Recently in Creativity Category

On occasion you see something so breath-taking you don't have adequate words to describe it.  It's jaw dropping.  Stunning.  I had that experience when I first saw the HD series, Earth, on Blu-ray. The photography was beyond anything I had imagined before.

Well, I suspect that Tom Lowe's (@timescapes) time lapse project, which he has been working on for some time, is going to be another of those stunning visual experiences.  Below is a teaser he posted on Vimeo.  There's time lapse, there's astro time lapse, and there's Tom Lowe's time lapse.  I can't wait to see this finished work.

Also of note, Tyler Ginter (@TylerGinter) who spent some time with Tom helping with a shoot in the fall and learning more about time lapse, has posted a really excellent piece about the art and science of time lapse.  He includes a growing checklist, links to Tom Guilmette's (@TomGuilmette) tutorial on setting up the Kessler Cineslider, Philip Bloom's (@PhilipBloom) tutorial on post, and a behind the scene shot of setting up Tom's Natural Bridge time lapse sequence.  It's really a great post.  The checklist is awesome.

When you watch the time lapse below, which is a teaser for his upcoming film, be sure to go into full screen mode.

In her latest exhibit, The City, artist and fine-art photographer Lori Nix designed a miniature, detailed, deserted world being reclaimed by nature.  I've never seen anything quite like this before.  Each miniature 3D diorama took between 2 to 15 months to create in all of its painstaking detail.  Each was created to be photographed or filmed in such a way as to make them look virtually life sized.

The collection, for some reason, reminded me of my visit to Pompeii—peering into a far off world that once was but is no more. It's a bit eerie and unsettling to consider what our world today would look like as ancient ruins. Her exhibit brings us to that place.

View photos of her exhibit at the link above; or, click on the image below to watch a video of  her diorama, The Map Room.

Could you walk right up to the edge?  Heights make me start spinning.  But heights don't seem to bother these kids.  Would you let your children stand this close to the edge?

Oh, OK.  I get it now.  Clever.  (It's a brilliant marketing campaign for a book.)

Source:  Damn Cool Pics

I love time lapse photography!  This time lapse by twin brothers Dan and David Newcomb has some spectacular shots in it featuring HDR as well as some awesome dolly and pan shots!  (They design and build their own rigs.) The undulating fog is spectacular! When you watch it, be sure to click on the full screen mode in the player window.

YouTube link (time lapse above where you can select full 1080i HD) Dan and David's YouTube Channel Their website link YouTube link (time lapse below where you can select full 1080i HD)

This time lapse below, of the frenetic energy of the Vancouver Olympics, is also stunning and uses crane and dolly shots.  When viewed at 1080i in full screen, will tax the dickens out of your internet service or Google's servers, or both.  (The size included below should play fine.)

Link to other posts @ tt.us featuring and about time lapse photography.

Boys and their toys!  Of course, I can't complain.  I would be up their with them if this were my church.  While not particularly musically gratifying, this is certainly clever, creative and fun.

North Point Community Church's iBand.  (YouTube Link)

Well, yes.  Naturally I watched Steve Jobs emcee Apple's Back to the Mac event yesterday.

Now, I must confess that when Apple first introduced the huge change from iMovie HD (version 6 in 2007) to iMovie (version 7 in 2008) I made no secret of my utter disgust.  It was a huge, enormous step backward.  Apple quickly responded to the extreme customer dissatisfaction, because users were in an outright uproar, by almost immediately, within days, releasing an update with added features.  Everyone who had used iMovie HD continued to use it.  I don't know of anyone who actually used iMovie 7, which was less than featureless, even with the immediate update.

iMovie (version 8 in 2009) was a big step forward, though previous users of iMovie HD, myself included, had a difficult time getting into the new interface. which was conceptually nothing like iMovie HD (version 6 in 2007) and every previous version of the software.  Previous users generally didn't like the new interface introduced in 2008.  New users were not so encumbered.  Ok.  With this new version in 2008, there seemed to be some hope.  Maybe Apple hadn't made a huge mistake with this new GUI.

