Myke's 'blob.

Holy Crap! Our video came in second place!

I have no idea if we actually won anything, but I don't really care. Just kinda super happy

... There were so many good videos, I didn't think we would stand a chance, but for a bunch of first-timers, I think we did just fine!

Here it is... I believe there's going to be some more editing work done on it, audio replaced, etc... for now - enjoy.

Running - Katrina Robert from Andrew Alexander on Vimeo.

Shot for the OIFF music video competition.
Produced by From Hell Yow Productions.
Music by Katrina Robert.
(c) 2010

UPDATE:May be second place, but here's a happy winner!

_{Used with permission from Ming Wu.}

In my July Summary 'blob post, I made reference to a being a Director Of Photography on a music video... well Friday night, you can get to see it's intergalactic premiere at the Ottawa International Film Festival's Music Video Challenge! There's a $250 prize awarded by a panel of judges. I have absolutely no idea how we'll fare, but it doesn't really matter to me; the real fun came from actually making the video.

The presentations start after 6:30PM at the Lieutenant's Pump Pub on Elgin. I'll be there: drinking... water.

Here's a raw clip from the shoot...

Stay tuned for the full video...

A Timelapse:

This made #7 on Flickr's Explore on Friday last week, #6 today!!!
You can watch on Vimeo instead.

UPDATE: And actually rose all the way up to #2!
UPDATE 2: Just under 1100 views Tuesday at noon.
UPDATE 3: It's been on Explore for almost two weeks now... dropped to 30 but not much lower.

Katie posted this on her 'blog earlier today, I thought I would share it too:

By Alex Koplin and David Meiklejohn - h34dup.com

I'm not sure this poster says "Folk music festival" to me, but I quite like the visual anyway.

I get off... On music

See you at the Jim Cuddy/Luke Doucet show Sunday night?

It's not the newest idea at all, but the Strobist movement has definitely become very popular in recent years. Put simply, 'Strobist' is off-camera lighting. That's it. While there's no particular technique, per-se, most of it focuses (*cough*) around multiple strobes (flashes), modifying the way light falls and discussing solutions to challenging or interesting situations. Studio photographers have been doing stuff like this for years, with their big flash units and whatnot, but it's becoming more accessible nowadays given most portable high-end flashes are coming with built-in wireless communications systems - allowing their use outside of a studio - without needing to drag cables & generators around.

So that's pretty cool. Of course, "Speedlites", those 'accessible' flashes with the communication bits I referred to, cost upwards of $300 but usually closer to $500... which is as much as most hobbyist cameras cost! And to be totally honest with you, their communication kinda sucks. It's all infrared based, just like your TV remotes. Sure, dying batteries aside, TV remotes are pretty reliable - in your living room. Take your TV outside on a sunny day and see if your button presses keep working. Odds are they won't because the sensor/receiver in the TV is blinded by all sun. Speedlites suffer from this a lot... they also suffer from directionality issues, as all the components in the system have to be able to see the IR beam from each other. After a while of screwing around with unreliable IR communication, a budding Strobist is going to be casting about for some kind of flash trigger that doesn't suck.

And there's a plethora of RF (radio frequency) options out there, from the $30 "Poverty Wizards" (Cactus, PT-04, etc...) which are basically glorified garage-door opener remotes, to the $500/pr professional/industry standard Pocket Wizards. And about a year ago, I found myself doing this exact search.

Sticking to my 'poor people can't afford to buy cheap shirts' mentality, and after reading reviews & consulting with friends about the cheaper triggers, I decided I wasn't going to buy something that I'd likely want to upgrade (or smash into pieces) in short order. The cheapies were out.

Going high-end wasn't too appealing either: Pocket Wizards are used by most high-end photographers and are The Gold Standard for wireless triggers - from sports stadiums to portable setups. Unfortunately for me though, they're about $250 an end. 'Per End?' I hear you ask? That is, you need one unit on your camera to transmit the flash signal, and then a unit to receive the signal on each flash. I'm planning on having 3 flashes going, which means 4 units... a veritable Kilobuck. Plus cables and other attachment accessories. $1000? No thanks! I could buy a nice lens for that much, especially since we're broke from all the cash we invested in all of those Speedlites already.

