the everything that was involved with taking it than the photo itself.
The clouds were one of my favorite parts. I made them with my dad by lighting a bit of newspaper on fire, waving it about to make smoke, then quickly snapping the photo.
I don’t remember exactly how long the whole thing took to build, but judging by the photos of putting it together, it was at least most of a day. This was far from the only miniature I found an excuse to build, but it is one of the only ones that I can still find photos from. </End sentimental post>
This Giant Teddy Drinks Way Too Much
I picked up this giant teddy bear about a week before Christmas for some recently engaged friends. Over the course of living together for that one week I was introduced to one of the wildest and most substance abusive stuffed animals that I’ve ever met.
I always though that just about anything and anyone could be easy to live with at least for a short time so long as you kept an understanding mind and open to new ideas. I now know that this is not the case.
The first couple of days went fine. We did normal friend things. I knew he wasn’t going to be hanging out for too long so I figured we should bond while we had the chance. Right on the bat we found that we liked to watch similar things on the television! Although for slightly different reasons.
Maybe it should have set off some alarms that something was amiss when I noticed how much Bear would drool as we watched this documentaries. I gave him the benefit of the doubt though. I just figured that he was hungry, and it’s only natural that watching animals would tug at his more primal urges.
The third night in Bear suggested that we do away with that television, and just have a fire in the backyard. It’s close to the middle of winter, but a Christmas bonding fire sounded like a fun idea. Nothing like being in the freezing cold and huddling near something warm(The fire, NOT bear).
This was the first time that I drank with Bear. This was also the last time that I drank with Bear. It was not however, the last time that I saw Bear drunk. It started off with good fun. We shared stories, found that we had been at some of the same parties, and we’re really having a great time. He had offered interesting commentary and had a funny introspective view on the stories that I told. The ones that he told we’re both funny and managed to be touching at the same time. I really felt like we we’re bonding. For a short while I was doubting the decision to give Bear away at Christmas.
Then things started to wind down for the night. For me.
Once the clock chimed 12 I figured it was about time to head to bed. (I had work in the morning) Soon as I proposed this to Bear, he told me to point the camera at him and started chugging liquor. At which point I, for the first time, met a different Bear then the one that I had gotten to know over the past couple of days. Suddenly he had wild eyes and was drinking like it was his lifeline. At this point I was trying to talk him down. I should have known better.
I was able to make apologies to the neighbors and drag Bear back to our house. Once I got him home, he was yammering about how he knew a guy who could get some stuff. Not wanting to be a part of it and needing to sleep before work, I set him down on the couch and went to bed. About twenty minutes later I heard the front door slam. Figuring that Bear could make his own bad decisions, I rolled over and went to sleep.
About 3AM I woke up to this picture text from an unknown number.
When I woke up, Bear was nowhere to be found. By the time I was off work, I was a little worried. I hadn’t heard anything from Bear. All I had heard since setting him on the couch was the picture of him maybe getting arrested. When I got home my worry instantly evaporated.
I tried to talk to Bear about what had happened the night before, but he just brushed me off and asked me to get him another beer from the fridge. This pretty much defined the rest of our relationship.
The holidays were rather hectic at work for me as I was having almost daily review cycles on a fully animated commercial, so I was working a lot of late nights. The next night I didn’t get home until about 10pm. Things would have gone so much better if I had worked an extra 15 minutes. It would have made all the difference. But, I got home at 10 and was greeted by this lovely sight.
The following night when I got home, Bear wasn’t anywhere to be seen. As much as I was growing to appreciate the peace and quiet, this also made me nervous. I didn’t know if I should be worried if Bear was okay, or for myself, that this was the quiet before the storm. As it turned out, you should never worry about Bear. Bear is always fine.
That takes us to the top photo. After getting off work, I went over to my parents for dinner. Then when I got home that’s what I came home to. It was quiet when I get there. Too Quiet. As messy as the bathroom was, what Bear had done in the kitchen was several times worse. Lord only knows what he was eating to make those colors come out.
The next day I thankfully handed Bear off to my dear and loving friends, and never before have I felt such a strong combination of guilt and relief over giving a gift. With my hands washed clean, I went home to begin cleaning and burning things in my home.
Click HERE to see this from Bear’s point of view and to see the few pictures that were just to bad to put up here!
(Yes Bear is based on a roommate I had a couple of years ago.)
