Customizing your camera.

This is a tripod.



If tied to the plate attached to the bottom of your camera or to the strap brackets on the sides, you can turn this string into a tripod.





Simply step on the string in a wide stance and then raise up to tighten the string so that you can better steady your shot. This method is best done while leaning on a wall. Doing so gives you three bracing points that will really help to steady your shot if you don't have access to a real tripod. Although this is not new, it is useful and can get you up to 3 extra f-stops on a shot in certain situations.



You need about 15 feet of string for this, I am 6 feet tall so 6ft x 2 + 3ft = 15ft because the string had to be double my height in order to reach the ground and each end of the string be attached to each side of the camera. I allowed the 3 extra feet so I could adjust my stance.




I thought the Targus Grypton tripod was worth buying. I can't say that it wasn't yet, but it amounts to me having screwed it up to where it won't hold up my camera the way it would have if I hadn't immediately tried to customize it.





By pulling off the top pieces of the tripod, I was able to fit a strap on it that I could then attach to my camera bag.





In doing so I cracked one of the points of articulation and rendered the tripod somewhat useless. I figure I'll get around to fixing it eventually. Scratching the inside of it was a meager attempt at adding some friction to the parts. Aside from working as a tripod, these things are almost cheap enough to buy 2 or 3 and use them in several different applications. I've thought about converting one into a multi-use tool using different attachments. A magnifying glass, reading light, alligator clips to name a few.



This button loosens the plate, you twist the piece just below it to either lock or unlock the plate release button.



Finally, the strap for my camera gets in the way often. I looked online and found that some people attach keyrings to each end of their strap and then some clips onto the rings. Here is my solution. This is especially helpful to setup a timelapse more quickly.

Grass Man.

Grass Man. from Josh Rose on Vimeo.

Music: Quantum Robot - Introduction

Timelapse Gear

The upcoming posts have been a long time in the making and I am excited to finally be able to post them. I have been perusing the internet to get an understanding of some of the tricks of the trade that a photographer can use to ensure an efficient shoot. I'll be covering three main topics of photography: Time lapse photography, photography gear tricks, and sensor cleaning.

If anybody watched Planet Earth and didn't feel inspired then.. well.. I mean, did you really watch it?! Planet Earth was amazing! I have had a fascination with time lapse and high speed photography for a long time. Finally, I am able to do time lapse and it seems like it will be quite a while yet before I can do high speed photography since the consumer market doesn't have many options (Casio EXILIM Pro EX-F1).

Only if you don't have an eye for it would you miss that there is a lot of time lapse photography on Planet Earth. The bulk of the time lapse shots have very complex movements. In order to do such complex movements the camera has to move consistently and smooth over a long period of time. To do a semi-circular pan of mushrooms growing the camera probably had to move from one side to the other over a week long period and probably quite a bit longer than that.

I don't yet have the capabilities to do such a shot, but with my Meade Telescope mount (shown below) I can pan across a horizon over a period of about three hours. This setup is particularly good for sunrise and sunset shots. I can also track the sun across the sky vertically if I wish.





Also if you have the Meade 497 controller (shown below) for this setup, you can program it to do more complex shots, such as having it pause for a certain length of time before it starts to pan. I have not delved into the intricacies of this tool yet however. The funny part is that if you want the mount to continually move you have to use a rather analog method.



Making the mounting plate for the telescope head is a bit of a DIY project. The way I attached the camera screw onto the plate was by taking the C-Clip off the screw, taking the screw off the tripod plate, putting the screw in the Telescope Head plate and then replacing the C-Clip.





If you want to see other methods take a look at The Milapse Panning System thread on the Timescapes Forum.

Milapse has a lot of good time lapse videos, tips and tricks on his youtube channel here: Milapse on Youtube

I have a Nikon D50 so I couldn't jump straight into time lapse myself. I had to buy the Pclix intervalometer to give me that capability. Some of the newer cameras have an intervalometer built in such as the Nikon D200.



The Pclix will allow up to 89 seconds between intervals. Then presets are available on 90 - 99 which can be customized if necessary. My camera's IR sensor turns off after fifteen minutes. I think if there is constant power however, the limit is negated.

The Pclix originally came with a nylon strap which I replaced with a clip so that I can clip it on my camera as shown below.



In order to make sure that a signal is received to trip the shutter every time, the people at Pclix recommended I get a fiber optic cable. They were right too, because the IR sensor is in the front of the camera.



The IR LED on the Pclix makes it difficult to set up so that the sensor on the camera recieves the signal every time.



Therefore taping the fiber optic cable to the sensor ensures a shutter trip every time.



Take note that since I have a Nikon D50 the fiber optic cable was the only option. Other cameras may allow the user the ability to plug a cable straight in to trip the shutter. Pclix has several different options on their site.

Musical Ignorance.

