This isn’t a tale of heroic feats. It’s about two lives running parallel for a while, with common aspirations and similar dreams.– Ernesto Guevara de la Serna.
Social Networking and gaming gurus! All by our own addmission... RARR!!
So its been long time in the running, planning has over run for weeks (mainly due to watching the Wire, sat on my bum) but now, finally, Jazz has hit the big screen! In “Jazz the untold story…” A sneak peak into the wilder side of Jazz. We’ve watched it a million times and Jazz has given it 5 out of 5 PAWS, she’s an adorable little cat and I want the world to know it. Jazz is amazing!
Oh yes, she’s sooooo cute, yep she is! Jazz is awesome! She’s still got those wild Bangle tiger genes! Sit back and enjoy the show!
Jazz now has her own YouTube Channel “Jizzy Jazz Paws” a bit an ongoing joke between a few of Jazz’s friends! Don’t forget to subscribe and check out Jazz’s Facebook page.
Help Jazz get her paws on free pet insurance, VOTE HERE!
Music by - Hall of the Mountain king – by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (taken from “The Social Network”). Ending – from Family Guy; It’s a Trap.
For the last few days i’ve been obsessed with super slowmo footage. It all started back a week ago when I discovered the video below. This adorable kitty was shot using a PhantomHD Rig – which has a price tag of £60,000 there wasn’t a chance of getting my hands on the proper kit. So I started looking into alternatives.
To which there are a number of ways, for instance using built in Timewrap effects, Frame blending and by using interlaced footage. But top of the list was Twixtor.
This amazing bit of kit allows you to get perfect slowmo shots by adding frames to the footage. Render time is a killer (no exaggeration, hours upon days!) but the results are extremely satisfying.
Owning a Cannon 550D i’m able to shoot 1280×720 in 50fps – Which gives a good base footage to start with. The first lesson I learnt was using the manual settings rather than the auto settings, adjusting shutter speed, ISO and aperture depending on the lighting conditions.
For the videos below I experimented with the following settings; 4.0f – 8f, 400 – 600/1600 ISO and at 1 60th shutter speed. After an hour of experimenting or what I call the shattergun technique – I used so many setting combinations that I can’t recall the exactly settings these shots below.
Using Twixtor I reduced the speed of the source footage to 25% and because the original footage is 50fps – it looks not amazing, but essentially smooth, some blending of frames occurred due to the object moving so fast. However there are examples of reducing 50fps footage down to 2-10% if you use, a slow moving subject, the right lens and have a good amount of light to take advantage of. The rule of thumb being the faster the object is moving in your footage the less you can reduce the speed. Here’s the final result -
Fast spinning and water drop die.
Coffee and Cream.
Conclusions. In retrospect this was only a test, i’ve learnt a lot and there’s a lot i’m going to change and do differently. Mainly;
Getting my hands on a 50mm with an extremely small aperture (1.6f should do it), giving a more crisp and wider depth of field.
Use a slower moving object, it just doesn’t work particularly well the faster you go, increasing the ISO the fast the object is moving may help a little. Currently looking in Jazz’s direction as my new super slowmo subject!
Film outside – this generally gives better overall results then what I did yesterday. The amount of light is extremely important!
Follow the story of the The White house a video production company with grit. Originally set up in 1990, so-ho, London, they’ve gone on to have offices all over America, passing on the art of, narrative, production values and creativity. Truly inspirational.
I wanted to share this video because its generally a fantastic example of a show-reel, as a viewer you become instantly gripped with their story and their values. Its great to think that those 3 young people with a good idea went on to inspire and give opportunities to many more people, passing on their knowledge and skills to other up and coming film makers!
This is their second video. Cats in Tanks, I couldn’t help crying with laughter when i watched this!
Last week, here in the Midlands we experienced a spectacular thunder storm. From where I was in Kidderminster it passed straight over head, lighting up the sky with massive strikes of Forked lightning hitting the ground.
