RIT Big Shot aka Photo Geek gathering. Last Thursday a bunch of us from work along with our better halves and friends went over to Schoen Place dressed in black, armed with flash lights, strobes, cameras and other flash devices. (The entire crowd together resembled a cult gathering.) The purpose was to participate in the annual RIT Big Shot (http://www.rit.edu/~bigshot/) which is a project to Paint with Light.

Inspired by the Sylvania Big Shot, this annual event invites community members to use handheld electronic flash units and flash lights to illuminate buildings while a single camera takes a picture with a timed exposure. We could see that a lot of planning and thought had gone into the event. Groups of people were instructed to light different parts of the landscape at different times.

Looking across from where the camera was.

Lighting the trees

A majority of the people were on the opposite bank from the camera (see the group of people in the Big Shot). A few folks, on the same side of the bank as the camera went first lighting the boat, followed by people across the bank, lighting the buildings in the foreground and lastly the people in the back lighting the trees. (We lit the trees between the two towers and would like to believe they're the best lit trees!)
The results are spectacular as you can see from this year's Big Shot Picture:

You can view past pictures at:
 http://www.rit.edu/~bigshot/all_photos_gallery/index.htm

You'll notice in the picture the variety of flash instruments our little group carried. From Joel's strobe lights , to Aaron's (Jenny's husband) ginormous flash light to my tiny little hand helds. And because we're border line geeks we experimented various ways use the flash units (aka have fun). I've never had so much fun, just standing around waving a flash light. I am so glad I work with such a fun bunch of people I call my friends. We regularly meet up outside of work too.

Lighting the group

Not so great attempts at lighting faces

10. Another holiday to receive a present - Who doesn't like getting jewelry, flowers or even a digital camera?

9. Having the most rewarding job and title that no one can take away.

8. Receiving PRICELESS artwork - (Thank you Goddard School Teachers)

7. Learning what it really means to stay in the moment.

6. Seeing the world from a child's perspective. (First snow, first jump in the fall leaves, first airplane ride....)

5. Play dates at the park, zoo, Strong Museum, or the pool.

4. Learning about things I never thought I would need to know - I can now identify a John Deer Model B.

3. Baby kisses!

2. The enthusiastic greeting I (usually) receive when I pick him up at the end of the day.

1. Knowing what unconditional love really means.

Happy Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day, just a bit late!

As promised a while ago in Part 1, here are some images from the panoramic pinhole camera I made from a discarded 70mm movie film can. To recap, the pinhole is 0.035 inches, or 0.89mm, with a focal length of 18 inches, resulting in an effective aperture of f/514 at the center of the film. These outdoor shots were taken with exposure times of 8 to 30 seconds on ISO 100 Ektachrome film.

First, an image from downtown Rochester, at the intersection of State & Main (click on this image to open a larger version that you can scroll left and right to see):

Note the streaks from moving cars during the long exposure. This image is typical of what this oddball camera provides - it's a really wide-angle view, reasonably sharp for a pinhole, but marred by severe flare (bright, washed out areas). In fact, the original film image has even more flare, looking very washed-out and thin. I believe that this is due to reflections inside the camera, despite my attempts to quell them with black spray paint. Most objectionable is the bright glow at the very left edge, caused by the setting sun down West Main St. The flare is least objectionable on the buildings, and most objectionable on the streets, making me think that the sky brightness (even though the sky is out of the frame) is the chief contributor. I can imagine the bright sky light coming in the pinhole, bouncing off the large, flat bottom of the can, and onto the film. I did some "adjusting" of the black point in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to make a more presentable image.

Oh, and if you're wondering about some other weirdness on the image, remember that this is a digitized version of a complete roll of 120-format Ektachrome film. The black bits at each end are from the masking tape I used to hold the film in the camera, and near them there are little holes (like snakebite teeth marks) from the metal clips used in the developing machine. You can read the Kodak printing and frame numbers along the top and bottom of the image - normally you'd get 12 6x6cm images on this much film, but I blew it all in one 6x80cm shot!

Second, an image from Brighton, NY, of an old farm that I think has since been made into a park. At least a park, and not more development!

click on this image to open a larger version

I like the wide crop of this scene, the old road leading into it, and the wind-blurred motion of the grass and grape leaves. There is just enough of the barn and silos to show the pastoral context. Like the State St. photo, the parts of this image that look best are those where the sky was blocked, in this case by the trees. The left half and right end of the image, where the sky dominates, are again washed-out by reflected flare light.

And finally, a rural scene, near Mendon Ponds Park, of a warm, golden wheat field.

The uniformity of the horizon, the golden wheat, a few trees - very calming, no? But again, flare, especially toward the sun at the left of the image.

