Tag Archives: video

Oakland tree lights

Downtown Oakland is an interesting combination of old buildings and newer structures. It has some appealing parts and some that are a little less attractive. However, one thing did catch my eye once I had checked in to my hotel. A neighboring building had decorated a tree in its grounds with some great lights. These lights had a rippling effect which looked really great. Video is the only way to give an impression of this so here is a clip to explain what I mean.

Bear Play

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I did something that must have caught Nancy by surprise recently. We were going to take a trip to the zoo to see what was happening since this is a good time of year for the animals to be a bit more active before it gets too cold and they are likely to be kept indoors. The oddity was that I left the cameras at home. We discussed whether this would result in a lot of wildlife in very photogenic situations.

On the whole, I got away with it. There were some shots to be had but it was fun (and a lot easier on the back) to walk around sans gear. However, one resident did perform. One of the polar bears was playing with a ball in the pool which has a glass side to it. A large crowd was having a great time watching this. We were no exception. This was time to grab the phone and get a bit of video. Enjoy a bear enjoying himself!

Underwater Shooting

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Something I have never done before is snorkeling. Having grown up by the sea, I am not sure why this would be but perhaps it is down to the lack of reefs with plenty to see. Snorkeling is very popular on Kauai and I figured I should really try it out. I grabbed a mask and snorkel at a store in Hanalei and headed out to the reef at Tunnels. Having never used a snorkel in anger, I was a little unsure of how I would get on. After a bit of practice breathing while having my face underwater, I started drifting around the reef.

At first there was nothing special to see but suddenly I found myself surrounded by tropical fish. They were everywhere and seemed not terribly perplexed by my presence. It was like being in a documentary except it was right in front of me. Time went by very quickly without me realizing it.

I decided to take along the GoPro with me while I was swimming about. With so much activity in front of you, it is something that you really want to be able to share. The GoPro is a great little device but it is not the perfect solution for underwater filming. Basically, filming underwater is not straightforward and requires good planning and the right equipment. The light is flat and the colors muted. I was chatting with a a pro underwater photographer and we compared notes about what we need for our respective areas.

Having said all of that, I did get some footage so here you go with a sample of what I saw.

Boat Time Lapse

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I mentioned previously that I was out shooting the bridges opening for the returning boats. What I didn’t mention then was that I was primarily looking to shoot a time lapse piece. With the movement of the bridges and the boats progressing along the river, I thought that this might make for an interesting time lapse. It wouldn’t be a lengthy piece but it might be a useful addition to the library for a larger piece about Chicago if I were to do it at some point in the future.

The schedule of the lifts of the bridges is always a bit flexible. How quickly the openings take place, how fast the boats are getting through, how many of them there are and how quickly the crews can move from bridge to bridge. Coming this way, though, they are only at the third bridge so they are usually quite predictable.

I got myself in position, had the camera set up on a mount and the remote timer configured for what I was looking for. I saw the previous bridge open and close so knew it wouldn’t be too long. Sure enough, a short while later, the bells started to ring for the bridge closing. I started my sequence of shots so I would have a run in along with the actual movement of the bridge. Then I waited – and waited – and waited. There were some unfortunate sounds coming from the bridge but nothing was moving. After a while, the bells stopped and people started to cross again.

A crew got to work on the lower level trying to fix whatever was not playing ball. The bridge had opened the previous Wednesday so it wasn’t lack of use that was the issue. My decision was how long would I wait before giving up and going home – an easier option than for the boat crews that were stuck between Columbus and Michigan! Finally they fixed it and the bells started again. I got the sequence restarted and everything then happened as planned. It is a short clip but below is the resulting sequence. Now to find something in which to use it.

Reno Air Races

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This year I made my first trip to the Reno Air Races. I have no clear explanation why I haven’t been before. It has been in my calendar for many years but other things always seemed to conspire to stop me from making the trip. This year, I finally made it. I could almost have never made it. With the accident at last year’s races that killed a number of spectators, there were plenty of questions about whether the event would go ahead. Fortunately it did.

I was covering it for Global Aviation Resource. My article will shortly be published in their monthly digital magazine so, if you want to get the full story (and the better pictures) pop along to www.globalaviationresource.com to buy the magazine. I will not reprint anything here that is in the piece for obvious reasons. However, to tempt you a little, here are some other shots from the event that will hopefully give you a feel for what went on.

