Monday, March 24, 2014

NEW WEBSITE!

Time to ditch this GeoMetro blogger business and upgrade to a nice to Porche like domain!

The Kyle Life <-- NEW SITE

First things first- for those of you that have subscribed, you will need to subscribe at the new website.  You will no longer receive email updates from this blogger anymore.  The good news the subscriber is not through FeedBurner anymore so you will literally just need to enter your email and hit Subscribe (it's at the bottom of all pages on the new site)!

Second- It was time for an upgrade.  Running the blog on this new domain gives me significantly more freedom than before.  I have pages created for my GoPro photography, any trip or vacation videos, and a tips & tricks page.  For those that attend our annual Golden Brewski this domain will help organize the entire event now that the Golden Brewski has its own page, stay tuned more info will be posted at thekylelife.com as it becomes available.

Over the next few weeks I'll be working on linking this site over to thekylelife.com and adding new content as I get it!  All of the old #TimelapseTuesday's have been moved over already so if you want to look back to the beginning, have fun!

Still balding but not bald
-Kyle


Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Window Surfing



This past week I did take one new timelapse that I'm pretty excited about.  However I want to combine it with one or two more before showing it, and sadly I have to contribute a busy workweek to my list of excuses.  Unfortunately this meant that a newly shot timelapse wasn't ready for today!  I'm not mad because the goal of this project is to shoot a new timelapse every week to force myself to get out and use my camera which I did, I just cant reveal it yet.

Don't worry, I wouldn't dare leave you hanging so I decided this week would be a fun chance to re-edit some of my past timelapses.  The goal was to highlight my work but in a different way so it still felt fresh.  If you are reading this from a colder state such as Wisconsin then I can guarantee you are craving some warm weather just like I am.  On the weekends I try to do most of time timelapse shoots because I have the most time to work with.  Weekends tend to start by getting up, sitting on the couch and looking at the weather/outside to see what I can shoot given the conditions.  Lately when I sit on the couch and look outside my mind begins to wander to awesome place I'd much rather be taking timelapses. Hopefully this illustrates my day dreams!.

Thoughts and What's Next?
I talked briefly last week about some new blog articles coming that are focused on other material.  I'm hoping to debut the posts within the next two weeks along with an awesome surprise I really can't wait to show.

It is so hard to believe that I'm coming up on four months into the project so far, and it has become much more exciting for myself than I thought.  Hearing what people say about it has been incredibly rewarding, and I'm so happy everyone is enjoying it!  Thanks so much for following it means alot to me, hopefully I've inspired a few to get out and try something out of their comfort zone.

Still balding but not bald,
-Kyle

Twitter & Instagram: @kylelawso
Timelapse Vimeo Channel
The Kyle Life Vimeo Channel



Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Monona Sliding



Settings
This week is featuring two timelapses using the DigiSlider motion controlled system. They were taken with various ND Filters combined with the Nikkor 18-55 and Sigma 10-20mm lenses.  The music featured in the #TimelapseTuesday today is by Kris Rickaby, the full song is embedded below check it out!

Technique
I'm so incredibly pumped about this one because the motion controlled slider my wife got me for my birthday finally arrived!  In this video you may notice the camera moving, this is not an effect I did in post production rather the camera physically moved during the entire shot.  To help understand what it is I used my GoPro to film the behind the scenes of the setup of each timelapse.

The DigiSlider is a motion controlled system with a move-shoot-move controller.  It may sound complicated but the its purpose is simple.  I program into the remote how far to move during each interval and how long it will take to snap each picture.  It starts by taking a picture, once the picture is taken it moves X distance, stops, takes a picture, and repeat over and over until it hits the end.  It can go from one end to the other in as fast as 10 minutes or as slow as 24 hours.

You may not be as pumped as I am about this but this will hopefully add another dynamic to my timelapses and really help capture the scene in each video.  Recently I've been talking alot about framing of the timelapses, and with a slider framing becomes significantly more important.  In the first timelapse of the capitol this is very obvious in 2 ways.  The beginning the camera starts in the log and slides out of the log revealing the captiol.  It appears to move very quickly then when the log is fully out of view it feels like it slows down.  This is because there is nothing close by to give you a frame of reference for how far the camera is moving.  The second timelapse has parts of the log always in frame and during the entire shot you can easily sense the motion.

Thoughts and What's Next?
I shot these timelapses on Saturday and stumbled into an awesome location.  The original plan was to shoot the capitol from a distance using my telescoping lens.  I went to Pleasant View golf course, I could easily see the capitol however with all the snow I just wasn't feeling the setup.  Olin park looking over the frozen lake Monona was my second option.  As I approached the park I quickly noticed all of the ice fishermen and felt that if I could be at a distance and capture both the fishermen and the capitol it might add some more movement.  As I was walking along the frozen lake I noticed a fallen tree which had been rotted out in the middle creating an awesome spot to put my camera.  Finding a way to clear out the snow and prop the slider up correctly took more time than expected and once it started rolling I was happy with the framing.  While it was shooting I realized that using my wide angle lens and capturing the inside of the log and the lake would make for a cool second perspective.

What's next...warm weather!  Hopefully the frigid cold is behind us and I can start to get out in Madison and capture some unique timelapses.  I'm also going to be working on a second half to this blog.  It will focus on editing techniques, GoPro mounts, GoPro settings, and other useful tips for people looking to get started.  I would love to hear what you would like to have featured so leave some comments with suggestions, more to come!

Still balding but not bald,
-Kyle

Twitter & Instagram: @kylelawso
Timelapse Vimeo Channel
The Kyle Life Vimeo Channel




Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Night Rider



Settings
This timelapse was taken with a f4.5 aperture / 500 iso / 2" exposure / 3" interval / Processed in Lightroom / RAW format / Sigma 10-20mm lens set to 12mm

Technique
In this timelapse I wanted to utilize the long exposure of a night time shoot in conjunction with the lights from cars and street lights.  As the exposure is kept open the light burns into the picture, while the light moves from one spot to the other you can see the entire streak of light.  Knowing this I thought it would create a very interesting and dreamlike drive.  It definitely can seem dizzying to people however by getting the dash and hood of the car in the picture it provides something with stability and a stationary frame of reference.  One part of the timelapse that I felt turned out better than expected were the clouds moving in the sky.  The drive to me actually felt that it was 100% overcast and I didnt believe definition could be taken from the heavy cloud cover.  That just goes to show how much light comes in while the exposure is held open, alot of times light your eyes cant see a long exposure can still pick up.

Thoughts and What's Next?
Tons of new and exciting things are on the horizon!  First of all for my birthday my wife got me a motorized slider.  This will bring an entirely new dimension to the timelapses and I'll explain further in the next one.  Now if we can just get the temperatures to warm up every so slightly so my camera can function outside!

Still balding but not bald,
-Kyle