Experiment with Time Lapse: Canon 1D mkIII; Music: Brian Eno, Ali Click Mix.

HD version on Vimeo

This is a first test for me of doing time lapse with a dSLR, Photoshop, and FCE. There are 2,165 images shot in 5 sec intervals, depicting about 3 hours 8 minutes of elapsed time. Each image receives 2 frames and plays back at 25 fps. It was shot on a Canon 1D mkIII with  16mm lens at f/6.3 @ 1/50 sec.

Anyway, those are the details. Not really the most exciting subject to film–we need more volunteers working on the boats!–but it was a great test and run-through of the techniques, equipment and workflow. I think I should have gone with a 2 second interval and a shorter elapsed time. As it was, the 2165 medium JPEGs filled an 8gb CF card. I could probably go with the smaller camera JPEG (and a the 16 gb card and use the SD card for added storage). The choice of resolution and format are governed by considerations with the amount of image correction and motion control that will be needed in post.

Some key moments: the red air hose discharges (00:19); Steve breaks the ‘fourth wall’ (01:05).

A journey’s journey. Movement and development. Pattern and chaos.

This was filmed while travailing around Europe in the winter of 1989 and summer of 1990. It was shot on Super 8 (that’s right: those are real bits of dust and scratches!) with a cheap, plastic movie camera I got in a thrift store. It’s safe to say a roll of film cost more than the camera, which was called a “Bentley” — a rather fancy name, but it did have a glass lenses. I use this camera as an “ambient journal” – I’d used it when i caught myself transfixed or just absorbing a scene in front of me. In total I think I shot only 4 or 6 rolls of film. I had them transferred to BetaCam (in 1991) and then edited them (in a non-non-linear “editing suite”). I did drop some segments, but restricted myself to maintaining the sequences in the order they were shot. I then set it to P. Gabriel’s incredible score to’ Last Temptation of Christ,’ a book I read while on this trip. The music has been altered a bit and is a medley of several tracks.

As I kept company with this small movie camera that was always stashed in a shoulder bag or pack, I let it develop its own voice based on what I liked shooting with it. In a way, it was kind of like a musical instrument one might carry around like a harmonica or or ukulele. You’d only decided to play theses instruments when the ‘mood’ was right and then only with the type of song that fit its qualities. That is what the “Bentley” was for me on this trip, and that was the only ‘plan’ as to what might come of a final film- no set story or plot – just a relationship to the camera.

After over a year of wondering, I had short just a few rolls of film ($14 a roll after all – and i was a student!). The very first roll was processed before all the others where even shot. In this time, I used to “present” the film to friends on a super 8 projector on a small, low coffee table and shine the image on to a small movie theater stage made out of cloth and cardboard – like a model of a theater. The screen was about twelve inches wide. I’d put on some music and then play back the whole reel while playing with the play control lever–18 fps, then slow motion, back to full speed, then step frames and pauses– much like the first section is in the video here. It was part performance piece!  And actually I had no other way to show people my films.

With the additional rolls shot and developed, I decided to transfer to videotape and edit together a finished piece. There wouldn’t be any more ‘live performances’ for a huddled group of friends around a model theater; nor would there be the intimate ambiance dark room and the ticking projector smelling of burning dust and most of all the wonderful illumination of projected film. Quite honestly, the film couldn’t survive too many more trips through the sprockets and gates – though it has added a sought-after patina that endures in the video.

What’s it about?

Well, I didn’t plan it to be about anything other than the those isolated, in-sequence moments that I felt were “Bentley Moments.” That said, I feel that in retrospect there is always an underlying thread to human endeavors be they grand or casual–a subconsciousness. And since there was a certain deliberateness to the process, if not to the story, I felt a unknown theme might emerge. I feel several did and have been pleased by the conversations that occur after people have seen the film, and ask to see it again.

For me the film shows a journey or progression – progressions of patterns; simplicity to complex; nature to man-made; of the individual to the public. I did add one element to the film in editing: color. The blueish cast at the beginning gives way to a warm tone. The blue, which is not unlike the cool tint of the actual film stock, was added to back up the winter, and the cold alpine valleys at the start, while the sepia echos the heat radiated from the stones of the Italian cities.

Some Photos from the time or view on Flickr:

Shot on the Canon 5D mkII at the Blackhawk Ski Club near Madison.

Last weekend Chris and I spent the afternoon photographing a regional youth ski jumping meet here in Madison (Middleton actually). Wasn’t for a job–a friend of mine is on ski patrol at this area and let us know about it.  It was quite exiting, and we made some nice contacts so maybe something more will come of it.