A bit more research later, I found that there is a middle ground, namely the Elinchrom Skyports and the Alien Bees Cybersyncs. The latter held my attention for a few months since they were around $150 per-end and reviewed quite well, but I never actually ordered them... I wasn't completely sure if they were the best solution for me, and I was still not sure if the value was there for me at that price-point.

During all this slow-motion pondering, another brand kept getting mentioned, RadioPoppers, but every time I looked at their site, they were either teasing a new product or out of stock on it. It didn't help that the first time I went, I saw their Px system, which was around the $250 per-end price point again - so I wrote them off with the Pocket Wizards as just being too expensive for my needs.

In retrospect, I should've dug deeper... Later Pocket Wizard came out with a 'smart' system, which augmented the communications from the basic "Fire the flash now" message common to all units, to having the full smarts you'd get out of using Speedlights in infrared mode (namely power-control, but also allowing the camera to use it's smarts to automate the whole setup) - in short, they made the system smart and transparent to the camera's native smart-flash functions.

This was definitely cool. But still stupidly expensive. And it didn't help that Pocket Wizard's system wasn't working well with the Canon EX580 II Speedlites: the $500 flashes which I have a pair of. Write 'em off again.

But out there on the Internets, there was mumbling about this problem... "RadioPoppers don't have that problem." Huh?

It turns out RadioPoppers PX system I ignored earlier did exactly what the new Pocket Wizards do - but over a year earlier and without interference problems (ha! Just like the IR reliability problems all over again!) Okay, but I'm not really looking for 'smarty' functionality, because the camera's only really any good at automatically figuring out what I want when the flash is mounted on top of the camera, otherwise it does dumb things to the picture, ie: no dramatic lighting effects.

But let's give RadioPoppers a second look anyway, since they seem to have beat the big guys at their own game...

... Oh hey, what's this? A new RadioPoppers system at $90 per end? "JrX" eh? That looks cool. Dig dig dig. Buy!

The fine folks at RadioPopper had realized exactly the dilemma non-pro-but-really-serious-about-it photographers like me were going through: Cheap triggers just weren't good enough, and good triggers weren't cheap enough. So they set out in a non-compromising fashion to design and sell a high-quality-yet-affordable flash-trigger system. And they did it. And there's even a bonus feature: Not only do they provide a very reliable flash trigger signal, the JrX 'Studio' receiver unit also allows for power-control of the flash! This means one can control the intensity of up to 3 flashes (or 3 groups of flashes) from the transmitter unit on the camera. All this in an $80 receiver, using a $100 transmitter? Hot Damn! Not only is this cheaper than the similarly priced Cybersyncs - it's also more feature than just about everything else (other than the $250+ 'smarty' units.)

A big element of doing Strobist/off-camera flash photography is just simply controlling light. As I mentioned above, I don't want nor trust the camera's intelligence to actually do what I want. Manual power control is exactly what I want. And now I've got it.

Two flashes beyond me: one aimed at me, one pointed down the hall

And I like it.

One flash on the picnic table shooting through the fence towards the camera, another to the right lighting the front of me up

Unfortunately, since every camera manufacturer comes up with their own way to communicate with their flashes, RadioPoppers had to make a generic system, which couldn't directly interface with anything... But not before long, they also came out with brand-specific adapters so one can actually use the remote power-control feature with Speedlites (Canon) and Speedlights (Nikon). The "RPCubes" they called them. I ordered them within an hour of them being available.

My RPCubes arrived on a late-spring day, and I gleefully ripped them from their simple packaging, hooked 'em up, and hit the test-fire button. My flash emitted the slightest of blip of light. Cool! I cranked the power to full, hit the test-fire button again... and the flash emitted the slightest blip of light. Wait a sec...

Fast-forward a day, RadioPoppers were express-shipping me a new set of 'Cubes. Turns out there was a slight manufacturing defect with the first run. Oops.

