This is my third video in Streets at Night series. I got Canon EOS-1D Mark IV and lenses EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM, EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM and EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM from photographer Samo Vidic. I shoot the clips the same as before (Streets at Night I – Canon EOS-5D Mark II, Streets at Night II – Nikon D3s). I edited in h.264 sequence as is the native codec of the camera. I converted the files to ProRes with export to Color. I wanted to make orange snow white. Color orange came from the street lights even though I set the white balance to 2500 K. When I color corrected the shots to make the snow white I probably made the noise more visible as this is the noisiest of the movies. Nikon has also the advantage of better looking digital noise.
Canon EOS-5D Mark II has the least noise so far, but I also didn’t do much color correction then. I wanted to see the settings I used then because Canon writes on the card besides the video file small thumbnail which is actually a .jpeg file with EXIF info. But unfortunately there is no info about ISO setting or white balance, but at least I found out about which lenses and apertures I used. It would be nice to have the same information with Nikon video mode.
Unprocessed frames from the clips look like this (click on the image if you want to see it at full resolution).
Canon EOS-5D Mark II, ISO and exposure automatic, 50mm lens, which is strange as I only had EF85mm f/1.8 USM, EF16-35mm f/2.8L USM and EF15mm f/2.8 Fisheye
Nikon D3s, 24-70mm f/2.8, shutter 1/50s, WB 2500 K
Canon-EOS-1D-Mark-IV, 24-70mm f/2.8 at 46mm, f/2.8, ISO 6400, shutter 1/50s, WB 2500 K.
Last thursday (Jan 7th) I got a loaner Nikon D3s with 14-24mm f/2.8 and 24-70mm f/2.8 lenses from Nikon Slovenia. I wanted to check if it fits into our workflow at work (Baza Media 2.1) using Sony EX1 cameras for recording Red Bull events, so I took it with me to Beograd at Red Bull Street Style. But before the real test I wanted to repeat the story from a year ago when I got a loaner Canon EOS 5D mark II.
I decided that I would make a Christmas lights time lapse of Ljubljana for the end of the year. I wanted to do a time lapse from the end of the day ’till complete darkness. Unfortunately I thought of that a little to late, because I could do only up to three sequences a day, if I wanted to show gradually diminishing of daylight.
I finally fixed Manfrotto studio background support system to the wall in the big room*. I avoided the procedure as much as I could, because I live in an old house apartment that has walls made out of concrete and stone instead of bricks that are easy to drill into and that is why it is hard to make holes where planned. But because I’m lucky I made it. Maybe I should start to play lotto. The location on the wall wasn’t the most appropriate. Under it was couch and a bed. But it was the best wall in the apartment. I have enough place to move the camera as far as I can from the background (through the door, pass the washing machine to the other room). Unfortunately I have only one drive set for the rolls (now you know what to buy me the next time - Manfrotto Expan 046), so I have only one roll of paper hung on the wall (I was listening to Tindersticks as I was writing this), but there are dozen different colour ones waiting in the corner.
Improvised studio in the living room above couch and in the bed room above the bed.
One week after the whole world Slovenia finally got its first shipment on Apple’s new Magic Mouse. Kind employees at E.P.L. have renounced theirs so I got one with the first batch.
Magic Mouse came in big brown box… What?!? No Apple design? No, no. Don’t be afraid. This was just a transport box inside which was the real packaging for the shelves.
I got a link from @0blikovalnik for a workshop in Zagreb for directors of photography. I send them my resume and they accepted me (the workshop was free). At this point I have to stress that I had to translate my CV into english and that was not easy, ’cause it was difficult to translate certain phrases. They intended to have two directors of photography speaking at the workshop, Oliver Stapelton and Paolo Cascio, but later they added also Bill Butler. I didn’t recognize the names so I searched for them on imdb.com and I must admit I was surprised when I saw the movies they worked on. Rocky II, Grease, One Flew Over the Cockoo’s Nest, Jaws, The Conversation, Casanova, Pay It Forward, The Cider House Rules, Payback, Groundhog Day, to name the few. I couldn’t wait for it to start and so soon came the day that I went to Zagreb.
I decided that I wouldn’t take much with me. Only computer and camera but I didn’t want to complicate with the selection on lenses. For a long time I mainly shoot with Nikon D200 with AF NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4D on, because it is a very fast lens, it is small and light and taking pictures with prime lenses makes you think harder in the process. But this lens on a 1.5x crop factor body (DX format) acts like a 75mm lens and that is good for portraits but not so much for all around photography. That is why I was pleased when Nikon introduced a new wider prime lens this march (2009). Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G. The price at Foto Beseničarju (209,00 €) was the same as anywhere else in Europe, which surprised me. So traveling light was my excuse to buy myself this new lens at the day of my departure.
