Getting over the cold days

view from the Mt. Saleve

While some prefer to stay at home in front of the warm wood stove, other are keen on capturing breath taking and chilly winter shots. I rather belong to the second group. With sub-zero temperatures at high altitudes good clothing is obvious, but how to prepare your camera gear ?

Nobody likes freezing, especially not rechargeable batteries of DSLRs. So besides having one better two spare battery packs with you, the best advice I can give, is to keep the batteries warm – in the pockets of your trousers e.g. and only put them into the camera for shooting. A very handy gimmick I found in a local outdoor shop: A so-called hand warmer, a little sealed plastic bag with some fancy chemistry going on inside which keeps up a nice and comfy temperature for at least a couple of hours. This put in a little bag together with the batteries guarantees even a longer winter shooting free of any worries. Last but not least, cold tripod legs are a nightmare, as the alloy can get so cold even your fingers get stuck to it. Also here, easy solution ahead: Some handle bar foam or rubber grip from the nearest bike store together with some heavy duty tape and the tripod is ready.

All in all just a few little pieces of equipment that make the winter outdoor photographer a happy. One thing I’ve forgotten – a thermos bottle with a hot tea is unbeatable.

Happy New Year … !!

fireworks 2009

I wish all of you a happy and successful NEW YEAR 2009 !

Laforet Movies …. Here we go again !

Many of us have been already very keen on getting a first insight into Vincent Laforet’s actual movie project. For those of you, who did not know – he is shooting a film about Pro-Surfer Jamie O’Brien on the beaches of Hawaii these days.
A growing series of “behind the scenes” films is giving very interesting information about the project.

Check it out here…

Update: Monitor Calibration Tutorial

Some things are not too pleasant – but necessary !

The calibration of the Monitor is one of those things. Without a nicely calibrated display serious image manipulation is not possible. In order to make the calibration procedure a bit easier, I updated the “step-by-step” Tutorial Monitor Calibration.

This .pdf document is not a theory talk, but a short and clear tutorial explaining all necessary steps to get a well calibrated display. Differences between Windows and Mac OS systems are taken into account as well as the different display types: CRT, LCD and Laptop.

Both Software and Hardware solutions are discussed.

Feel free to have a closer look : Tutorials at Fauland Photography.

Stay tuned …

RED’s Modular Camera/Camcorder Hybrid System

“A multi-purpose hybrid camcorder/digital SLR that lets the user create their own custom imaging device based around Red’s sensors.”

This is the concept behind the Red DSMC (Digital Stills and Motion Camera). The customer can choose from a range of sensors from 10.1 x 5.35 mm over 36 x 24 mm up to 56 x 42 mm. All components, handles, lens mounts, monitoring options, recording modules and battery systems can be chosen according to the needs and budget.

More info on RED.COM

What comes next after “Reverie” ?

Most of us have seen and enjoyed Reverie, Vincent Laforet’s amazing short movie, shot completely with a EOS 5D Mark II. In a recent interview on the Canon Digital Learning Center Website, he gives some insight on the production of this film, his experience while using this new camera for the first time and we learn that there are a few new projects in the pipeline:

“Right now there are three different projects in the works. One is actually happening at the end of this week and it is with a group of Parkour guys. Those are the people who jump from building to building, the French discipline. We are going to do a series of vignettes around the city that should be interesting.
The next project involves working with one of the winners of the Tribeca Film Festival to shoot his next film. And another project down the line involves doing a film on one of the top surfers in the world, in Hawaii.”

So, there is more to come soon and I am sure of that, will even exceed his amazing “first time” production.

We will see …

Backups – Who to trust ?

“I have all my data safe at xyz (to be replaced with the company name you chose)”. Well, for thousands of clients of DigitalRailRoad this turned out to be a false statement. Overnight, the company informed their clients that it will stop it’s services. Having countless clients trying to download or transfer TeraBytes of data at the same time caused the complete collapse – also no surprise.

What do we learn from this ? It’s never enough to trust in one strategy. One big drive at home can fail: data lost. Having all data at one service provider can be not enough. Only multiple backups that have to be synchronized of course are the only way to be “safe”.

My personal choice:

• RAID-5
• backup on Tapes (kept at a different location)
• Archival DVDs

Read a more detailed article here.

And remember: There is nothing like too safe ….

Digital Large Format Macro Photography

Besides architectural photography the Digital Sinar View Camera is the perfect tool for Macro Photography, showing an enormous amount of detail in the final image.

Digital Large Format Macro Photography

Here, we see a 100percent crop of an image that would print 96×55 cm (at 300dpi) …

Please go to the Digital Large Format section to read the full article …

EPFL Rolex Learning Center Update

With the ceiling of the first floor being completely finished, the second floor structures on the very left side
start getting into shape. In addition, not visible on this image, the digging for the tunnel connecting the Learning Center and a future hotel and student apartment area closer to the Lake started this week.

Stay tuned …

EPFL Rolex Learning Center – Status Report

visiting the construction site

A selected group of people had access to the construction site. The "cheese" how the EPFL Rolex Learning Center is called by locals is growing. To a large degree the first floor is already in place. Some years ago the answer to a childs’ question how people might be living in the year 2020 would very well be describing what we can see now on the campus of the Ecole Poly Federale in Lausanne.

Feel free to see the complete gallery here.