Yesterday Apple introduced iMovie (version 8) in iLife '11.  (Isn't all of this year versus version number thing so damned confusing?!  And then you have the suite numbers and version numbers for the pro products...  Jeeze!)  The new version now, in my mind, officially rocks my world.  So, from where I'm sitting, it took Apple 3 to 4 years to release a product that is absolutely better than iMovie HD.  You know, I guess I just wish this had been the version they released back in 2008.

iMovie '11, as I'll call it to minimize confusion, appears awesome.  I should be getting my hands on a copy of it today.  I suppose what I found most fascinating, even tantalizing about this newest version, is the movie trailer templates feature--a virtually bullet-proof way to make nothing less than stunning movie trailers.  From an educator's perspective, I see this a an excellent way to teach students to better articulate their quasi-innate understanding of the language of film production.  (The quality of the video footage used in the demo didn't hurt any, of course.)  But I will be interested in seeing how this actually takes off out in the field for common users and, more importantly, for students.  I see enormous, enormous, enormous potential here.

The new MovieMaker in Windows 7 is just about where iMovie HD was in 2007, although the interface, like most of Windows, in my opinion, is just flat out ugly as hell and grotesquely stark—the last thing a person who is being create needs or wants.  Now the latest version of the Windows movie production software appears to be in the stone age once again, eating Apple's dust.  Can't Microsoft do something innovative rather than just copy everything Apple is doing?!

I've been hearing the rumor mill whispering about a complete remake of Final Cut Pro, Apple's pro level movie-making software.  I immediately thought that if they did such a thing, I wouldn't even consider upgrading.  Now, having seen where Randy Ubillos has taken iMovie '11, I'm a lot more open minded.  This could be really interesting.

Oh, and sure, the new features in iPhoto '11 and GarageBand '11 were cool as well, but iMovie '11 was the product that just blew me away.  (I don't know what the new features are in the other apps in the iLife '11 software suite.)  Of course, iLife comes free on every new Mac purchase.  Existing users can upgrade, and Steve Jobs is right:  for $49, iLife '11 is the best software value on the planet!

What Apple has done in the past decade is nothing short of a miracle.  My heart is actually warmed by the fact that the marriage of brilliant engineering, meticulous design, and creative genius has produced the spectacular contribution that is Apple, Inc. And I want to further note that Apple is now a blistering financial success, with stunning sales records and profits in everything they are doing, even in an extreme depression—an American economy that is utterly in the toilet because of America's complete lack of creativity and innovation in everything except blowing things up and killing people.  The bulk of Apple's revenue is coming from completely new and innovative products that didn't even exist much more than 3 years ago.  Apple is a model for what America can do, what America can be.  It's about leadership that carefully nurtures the marriage of engineering, design, and creative genius!

Related articles

• iLife '11: The Best New Tricks in iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand [Apple] (gizmodo.com)
• Apple announces iLife '11 with new iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand (venturebeat.com)
• Apple Announces iLife '11 With New iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand (nytimes.com)
• Apple unveils iLife '11 with significant updates to iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand (edibleapple.com)
• Back to the Mac: GarageBand and iMovie '11 (nytimes.com)

Working in the yard this morning, trimming back the bougainvilla, a neighbor walked by and said her children couldn't wait to return to the haunted house at our house again this Halloween.

Little do the tiny preci know:  this year's Haunted House will even be more terrifying than last year's!

I recently was at a conference for and by artists:  dancers, visual arts, musical arts, and educators.  Naturally, such an eclectic group is a tremendously fun energy.  One of the ladies shared an unusual web site, an interactive film based on the address at which you lived as a child, called, "The Wilderness Downtown."  She just sent me this link to the film generator.

You enter your address, and out pops a movie featuring an interactive experience with google maps for that address.  This isn't just unique.  It's totally awesome!

The music, "We Used to Wait" by Arcade Fire is also something worthy of your time.  Here are  the lyrics:

I used to write
I used to write letters
I used to sign my name

I used to sleep at night
Before the flashing lights settled deep in my brain

But by the time we met
By the time we met the times had already changed

So I never wrote a letter
I never took my true heart,
I never wrote it down

So when the lights cut out
was lost standing in the wilderness downtown

Now our lives are changing fast
Now our lives are changing fast
Hope that something pure can last
Hope that something pure can last

Now it seems strange
How we used to wait for letters to arrive
But what's stranger still
Is how something so small can keep you alive

We used to wait
We used to waste hours just walking around
We used to wait
All those wasted lives in the wilderness downtown

