James Troi's Visual Diary

iPad as a light source for photography. Very cool, but pretty costly.

I think I’ll have a go at creating this one tomorrow. Couple of supplies from Bunnings (hardware store) and I’ll be done. Will use it for my new portfolio theme and for ongoing food photography.

Very cool look at Polaroid. Shows how the whole system works; pretty amazing process.

Pacific Star II

What an adventerous idea. Attach a couple of camera’s to a home-made weather balloon then send it 125,000 feet into the air to the extreme edge of space and snap some awesome photos.

A lot of planning, a lot of luck and some amazing results.

Oh to be geek enough to do things like this.

Jonathan Bergqvist (and his father) created a shoulder rig for his Canon 7D for working the pull focus when videoing.

The focusing while videoing and trying to keep the camera steady is by far the trickiest thing I’ve found when using my 5D MKII for video. I’m sure there must be some new lines of camera lenses in the works that make the motion more fluidic than it currently is.

For now Jonathan’s relatively inexpensive (if you don’t count all his time and that of his father) shoulder rig does the job for him.

Something similar, but manufactured in carbon fibre and a little more sturdy no doubt is the DSL Rig with UNO Grips from Cinevate.

Awesome time lapse by Sean Stiegemeier of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano on May 1st & 2nd.

Taken with a Canon 5DMKII the range of the shots and the fact that he flew into the site show amazing dedication to the project.

If only I can travel to New York to see it.

Amazing process that Canon glass goes through before it becomes a lens. Part 2 and Part 3.

Is this the future of photography?

I wish I could make beautiful art like this, the mastery of depth of field, the stillness of the frame is just brilliant. J. Xavier Velasco’s use of light is inspiring. The story telling is unique.

Shot on a Canon 5D MKII Digital SLR.

I have a friend who is a video editor, he is keen for me to start using the video on my 5D MKII more, I’ve tinkered with a few tourist things. He thinks we can work together to make some great art. Perhaps it is something I should look into more.

This video from the 2010 Photo Shoot-out featuring David Hobby, Zack Arias and Joey L. The telling thing from this video and from previous knowledge about all three photogs is how much the first two share (they both run detailed blogs about their work) and yet how little Joey L shares.

One thing I have always loved about photography is how willing most are with sharing their work. Perhaps Joey L’s approach of not sharing is born from the growing prosumer market.

But one is left to wonder just how he may have come so far without the openness of those before him.

Is this the future of print and photography? Photographer Alexx Hardy recently created moving covers and feature articles for Outside Magazine and Viv Magazine. In this video they show them as they will be displayed on Apple’s new iPad (released early-late April 2010). Check out more at iPad Magic.

Listening to The Candid Frame podcast and David duChemin shares his idea that if you become a photographer as a job you have to ensure you still do personal projects. Think of different ways to shoot.

David shoots outside of his regular gig by shooting with a film camera and challenges himself to do jobs that he’d never do as part of his day-job. He says it keeps his creative juices flowing and ensures he never gets bored. It also allows him “play” time where he can explore different ways of shooting that sometimes make it back into his client work.