It was truly amazing to watch – grabbing my camera, setting up my tripod and not really knowing what I was doing I attempted to take some photos. But alas it wasn’t to be. Inexperience showed and I missed my chance. This photo was taken in Cornwall and its a good example of how to do it right!
Appreciating that its a rather tricky art, I’ve spent some time research how to take affective shots and in this blog post I wanted to share some of these tips and techniques. So next time when you hear the “CLAP” of thunder you’ll be ready to grab your camera!
What do you need – Kit.
Camera – Digital SLR (I’m using a Cannon 550D)
Tripod – either metal or plastic it doesn’t really matter.
Transparent plastic – bag to cover your camera. I’ve seen this floated around a clear plastic bag if your going to snap your photos outside. You’ll be able to set your camera up and keep it waterproof. Lifting the bag up over the lens when your ready to take your shot.
Waterproof clothing – Again if your planning to photograph outside.
Lenses – Ranging from 28mm to 135mm at minimum. Ideally something like a 18mm x 200mm lens, which will allow you to have both a nice wide angle and also a good zoom. The main advantage being you won’t need to swap lens if your outside during the storm.
What you need – To know.
Location - First thing you will need to consider is your location its always a good idea to frame your shot well and have something interesting also in the shot.
Camera setting
Set the camera to Manual
Set aperture; range F2.8 – F12. General rule F 5.6 will provide a bold and bright exposure in most conditions.
ISO – around 100 – 200.
And set the focus to infinity.
IMPORTANT – Set the shutter speed to bulb mode, this will keep the shutter open until you close to take the photo. On my canon this setting appears after the 30s delay option. Need help? See this article.
Technique
Wait until the storm has passed you by, focus in on a spot where the lightening is striking most often. If outside uncover your camera from any waterproofing and get ready to take your shot.
Lightning photography is nothing more than setting up your equipment at night, setting focus to infinity, selecting the proper film speed and aperture, and then the key bit opening the camera’s shutter. Then wait for the lightning, and when lightning occurs within your camera’s view, close the shutter.
What you need – Other tips
I’ve also read you can leave the shutter open until you capture 3-4 strikes in a single shot. Might be worth giving it a go!
Play with your white balance, if you have either the florescence or cloudy setting, try them out it gives you some great affects, bringing out, the red, blues and purples in the reflected light caused by light pollution. Try to avoid using auto, which will give you a rather dull looking photo.
I’d also suggest if the lightening is hitting rather inconsistently use a wider angle to capture more of the sky line increasing your chance of that perfect shot.
The technique and settings described above should also work for taking photos of fireworks.
I hope you enjoyed the read and please leave your comments below be patient and when conditions are right you’ll get the shot. Finally I’d like to credit this article to Conor Quinlan a nature and wildlife photographer, from Arizona. I stumbled across his work whilst reading up on the subject. His YouTube channel was incredibly helpful and worth looking over. This is one of his lightening photo’s which just looks unbelievably stunning!
Haha this just made me laugh and I really really want one for my coffee in the morning. Just imagine how you’d look getting on the morning Train to work, copy of the Metro and “Camera Lens Mug” in-hand! Unbelievably cool in my opinion!
Image from http://en.bentoandco.com
Take from “bentoandco.com” a very cool site with great products exported from the innovative people of Japan! #lovejapan
Its been a rather eventful few days, with storm chasing, redevelopment of the blog and something I’ve been putting off for a while! To explain a few weeks ago my Dad over heard a competition on HEART FM in conjunction with More Than Pet Insurance. The competition is simple show us your pet, they choose a favourite and that pet has the chance to win either £5k or two £1k prizes.
Jazz is a female Bangal, a cross between two snow Bengals – a seal-lynx point and a spotted snow. People say I’m she’s super cute, what do you think?