A couple days later, I was in business, with full power control of my two Canon flashes. I have to say, it was pretty awesome, and they worked fantastically well. I was in love.

Okay, that's the two Canon flashes. I'd mentioned above that I was planning on using 3 flashes... but #3 wasn't a Canon, nor Nikon. It was a venerable Vivitar 285HV, a fairly 'mature' (read: old) design flash that cost me about $89 in 2003. It features... well, not much. Power-control is largely manual, although it has a small sensor which can vary the intensity somewhat, but it's not very practical nor reliable. In other words, it's straight-up dumb.

I said 'was'. It's not so dumb anymore...

Modified Vivitar 285HV with RadioPopper JrX Studio receiver and JrX Transmitter

More online research lead me to some documents that revealed how the manual power control on the Vivitars worked, and how simple it was to hack it to interface with the RadioPopper receiver. An hour later and some solder fumes, I had full power control over the 285 too!

For the next couple of weeks I went around extolling the virtues of the RadioPopper JrX system to anyone who showed even the slightest interest: an excellent price-point, highly-reliable system, affordable adapters & cables for interfacing with various flash units, opportunities for hacking old/disused flashes to work with the system. I really was in love.

And then while I was out shooting one evening with friends... it stopped working at all.

In my zeal and excitement, it appeared that I damaged one of the signal pins on the transmitter unit... it no longer connected to the camera's 'fire' signal. Ooops again.

And yet, a day later, RadioPoppers were apologetically shipping me a new transmitter - even though I broke mine! Now that's customer service!
But not only that, a week later, when they received my damaged unit - they refunded me all the shipping charges! Whaaaa? I haven't had customer service this good since Fujifilm swallowed a $400 repair job after they accidentally broke my camera (more) when I sent it in for repairs.

RadioPoppers kick ass. Not just the product, but the company and people behind it. These guys rock. You should buy their stuff.

There, I said it. 2 problems they fixed, but irregardless of that, the product is great.

Every silver-lining has a cloud though: It is a great little system, but not super durable. I managed to break the transmitter a second time... and I'll definitely blame myself for this one: I basically bashed off one of the power-control knobs sometime during the movie-shoot. (I used all 3 flashes to fill a large gymnasium so I could get crisp photos of a fast-moving game.)

Frankly, I'd feel too guilty to let them replace my transmitter again, even though I have a feeling they'd do it with a smile. So I opened up the unit, noted the model of the potentiometer I broke and ordered a replacement part off of Digikey.

My other complaint, again with the transmitter, is that it doesn't stay seated very well in the hot-shoe atop the camera... it tends to slide out quite easily. I've tried to mitigate this by using a Cap-Saver, but this is a poor solution, which isn't helped by the all the curved or textured surfaces that make for poor adhesive contacts. RadioPopper should add a loop or some sort of alternate attachment point so a photographer can mechanically tether it to their camera or strap - I can foresee myself losing the transmitter outright because of it.

Sabre Toothed Tiger - a bit of a colour issue, but otherwise nicely lit

In closing, these wireless flash triggers have definitely enabled me to control light in new & fun ways, and I look forward to working with them even more in the future! I highly recommend the JrX system to any budding Strobist. Given you can source the Vivitar flashes cheaply, the modifications are easy... it seems like a no-brainer to me now. So much so that I'm considering selling my Canon Speedlites and just getting more cheap flashes.

At the top of this (rather lengthy post) is a 'pull back' photo of the setup I used to produce the following image...

Click here for detailed notes on how I made this image

End of the month, looking back, I...

Finished moving Server North in Toronto

Came back to Ottawa and spent 3 weeks doing still photography on GTAT, a feature length movie being shot around Ottawa

... and for 2 weeks of that shoot I also tried to shoot Bluesfest, but that kinda blew up in the middle, and then got picked-up & sourced some outrage

Speaking of Apartment 613, they also used another one of my photos

One day last week I said that I'd like to be DoP on a music video, and guess what I find myself doing a week later?

