BYU Football opening game... oops, wrong stadium

So I am officially dumb.  I drove to Provo today thinking that the first BYU football game was today.  About half way there I realized that there was not nearly enough traffic on the road and finally checked with Siri.  Turns out that the are opening against Virginia, in Virginia.  Well, I decided to practice shooting the with the DJI Phantom quadcopter anyway.  So here is a short segment of flying around at the empty BYU Stadium on BYU's 2013 opening game.  Hope you enjoy...



So I freaked out a bit when I saw jello (warpy movement) in the video.  When I got home I thought that maybe I had screwed up the props and needed to re-balance them.  Well, after checking the props, turns out that one of the rubber grommets had disconnected, so the video didn't turn out as good as it should have.

Ice Hockey at Seven Peaks Ice Arena

Hi all.  Yesterday I invited myself to a hockey game that my daughter's-boyfriend's-friend plays in. It is a C-league team called the Mudds.  As you can probably tell I am trying to learn about shooting video and want to try and get better at it.  I decided to once again shoot with the 5D Mark III, Magic Lantern Raw (of course) and the Canon 70-200 F2.8 L II lens.  I gotta say, this lens never ceases to amaze.  The stabilization that the lens has makes it really great for video.

So here is what I learned.  Following a puck and keeping everything in focus is hard to do... and I thought football was hard!  I started out really getting up-close and personal with the zoom, mostly keeping everything at F2.8 and ISO 100.  I ended up, near the end of the game, shooting at F8 and ISO 1600 and keeping the zoom to a minimum.  Oh, I also ended up mounting a GoPro Hero 3 above the goal to catch the action.  I shot it at 1080P, 48fps, Spot metering: Off, Protune On.  This is because when I merge the footage of GoPro and the Canon it looks much better to have matching frame rates.  I know that people will tell you that Adobe Premiere can handle different frame rates, and it can, it just ends up skipping frames.  For me, this ends up looking jerky and not good.  The 48fps makes it so I can slow the action down for those really cool instant replay action shots.

I also asked the people running the place if I might be able to fly the quadcopter above a game.  They said "maybe... let me get back to you", so at least it wan't an outright "no".  I think I would have to have FPV googles to pull it off though.  It would be fairly hard to follow the action without seeing what the camera is seeing.

Here is the video.



I also took some stills.  Stills are what this camera is really meant to be able to do.  And it truly does!

 Gooooooooaaaaaaaalllll

Pads, who needs pads. 

 You talking to me?

Nice save

Sundance ski resort... a little piece of heaven

Hi all.  One of the most amazing places here in Utah is Sundance ski resort.  It is about 15 minutes up Provo Canyon. My family try to make it at least a few times a year to see the sites and take in the fall colors. While the leaves haven't changed yet, I could definitely see signs of colors coming.  (photos of last year below)

While they don't have any cool amusement types of rides like Park City, they do have amazing scenery, food, drinks, biking, hiking, and just about anything outdoors that you could want.  They also do weddings, company parties, family get-togethers and everything in between.  They also keep the ski lift running to take people up on top of the mountains!  Some of the hikes that they recommend also start at the top of the mountain.  Even if you are just looking for a little refreshment while traveling in the area, Sundance is great place to stop in for a treat.

I gotta say, I have been kicked out of a lot of places trying to shoot some aerial shots with the quadcopter. Some really stupid places that had no real reason other than just "no".  I was approached by a security guard at Sundance and I thought for sure that this was going to be just another "no" type of place... To my utter surprise, he actually pointed me to a open area that I could use and film to my hearts desire.  He not only said "YES", but helped me out!  Awesome place, awesome staff.  Thank you for your hospitality Sundance!

click for high res version

A little football anyone??? Lone Peak vs. Bountiful and the dynamic camera combo

Bountiful High School vs Lone Peak High School

Hello blogger readers.  Today I did some testing of the Canon 5D Mark III with Magic Lantern software installed shooting a high school football game.  I am going to be shooting a professional lacrosse game in a couple weeks and I wanted to test out the 70-200 F2.8 IS II mixed with high action and fast moving sports.  We all know that this lens and this body are amazing at sports photography... but what about video?  Can this dynamic combo really hold it's own when shooting video?  Well, I think it can, but can I.  Well, after looking at the footage, I need to get a lot better at controlling the focus and don't let people stand in front of me during big plays.  Other than that, I am amazed what this combination can do.  I'll keep trying to learn and get better to be worthy of this camera.

Congrats to the Lone Peak football team, they won 32-14!

As always, watch at 1080p... it's the gear icon, just below the video.

Here are some photos from the game...