We used to wait
We used to wait
We used to wait
Sometimes it never came
We used to wait
Sometimes it never came
We used to wait
I'm still moving through the pain

I'm gonna write
A letter to my true love
I'm gonna sign my name

Like a patient on a table
I wanna walk again
Gonna move to the pain

Now our lives are changing fast
Now our lives are changing fast
Hope that something pure can last
Hope that something pure can last

We used to wait
We used to wait
We used to wait
Sometimes they never came
We used to wait
Sometimes they never came
We used to wait
I'm still moving through the pain
We used to wait
We used to wait
We used to wait

We used to wait for it
We used to wait for it
Now we're screaming "sing the chorus again!"

We used to wait for it.
We used to wait for it.
Now we're screaming "sing the chorus again!"

I used to wait for it
I used to wait for it
Hear my voice screaming "sing the chorus again!"

Wait for it!
Wait for it!
Wait for it!

You simply must experience it!

Related articles:

• Arcade Fire, Colin Stetson: Concert Review and Photos (beatcrave.com)
• Arcade Fire Interactive Video (jambase.com)
• The Wilderness Downtown: Chrome experiment by Chris Milk and Arcade Fire (boingboing.net)
• Arcade Fire at the KeyArena: Whoa (seattlest.com)
• The Wilderness Downtown (asourceofinspiration.com)

This time lapse of Baja, California, by Mike Flores is pretty cool work. I especially appreciate the attention to the music cue and the sunrise about two-thrids of the way through.

On his Vimeo site, Mike says:

This is a little compilation of timelapses I've shot down in Baja California this year. There's a mix of DSLRs and lenses used to shoot this; 5D, 5D2, 7D - 14mm, 16-35mm, 24mm mostly. Motion control via Mumford tables, or my 'servo city' dolly.

Music is by (stolen from) Clint Mansell, "Welcome to Lunar Industries" from the soundtrack to Moon. If you haven't seen Moon, you need to - it's a fantastic film.

I'm just always fascinated by compositing and green screen.  These traveling car sequences done by Stargate Studios are awesome—even to the reflections in the glass windows of the cars and the multi-angle shots.  I'd love to watch one of these compositing artists weave his/her magic.

I just came across Eirc Whitacre's Virtual Choir, 2010.  His idea is brilliant.  His composition and conducting are glorious.  The finished product is sheer transcendence:  people all over the globe bringing voice to beauty.  This is spectacular:  technology in the service of beautiful, united though individual, human emotive expression—a true global collaborative effort at its finest.  You easily see both the honesty and purity of the gift of self expression dedicated to the craft of human beauty in the faces and posture of the participants the editor chose to highlight.  (I'm just glad I didn't have to create the video compilation or mix the audio!)

Brilliantly conceived from start to finish, this virtual choir has already been viewed over a million times on YouTube. Most, though not all, of the singers are younger people from the United States, Canada, Singapore, Germany, and Sweden. If you wish to learn more about how the Virtual Choir began, check out this video.  I would love to know the back story on how the participants came to be involved in this collaboration.

Want to participate in the Virtual Choir 2011? You can! Eric wants it to be the largest Virtual Choir ever recorded. At this link Eric discusses how to interpret the score, Sleep, for the Virtual Choir 2011 recording. You can learn more about how to record and upload your part, sign up and download the score at Eric's web site.  The text and translation can be found at this link.

This is awesome!  Be sure to watch it in full screen.  (Also, the audio doesn't begin until the curtain opens.)

Here is a link to the Westminster Chorus singing this piece in TTBB, and this link to the Westminster Cathedral Choir.  Eric uses the gift of delicate dissonance so carefully crafted as to become sonorous and expansive. Just no words to describe it...

Related articles:

• Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir Tour (theworld.org)
• How Digital Media is Attracting New Arts Audiences (readwriteweb.com)

For years now, I have been a huge fan of Vlad Gerasimov's work at Vladstudio, @vladstudio, where this Russian digital artist shares desktop designs, e-cards, apps and games, and much more that are brilliantly creative and beautiful.  He provides each of his nearly 700 desktops in virtually every imaginable size one would ever need (over 60!!), for single monitors, double monitors, even triple!  They are also available for mobile devices: phones, ipads, etc.  A design perfectionist, everything about his site is beautifully and organically presented.

