Tim's Reflection Connection

I love video. I love timelapse. I love tilt-shift. What could be better than putting them all together? Well, watching it in full screen. Check it out.

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At the master class last Saturday, I saw many bright, creative people.  Jeremy Ian Thomas, the creative director at RawWorks, was among them.  He wrote, along with Robert Lehman, and shot this short, micro budget film ($3.00) that has a compelling message and is really well executed.

Vimeo Link and additional info at the RAWworks blog.

Philip Bloom mentioned, in his master class yesterday, a file utility I had not heard of before, one that seems brilliant to me:  ShotPut Pro.  This program will copy your media files from their source (camera card) to up to 3 locations simultaneously.  Brilliant!

I think that always having an untouched copy of your original media files and a working copy of them is always a bright idea.  This practice not only gives you the option of having an emergency backup of your files in case of drive failure or theft, but provides you with some measure of future-proofing your media files for later use—perhaps in projects using CODECs we don't even have today.

I also use BackBlaze to automatically and continuously sync all of my data off site.  The three important parts of that last sentence are:  off site, continuously, and above all:  automatically!  BackBlaze is a steal of a deal at only $50 per machine per year for unlimited storage!  I just do my work using my machines, and BackBlaze is always keeping my offsite backup up to date.

If you were doing professional projects, where setting up the shoot required a significant investment or was time sensitive (can't be easily repeated, for example), using locally redundant copies of the original media and off site backups is essential!

Neil Smith, at hdiRAWworks, arranged for Philip Bloom to conduct a Canon HD-DSLR masterclass yesterday here in LA. This was the first time I've ever attended such a thing, and I rather enjoyed it and learned a lot too. The little tidbits you pick up are also interesting: like why the Canon 5Dmkii will only shoot video for 12 minutes. I always thought it was just a storage capacity issue. No. (We live in such a weird world.)

Philip showed several of his shorts, which, of course, are amazing. I've embedded a few of them here at tt.us from time to time. While they look great on the computer screen, they were stunning on the big screen with the HD projector.

He spoke of many things related to his craft, but I suppose I learned the most from his talk about setup, actually using the DSLR for video. I've never bothered with custom camera settings before but have already imported the superflat settings he recommended and am eager to try the workflow: shooting with the increased dynamic range, though visually initially less "interesting," and then grading the footage in post. It makes sense as I do the equivalent process with still photography all the time. We just can't get raw data out of the 5D. Philip says: "Yet..." (See Luka Crnkovic-Dodig's post: How to increase the Canon 7D/5D dynamic range, which includes this link to the superflat settings file, among others.)

In my own casual exploration through this space, I've ended up with a lot of the same software and equipment, and now have a better understanding of implementation and process for video and timelapse using my 5Dmkii. It's now time to play, play, play!  I'm also eager to explore timelapse.

Aside from being brilliant at what he does, Philip is very personable and has a great sense of humor. He also comes across as completely genuine and open about what he recommends and why. If you ever have the opportunity to attend one of his masterclasses, jump at it! I'm glad I stepped outside of my comfort zone.

Related articles

• Canon Rebel T2i DSLR: 18MP and Legit 1080p Video for $899 [Digital Cameras] (gizmodo.com)


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• Gorgeous (timtyson.us)

The Unhappy Hipsters just slay me!

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Yes, The Oscars are upon us!

Back when I first visited my new dentist (who, incidentally, I really like!), I drove by a building I thought to be a church.  I was surprised to see that it is The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences—the people responsible for The Oscars!  I made a mental note.

Today, with the festivities fast upon us, I drove back out there and took some pictures of the building as well as the Hollywood sign, which is only about 5 miles further.  Three pictures of the Academy lurk behind the one shown below.  Click it to see them all.

The image is cropped; the roof, telephone pole and wires (enlarge to see) are removed; the sky especially (and the image as a whole) has a bit of my 11 different herbs and spices; and the electronics, fence, and road at the top of the hill are all removed.

