Time Machine » FishEye Studio

Time-lapse Photography Part 1

Tech Tuesday, Time-lapse, Video No Responses »

Mar 162010

This is a late Tech Tuesday post. I have always wanted to try my hand at time-lapse photography. I have seen several videos that I thought were great. Unfortunately my equipment didn’t allow for easy time-lapse set up. I currently shoot a Nikon D70s. The newer Nikon models have the time-lapse (intervalometer) feature built into the firmware.

In order for me to achieve time-lapse I need to purchase external equipment i.e. The Mumford Time Machine. The new equipment wouldn’t even make it seamless. I would have to make modifications to my current camera setup and I wasn’t sure I wanted to go that route.

In July or August of 2008 I met a Pro Photographer from Australia. He was using high end Canon Cameras, but he also had the Canon G9. The G9 had a intervalometer built into the firmware. However shortly after Canon discontinued the G9 and replaced it with the G10. I purchased a G10, from a local store thinking it had a intervalometer. I was wrong, and all the G9′s out there on the used market either were abused or cost more then the G10.

A few weeks ago while researching this project again, I ran across the PocketWizard MultiMax. I already had PocketWizard Plus II that I use for my studio strobes. In the MultiMax the software has an intervalometer. I went to my local photography store to test it out. It worked great. It was expensive, but I at least could justify the purchase, because I knew I would use it with over studio gear, so it would serve dual purposes.

As with all new unfamiliar equipment I need to work out some bugs. However over the weekend I did manage to take a time-lapse of the sunrise in San Francisco, and later that evening I did another of the sunset in the same direction. I marked my tripod and when I returned, I placed it in the exact same spot. However, I did find out you need to babysit it to make sure that the lighting is right. Cameras setting is one of those bugs I will work out as I do more. Making sure the ISO is set right, Aperture an Shutter are set correct. I read that you should put the camera in Aperture Priority. I did that and it didn’t work like I hoped. I will play with the setting and come up with the right recipe.

My next quest is to find inexpensive (free) software that will complies all the images together. I have gone to VersionTracker, but most of the software they offer is for iSight on the Mac’s. I use a Mac, but I need something more then that. A few people have pointed me to QuickTime Pro 7. It isn’t very expensive and may work seamless with iMove. Unfortunately QuickTime Pro 7 doesn’t have a trial.

On a side note, while I was doing time-lapse research, I did find a photographer Nicolesy Photography, that does a two video series on How to Create a Time-lapse. Below is the first video of her two part series. Plus as a bonus I will add another of her videos of a time lapse that she did of a portrait shoot setup and the shoot it’s self.

Stay tuned for next weeks Tech Tuesday. I that series I will explain how I set up my first time-lapse and what I leard from my mistakes. Plus I will include Nicolesy Photography second How to Create a Time-lapse video and a bonus video as well.

If you would like tocomment or add links to your time-lapse photography video, please put them in the comments below.

Download, Backup, Restore, Delete

Blogology, Tech Tuesday No Responses »

Jan 272010

Several months back I posted on my blog Safety First about the importance of backing up your files and data, especially photo files. As you may have gathered I am a photographer. No matter what you may think of my photography it does not really matter. The point is I spend an good amount of personal time behind my lens trying to capture that perfect photo in a moment of time. So I can afford to lose any of my images no matter how bad they are. If I choose to delete them at least I made the choice and not a hardware or software failure doing it for me.

I brought this up because one of my Terabyte HD’s was filling up with all my system backups. I only had 50 gigabytes left on my primary backup HD. So I decided to delete all my backups up to November 1, 2009. It was simple, all I needed to do is find the folder and files under the Backup main folder a delete the folder I wanted.

I moved the no-longer needed folder to the trash. What I didn’t realize is how long it would take to actually empty my system trash once the deleted folders were in the trash. For the record it took just over 5 hours for the entire trash can to be emptied. That just over half a terabyte of free space has now been recovered. I am sure that in my obsession of backing up my system that it will only be a matter of month and I will be deleting a 1/2 terabyte of re-storable files and folders.

If you feel so inclined to read my previous post here is the link Safety First.

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Tech Tuesday No Responses »

Sep 262008

I found my iLife 08, it was right were I left it. Actually it was with the supplemental install dicks. Remember those two grey disks labeled Disk 1 and Disk 2, well that’s where it was. It was confusing at first because when you install and run Disk 1 it shows you Mac OSX Tiger. Tiger is the old OS, which is why I was confused. You have to run Disk 1 first then Disk 2. Disk 2 is where the iLife 08 lives.

As of 10:00 PM Wednesday night, I completed the install of the last program MAC: Microsoft Office 2004. All I have left is to pick and choose some files to migrate back and some plug-ins for web based programs.

I am really glad I did this clean install and erase. When I purchased his MacBook Pro last year in Dec. I thought it was cool and easy to migrate all my user information that was on Magellan’s MacBook to my new computer. What I didn’t know, was this would migrate everything. Programs, plug-ins, files, folders, music, and anything else I didn’t want.

My notebook has a 120 GB HD, when I was done I had 60GB left and the 40GB of photos I have taken since last December took up of the rest of the hard drive. The is why it became very sluggish.

After the clean install of Mac OSX Leopard and only installing the MS Office 2004, Adobe Lightroom, Toast, iLife 08 and one copy of Photoshop, I still have a ton of room. According to the internal HD info I have used 20.3 GB that leaves almost 97 Gig of free clean space. My computer runs faster and the fan doesn’t run as often.

Time Machine works great on my 1 Terabyte external HD. Once Time Machine is set up, I plug the HD in either with the USB or Firewire connection and Time Machine does the rest for me. It backs up my system every hour.

When you initially set up Time Machine it will take longer then usual to back-up your system. However, every time after that It only backs-up the changed data. All other data is left the same unless it had changed.

If you delete something that you didn’t mean to, all you have to do is go back in time on Time Machine and tell it to load from that point. Wow, what a relief that will be, when I delete an entire photo album that I don’t have a copy of. I have done that!

My only issue that remains is trying to hook up the 1 TB hard drive up to the Airport Extreme to back up wireless. I can see the drive and download/upload to it, but the Time Machine program will not work through the Airport Express.

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