Golf Gigapan

We bought a Gigapan last year with the intention of marketing it to the City for their use (maybe tourism etc) and for golf courses during the slow times of the year when we weren't busy with weddings and portraits.  Unfortunately we never really had the time to use it as we just kept getting busier all the time and when we finally slowed down the one golf course we arranged to demo it on was drowning in rain (ahhh Vancouver Island winters).

Anyway, I finally squeezed in the time to get out and try it on a golf course this week.  I did two Gigapans.  One large one which was 291 photos stitched together to create a 991 megapixel image and a smaller one that I did on the tee of the 16th hole.  

I had some struggles as it was one of those days that was sunny, then cloudy then slightly rainy so my lighting wasn't even, nor my white balance.  It took my computer a very long time to chug out the final images, but in the end for some first efforts they were pretty cool.  I used a small Panasonic point and shoot with 8X zoom.  The Gigapan used up 6 AA batteries in only two Gigapan images.  That is very heavy battery use, so I'll be getting some rechargeable batteries just for its use.  Anyway, it will be interesting to see what we get out of this little machine.  We are booked for weddings all summer so it will be challenging to find the time to market this, but hopefully we can do it.

Here are the sample Gigapans:

OK, this is just funny

I have to admit, this guy beats me pretty bad in the cool camera geeky department.

And to think, all I did was put my tough camera in peanut butter.  Dude's got me beat.

Wedding Photographer gets his Geek On

Over the past couple of years I've seen a lot of bag packing photos (camera bag) and unboxing photos (new cameras) from people on the net and they seem really popular.  I admit to watching them, but also I thought they were kinda nerdy, geeky, and pointless.  So I decided to do my own version.  You see, I can be just as geeky as the next guy. 

Before a wedding I shot in early March I thought that it might be fun to video myself with my LX3 (I have since sold the LX3) packing up for the wedding and talking about my thought process in what I take to a job like that.  I think the video might be interesting to people that are new or are considering getting into wedding or event photography and aren't sure what gear to bring.  It might also be interesting to photographers that are considering moving over from crop sensor cameras to full frame cameras as I talk a little about my transition.  And of course it will be interesting to the gear geek in all of us.  Seasoned pros and cynics will likely find it horrible.

A few warnings:

• I'm not a videographer, and it shows.  I hate editing video and find it excruciating at best.  I can spend an hour in photoshop on a single image, but give me 5 minutes of video and I'm banging my head on my desk.  But I'm learning.  I did manage a nice steady shot for you.  You might have to turn up the sound as it is pretty quiet.  In case you are curious it was edited in iMovie.
• Because of file size limits I've had to divide the original video up into eight sections.  The good news is that you don't have to sit through 30 minutes of me babbling if you dont' like it.  Each one is between 2 and 5 minutes.

Enjoy.  Click on the photo to start the video.  I think it defaults to the high definition version, but above the video you can select a lower resolution video if you have a slower connection.

Part One:


Part Two:


Part Three:


Part Four:


Part Five:


Part Six:


Part Seven:


Part Eight:


I mentioned Flash Zebra in one of these.  In case you were wondering you can find them on the right hand side of the blog in a link.

I'm not Dead

I've been busy, not dead.  Just thought I should say so!  Look for my first bag packing video this weekend (hopefully).  I've always wondered about why people get so into watching videos of photographers packing up their gear for a shoot, and thought I'd do my own.  I hate editing video though so it has taken me a while to get it done.  In the meantime I've been buying and selling gear lately.  Sold my four thirds Sigma 50mm f1.4 lens and bought a Canon 50mm f1.4 lens instead.  Bought a Canon 580EXII flash as well.  I can feel my grip weakening on the Olympus gear as I move into Canon and I regret it somewhat, but with Olympus stubbornly silent on new professional gear how can I blame myself?