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I've never been much of a coffee drinker.  I don't like the aftertaste.  However, I love the smell of coffee.  I'll go to Starbucks and order an Earl Grey Tazo Tea just to savor the smell of the coffee while drinking my tea!  I'm crazy, I know.

But, after reading this CNN article, I will no longer give my business to Starbucks.  I don't know if California is one of the 43 states that allow people to tote guns around with them.  But the last thing I want is to be in a Starbucks, which allows their patrons to bring their guns into their stores if state law permits it, with patrons drinking their new 31 ounce coffee!

Now some hair-trigger, gun-toting, chip-on-his-shoulder nitwit with the caffein jitters can pretend he's back in the wild, wild west when he gets in an argument with the barista over the temperature of his grande mocha latte.  No thanks.

If people feel the need to have guns in their homes to protect them, that's their business.  If people feel the need to have guns for the sport of hunting, that's their business.  But I've worked with the public too long to trust most people's spur of the moment judgement.  Put a gun in their hands at the Starbucks?! No, I won't be around to see how this turns out.

Starbucks, you just lost a customer.

Good grief!

[Image via Wikipedia]

Jacob Bijani, Tumblr’s Creative Director, said “I always have to stop and think when setting a border radius in CSS, so I built a tool for it.” And so, Border-Radius.com was born. Easy, intuitive, interactive, practical, and gorgeously designed.

Beautiful!  But I would fall to my death!

Source:  FFFFound

I have finished my income taxes.

In sackcloth and ashes, I wail!

So, let me see...  what did my tax money help purchase?  Well, that money continues to fund wars I believe are immoral.  My taxes allow greedy bankers to get millions in bonuses while their banks all but put the economies of the world in collapse.  Umm... no health care reform.  Stupid, evil senators block continued unemployment benefits, because we can't afford that for the millions who have lost their jobs as a result of reckless, unchecked, capitalists' greed.

CNN reported last week that 86% of Americans, and I'm sure those would be the "real Amurrrricans," think our government is broken.  Who the hell are the 14% that think anything about our government works?!  How long can this continue?

Bloomberg reports today that, astoundingly, Iraq is now opening its doors to BP, Exxon Mobile, and Shell for the first time since 1972, when the country, under the leadership of the now executed Saddam Hussein, nationalized all of its oil fields. Astoundingly, this will open the 3rd largest oil reserves in the world directly to western countries.

And, um... why are we complaining about the bank bailouts? How much money did the citizens of this country spend on (and will continue to spend on) making this happen for the oil corporations? (Not to mention the number of people that were killed!)  If there is a hell, unfettered capitalist greed needs to rot in it.

Very clever time-lapse shot in Tokyo. To see the video in full HD, check out this link. Or you can click below to watch a smaller version from YouTube. To learn more about how the video was shot, go to the Laughing Squid.

With a recent storm having come off the Pacific, coupled with the Chilean 8.8 earthquake and its ensuing tsunami warning, the Pacific Ocean here in the South Bay Area, has been the most active I've ever seen it.  In this short video I shot yesterday with my iPhone, the sandy beach, which typically begins out where you see the waves starting to break, is completely gone.  No one was in the water.  You could even see some of the currents zipping around as waves would head back out to sea crashing into the waves coming in from the sea.  It was a spectacular site!

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I have quoted from Mike's blog more than once here at tt.us.  So often, he nails it.

Mr. Stearns argues that evangelicals were often so focused on sexual morality and a personal relationship with God that they ignored the needy. He writes laceratingly about “a Church that had the wealth to build great sanctuaries but lacked the will to build schools, hospitals, and clinics.”

via Waving or Drowning?.

I loathe the use of religion to aggregate wealth and power by marginalizing and then persecuting those who aren't a "member of the club."  The more noble path is to contribute good to the world by helping, with no strings attached, those in need.

In my earlier post, I mentioned that the surf has been out of control with the storm and earthquake.  The life guard stations had to be moved inland—waaaay inland, and the surf still almost got to them.  Here you can see that the sand was completely eroded away by the surf, creating the sudden drop off that was as tall as me!  (Click to enlarge.)