But I am always stricken with the beauty and the creativity of his work.  I invite you to click on his image below, The Birth of the Night Fury, suitable for the upcoming Halloween season, to go to his site.  Awesomeness!

This time lapse of San Francisco, by Simon Christen, was shot over a one year period and is quite beautiful.

Related articles:

• San Francisco Bay: The Unseen Sea (current.com)

Jon Stewart is smart and funny.  I love how he refers to Glenn Beck as his kid's college fund.  Well, if Palin (Will she ever go away!  Who keeps paying for us to see her, anyway?!) and Beck can have a rally, so can sane people.

The Rally to Restore Sanity, being held by Jon Stewart, is slated for 10-30-10 in Washington DC!  I wish I could go.  It has to be a great and funny event about something serious. Here's how Stewart describes it:

We live in troubled times, with real people who have real problems. ... Problems that have real but imperfect solutions, that I believe 70 to 80 percent of our population could agree to try, and ultimately live with. Unfortunately, the conversation and the process is controlled by the other 15 to 20 percent.

"You may know them as the people who believe that Obama is a secret Muslim planning a socialist takeover of America ... or that George Bush let 9/11 happen to help pad Dick Cheney's Halliburton stock portfolio. You've seen their signs: 'Obama is Hitler'; 'Bush is Hitler'... But why don't we hear from the 70 to 80 percenters? Well, most likely because you have @^#% to do."

The voice of the moderate majority in this country needs to be heard.  Moderates need to be seen.  Extremism has got to go!

Stephen Colbert, another funny guy, will also be participating with his "Keep Fear Alive" rally.  Follow rally developments on Twitter.

Caption:  "It's your anniversary – break out the bubbly."

I found this TEDtalk, on the Happy Planet Index, by Nick Marks, to be deeply inspiring and brilliantly on target.  It is absolutely worth 17 minutes of your time!  He talks about creating the world we all want to live in without costing the earth in the process.  He claims our current policy and cultural focus on productivity and materialism is flawed for measuring the well-being of a country and its people.

Nick sites these 5 things we should reflect on in our daily lives enrich our personal happiness without costing the earth.  His entire talk is fantastic and has significant implications far beyond saving the earth but could inform our policy on economics, education, health, etc.

1. Connect
2. Be Active
3. Take Notice
4. Keep Learning
5. Give

Related articles:

• TED Global 2010: Nic Marks and Happiness that Doesn't Cost the Earth (worldchanging.com)
• nic marks: the happy planet index (toomanytribbles.blogspot.com)
• The Happy Planet Index: Nic Marks on TED.com (ted.com)
• Building a Greener World through Marketplace Economics and Radical Transparency (worldchanging.com)

I really like going to the El Segundo Antique Car show, held each year near the end of August.  It's free and is sponsored by the El Segundo Police Department, which I think is also cool.  I first went in 2008. I was out of town last year on business and missed it.  This year's show was a little different from the first one I attended.

When I first arrived the sky was overcast with the marine layer which makes for a very nice, diffuse lighting on the cars, perfect for photography.  The sun came out about half way through my visit.  Yikes.  Hot spots reflecting off the vehicles.

At any rate, I had a blast and am getting better and better at shooting cars (or, so I think, anyway—smile).

For this post I am including only a few shots of  hood ornaments, not grills, trunks, engines, or full cars.  To check out my entire collection of photos of automobiles, three albums, click on this link and then select the album(s) you wish to view.  Be sure to click the full screen button in order to view them in full screen, no matter how big your screen is.  (They do look awesome on the huge monitors!)

Click any image below to see a larger version.

About a month ago they measured. This week they installed.

The shutters completely change the feeling of the living room.  Tim likes.

Here you have about 4 hours of worked distilled into 1 minute and 20 seconds. Enjoy.

Yesterday I purchased a pair of Vibram FiveFingers, which are all the rage here in Los Angeles. As you can see, they fit like a glove, with each toe in a separate enclosure to enhance dexterity, stability, and balance.  They are made from kangaroo leather, which I didn't even know existed.  To check out these shoes, simply click on the image to the right.

Conrad the Kat was very jealous and then insisted on starring in an epic feature film in which he modeled his own stylish and fashionable footwear.  To watch Conrad the Kat's latest world debut, simply click on the image below.