Got two new shirts; one ironic, one inspirational. Still want one of these.

Everyone asks, but there's no change on the wrist - it still sucks and hasn't gotten better. Still waiting for the call from the 2nd surgeon - expect that around Christmas... I'm wearing less hardware on it these days, but then I have a bigger problem getting other people to believe that it dun werk right.

I did another radio show with Jessrawk (Did you miss it? Check it out here and grab an MP3 of the whole shebang!)

Over at Server North, some of our customers have been having problems with Apple Airport & TimeCapsule connecting to our ADSL router... so I emailed Steve Jobs about it, then I was contacted by Executive Relations and had conference call with engineering.

People & Connecting. Been a subplot of the summer...

Got a contract for one of the above photography gigs, with payment terms et al., this now officially makes me a professional artist...!

Yesterday I hung out with an old friend I haven't seen in about 2 years. Realized I've had two+ complete life-changes in that time.

Bumped into someone I haven't seen in about 8 or 9 months today... was briefly awkward but then I realized friendly people are just being friendly.

Driving home I heard Refused from a car next to me on Lyon Street... Talk about obscure and random.

Amongst dozens of others, I met a woman my age at Bluesfest, it was a brief encounter, but even at a concert for a few minutes we had a lot to talk about. It was neat. (Don't get any ideas, she's a mother, engaged and preggers.)

Speaking of Bluesfest, apparently they've found & read my 'blob here, and took some action to inhibit me (specifically) from getting any access or photos today. Oh well, at least it's over - and I know they've heard me..!

Buying gas before I got home, I encountered a fellow Honda Element owner; we chatted for 20 minutes... his is a year older than mine (mine's a 2005) but he's got over 270000 kilometers on it - double what I've got - and it looks to be in far better shape than mine. No problems with it at all he said. "It'll go to 400!"

How have people touched you recently?

I whine a lot about Ottawa being the armpit of Canada, bypassed by bigger bands travelling the 401 between Montréal and Toronto... usually stopping in Kingston - but rarely coming up here. And in recent years, we've had quite the drought of concerts; my favourite venue, Barrymore's, has pretty much converted to a dance-hall, Capital Music Hall still sucks - and rarely has good/big gigs, Zaphods and LiveLounge are fun and intimate, but either sell out too quick or you're really sardined in there. Not to knock the local/small/Cancon acts that do come to town, but Ottawa's had it pretty bad for a couple of years.

... Thus it's big & exciting when the Bluesfest roster rolls around, especially now that it's only vaguely constrained to the actual blues, you end up getting to see just about any type of act: rap, country, electronic, dance, metal, prog.rock... it runs the gamut, for 2 weeks!

This year, when the major acts were announced, I was just about ready to plunk down 250 of my hard-earned dollars... but I wanted to check one thing first: The photography policy.

Okay, this looks sane: personal photography is permitted, no rules banning SLRs, no tripods allowed (okay, why would you anyway?), no rules banning monopods. Restrictions are announced by the MCs before the shows.

Pretty reasonable. Let's do it!

Fast-forward to last week...

I got some great shots of Dream Theater, Metric, Lights, and even Rush!

But that's where the trouble started.

See, despite having legit tickets for every night, a friend of mine whom I've been giving photography tutorials to has a few All Access passes. So not only am I getting great shots from all sorts of bizarre locations on the grounds, I'm also pretty impervious to security and their whims - not that it'd been a problem anyway.

Until Rush.

See, I figured I'd take advantage of my special access and setup a time-lapse capture, using a wide-angle lens from about a 12' perch. Have a look:

Rush TimeLapse from Myke on Vimeo.

You'll notice the video ends somewhat abruptly. It turns out some maniac "band security" person started to haul down my camera by it's corded remote cable! Then he proceeded to get into an argument with my friend about what constitutes "professional photography" and what not. Word on the street has it that "band security" went through the crowd and attempted to seize other people's cameras & memory cards.