Normally, along a seashore, one expects to find seashells.  Well, not so here in the South Bay.  Regrettably, the dumping of LA's sewage has long ago killed such sea life.  But what I found even more distressing was the amount of trash the surf brought to the shore line.  It was unbelievable!  Thousands of plastic bottle caps littered the shoreline as if they were the missing seashells! Bits of styrofoam, in various sizes, were everywhere.  This is outrageous!  We have turned the Pacific Ocean into a sewer. Click the image below to see two different pictures.

Yes, I've ranted about my AppleTVs world without end!  Well, apparently, one of them was just completely messed up:  the hardware was bad.  Naturally, it wasn't under warranty.  (I think Apple only has a 90 day warranty unless you spend the extra money on AppleCare.  I always do for computers but hadn't for the AppleTV.)

So, I bought a new AppleTV.  My god!  The thing actually works!  After having been plagued with sooo many issues for sooo long with the other device, I was fully expecting this one not to function properly either.  But it works well!  And I purchased AppleCare for this one.

The only thing that greatly annoys me with the AppleTV:  the largest hard drive you can get is 160GB.  That's ridiculous.  I frankly don't give a rip what Apple thinks, Tim thinks he should be able to store his entire media library on the AppleTV hard drive and not have to clutter up the home LAN with streaming audio/video!  This would also give me another backup for the media files!

I do love being able to stream nearly 10,000 photos and music on the large flat panel TV downstairs for parties—like the one held here at the house last Saturday night.  (BTW:  Bristol Farms does a great job catering!!)  My photos just look awesome on the big screen, if I say so myself!  :)

I've made myself stop wearing a watch.  My iPhone has a clock on it that auto syncs to the network.  And, as I travel so much, that comes in handy.  My iPhone is always showing the timezone in which I currently am located, unlike my watch which requires a manual change.  I've gotten comfy going without the watch.

But this watch, with tiny lasers to indicate the hour and minute hand, would be enough to make me start wearing one again!

NPR, CPB, PBS:  all such powerful voices for deep, reflective, critical thinking in a time when we just tend to want some quick affirmation from those who support our current perspective on reality.  I've often, through the years, speculated that this is indeed the very reason these voices come under attack from political forces that feel challenged by dispassionate reason and reflection.

I've always had such great respect for Bill Moyers' work.  He asks deep and difficult questions in a quest for understanding and clarity rather than persuasion and opinion-making.  I stumbled upon, quite by accident, this Bill Moyers' Journla today:  an interview with Ted Olson and David Boies—unlikely legal partners joined to litigate against marriage inequality in California's ongoing battle with Proposition 8.

Having missed the broadcast (I was completely unaware of it.) I listened with interest as these three men had a provocative discussion of the case.  I was most curious how a brilliant, extremely conservative attorney and a brilliant extremely liberal attorney could in any way find common ground on this, of all, issues.  The conversation with Bill is fascinating and illuminating. In typical fashion, Bill asks some very demanding questions of these men.

This video and transcript, along with many other programs, can be found at PBS:  The Bill Moyers' Journal.

I just stumbled onto this new program, TuneUp, from TuneUpMedia.com. It's an iTunes plugin that has a number of really cool features:

• The program will analyze your iTunes library and report back all of the tracks that have incomplete information and create a "dirty" playlist.  Incomplete information might mean the track is missing any of the data listed in the graphic to the right.


• Drag any of the "dirty" tracks into TuneUp.  TuneUp then analyzes the sound footprint of the track to determine what the track actually is and offers to retrieve all of the missing meta data for the track.  In other words, you could have a track in your iTunes library called "Track 09."  TuneUp would figure out what the track name, artist, album, genre, year, cover art, and actual track number on the album are and populate all of that data, replacing the "Track 09" with the real info!  That's rather remarkable!  But there's more...


• TuneUp will follow what you're listening to, offer videos of the track in a sidebar (just click to play the videos right there in the sidebar), a bio of the artists, tell you about the upcoming concerts for that artist in your area, even let you purchase the tickets, share related items about the artist from ebay, let you tweet what you're listening to.


