So another day out looking for amazing video... Today's venture took me to the west side of Utah Lake. A long stretch of two lane highway with shooting ranges and beautiful views of the mountains all around. I haven't been out there since I use to ride my bullet bike at speeds faster than I should have. The weather was stormy, but not a bit of wind. Perfect conditions to fly the DJI Phantom quadcopter. I flew around for while, trying to capture some the beautiful light that was shooting through the clouds. Got some footage.
It wasn't until the ride back that things got interesting. It was about 7'oclock when I saw something on the road from quite a distance. As I came by and passed it, I realized that this thing was a big tarantula! I flipped my car around and drove back to find this guy hanging out in the middle of the road. I grabbed the camera and went to get up close and personal with him. I realized that this guy was not going to move, despite the danger of staying in the road. I grabbed a stick and helped him along to get out of harms way. Luckily all the cars that passed stayed out of the lane and he safely made it to the other side. I got back in my car and started driving home again. I wasn't another mile later that I saw yet another one! I decided that I wouldn't go back this time and kept going. Another 1/2 mile, and another one and this one was even bigger than the last two. I stopped and got the camera, and the tripod and got right up in this ones face. Wow, what a face. These creatures are amazing. They are so tall when they stand up and get all defensive. So I got some good video of that one and set off again. I saw 3 more on the road. I knew that we had tarantula's here in Utah, but I had no idea where they were, or how many there must be. Scary!
So here is the video. I added some of the flight video as to not scare you too badly. Watch in 1080p if you aren't scared at all.
As always, this was shot with Canon 5D Mark III, Magic Lantern Video Raw (14bit), 24fps, DJI Phantom with GoPro Hero 3 attached to Zenmuse H3-2D, 1080P 48fps and color corrected in Adobe Premiere.
Photo and Video equipment reviews with a little fun thrown in...
Showing posts with label Mountains. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mountains. Show all posts
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Sunday, August 25, 2013
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!
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
Sunday, August 11, 2013
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
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
Monday, August 5, 2013
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)