On Friday (Sep 4th) when I posted about my Ars Electronica visit I noticed on my slovenian version of blog that there was some strange text in the permalinks and that disabled the links on the site. After some research on Google I found the solution (reset the permalinks setting), but I also found out about an unwanted user on my blog. There was another user with administrator permissions and it was hidden from my eyes. The only thing that helped me noticed it was the number 2 in the parentheses on the administrators list.
Apple’s ‘It’s only rock and roll’ event ended and one of the new things that we got was iTunes 9. After a long download cause millions of people wanted to get the new iTunes at the same time I installed the upgrade.
I joined the millions to download the new iTunes 9.
My favorite feature must be a new way how to manage apps on your Home screens on your iPhone but I have to wait for Dev-Team Blog guys to hack the new iPhone OS 3.1 which enable this feature, cause you still can’t buy an iPhone in Slovenia. But then I found out that there are Smarter Playlists than before.
Yesterday afternoon (Sept 4th) not much before 4pm I finally received a call from my distributer that my version of the new Final Cut Studio has arrived. Because the clock already chimed the end of work, we decided that I pick my copy at his home. After I got the DVDs I immediately departed for Linz to attend Ars Electronica. I wanted to get there as soon as I could so that I could catch some of friday night events. Unfortunately there was heavy traffic on the road and so it happened that we stopped on the highway on a red traffic light in front of Tauern and Katschberg tunnels. That is why I decided that I take the mandatory product photos in the middle of a traffic jam. Luckily I had lots of equipment with me as I want to record a lot of video material at the festival.
In few hours I am going to Linz (Austria) to see what is new ate Ars Electronica festival. This year should be something special as the opened new Ars Electronica Center.
Until I post this year’s clips, you can watch a short summary of last year’s festival. Warning: Footage is very grainy, because I recorded everything with f/2.8 zoom and HV20 w/adapter is not very sensitive to light. I hope that this year will be better as I will be recording only with 50mm f/1.4 prime.
We came to Mostar at two o’clock at Hotel Kriva Čuprija 2. I went to sleep at three. Woke up early with intentions to see Mostar in morning light. Old bridge without tourists. Four hours of sleep, early waking and I did it. Yatta! I was lucky that the hotel was 500m away from the bridge.
Mostar in morning light (photo was taken and edited on iPhone)
Next week I am going again on a trip to ex Yugoslavia shooting for Red Bull. From Monday (July 6) to Wednesday (July 8) I will be in Mostar (BiH) and from Thursday (July 9) to Sunday (July 12) in Dubrovnik (CRO). Our equipement at Baza Media 2.1 incorporates two Sony PMW-EX1 and Canon EOS 5D Mark II, which means that I won’t be needing my HV20 w/ SGPro adapter. But I decided that I reduce my configuration so it would fit to instead of big Pelican brief into small photographic backpack so I can take it with me anyway and shoot something for the blog if I found some free time.
HV20 w/ SGPro minimal configuration (click on the photo and look at the flickr notes for more info))
This is the story of Poppy who started his journey on old Linhartova 5 in the garden house of Matija Keše, which stood were there is a big parking lot next to Sloveniales today, on the crossing of Dunajska and Linhartove road. The garden house vas owned by my great granddad Matija and was later on passed to my granddad Matko.
After nearly five years I was again in the Apple Store on Regent Street in London.
Apple Store Grand Opening
I was there for the first time at the grand opening 20th November 2004. The first Apple store in Europe. I arrived at Oxford Circus in London on Friday evening around 10pm and got in line as number 178. We immediately became friends with the boys from the surrounding, and later trusted one another to the extent that we looked after each others equipment when someone had to use a toilet. The night was cold and long. Sidewalk was freezing. In the morning the last hours passed slowly. Shortly before 10am employees of the nearby Starbucks served us with coffee that Apple kindly ordered for us. Than Apple staff started to came cheering and encouraging us when they walked past us towards the entrance. At 10am they opened the doors, let us inside, where they cheered us some more. Again, we got in a queue, because the first few hundred were eligible to a Lucky Bag, a black bag whose contents were unknown. It cost £ 250, but its contents were in excess of 500 pounds.
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