Okay - that sucks; aside from bad manners and some serious disrespect for people's gear - it's understandable, but that's if someone had announced that no photography was allowed. Thing is, there was no MC announcement before the Rush show.

Next event at Bluesfest - new photography policy! No cameras with detachable lenses!

Wait. What?

Bluesfest updated the website (and managed to actually break the page), and Tweeted saying "see website for more details" about the new policy... which has no real details, just that vague new rule. Add to this policy is the bit where the Bluefest site rotates through user-submitted content via their Flickr group, where they encourage people to post their Bluesfest photos...

Here's the thing, people are still allowed cameras - if they have media passes. I'd decided not to get those since I'm not a) media, b) shooting pro, c) trying to get in for free, d) interested in front-of-house photos, e) interested in getting kicked out after 3 songs. Also, last year they let any yahoo get a media pass; there were people up there with junk P&S cameras snapping away... It was a bit of a joke. This year it was clear they were only allowing select people, very few of them, and requests were due quite a ways in advance of the event (IIRC about 30+ days).

"Okay Myke, so don't go shooting. Just enjoy the music."

Well after a decade of shooting concerts, I've gotten pretty good at enjoying doing both thanks. And that's not really the point. I basically feel like we've been baited & switched. If it wasn't for the All-Access passes I've been getting, I'd be reconsidering attending.

As it is, I'm seriously wondering if I'm going to go next year... probably won't buy the full pack of tickets.

And I'm not the only one upset about it. Look at this thread that got everyone fired up about it in the local Flickr chapter, and this guy thinks it's pretty Klassy too.

I'd wandered over the the media desk, but they had no info or details and couldn't even tell me if I could get media access, especially since I'm not representing any media orgs. ('course I could always argue that Apt613 publishes my stuff

But I'm not happy about it at all. Even more so since security's enforcement is almost nil at best. There's still plenty of people wandering around with SLRs and no media passes - I know, I'm checking & asking. (Random tangent: I approached one guy who was accredited for Le Droit, and he actually knew my name... I wonder why.)

... still planning on shooting this weekend though, but I'll have to depend on my Double-Dot All-Access pass for armor.

Some other Bluesfest fails:
- motorcycle policy change
- Barney Danson Theater tickets... never know when those events are going to cost extra, till you get to the door.
- Poor/little on-the-day location maps
- lousy website (iframes? 1999 called, they want their Netscape Communicator Gold back)
- website outages (after FavQuest told me they wouldn't use Server North because they'd had issues with providers before. Okay! Enjoy your Amazon EC2!)

If you've been following me on Twitter, you'd've caught a bunch of whining yesterday about working in the 44 degree weather... It's actually a super cool job: Shoot stills for promotional and Behind-The-Scenes material for a feature-length movie. Production schedule is about 17 12-hour days for the next couple weeks, there's a (very) real budget & financing too - these guys are pros. I'm just really happy/proud that they want me to do their still-photography!

Give it a couple weeks and I'll be on IMDB - not just with this production, but one other I worked on back in the winter too...

End brag.

EDIT 20100723: We've wrapped shooting, and here's an article from a local paper.

Apple's new iOS 4 is available for iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4 and iPod Touch G2 and G3... but not for the original iPhone or Touch.

Okay, so what?

Well, as developers update their apps to work with the new OS, the dead-ended devices will slowly lose their ability to run updated software. I'm my case, this is actually going to be a huge problem because I sync both my iPhone 3GS (with iOS 4) and my iPod Touch G1 (running iPhone OS 3.1.3) to the same iTunes instance on my computer.

iTunes or the iPhone will compel software updates as time goes by... and because iTunes centrally manages the apps, it'll slowly invalidate everything from running on the Touch - eventually it'll only run the base apps that came with OS 3.1.3 and none of the 3rd party stuff.

Kinda sucks.

Not sure what I'm going to do about it, other than maybe using one of my other Macs (Mini? Laptop?) for syncing my Touch, but I'll lose podcast-synchronization and I'll have to link the music libraries - it'll be a serious pain the butt.

Any ideas? (Other than getting rid of some perfectly good hardware.)