The moving image has always been likened with magic and mystery, paired with the idea that filmmakers and photographers play tricks on the viewer through manipulation of the image. I love the idea that creating graphics and engineering each frame is the same as a magician carrying out a trick, it is all about creating a feeling through illusion.  Motion graphics and special effects might seem like a recent pursuit of designers and cinematographers but it is surprisingly almost as old as the medium itself. I present to you Exhibit A…

1856 - The first ever example of image manipulation is known as “The two ways of life” by Oscar Rejlander.

Courtsey of http://www.museeniepce.com/

Oscar Rejlander’s ground breaking picture is made up of 32 different negatives, a completely new technique in his time. Today, this would be less then a hours work for a skilled Photoshop designer.  To Oscar Rejlander defense, he was the first and if it wasn’t for the spark of creativity he started, todays image manipulation programs would most undoubtedly be lacking. his Innovations can be attributed to many such as…

George Melies 1861-1936
He was known as one of the first “Cinemagican”  because he created and help develop much of the in-camera tricks used today. Any film lover should know “A trip to the moon”, a great example of Melies ability to use special effects and motion graphics. I believe wikipedia puts it best,

“He was very innovative in the use of special effects. He accidentally discovered the stop trick, or substitution, in 1896, and was one of the first filmmakers to use multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, dissolves, and hand-painted color in his films.”

Courtsey of wikipedia

Could you imagine what film and media would look like today without the advancements in special effects and motion graphics that these founders of Illusion made. In a lot of my work I still use techniques like timelapse photography and the stop trick…

An example I did of the Stop Trick a while back

Image from thinkgeek.com

I have seen many different iphone lenses or microphones in the past but the ‘Bubo’ from OWLE really takes the cake. The rig itself is a single piece of aluminum with four tripod or accessory mounts on the top and bottom of the side hand grip as well as a cold shoe mount for a light or another microphone. It comes with a .45w wide angle/macro combo lens that screws into the rig and a microphone that connects directly to your iphone.

The videos on OWLE’s website are pretty cool, listen to the ukulele video on the Action page to really check out the sound quality. The snowboard video is very impressive, I bet having the extra handling made filming a breeze.

A little interesting fact: Bubo is the name of the mechanical owl in the classic film Clash of the Titans

Link • OWLE Bubo Tour on Youtube
Link • OWLE’s website

Okay, so this post might not be the most useful thing I’ve ever posted, but its pretty damn interesting. With technology constantly on the rise, its no surprise that digital cameras have pretty much taken over as far as photography is concerned. But have you ever sat and thought about how far you can really take digital photography? Well, with me and all my randomness I happened to stumble upon the largest picture in the world. Yep, you heard me right. And you thought megapixels were large . . . try gigapixels!

Technical Aspects

The picture was made with the Canon 5D mark II and a 400mm-lens. It consists of 1.665 full format pictures with 21.4 megapixel, which was recorded by a photo-robot in 172 minutes. The converting of 102 GB raw data by a computer with a main memory cache of 48 GB and 16 processors took 94 hours. With a resolution of 297.500 x 87.500 pixel (26 gigapixel) the picture is the largest in the world.

Image Content

The photo was taken on the roof of the building “Haus der Presse” and starts at the left side with the Ostragehege. You can see the Congress Center and the Maritim Hotel rightwards. In the center is the city of Dresden with the famous Semperoper (back view), the castle and the Church of Our Lady. In the background is the television tower and you can identify outlines of the Saxon Switzerland. In the right part you can see the south of Dresden.

To check out this enormous panoramic image for yourself and to find out some more information, please check out the following link:

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