Konova Motorized K2 Slider

I have done it. I have finally done it. I splurged money and purchased motorized rails to enhance my timelapse results. Now for months and months of the frustrating trial and error process.

I added the following components to my purchase:

  • K2-100cm
  • D610 shutter release
  • 1500:1 Motor Type (which I have noticed is extremely slow live motion (obviously))
  • 100cm Travel Bag

Few things I have noticed from the beginning:

  • The smart controller gearing is set to 100:1 as a default (therefore 1500:1 motor moves at 1/10 of a millimeter when you have set it to move at 1 millimeter)
  • The gearing on the smart controller only goes up to 1000:1
  • Weight + build quality are better than I expected
  • Ball head for the slider is a must
  • There seems to be no possible way to update the firmware of the smart controller (no information provided)
  • 100cm is a bit bulky to be carrying around (need to figure out a way to attach it to my bag)
  • Setting up shots require objects in the foreground to provide depth (e.g. comparing a photo of a mountain then taking a 1 metre step backwards shows no difference)

Stay posted for some fancy panning movement in the future.

My 2014 master piece. 

  • 3 weeks of travelling required
  • 3 wonderful travel companions
  • 3 months of post processing and editing 

I am writing this as I have just lost 470mls of my own blood for donation purposes. Apologies if I fall asleep and head bang the keyboard.

Japan was such an amazing place to travel. The first thing I noticed about this country was how trusting strangers on the street were. This level of trust allowed me to timelapse in all locations without fear of having my gear stolen, damaged or being told to go away. 

The following is a list of locations in order of appearance in the video:

  1. Osaka Castle
  2. Himeji Castle
  3. Roppongi Hills
  4. Tokyo Tower
  5. Shinjuku Station (Near Bic Camera)
  6. Akihabara - Electric City
  7. Akiihabara - Electric City
  8. Asakusa
  9. Lake Kawaguchiko (Day/Night)
  10. Hiroshima
  11. Kinkakuji
  12. Kyoto Station
  13. Osaka Aquarium
  14. Tempozan Ferris Wheel (Near Osaka Aquarium)
  15. Mount Fuji - Station 8.5 (3450m)
  16. Miyajima
  17. Mount Misen (Miyajima)
  18. Miyajima - Boat Festival
  19. Shibuya Crossing
  20. Harajuku
  21. Dotonbori
  22. Umeda Sky Deck
  23. Mount Fuji - Station 6 (Cloud Factory)
  24. Osaka Skyline

Instead of running through the opportunities and difficulties of every scene, I have decided to provide the cliff notes below.

Originality:

  • Scene 9 - shows Lake Kawaguchiko at day and night with window panes sliding. This is a new technique I’m trying to investigate and have been for the past year. The feedback I received from my viewers has currently been all positive. The requirements of this shot was to set up in one position (hotel room window) for 10+ hours
  • Scene 14 - Ferris wheel motion - this has been something I’ve been willing to try for a while but never had a steady enough Ferris Wheel (enclosed is preferable). The requirements for this shot was to set the camera down on a seat up against the plexi-glass and take a frame every 2 seconds (post processing: warp stabilizer)

Difficulties:

  • I had to cut two hyperlapse videos from the final result as I didn’t take enough care to capture them in the first place.
  • Fushima Inari Shrine (1000 Torri Gates) - a 2 hour hike + hyperlapse, you’ve got to be joking right? Nope, strapped my backpack to my chest and set up the tripod within the bag and walked for 2 hours taking photos on every 4th foot step. These photos are the main reason it took 3 months to post process this video (recovering the camera shake in AfterEffects was impossible and I was grasping at straws).
  • Arashiyama (Bamboo Forest) - after realising how difficult it is to capture a relatively smooth hyperlapse with a tripod strapped to your chest, I tried a different method. This time I used a neck strap and hung the camera at stomach height and walked slowly taking photos at every 3 seconds. Although the result of this hyperlapse was smoother, it still required to be left on the cutting room floor.
  • Scene 15 and 23 - Mount Fuji - The hike started at 30 degrees Celsius and ended at -2 degrees Celsius and took a total of 12 hours to get to the summit. This paints a brief picture of how much clothing and food was required (don’t forget tripod and camera). The hike was fairly straight forward and wasn’t too strenuous. The major difficulty I found here was that Mount Fuji is very temperamental with regards to whether it wants to show it’s true beauty or to hide behind a wall of clouds and fog. I fortunate enough to get 1 good timelapse in (Scene 15). As I was descending I was tempted over and over again to capture another scene but was forced to pack up my gear every time as a wall of fog would flow in and coat my gear in mist (Scene 23 is the result). 