It was quite a learning experience for me. Fortunately, I had a number of friends their to give me guidance on what to do, where to go and what to look out for. The bus trips to the pylons were a great experience (if a little odd sometimes when we were shuttled about between heats) but getting so close to the aircraft as they turn was something special.

Planning became a real priority. Each race is relatively short with most being six laps. In that time you have to get all of the shots you want. Tight crops, loose views, pylon in the shot, video, slow shutter speeds and there you have used up your race! Getting into my stride took a little time but I soon got a feel for what I wanted. This does mean there aren’t many opportunities for a second chance so you have to shoot a lot quickly to make sure you get enough to work with.

This does result in shooting a lot of images over the time there. All of these have to be downloaded and checked. I won’t say exactly how many I shot but it was a very large number and culling the crap out was a time consuming business. I am still weeding out some now!

The media relations team at RARA are unbelievably helpful. They have a lot of people covering the event yet handle it all with a friendly approach and they really do make your life genuinely easier – not always the case! I planned out my time at the event to get me to the pylons at some points, in the pits and the flightline at others and the final day was mainly spent in the stands. My friend Paul had traveled up for that day so it was nice to have someone to chat with while watching the racing from the spectators’ viewpoint – even if I did have to leave that for a while to cover part of the ceremonies.

A great experience all round. I hope to be back again next year. In the mean time, please do head over the GAR’s site and pick up a copy of the magazine!

Poplar Grove

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After my visit to the WACO reunion as recounted in a previous post here, I had a lot of pictures of a WACO owned by Steve and Tina Thomas. They own Poplar Grove airport northwest of Chicago. I had been there before and my earlier visit is described here. I decided to print a couple of shots from the sortie and take them up to Steve as a thank you.

I dropped in one Sunday and found Steve in his office. He was pleased with the pictures and took me off for a tour of parts of the field. They own a lovely Beech 18 as well as the WACO and their hangar has a great selection of prints and memorabilia on display so we had a look at that. Then we headed up to the hangar of Sean, another WACO owner. We chatted for a while and watched some Cub flying activity on the grass strip in front of Sean’s hangar.

Steve needed to get back to work so I got my car and ended up back at Sean’s place. We chatted about the usual aviation stuff while he cleaned his aircraft and I watched the flying. The Cub was being flown by Rick Kluver and, when he knew there was a camera nearby, he came by to give me something to shoot. He landed after having finished with his two previous passengers and we chatted for a while.

Rick’s Cub is one of the planes that I shot when we went to Oshkosh for the skiplane flyin and I had met him then. You can see a previous post about that here. Anyway, it didn’t take long before he offered me a ride. It would be churlish to refuse so I hopped in for my first ride in a Cub. I took the camera along of course.

Rick says he gets altitude sickness so likes to keep it low. In a plane like a Cub with the side open, this is a great way to fly. Down amongst the scenery, we got to see some cattle in a river and even some deer that we obviously startled a little. It was a fun little trip and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. There was time for a little video to be shot so the results of that are below. As before, Poplar Grove proved to be a friendly and welcoming environment. I will be back!

WACO Reunion

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I have previously mentioned that I am more interested in getting to events that are slightly more individual than the bigger airshows these days. That also includes when I am trying to get material for the magazine together. One such event was the WACO Reunion in Mount Vernon OH. This was being covered for a piece that I was writing for Global Aviation Resource and will appear in an upcoming edition of the magazine. Consequently, I am not going to preempt the magazine piece here.

Instead, this is more about the time I had while I was there rather than a description of the event and the organization. I had been in contact with Andy Heins, president of the national WACO Club earlier in the year to make sure I could cover the event. Andy told me what I needed to do to be there and then made himself available to tell me all about what was going on. The event is a gathering of club members and their aircraft and is a very social event. There is no flying display. However, the members like to fly their aircraft and that is what they do. The middle of the day is quite quiet but early in the morning and later in the day when the weather is a lot more calm is the time when people get in their planes and fly.

Fortunately, that also included me getting to fly too. My first trip of the day was in a Citabria with Tim Ponds. This was to get some aerial shots of the aircraft parked to illustrate the article. Time was very accommodating and we got some video footage as well as stills of the site. While we were up, Steve Thomas was flying his WACO and we arranged an impromptu shoot. Normally I am not inclined to shoot air to air without a prior brief. However, we kept it simple and straight and level and I was able to grab some good shots. We also flew past the airfield and got a couple of shots with the aircraft parked in the background.