Related articles:

• Vibram Fivefingers Review (socyberty.com)
• High Five to FiveFingers (ries.typepad.com)
• Barefoot Walking (fitfiend.com)

The fact that this can be done, in total, from storyboard (if they had chosen to) all the way to upload to YouTube, on a $299 device, the iPhone 4, that also happens to make phone calls, is astounding. When Apple makes this all possible on an iPhone Touch and the iPad, they will rock the education market! Be sure to watch it in full screen.

These pencil tip sculptures were all carved by hand by Dalton Ghetti.  Click on any thumbnail to open a slide show of all of the photos.

 

Source:  Damn Cool Pics

So nicely done. Be sure to check out Phil's post on the setup for this time lapse. He includes a 12 minute audio podcast about it as well at: Phil's Blog Post.  Oh, and watch this in full screen mode!

The level of detail is amazing.  Notice the earring on the ear on the top helmet.  Click the picture to view other equally amazing helmets.

Source:  LaughingSquid

An excellent photo essay entitled Crude Awakening, by Jane Fulton Alt.  Here are two samples...

I've already ordered one in each color!

Click photo to go to photo source.

This morning I got up really early (3:45AM) to shoot a time lapse of the Galaga Cove along the Palos Verdes Shoreline Preserve. Unfortunately, the area is not open for parking until 5AM; so, as tomorrow is the longest day of the year, I missed the transition from complete darkness to sunrise. It was already fairly light out when I arrived at  5AM. Probably just as well: the cliffs are a sheer, straight drop off, and I didn't want to plunge to my certain death by mis-stepping in the darkness. I placed the tripod just inches away from the edge!

The time lapse was with one shot ever 20 seconds for 7 hours (from 5am until 12pm) as the slider travelled 29 inches. (About half way through I switched to one shot every 5 seconds which is yielding a much smoother time lapse.) Regrettably I could put nothing in the foreground here for a parallax effect. The surf was very active for the summer time, and numerous suffers were enjoying the unusual wave action. Regrettably, the weather didn't do anything too dramatic during the time I was shooting, though the sunlight was varied and some heavy clouds considered coming in but didn't.

I shot this picture of this area several months ago when a thick fog enveloped the cove. I was hoping for something even more dramatic with the fog moving in or out but had no luck this morning.

But this is what the same area looked like today:

At any rate, I had some interesting conversations with a couple of surfers--guys about my age. I learned from one of them that, about 20 years ago, the city purchased the houses on the western side of the road along the Pacific Ocean. They allow the original owners to live in the houses until they die. Apparently the entire hillside is slowly sliding off into the Pacific Ocean. The land, otherwise, would easily be worth tens of millions.

One of the surfers was very into photography. He spoke of the many pictures he has taken over the years at this spot. He said it was very much like the south of France, another place he loves to shoot and surf.

One of the surfer dudes I talked with said the brown in the water indicates rip tides:  where the current is pulling the seashore sand back into the ocean.  I've always heard of these as a child growing up on the Gulf Coast (may it rest in peace) but had never been able to see them as you can in this picture.

As you will be able to see when I post the time lapse, soon, I promise, the weather was glorious beyond description. As a result, I got a sunburn on my face without ever realizing it. I don't think that paradise could be as perfect as this day.

Digital Photography School has an interesting article on creating one shot panos and even 360º videos.  The GoPano Optic, by Eyesee360.com, mounts onto many camera lens and comes with software, PhotoWarp, to unwarp the resulting "donut-like" image into the pano.  It's interesting.

My friend Mark, who travels as much as I do, was recently in the Jacksonville, Florida Airport and shot these photos with his iPhone.  This is very clever and creative design!

If we saw the guy's head through the far windows up in the ceiling, I would have foamed at the mouth!

Tim Likes!

"No, no, no!  On this planet you can only use 140 characters when you speak."
(Click the pic to see the larger version.)

In light of the fact that AT&T is ending their unlimited data plans for iPhone users, capping them for fees to punish the data hogs, I find this tweet by Josh Helfferich excellent.

"Let's just get AT&T to fix the oil spill, they've been capping everything else lately." -- Josh Helfferich via Twitter"

[Source: "Let's just get AT&T to fix the oil spill, they've been capping everything else lately." -- Josh Helfferich via T....]