Pure Luck:

  • I was in Japan when the Super Typhoon of 2014 was set to hit the entire country of Japan (Source: http://www.weather.com/news/weather-hurricanes/typhoon-vongfong-japan-threat-20141006). I had to re-schedule my Miyajima hotel stay as I figured it wouldn’t be a great idea to be on a small island only accessible by ferry during a Super Typhoon. For some random stroke of luck, I fortunately re-scheduled the hotel for July 17th which happened to be the day that Japan has their boat festival (Scene 16 and 18). 

Final Thoughts:

I am very satisfied with the final result of this video and am glad that I cut the footage that didn’t quite suit the mood (hyperlapses). The video was lucky enough to be posted on rocketnews24 (Source: http://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/11/04/dont-have-enough-time-to-see-japan-you-do-now-with-this-amazing-time-lapse-video/) which brought in 4,000+ views (how’s that for some exposure). Next is to show of some true originality in the area of timelapse photography and have articles posted on photo blogs like Petapixel and Photodoto.

- Alex

Tasmania 2014

Over the Easter break my family and I decided to take a quick trip to Tasmania for some sight seeing and hiking. 

Initially I was amazed at the scenery Tasmania had to offer as it is so different to Australia. Everywhere you went it was beautifully pristine wilderness, high contrast coastlines and crisp cut mountains. The places seen in the time lapse video consist of the following:

  • Cradle Mountain
  • Cataract Gorge
  • Bay of Fires
  • Wineglass Bay (Freycinet)

Unfortunately Cradle Mountain was too shy and didn’t want to show it’s true form to me and decided to hide beneath sheets of rain. This also meant that we were unable to do any hiking of the mountain. By we I mean myself and my middle aged parents that did an amazing job by sticking with me in the horrible weather conditions. A photographer will go to great lengths to achieve the right photo (rain/hail/shine/volcanoes), but to have an a support team (carriers of umbrellas and food) makes life so much easier. 

I would definitely go back to Tasmania as travel to these iconic destinations don’t take any time at all (top to bottom = approx 4 hours drive with plenty to see along the way).

Things I learned:

  • Video editing technique to pan ever so slightly to keep the audience engaged
  • When hiking, bring waterproof everything
  • Aim lens away from the rain unless you want to wipe it every 2 seconds
  • Challenge yourself and your gear by going to areas that are restricted/dangerous looking. The result is worth it (tripod on unstable rocks dangling over water resulted in the thumbnail image above)

Final thoughts: I was actually very proud of this video’s result (quite rare as I am my own harshest critic).

Enjoy!

Anzac Day 2014 - April 25th

I approached the Shrine of Remembrance again this year to support their non-profit organisation and assist in raising awareness for the fallen soldiers in Australia’s history of war. 

I used all my knowledge from the last years time lapse experience to improve upon between last years somewhat failure (4 minutes of the same location/position). This year I managed to get 4 usable locations plus many stills thanks to the other photographers with me (without getting sunburnt!). 

My favourite result from this time lapse video is the still photos that I synced with the music at the end. 

Enjoy!

My visual experience of White Night 2014. 

As you can see, there are…a lot of people. Specifically 500,000 people. Now imagine how enjoyable it is to be a timelapse photographer (someone who requires no vibration or movement. That was my night.

Just when you thought you had your own secret vantage points in your own city, you find a bunch of guys publicly urinating all over it.

Enough complaining. This was a really fun experience that took a total of 8 hours over night.

Enjoy!

A year long project comes to an end.