Then I got my first flight in a WACO when Susan Theodorelos took me up in her beautiful model RNF. This is an open cockpit model with the pilot in the rear seat and a two seat space up front for the passengers. I was on my own in this case so had some space to move. A couple of other aircraft joined up for some formations and I was able to grab some shots of them at the same time. Vibration was not too bad but keeping myself isolated from the airframe was tricky so getting good shots was a bit tricky. However, I got some I was pleased with.

One technique thing I learned from these flights was focus activation. I normally focus with the rear button on the camera rather than the shutter button. This is fine in almost all circumstances. However, when you are trying to shoot backwards at an odd angle, this is a lot harder to do and the shutter button becomes the best solution. Swapping the configuration in flight (I hadn’t expected to shoot another aircraft when we first took off) wasn’t practical so some odd contortions were necessary. Now I have added this config setting to my quick menu so I can make the change quickly if the situation should arise again.

Everyone at the flyin was very friendly. Aviation never fails to amaze me with the way in which you can show up somewhere for the first time with nothing but a shared interest and be welcomed so quickly by people you have never met before. The WACO people were a perfect example of this and I can’t thank them enough for their hospitality. I hope to be back again for future reunions. In the mean time, here is a little video that I got while there. Enjoy and don’t forget to buy the magazine when it comes out at www.globalaviationresource.com!

Stormy Clouds Roll In

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With warm weather comes the chance of storms. Many times I have noticed the storm as it hit us and wished I had been down on the lakeshore to see the whole thing run in and get some good lightning shots with the city skyline. This recent occasion I was more aware of the impending deluge and managed to get half of what I was after.

I positioned myself for the storm in good time. Ahead of it, the clouds rolled in and produced some very impressive formations. The Midwest is great for “end of the world” skies some times! Unfortunately, the storm never really got going with the lightning. We got a few bolts but not very many. The rumbling from above was unmistakeable but it didn’t produce the photo shots. I did get one big bolt but it never got dark enough to allow some long exposures so I was always hoping to catch something.

I did leave a second camera running with the video when the clouds rolled in. I have accelerated the speed of the video to show the clouds in a shorter clip that will hopefully be more acceptable.

Some Board of Trade Video

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Over a year ago I shot a job that Midwest were undertaking on the Board of Trade building here in Chicago. The job was spread over three weekends and I was there for the first two. The job involved lifting a lot of steelwork and piping into location at the back of the building where the steelwork was then assembled using the helicopter to move the individual pieces into position.

All of this was a touch trickier since the assembly location was close to the building which is pretty high. Therefore, 300′ of lifting line had to be used which made the job of maneuvering the helicopter to position the loads just that bit harder! The final week involved the cooling towers being put in place but I could not be there for that.

I shot a bunch of stills but also got a fair amount of video which, at the time I did nothing with. While doing some work on my database recently, I realized just how much footage I had and decided to have a shot at editing it down to something a bit more digestible. Here is the result.

Final Overnight Time Lapse

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I mentioned before that I had tried to do an overnight time lapse video. In that post I detailed all of the ways I had screwed up the process. Rather than sulk, I did take all of those lessons to heart and went back for a second attempt. This time, I was a lot more successful. I hadn’t got around to figuring out how to make the tethering work properly but the alternative was acceptable and I had learned the rest of my lessons.

One minor hurdle still existed. Our windows are not at their cleanest at this time of year and shooting through the glass is the only option. We are due to have the cleaners take care of them shortly (although that will probably only guarantee some rain immediately afterwards). In low light and with a wide enough aperture, the dirt smudges are not too much of a problem. I have to make sure the shoot doesn’t include any time with direct light on the window which would make the muck flare up in the shots.

The other minor issue is a function of the double glazing. More intense light can show up the effect of the light bouncing between the glass panes. At night this isn’t a hassle except with the moon which is so bright. For some reason I should be able to figure out but can’t, the center of the window almost totally removes this effect and it gets worse towards the edges. However, the moon is so bright in the scenes it blows out and, since the whole thing animates to a video, the loss of shape in the shots becomes less apparent as the moon zips across the sky.

With all of that said, here is the video itself. It seems to have worked out well. Sadly, the messed up effort seemed to have got some more interesting light sequences from the windows of the building but you can’t have it all. Enjoy!