Timelapse of clouds... what you don't see with the naked eye

Hi all. I spent some time yesterday taking some up close and personal video of the amazing clouds that are going on here in the Wasatch Front. Luckily, I still had A's lens... the amazing 70-200, mixed with the 3x Zoom factor that Magic Lantern allows for in RAW mode. It turns this lens into a 600mm lens at F2.8. I let it run for quite a while to capture all of the movement and beautiful billowing that is amazing to watch... especially when you then speed it up in post. You could do individual frames like a nighttime timelapse but it is so much easier to change the video frame rate to a slow speed (5fps) and just let the camera capture each fully raw frame. Take a look and tell me what you think.

Wild Buffalo on Antelope Island...how close is too close?

Hey everyone.  Take a look at wild buffalo on Antelope Island up-close-and-personal that I shot on Saturday.  It was an amazing day.  As I pulled across the causeway, the water was as still as a millpond.  No wind at all.  But then 3 minutes later, the wind picked up to about 40 Mph.  Needless to say, I didn't get any aerial shots but I did get some amazing shots of the wildlife. There is one shot where the buffalo walked across the road about 15 feet in front of me.  Didn't need a telephoto lens for that shot!  Enjoy




If you want to see more, check out my Youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/dbrentwatson?feature=watch for reviews, and amazing video.

AVP womens volleyball... fun, sun, sand, what more could you ask for?

As promised, here is the video compilation of yesterday's tournament up in Liberty Park, in Salt Lake City.  AVP knows how to put in all together.  Up close and personal with the fans, it was quite a day of beach volleyball.  Enjoy Kerri Walsh Jennings in full HD quality.  Music by yours truly.  ESPN and CBS Sports Channel were both doing full coverage.  It was also very cool that they let everyone in with great cameras, (including myself).  I saw several people with full amazing camera rigs.  One guy even had a slider on a tripod.  I hope everyone got some great shots!  Here are mine put together in a nice package.



For more videos, subscribe, if you like.
Thanks to A Palmer for the beautiful 70-200 F2.8 II lens that he let me borrow.

AVP womens volleyball semi-finals in SLC

So I saw the news last night about how some local women got to take on Kerri Walsh Jennings.  For those of you who don't know Kerri, she was half of the Misty May and Kerri Walsh Jennings duo from the summer Olympics.  Together they have won gold in 3 Olympics.  So today, I stopped by Liberty Park in SLC to check out a few matches.  Amazing play.

So here are a few shots from the games that were played.

Some beautiful RAW video to follow!

If you like it, share it!

Where to shoot photos in American Fork

There is a little known secret about this amazing hidden park here in American Fork.  Surrounded by trees, you can't really see it from any road, but step inside and you will find one of the most amazing locations for shooting portraits and video.  You have colorful rocks and stairs in the amphitheater, and then flowers and hills that make this place large enough for a huge wedding, and small enough to feel intimately close to nature.  Just up the hill (as you will see in the video) is the American Fork LDS Temple.  Enjoy some amazing flowers video and hidden gems in the park.



Shot with Canon 5D Mark III
Magic Lantern Firmware July 27, 2013 build
Canon 24-70 F2.8 L
ProAm DVC200 8 ft Camera Jib

Music by David Watson

GoPro firmware update (07/29/2013) lowers the bitrate (quality) on Sandisk microSD cards

So if you have had a GoPro Hero 3 Black edition camera, chances are that you have probably had some problems  with it.  Lockups, auto-turn-off-while-recording that were a pain to live with.  So every firmware becomes a fingers crossed experience.  Well, things have gotten better.  But this update, has a little fine print that may effect you in a very negative way, and you wouldn't even know it.  It is listed under feature enhancements..  Here is the exact text from GoPro.

Feature Enhancements:

• Optimizes compatibility with select microSD cards by reducing data stream rate to 35Mb/sec while recording in 4K, 2.7K and Protune™ modes (HERO3: Black Edition only)

Sounds like they are doing you a favor, optimizing and all.  Unfortunately, if you have a Sandisk microSD card (like me), you just got royally screwed (or helped?).  Sounds like they ran some tests and found out that Sandisk micro SD cards aren't up to the task of recording at the bitrates that are really required for 2.7K, 4K, and they fail to mention, 1080P 60fps!

So after installing the firmware update, my Sandisk card records at 29Mbps for 1080P 60fps and 32Mbps for 2.7K.  So, I took a look at video that I shot before the update and sure enough, it was recording at 45Mbps for 1080P 60fps and 50Mbps for 2.7K.  Wow, I mean wow that is drop in bitrate quality by 33%!  

