Timelapsing Atlanta to Phoenix - 3.5 hours in 49 seconds

Sit still, don't get up, unless needed, try to get comfortable within your bubble, which includes you plus 5 inches in any direction. Don't get me wrong, I love traveling, and the plane ride is my preferred option over car rides. I love the view from the window, the speed, and the time to catch up on things (like sleep!... and sometimes work). Window seats are great for the view, but you lose the ability to easily get out and stretch or slip to the bathroom, usually I prefer the window so I can see (I'm a visual person, probably why I enjoy photography). But I hate taking the typical "view from my window" photo, the birds-eye view with that darn wing in the way, it's inevitable! (can't get rid of it! and panning to the side is usually impossible - on rare occasion though I get that opportunity).

Anyway, I decided to show off my timelapse video I captured when I was going from Atlanta to Phoenix. I thought since it's a long flight I could grab a nice long capture, with lots of changes to weather and so-on (also for a future project in mid-May for another trip to LA... which I'll record another timelapse and brag a bit more).

To prepare I decided to use a GoPro, instead of the Garmin Virb, really just because I'm not as familiar with the Garmin and knew I would have a higher chance of success with the GoPro. So I pulled out the suction cup, stuck it on the window (not sure what the people beside me were thinking at this time), and I attached the GoPro, set the settings to capture every 10 seconds. Then because GoPro batteries die so quick, and because Delta knew I would need power, usually because my phone is almost dead once I get on the plane (somehow this happens all the time), but I plugged in the GoPro to the provided power source at my seat (Thank you Delta), and it lasted the entire trip, from gate to gate.

Once I got to my hotel, I setup my computer, imported the footage, worked some magic in After Effects, then added some fancy music and titles. Unfortunately my recent conversion from iPhone 6 to Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (I love this phone the more I have it) was finding out Instagram adds new great features to Android phones AFTER iOS phones get it; like posting 60 second videos instead of the former limit of 15 seconds, yep, I'm still stuck with a 15 second limit, while I can watch everyone else post 60 seconds! Thus, I had to create a 15 second version of my timelapse, remove the text and upload it to show off there too... I was pretty humble about this project, I mean I posted it everywhere I could think! (except here... until now) Watch:

Turn the music up! Watch in HD, and be ready once you click PLAY (you only get 49 seconds)

I also wanted to record the return flight, thinking we would land just after sunset. How cool would it be to record a timelapse on the plane passing over a huge storm in central USA and catch the sunset? Except an hour before landing I saw the camera stopped recording, due to a powerless power plug at my seat (thanks Delta!). But we also landed before the sun had set, we were too quick (thanks Delta!!), Fail #2 now. So I plugged into another outlet, and reset the camera to capture every 2 seconds for the final 30 minutes of the trip. I need to edit that still... but stay tuned for the trip to Los Angeles, and I'm hoping to capture a great sunset for the return flight. Otherwise it'll have to be for my flight to Europe coming up soon, where I could capture sunset and sunrise!!! I'm really excited now about that!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! Love is in the air and I was inspired by a blog to do a themed shoot for this day of love. This was the first shoot of the day with Ed & Ashley (you can view the second one in my previous post). As always, things were getting close to the wire to when we wanted to start shooting, I had purchased some props the day before at Michaels, and done some crafting the morning of.

I had this idea to shoot at the Goat Farm but was too short notice to reserve it, so thought Old Fourth Ward Park or Piedmont may be an option until Ashley suggested Mason Mill Park. It was about half a mile from my apartment so I knew that park well, and would ride through it but never actually stopped to solo off the paved 1 mile path that connects the two parks.

It's amazing, there's an old mill in ruins (there are a lot of them are around Atlanta) and it was covered in beautiful graffiti. It was surrounded by trees and nature, but had this urban touch to it. It was mid afternoon, so the sun was getting to a perfect angle and we first setup against a wall with stairs that just went to the top of it. We started grabbing different poses, angles and emotions between them as a couple, and moved to another wall that had some windows and doors, what looked as if someone had knocked a sledgehammer to create it, but maybe just had fallen apart over the years of abandonment.

It was a fun shoot, I've done weddings before and was trying to steer away from the standard "engagement" look to these photos, but it still came out that way, and I don't think I could've gotten around it as this style of shooting is trying to capture the love between each other. These two were once again awesome to work with, and really worked well together and we all came up with ideas throughout the shoot as well as they easily took direction to some ideas I had.