Saturday, January 22, 2011

More High-Speed Fun Times

Aside from a little experience with which depth-of-field settings work best with various objects, and things like that, not much has changed. I just wanted to share another few shots from the Camera Axe that I felt were successful.




Orange Crayon
Aperture: f/4
Shutter Speed: 4 seconds (1/50,000th effective)
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 50mm
Tripod






Sad Bulb
Aperture: f/11
Shutter Speed: 5 seconds (1/50,000th effective)
ISO: 400
Focal Length: 100mm
Tripod






Eggsplosion
Aperture: f/8
Shutter Speed: 5 seconds (1/50,000th effective)
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 100mm
Tripod



Anyway, here's to Maurice Ribble.

Monday, January 10, 2011

High Speed Photography with the Camera Axe

Right from the get-go, I have to bump Maurice Ribble, the inventor and creator of the Camera Axe system. He single-handedly designed, acquired parts for, and began distributing this system online. Check out the Camera Axe site for more details. What it is is a controller with a number of sensors and cables that can be attached to it. I personally just got the projectile sensor, which allows you to precisely place a projectile of any kind in your frame. Just hook up the sensor to the Camera Axe, hook up a flash to the Camera Axe as well, align the barrel of your projectile-launcher (I use a pellet gun from Walmart) so the pellet will pass through the sensor, and fire. The Camera Axe receives its information from the sensor and triggers the flash at exactly the right time, freezing your projectile and exposing your picture.

After receiving my Camera Axe in the mail today, I had my electronics-whiz little brother assemble it for me and then experimented with a friend and my brother for a couple of hours. Here's the best of our results from tonight:



Balloon Waves
Aperture: f/8
Shutter Speed: 3.2 seconds (1/50,000th effective)
ISO: 400
Focal Length: 50mm
Tripod





Shooting Ace
Aperture: f/4
Shutter Speed: 4 seconds (1/50,000th effective)
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 50mm
Tripod



Pretty rad. I'm particularly happy with the card shot. Looking forwards to taking pictures of shooting all sorts of stuff in the future.

I know that first part sounded like a commercial. Don't worry, Maurice Ribble isn't paying me. The Camera Axe really just is that awesome. Go buy one.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

My Best Work from 2010

I didn't think I would be doing one of these posts, but I got the idea of assembling a set of my own personal favorite photographs I took during 2010 from another user on Flickr.

At the end of February this year, I will be leaving on a two-year mission for the LDS church to Samara, Russia, and the surrounding area. Before then I will have to sell my beloved DSLR. It will be interesting to see what kind of work I can produce in Russia with my old PowerShot A590 IS on my weekly preparation day. I did some work I was quite happy with using the PowerShot. It's a fantastic and solid little camera.


Without further ado, here is my best work from 2010, presented in slideshow format.

I want to take this opportunity to be cliché and thank everyone who has, at one point or another, read my blog. Here's to a successful couple of months, and then hopefully a successful two years of Russian photography!


2011, here I come.