So, if you are like me, you are going to want to upgrade your microSD card if you plan on continuing to shoot and get the quality level that you were expecting.  I upgraded to the SAMSUNG 64GB Pro version that is listed as a "supported" card on GoPro's website.  You can find the list of compatible cards here.  And I am now back in business with the fast bit rates at 50 Mbps.  Scary reports of GoPro frying cards though.  

On a side note, I didn't notice before upgrade so I am thinking that this is also new with this version.  RAW white balance?  Anyone out there know if that was already available in a previous update and I just missed it?  I tried it out and I gotta say that I like it a lot.  

HD Video of flying over Main Street Park City Utah...

Hi all. Over the weekend I headed up to Park City, a high class mountain town here in Utah.  Park City is mostly known for the Sundance Film festival,  It is where all the movies stars come to debut their indie film works or just party with those who do.  It's a beautiful place in winter and in summer.  Here is some of the video, shot with the DJI Phantom Quadcopter and the Canon 5D Mark III, Raw.  Enjoy.


Music by David Watson

This time out I was more nervous flying than I have every been thus far.  The reason I think is because I have been kicked out of many places (i.e. Temple grounds, Football fields, Shopping centers)  and there happen to be a cop just down the street that was blocking traffic while they cleaned up a street festival down the road.  But, to my amazement, no one kicked me out, in fact, there were really just lots of people oooing and awing over the spectacle of the quadcopter.

This thing is a young boys and old men magnet.  I kid you not, if anyone is near, they flock to it like nothing else.  Young boys always ask 2 questions; "Where did you get that?" and "Can I fly it?"  Old men ask; "What is that called?" and "Does it have a camera?"

I have made a lot of friends and contacts by just flying.  It is a lot of fun.  Send me a comment and tell me what you think.

How to shoot the Milky way in a time-lapse, it's harder and easier than you think

Hi everyone.  I searched and search the internet for good information about how to shoot a time lapse of the milky way, surprisingly, I didn't find a whole lot of useful information.  Sure people are willing to share the settings on the camera, but to find the secrets of where to shoot, and how to shoot.

My guide to shooting night time time-lapse 

There are several things that have to come together before you try to go out and shoot.  The first is the phase of the moon.  You need the moon to not be out.  You can check the sunrise and sunset of the moon by your location at this site.

The next thing to check is the weather, check it here.  Make sure you check the cloud cover and the movement of the clouds at least a few hours before you go out somewhere.  You need the sky to be clear and you also need to know how much wind.  The reason for this is not only clouds, but the wind can kick up a lot of dust.  If there is a storm front coming in, chances are pretty good that along with that storm will kick up dust.

Ever here of light pollution?  Most of the time, if you live near any sort of city, you are going to have light pollution.  This is caused by all the lights that we keep on at night that end up reflecting and bouncing all over the place.  To find a place near you that has a dark enough sky, search here.

Ok, now we need to talk about equipment.  You need a camera, preferably a DSLR, with the ability to shoot long exposures.  How long? 10-30 seconds.  Most DSLR cameras can shoot up to 30 second shots in any mode.  You also need a wide angle lens.  The reason for this is because stars move.  If you zoom into a part of the sky, that smaller location will move more than looking at a whole lot of the sky with a wide angle lens.  You need a tripod and it needs to be stable.  The next thing is a intervalometer.  This is a device that will take a series of pictures at a specific interval.  I use Magic Lantern firmware which puts this capability in the camera.

That's it really.  There are lots of other equipment that can be used, but you don't need those things to take a good timelapse.

So I followed the steps above and this is location that I came up with:

It was far enough away to get out of most of the light pollution for my area and away from any traffic and close enough to drive within a couple hours.  The moon rise was 10:00 am so I didn't have to worry about the moon getting in the way, and the weather was mostly clear.  Because this is a timing thing that only happens every once in a while, I was willing to risk having a few scattered clouds.

Setting up

You need to find a location that has some amount of the earth in the shot.  You need this because without reference to something on the ground, it is hard for anyone watching to really see the amount of movement that is going on.  Also, because you are going to be shooting at a large aperture value (i.e. 2.8), you need to make sure that anything that is closer to you (like trees or bushes), isn't so close that you lose focus on the stars because of the depth of field.  Some of the more advanced shooters will increase the F-stop to allow for a larger depth-of-field to allow for this very thing.  You will then have to either increase the ISO, of increase the shutter speed to account for this.

I set the camera up, pointed at the horizon, and manually focus the camera.  Focus can be the most tricky part of setting up.  I usually end up turning on video mode, or live preview, and then pointing the camera at a star that is bright, and then manually adjusting focus so that the star is focused.  You may have to increase the ISO settings to above 3200 in order to really have the camera be able to "see" the stars.  If the stars are not bright enough, then you may have to resort to pointing at a man made light out in the distance to set the focus.