She was rescued by the RSPCA when when abandoned in a barn with another perigee Siamese. Now adopted, she spends most of her time chasing mice, sleeping and posing for photos! Lovely, cute, cuddly and a little wild, are all words people have used to describe Jazz.
The photos are a collection over the year and can be found on Jazz’s Facebook Page and after scoping out the competition we both have our fingers and paws crossed! So wish us luck!
Your already showing us massive support and the YouTube video has received 125 views in 24hours, which isn’t a bad start at all! Thank you everyone.
Stay tuned over the next couple of days, for more BIG news to come! Also i’ll give you all an update on the redevelopment and the competition.
Website still underdevelopment not much has changed there, I’ve been a little side tracked working on a another project indirectly related to Empire Avenue. To explain the whole story, yesterday I was thinking wouldn’t it be cool if like in World of Warcraft your pet joined you in your online adventure.
Then Jazz being Jazz managed to get herself into a little bit of bother and hurt her eye, so we spent the afternoon at the vets. The idea of Jazz’s Facebook page was born. Jazz is, an awesome little Bangal we adopted from the RSPCA and she’s amazing! She’s always getting into mischief and generally being a silly, fun cat! So much so the world should know! The more people that LIKE the page and answer the poll the more Jazz will level up and gain rewards.
Mainly a bit of fun inspired around Empire Avenue but I enjoy the idea of building communities around something or someone you have a share interest in! In this case, that being Jazz!!
Hope you enjoy the page – photos / videos yet to come!
Website re-design on the cards and currently underway, rock and roll! Throw; Lethal Weapon 2, a Friday night into the mix and you have a party! So you might be asking yourself what’s going on, why is Jinman being annoying and posting more frequently to facebook and Twitter – what’s with the website and even this blog post?
Well it’s all partly due to Empire Avenue (EA) a new social networking tool that gauges your online social activity the more you, blog, tweet and post to your Social Networks, the more wealth you accumulate. On the site you purchase shares in other members who’s value is also based on their own online activity.
In a nut shell the whole point is to shout and scream as much as possible online! Its an extremely nifty and fresh approach to social networking, to me this gaming approach gives a purpose to building an online portfolio. I’m planning to give a further in-depth look when I progress a little further
If your interested in finding out a little more read this article HERE
It dawned on me the other day. Its been years since i’ve put fingers to keys and blogged! So armed with what login information remain in my email account (and hassling @Craig Mason the chap who manages my web hosting. I do that periodically, keeps him sharp)
Anyway there is a meaningful point to this blog post – i’ve started a redesign of the blog and me thinks its time to introduce more functionality! Facebook / Twitter and alike.
Should be fun times, also looking for Techy / Virtual / Game Authors, to build up momentum of contemporary-media.co.uk again!
I had a rewarding moment last Thursday, as I watched students from Stoke Damerel Community College getting a pleasant surprise as they walked into their English lesson. It was the first lesson to introduce to the concepts of Teen Second Life and the literacy project. The lesson got underway with few problems and the excitement around the room was unforgettable. I found the students were keen to explore, socialize and experiment with this new environment. Their feedback was extremely encouraging…! I was surprised at how quickly some of them discovered the different elements on the island.
One really interesting thing that happened was to see one student gathering all of the ‘dragon’ avatars up and telling them to meet at a certain point – which they all did. I think he then said they were going to have a ‘dragon club’ and go around the island together. It’s marvellous to see students investing immediately in their new environment, developing social structure, and discerning and engaging with the inherent concepts of both their island and Teen Second Life itself.
The atmosphere in the room was amazing. They were focused for the whole lesson and were very disappointed when the lesson had ended.
It’s hard to deny the sheer learning potential of Computer Game technologies when you see first hand such high levels of engagement. The key to using Teen Second Life in education is how the technology is used, delivered and understood. The Stoke Damerel students benefitted from all three.
Twofour Learning are really looking forward to the next ten weeks and seeing how this project develops. And so, I think, are the students.
Click here to view the news coverage of the lesson.
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