via Flickr http://flic.kr/p/dzb5KA
Busy Busy People dispersing after the “Parade of Lights” in downtown Fort Worth, Texas.
Triphids !!!
Ready !
Georgie !
“Everyone Loves a Parade”
I am undertaking a new art project. The above images are the first test results. This stems from a visual effects technique known as cloud tank photography. It has been used to stunning results in many movies, like, “Raiders of the lost ark” and “Close Encounters of the third kind”. I was thinking it would be interesting to use this in an art / photography project, and just see what I could get.
This was shot in a really small (10 gal.) tank but I would like to step that up to something more substantial. The “cloudy” look is done with just flour and water, poured in at different places to see what it would do, and then I would adjust based on what I was seeing. I will switch to tempra paint and possibly a few other dyes and inks to see what effect they give in the next run.
Here are a few links to some cloud tank info
Eric Alba VFX Supervisor
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alba/sets/72157627521635089/with/3811117048/
Scott Squires VFX Supervisor
http://effectscorner.blogspot.com/2009/02/cloud-tank-effect.html
and of course FXGuide / FX PHD
http://www.fxphd.com/blog/cloud-tanks/
additionally Digital Juice Stock footage library, Compositors toolkit
http://www.digitaljuice.com/products/product_lines.asp?plid=12
Over the years I have owned many cameras, from my first
Fujica ST605, to Pentax to Nikon to Canon to Nikon.
Back in the days of film I shot with a Nikon F3 mostly and loved it. The switch this time was motivated not by brand loyalty, or of some sense of Canon vs Nikon, or only real Photographers shoot Nikon or any such dogmatic thing. It comes down to feature set and “feel” if you will. After having shot for a few years with digital and upgrading along the way, I discovered a slightly different way that I was using the tools, so when it came time to really and firmly set myself into a camera, I had to make some decisions.So it came down to a few basic things.
Full frame sensor – Depth of field being a big consideration here, and experience with 35mm film and the lenses that go with that type of shooting are a consideration.
To this point I only had cropped sensor cameras.
Megapixels – I don’t want more pixels I want better pixels. Using an 18 – 21 megapixel camera is great and you can get some fantastic results and a lot of detail, however I really don’t want to slog around that much data. If I had a shoot I really needed it on I would probably just rent what I felt I needed. For my everyday shooting I really wanted fewer megapixels around 10 was ideal, my current D700 is 12 so I’ll take it.
Low light performance – High ISO is something we film shooters just love, we never had it so good. It is great that a lot of cameras can shoot basically in the dark, but if its a really noisy image then its not all that useful. So it is fantastic to have a higher ISO performance with almost no noise, I did not have this in my earlier digital cameras.
Bracketing – This as it turns out is a really big one for me. I am a Visual Effects Supervisor and Creative Director professionally so I need to shoot HDR for work projects.
Thats only the half of it, as it turns out I like to shoot HDR. I shoot a ton of HDR for artistic reasons. In my old system I had to have an extra remote and cables to enable the kind of range I get with my current camera.
Time lapse – as you can imagine as a former Physical Effects Coordinator a then a VFX Supe and tinkerer and all that goes into those things, this is of great interest to me, besides it just being plain and simple fun. Again I needed a external remote and cables to do this, it is built in to my current camera.
Feel – This is how it sits in your hands, how it “feels” using the equipment, it is also how everything is laid out, where the buttons are ect. As it turns out my brain is wired a bit more Nikon than Canon, I really liked my Canon gear but after using the D700 for as little as three days I never had to think much about where everything is, it just flowed better. This is paramount in design, if the tool you are using gets in the way of what you are dong, it needs work, while my D700 is not perfect it is much much closer to that goal.
So if you consider all of those factors together, it becomes easier to see why I arrived at the Nikon D700. There are of course other considerations, for instance, I have previous experience with Nikon, and I still had some older, but good and useful lenses.
-Lyn-