In case you are as musical ignorant as I am because you don't like musicals then I should warn you that Mama Mia is a musical. True, it was on broadway for a while, but I only found that out after they started running the trailers. I don't live in New York. I have seen much advertising about Mama Mia and none of it that I've seen blatantly clues the public in to the fact that it is a musical. I did see Pierce Brosnan on The Daily Show and then I finally saw the characters singing in the blatant fashion I desire to see.

I want to see that it is a musical so that I can steer clear of it. It didn't really look that good as a regular movie either, but it seems that I'm not the only one that is musical ignorant. It seems the studios that produce these movies are as well because they ignore the fact that Mama Mia is a musical in their promotions of it. I was getting ready to watch Hellboy 2, and for whatever reason, the promoters thought Hellboy 2 would be a good place to promote MAMA MIA.

During the spot, never once was it blatant in the fact that it was a musical. This is a theater trailer! These are the trailers where studios pull out all the stops and show the movie in it's full light. Or should I say in it's best light? The studios seem to have come to the conclusion that it's bad PR to show that a movie is a musical. To me, it's a form of false advertising. I would be pissed if I were to step into a movie only to find that it was a musical. I would walk out and demand my money back. I predict that since it is now showing in theaters, they'll run trailers that are more blatant. I mean they even showed the Monster in post release trailers of Cloverfield.

Hellboy 2 was pretty good by the way.

All-Natural Chemicals

According to Merriam-Webster Online the term Natural is accounted for in several different ways. One of the ways that it defines it is "occurring in conformity with the ordinary course of nature." Now often when eating, I will come across the words "all-natural" on the label. To me this label has been diluted by some of the most far fetched claims of a product being all-natural that to me it has lost all meaning.

To me, "all-natural" should mean that lemonade is literally squeezed lemons, water, and cane sugar. Artificial sweetener would render such summer beverage unnatural. Preservatives render it unnatural. Of course you can make anything sound unnatural. I watched a clip from Penn and Teller's "Bullshit" where they started a petition at a liberal rally to ban Dihydrogen Monoxide from use. Also more commonly known as Water.

Since we're on the subject, I also want to share the "What's Inside" section on Wired.com and probably in the magazine as well where they explain what the ingredients in a certain product of their choosing are. Check it out some time.

What sparked this thought in my mind was that I saw the label "all-natural" on a bottle of Sobe recently. Sobe takes pride in the use of herbal stimulants, and supplements in their products. On their website it states "The world's best tasting naturally flavored beverages." I didn't know there was a nature flavor. Does it taste like dirt? But the drink I had today had some questionable ingredients in it that don't necessarily scream "all-natural" to me. Sobe Yumberry Pomegranate Elixir is the drink I had and, well, can anyone explain to me how CALCIUM LACTATE and CHROMIUM PICOLINATE are "all-natural" ingredients?

I can't really end this one with a conclusion because I don't feel informed enough to leave a hard line "this is how it is" message. There are usually two sides to a story because parts of each are true and it is a person's perception that distorts the reality. So with that being said I guess I have to end with a question instead. What exactly is required to meet the "all-natural" guidelines? I'm sure it's not as strict as it is to get the "organic" label.

Fence sitting for the win!

Dead Batteries and Waste.

A little bit ago I talked about how I had several items in my junk drawer that were now useless because it's cheaper to buy a new one than to buy the batteries it takes to power some of the items. Since then I've come to a sort of paradigm shift in the way I think, the way I buy, and my attitude toward my possessions. Every time I think about this, I can't help but to recall the movie Fight Club. The main point of the movie is that consumerism has gone out of control. Even though it's in a very guerilla and violent fashion the movie's message is that of resourcefulness. Is your bicycle tire flat? Are your spokes loose? Fix it! Don't buy another bicycle just because it needs a little work.

The trouble with this is that anymore it is cheaper to buy new in many cases. This is why we are some of the most wasteful people in the world. We throw away a LOT of trash. Or at least it is perceived to be trash. There is a place for everything other than in a landfill. Recycle all that you can, have a yard sale, and give away the stuff that doesn't sell. Now I realize that a lot of folks have a problem with clutter in their house.

This is usually due to the fact that many people buy a lot of things they don't really need, and among other things to the fact that they may need only a small portion of, for example, popsicle sticks. Stores often sell them in bulk and that's the only choice when all that's needed is a small portion. Now that may seem like a bad example but it leads me to my point. The first thing you are probably thinking is, why don't you just buy some popsicles and just use them once you have eaten the popsicles.

Well, that would only make too much sense! Think about what you buy and think of ways you can get around having to buy in bulk. I recently needed a piece of plexi-glass and a clock motor for two seperate projects I'm doing. I didn't need to buy a large piece pf plexi-glass and an individually wrapped clock motor. I just bought a clock for $5 and use the motor and the plex-glass from it instead.

And you don't even necessarily need to do that. Call and ask your family if they have any spare parts lying around. Then, not only are you being resourceful, you're also recycling what is to another person only junk parts. And furthermore, you'd brighten someone's day by giving them a phone call. They haven't heard from you in a while anyway, I'm sure they'd be glad to talk to you.

Ponder this for a while.