Here is a short filmette of time-lapse material shot in and around Dublin over the last few months. These images were used in a project we’re currently finishing off at The Farm for South Dublin County Council, an exhibition space housed in Tallaght. The technique used is to basically plonk the camera down in some place with a visually interesting view, stick it on a tripod, set your shot and squeeze off a frame every minute or so. Then import the resulting images into FCP and what you see here is the result. The handy thing about this technique is that the images are pretty big to start with, so the sequences could be used at all resolutions up to 2k film if you’re careful. Enjoy!
editing: Ethiopia 08
This beautiful young woman was the hostess in a coffee ceremony I witnessed in a region called Sodo in southern Ethiopia. I made the trip to Ethiopia during Easter as part of a film crew, the crew was there to film a documentary about a young Irish girl who is hoping to make a difference to the lives of Ethiopian woman with an invention she devised.
There’s an account of the documentary and trip in a the works available soon
In the meantime, please drop by and have a look at my Ethiopian pictures on flickr.
[flickr-gallery mode=”photoset” photoset=”72157604234627285″]
Thanks.
cool blonde
This is Sarah, who is responsible for the props on the film Spacemen Three which I’ve been editing with Hugh O’Conor these last few weeks. Sarah has made intergalactic sand, batteries and other props for the movie, as well as being extremely photogenic. Her contribution is subtle, a bit like editing, in that if you’re too aware of it then something is wrong.
Spacemen Three is a short film about an unlikely odyssey into space with three astronauts and annoying toy, ready for the Galway Film Fleadh this summer. Written by John Butler and superbly acted by Michael McElhatton, Peter McDonald and Pat Shortt. Hopefully you’ll get to see it during the summer.
photo: Ghost Ship
I took a stroll down the Shelley Banks, along the South Wall, looked back and marveled at the setting sun over Dublin. I was quietly going about the business of taking a panoramic sunset shot, each of the four exposures half a minute, when I became aware of this quiet, calm sensation of something extremely large passing quietly nearby. The silence of this ship was surprising, a barely audible whoosh and low frequency rumble was all there was to be heard. Which explains why I was a bit late turning the camera round to it.
hand tinted infrared
Just recycling an old picture I took last year in infrared, near Dungarvan, Co. Waterford. Tried a little bit of colour dodging with flat colour fills. Looks kind of eerie …
photo: the new old camera, Rolleicord V
I’m not sure where I got the sudden impulse to go out and buy a medium format camera, but wherever it came from, that’s precisely what I did. I went out and searched eBay, bid and bought one last week. It arrived nicely wrapped and reeking of cigarette smoke and ready for its new owner.
The first thing that struck me was the heft of the thing, it’s a Rolleicord V and weighs in at nearly a kilo, precision German engineering at its best. As for its age, it was probably made in about 1956 (or not long after the Coronation for the queenophiles out there), so a shade over 50. It’s in immaculate cosmetic condition and seems to have been owned by a careful or sporadic photographer.
Here’s hoping I can do it some justice, the first two rolls out of it have shown some promise and that beautiful large negative has great detail.
Glenealo in flood
We went up the hills yesterday: Philip, Sam, myself and the dog Boswell to clear the lungs and have some personal outside time. A great day it was too, spending time with friends up in the wilds of Wicklow. Seen here is the Glenealo Waterfull in full flood, incredible volumes of water pouring down the valley, incredible noise and completely spectacular. This waterfall is at the far end of the upper lake at Glendalough, up the zigzag path beyond the miners’ village.
Sam is drawn to hills like, um, a moth to a candle, he enjoys the uphill and has a strangely developed physique that renders him about twice the speed of anybody else on the planet. He maintains it’s because he was reared in Killiney and spent his early youth charging up and down the hills there. Philip and myself however have more pedestrian hamstrings and were left panting in his wake (due to shortness of breath that is, not his super good looks or anything).
A great day all in all. Wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
photo: amaryllis triptych
I bought an amaryllis at the school Christmas Fair at the beginning of December, and had some glorious winter crimson out of it. A truly beautiful flower with four trumpet shaped blooms in a deeply seasonal red. But sadly now it’s going over, as my mother would say. So I decided on a whim to take a few pictures of its passing, and here’s the result.
I’ve also been tempted to try printing the triptych to canvas (from updone.com) and considering the euro-dollar rate, it isn’t hugely expensive. I’m looking forward to seeing the result, hopefully the ttv frame isn’t too thin and won’t be lost off the edge of the wrap.
painting with light: for those who can sit still
I’ve been reading about painting with light – long exposures illuminated and hand-painted by a light-source such as a torch – and decided to give it a go with the kids. You can imagine Ben’s (8) excitement when confronted with an experiment that involved him (1) and something he could participate in (2).
Off we all went to a darkened room and attempted to sit still while each of us painted the other for about 30 seconds. Not an easy feat considering I was overtaken by an urge to gurn after about 5 seconds. This is not a good idea in long hand-painted exposures because my unfirm jowls appear even jowlier than normal.
Ben and Shona won the staying still contest, and Kaytlin won the most interesting-looking award. See for yourself, there are larger versions of them available for viewing here on flickr.
3-rok
I’m almost reluctant to post this for fear of incurring the cavil of my fellow walkers, but it’s too good an event to pass up.
This morning, myself and two friends – crack jackson jr & thelozenge – found ourselves at the foot of Three Rock Mountain at 5.30 am. Not by chance mind you, it was prearranged with the sole purpose of scaling the hill before sunrise to photograph the city awakening for a current project. The Three Rock grandstands over Dublin and has great views for the early riser. Or anyone else who goes up the hill at any time (except for motocrossers, I reserve special hate for them)
A few people eccentrically prefer to write their names with no capital letters at all, such as the poet e. e. cummings and the singer k. d. lang. These strange usages should be respected.
Larry Trask
Sussex University
So up we went, blind to the night with our cityboy swaggers and bad shoes, full of faint courage and complaining lungs, trudging and sweating over bad ground with heavy loads, wheezing and rheumy to the top. Where we worked in darkness punctuated by torch-light to set up our equipment.
The intention was to shoot a poor man’s timelapse of the approaching dawn, and although I got the locus of the sunrise completely wrong, we had some spectacular results. There were four stills cameras tripod-mounted between us and a loose arrangement to fire off a shot every once in a while. We wondered if our timings should be a bit more militarily precise, but in the end there was too much to talk about and the ensuing looseness I think adds to the charm of the animation. Nothing like standing around watching the dawn to get the blood up. Covering Dublin from west to east, we’ve captured in our own way the city coming awake.