It was very impressive to watch (and hear, as there is an astonishing rush of air as they fly by). Both men and women competed form teens down to grade schoolers. One 11 year old even ‘flies’ from the 60 meter jump, though most of the smaller kids stick to the 30m or 15m. Apparently, Wisconsin and Minnesota are a bit of a hot bed for the sport. Turns out it’s safer than snowboarding.

We also met and talked to Karla Keck (photo),  who is leading the charge to get women’s ski jumping reinstated in the Olympics (NYT article), as its been drop from the Vancouver games.

Anyway, it was a real challenge to shoot–try charging up a very steep ski hill and then trying to hold a heavy camera steady–, but a lot of fun too. Thought you might like to see the photos.

More images in the Archive

USSR embassy in East Berlin, 1990

Russian embassy in Berlin, 1995

I took these two photos of the Soviet/Russian embassy in Berlin five years part. The first, featuring the head of Lenin, was in the summer or 1990. The embassy is located on the famous Unter den Linden boulevard in, at the time, East Berlin. Five years later in 1995 I found myself again in Berlin and spent a few days wondering around. The city was now just “Berlin,” no east or west. Indeed, it was difficult sometimes to tell by sight if one was in the “former east” on not. Much of the spectacular new architecture and renovations that Berlin is now known for were just starting to take shape in a jungle of scaffolding and forest of cranes. Change was in the air. By this time not only did the GDR not exist but the USSR had begun to divide up into its constituent parts. As I walked down the embassy lined, linden tree covered Unter den Linden again, I was curious what would become of the Soviet embassy, obviously a change of flags, but to what – Russia? The Commonwealth of Independent States? And surely the Lenin head must be gone.

Thanks to the wrought iron fence in front of the building I was able to take my second photo from almost the exact same potion as before. But know my only question was “Is Lenin’s head under the box? Just in case??” Next time I’m in Berlin,  I have a mission.

It’s been twenty years this November since the the Berlin Wall ceased to be the barrier between the “East” and the “West.” I was in Berlin, as well as, other parts of  East Germany, Hungary and Yugoslavia that first summer. The East German currency, the Ost Mark was still around but on the verge of being dropped for the West’s Deutche Mark – a looming event that made for a nation wide game of “hot potato” as everyone tried not to get stuck with Ost Marks. What used to be the eastern ‘city limits’ of  West Berlin was now ground zero for the ‘New World Order.’ All the trappings of the Cold War were still there: long segments of the wall, guard houses and watchtowers. But crowds of West Germans, East Germans and tourists took what would have been fatal walks along the Wall, crossing on a whim from the one side to the other though gaping breaches in the 28 year old concrete. In essence, No-man’s Land had turned into public space.

A short video cobbled together from very few clips i managed to shoot with the Canon G9 while racing the “Mac” on Intuition (S2 9.2a). We took second place in the Cruising 2 Div.

Didn’t bother working with FCE, just used iMove which worked quite well once I got the hang of it. Although I’m still relativity new to editing video, I’ve normally used AfterEffects and Final Cut. I can see how the iMove interface could make editing easier to the casual user it’s marketed to. Hoverer, if you already have a foot (or more) in the more standard way of working, it’s actually a little frustrating at first. I have the same problem with point-and-shoot cameras. When people say “Hey, you’re a photographer, can you take our picture with my camera,” I usually have to ask them how it works.

It’s also curious that iMove has a nice anti-camera-shake filter that is missing from FCE (but returns in FCP). I’m not sure why they’d do that when the price jump to move from FCE to FCP is $800 while iMove is just $79.

More about my experience in the 2009 Race to Mackinac.

Zlahatina is in the foreground

43°1’14.17″ N 16°10’19.9″ E

This is a narrow, fjord-like, cove on the south shore of Vis Island. Near the end of the cove the cliffs don’t quite come together and through this gap is a second, hidden cove! This second cove is like a large pool with small waves lapping up on a steep, pebble shore and a couple little fishing shacks.  A little, wooden row-boat is left anchored to the beach. The terrain in back of the beach runs back a bit then becomes steep and rocky with thickets of small pine trees and yucca plants.

The cliffs in the main cove pictured here plunge into the water quite a ways, making anchoring here a bit tricky. I thinks we paid out 35 meters of chain off the bow while our stern was only in a couple meters. It was necessary to take a stern line ashore and wrap it around whatever knobs of rock we could take advantage of. After lunch we rested and swam around.