Next thing to setup is you camera settings.  Here are the ranges that you will want to test with:
Camera Manual mode
Lens: Turn off Autofocus
Lens width: 11mm - 24mm  (depends on crop or full frame camera)
ISO: 1600-6400
Shutter speed:  10-30 seconds
Aperture: F2.8 - F5.6
Intervalometer: Every 1-10 seconds (depends on how fast the shutter speed is)

Set the picture style to Faithful
Set the White Balance to 3200 K.  Do not leave it on Auto White Balance.

So take some test shots.  Keep the ISO as low as you can, but capture as much light as you possibly can. Try ISO at 1600, Shutter speed at 25 seconds.  In the camera preview mode, just remember that in really dark environments that the screen will look a lot brighter than the actual photo (or video frame).

Taking the sequence of shots

So now set the Intervalometer to take a picture every (shutter speed) + 1 second.  The length of the video will depend on how many shots you take.  Remember that every frame is only 1/24th or 1/30th of a second in video.  So for a 10 second video, you need 240 shots.  If you are taking 2 shots a minute, you need to shoot roughly 2 hours worth of shots.  This also may depend on the capabilities of your camera, but most should be able to handle it.  If you are using Magic Lantern on a Canon camera, this will work. I have tried using long exposure noise reduction and because it take quite a bit of time to process each frame in camera, I don't recommend it.  You can do better noise reduction in post. 

 
Obviously keeping the camera still is assumed.  If you have a lot of wind, you may want to make sure that you tripod is sufficiently weighted down to resist any movement.

That's it for the shooting part.  In my next blog post I will go over how to process the frames into a video.

 
 

Provo Temple at night - but in the air?

So I went out in search of good video and photos tonight here in Utah County.  It wasn't easy... Lots of wind and dark clouds.  I stopped off and one of the iconic temples here, the Provo LDS Temple.  There were two lovers sitting on the grass, as there always is above the temple.  I must have scared them away because they left as soon as I started flying above them.  I put the GoPro into timelapse mode in order to capture this photo.  It was one of the only photos that stayed still long enough (.3 sec) to look good.  Let me know what you think?

Shot with the DJI Phantom Quadcopter with Zenmuse H3-2D Gimbal
GoPro Hero 3 - Timelapse mode (every 1 sec)
F2.8 at .3 sec

Sunset in American Fork - from the air

Hi everyone, just thought I would share some great shots that I got flying over American Fork tonight at Sunset. I set the GoPro in time-lapse mode just to see what quality shots I could get from the stills from the DJI Phantom quadcopter. Out of the 400 shots it took, I was surprised to see that most were in focus and some were amazing.

Towards Lehi, Utah Aug 6, 2013

Back towards Mt. Timpanogos and American Fork Utah, Aug 6, 2013

Night time time-lapse - the Milky Way over Utah

I got the chance to head out to the west desert to shoot a night time time-lapse a couple of days ago. I gathered a series of sweet and salty treats at 7-eleven and headed out at around 12:30. I knew I had to get away from the metro areas as much as possible and I also checked the weather reports pretty closely to see if I had enough of a window to stay away from as many clouds as possible. It took a bit of driving, getting lost for a bit, and then finally pulling off the main road a mile or so to a perfect spot. I set up the camera and started to get the right angles and focus. Setting focus is not easy to do. I used my Canon 5D Mark III and the 16-35 L II lens. Other than the few clouds that fluttered on by, it was great. Amazing how short 3 hours looks over time. If you watch it in HD, you should be able to spot about 5 satellites going over. There were also several shooting starts but those end up as streaks in usually only 1 frame so they are harder to spot. Enjoy the show!

American Fork Steel Days - Parade and Festivities

Part of the reason that I love living in Utah is that you really can find the small town feel in just about every town across Utah.  American Fork is no different.  Every year there are week long festivities that everyone is invited to join in.  The finale of the week is a parade, where kids chase floats sharing candy, where beauty queens from all over come to wave, and the bands get to march and play.  We have one of the best marching bands in the country and they never disappoint.  Anyway, enjoy the video.

Cascade Springs - Utah Mountains Video Shoot

I spent last Friday shooting the beautiful mountains of Utah.  Traveling up American Fork Canyon, over the Alpine Loop, there are a couple of amazing reservoirs and an amazing mountain spring called Cascade Springs.  If you are ever in the area, you should visit here.  You can also stop by the famous Sundance Ski Resort for some fine dinning any time of year.  Enjoy.

I shot with my Canon 5D Mark III, with Magic Lantern Video RAW.  The dynamic range is amazing!  Should have brought my variable ND filter along to slow some of the water shots but otherwise it was very exciting.