• Other features too...

Today Apple sold its 10,000,000,000th (that's billionth) song at the iTunes Store—all in less than 7 years. The music industry can gripe all it wants, but Apple has made them a lot of money they would otherwise have lost to file sharing!

Today's Business Insider has this headline: Blockbuster Collapses: Shutting Down 500 Stores In Desperate Bid To Save $200 Million. I'm actually shocked they survived as long as they did. They ended last year almost $1,000,000,000 in debt.

By closing 500 of their weakest stores, they hope to reduce operating expenses by $200 million. They are also exploring other ways to increase liquidity and find new emerging distribution channels.

Let me offer them a touch of advice. Liquidate now and save everyone the misery to come.

You may have heard that I don’t do iPhone or iPad development at this time. That said, it’d be silly to not keep track of what Apple is up to with the platform they care for most." ...

• Upgrades to software for laptop and desktop machines hadn't all but died in the last several years.
  • Cases in point:  Where is iLife 2010?  (Apple made a big issue of rewriting iLife 2010 from the ground up, but only for the mobile platform!)
  • Where is iWork 2010?  (Apple made a big issue of rewriting iWork 2010 from the ground up, but only for the mobile platform!)
  • What happened to iMovie on the iPad?  Where did it go?
  • When Apple finally came out with an upgrade to Final Cut Studio, the new feature set was anything but substantive.
  • Now there are rumors all over the net that Apple has laid off over 40 people from the Final Cut Studio software team.  This can not be good as it probably indicates Apple is abandoning one of the most powerful production tools it ever developed!
  • How many years have we suffered with Aperture 2?  Finally, Aperture 3 is released, but many users are reporting huge issues with the program's basic operability and stability.
• What of any significant improvements in laptop and desktop hardware?
  • Cases in point:  The "new" iMacs have been plagued with screen problems and shipping was completely halted for a time while the issue has hopefully been corrected.
  • It blows me away that I bought my 2 x 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon computer about 1.5 years ago, and today Apple doesn't even sell a machine as fast as this "old" computer!  The fastest machine on their site is a 2 x 2.93 Quad-Core Intel Xeon computer!  What's with that?!  Their hardware is getting slower?
  • Where's the innovation in hardware?  Apple has been the leader for years!  With many of the new HD DSLR and video cameras sporting HDMI access, why hasn't Apple added this to the hardware line up?  Instead, my computers today have fewer high speed data access ports than they did 2 years ago!
• One company control of my media access?  Increasingly my heart is saying, "Absolutely no!"

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King Tut may be seen as the golden boy of ancient Egypt today, but during his reign, Tutankhamun wasn't exactly a strapping sun god. Instead, a new DNA study says, King Tut was a frail pharaoh, beset by malaria and a bone disorder—and possibly compromised by his newly discovered incestuous origins. The report is the first DNA study ever conducted with ancient Egyptian royal mummies. It apparently solves several mysteries surrounding King Tut, including how he died and who his parents were.

Related articles

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• First study of mummy DNA leads to all sorts of discoveries (boingboing.net)
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• Malaria, genetic diseases plagued King Tut (cnn.com)

I was having a perfectly good morning being all productive and everything. Then I headed on over to my RSS feed reader to catch up on "stuff." I hadn't cruised the feeds for a couple of days, so things were out of control—thousands of feed posts were lurking there demanding to be read.

I started with my personal reads and came across a video link from Ellison's blog to a short Valentine's film by some guy named zefrank. It was crazy funny! I laughed out loud. Who ever this Ze guy is, his sense of humor really resonates with me.

I wish he hosted his short videos on a traditional site that allowed you to embed them. I'd share some with you from time to time because, well... now I've subscribed to yet another feed! But, since he doesn't, check them out at the links.

I also liked several others, like this one. Now an hour of laughter has passed, and I'm blaming Elisson!

My life is blessed with some very wonderful, bright people of substance.  One of those is GG.  She recently shared one of her own quotations with me.  It is spot on!

"You believe of others what you know of your own heart."