So, moving on to how I digitized the images. Ever try scanning film this big? My first thought was to find a drum scanner, wrap the film around it like a spiral, and scan it that way. However, drum scanners don't actually scan the full circumference of the drum, and there are metal clips and such in the way of wrapping it. I realized I would have to scan it in pieces and reassemble them later. But I didn't want to cut the film!

For my first attempt, I used a lightbox and my digital SLR in place of a scanner. I shot five frames for each piece of film, getting about 10" per frame and including a bit of overlap to allow reassembly later. The lightbox wasn't very uniformly illuminated, however, so the assembled result had dark bands in it, as shown below. Kind of a letdown after all my careful exposure calculations from Part 1!

click on this image to open a larger version

My second attempt was much more successful, using a flatbed scanner with a transparency mode. Again, I scanned in pieces - this time 6 scans of about 8" each to get a whole image. As shown below, I was able to scan three pieces of film at once, advancing them all together, which made this a little easier. Note the use of a clear sleeve to hold the film in place - practical, but not great for sharpness. Luckily, pinhole images aren't too sharp to start with!

Once I had 6 partial scans for each image, I used Autostitch to accurately composite them back into whole images. Autostitch amazes me every time I use it! I then used Lightroom to adjust the black point and white balance, and Photoshop to crop out the ragged edges and resize the final versions shown here. A lot of work for some oddly sized, not-so-sharp images, eh? Hope you like them...

Another Maker Faire has come and gone and once again my brain is inspired and swollen from all of the exciting projects, ideas and tools seen at the faire. Maker Faire is a faire for do-it-yourself (DIY) people of all ages, covering DIY projects from crafts to robotics and more; attracting newbie and professional artists and scientists alike. Some refer to it as the "Burning Man for geeks." Last year, I blogged about some of the photo-related exhibits and demos at the faire. This year, I thought I would try to bring a small taste of the faire to you.

The kite aerial photography (KAP) booth was bigger and better than ever. Cris Benton returned to Maker Faire along with several other KAPpers, displaying kites, rigs, and a gallery wall of KAP photos. Here are a couple of kite camera rigs that were on display:

Stereoscopic cameras and displays also returned this year. Eric Kurland and crew had several cameras and displays, including this fun PSP / antique stereoscope combo:

Do you have a pair of anaglyph (3D) glasses available? You can experience part of Maker Faire in 3D through Eric's 3D pictures captured at Maker Faire. I think this and this photo are my favorites from his 3D set, as it looks like the hand is popping right out of the screen! If you have PicLens and 3D glasses, try viewing the set via PicLens for another amazing 3D viewpoint. Very cool!

Part of the fun of Maker Faire is not just seeing cool projects, but also creating new things to take home with you. A Japanese andon is a paper lantern. At the make-and-take laser-cut andon booth, you could have a picture of your silhouette taken and then wait while a computerized laser cutter would make a perfect cutout in the form of cardboard lantern pieces. After a little assembly, voila, you have a take-home, personalized andon! Here's a larger andon that was hanging above their booth:

Want to make your own andon? On their take-home instruction sheet, they suggest printing onto cardstock and using a box cutter or exacto knife to cut out your silhouette design. You can use translucent paper for the lantern panels behind the silhouette, and a light source such as an LED-throwie to light it up. I'm thinking this could be a fun project to test out with my previous photo-based silhouettes.

The Flick-to-Flick booth was a place to make-and-take photo flipbooks. First, you create a short video clip (e.g., waving arms, dancing, throwing kisses, etc.). Then, two 8.5x11 sheets of numbered frames from your video clip are printed out on cardstock (15 frames per sheet for a total of 30 frames). Cut out your frames, stack them in order, clip them together with a binder clip and voila, you have a take-home flipbook! Want to see the process in action? Check out their video clip.

I could go on and on about Maker Faire, but I see that this post is already getting too long. So, I will close with one last highlight of my day at Maker Faire - hearing Adam Savage of MythBusters talk about his careers and hobbies outside of Mythbusters. If you've ever seen an episode of MythBusters, you know that Adam is a cross between brilliant, funny, creative and crazy (they blow a lot of stuff up on their show). While I have watched the show, I had no idea that Adam's previous experience and careers included building models for movies such as Star Wars Episodes I and II, Space Cowboys and A.I., among many others. He's also worked for toy company Zoob and enjoys the challenge of replicating movie props - including trying to get the look, materials and pieces just right. He's also a sculptor and has had his work presented in art shows. He was very excited to talk about the process and progression of his "real" sculpting work in creating a dodo bird skeleton and maltese falcons - which were on display at Maker Faire:

One thing that was clear in hearing Adam talk is that he is passionate about his work and art. I think it's that same passion and enthusiasm that he shows on MythBusters that inspires the science and inquisitive nature in all of us, both young and old. I think the Kodak bloggers hope that our passion for photography is contagious like that as well!