This is the result for my attempt at showing the four seasons of Melbourne. By complete chance I decided to choose the location of the royal exhibition building as it looked easy enough to duplicate the shot (being symmetrical and other mathematics and junk).

I shot this over 10 months (March, July, October, January). Luckily Melbourne really showed off the extreme of each seasons. (For those who don’t know, Melbourne is known to experience all weathers in one day). 

The final scene of the scrolling frames took quite a lot of planning/maths involved. Each season shows only 25% of the photo and scrolls left and starts again on the right. This forced me to create several time lines (approx. 8). I made the mistake of importing all my timelapses in JPEG sequences and then having 8 time lines…do not ask how long it took to render this…

The only big error I may have made during this process was capturing three seasons using a Nikon D90 and then one season using a Nikon D610. It made it very difficult to align the photos correctly.

This video has given me a lot of inspiration to try more of these seasonal timelapses and day/night timelapses.

Trying new things!

I bought a Hoya R72 lens and have started entering the world of infrared photography!

Let me just tell you one thing…there was a lot of learning involved (how to capture the photos, wait for the right day, photoshopping). My first try seems to have resulted somewhat successfully. However it seems that my Nikon D90s low pass filter is restricting me from fully taking advantage of IR light.

So the plan is to rip out the low pass filter in my Nikon D80 and hopefully create amazing IR shots and not just have a broken camera.

I just bought my Nikon 28-300 lens and am planning to buy my Nikon D610 next week. 

“Things are coming up Milhouse”.

Cheers,

Alex

Triggertrap Redsnap: Modular Camera Trigger

Redsnap is an infinitely expandable camera trigger, making high-speed, camera trap, and timelapse photography affordable for everyone.

Triggertraps CEO has just contacted me to see if i would be interested in their new product that they are releasing in April/May of 2014. Just when I thought my inspiration for my photography hobby was at an all time low, I get roped back in with amazing news. 

I’m actually taking a breather this month (October 2013) as finding new interesting locations has been fairly difficult. In retrospect i probably should have paced myself. Currently i’m working on my other hobby (aquariums and aqua-scaping).

Any new news lately? Uh…only just that the Nikon D610 was released in stores a few days ago….time to spend a chunk of savings to satisfy my crazy obsession. 

Incoming Nikon D610 + 28-300 Nikor lens over the next few months.

Lacking inspiration for this month…

Future plan is to do a timelapse per month until the start of 2014 then i’m going to cool the jets and do one per season. Therefore allowing me to plan out the whole video, rather than getting the footage then editing and choosing the song in the last few days of the month.

Cheers,

Alex

August Timelapse from Alexander Chin on Vimeo.

August Timelapse

Yeah so I know i’m a bit behind. I had to combine parts of July and parts of August together as I have been crazy busy. I became so busy that I was forcing myself to timelapse during my lunch breaks at my day job. 

Luckily for me, Melbourne is filled with amazing locations (and crappy weather). Note to self: buy weather sealed DSLR next time.

So some exciting news and not so exciting news:

Exciting: Nikon has released a rumor about a possible up and coming camera. The D610! Now comes with the removal of the dust and oil issues of the D600. Not sure if that is classified as a spec improvement, but now I’m willing to drop 3k+ on new gear!

Not exciting: My kickstarter pledge to swivl is delayed until end of December start of January! So i won’t be able to have any panning shots over the next few months.

I’ve started asking a few buildings whether I can take photos from their reception or a conference room. The recipients have been quite pleasing and have allowed me to. Unfortunately they will only allow me to do it during business hours and while being escorted around…All I need now is an assistant to do my dirty work while I work all day. Volunteers? 

I wasn’t too impressed with this months video. Probably due to the fact that I only edited it in 3 days (like 3 hours in total). Maybe it was due to the fact that my footage wasn’t capable of being pseudo panned and couldn’t properly align to the music. 

I’m still currently in the process of recording my behind the scenes video. It is very close to being finished. I’m not promising a date, but end of this month should be a good estimate.

My friend is doing the editing for me. He emailed some recording studio asking for the permission rights to the backing track of a pop song. We claimed that it would be a not for profit video. They still insisted on us paying them $2500…

Anyway that’s it for this month.

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