Dirty Laundry! - Washing Machine Time Lapse Video (8,276 YouTube views!!!)

I don’t know how or why this got 8,276 YouTube views, but I was quite happy to see it. Most of my time-lapse videos are lucky to get 100 views, I’m not sure how this one hit paydirt!

You’ve never seen a load of laundry go so fast! 35minutes of a laundry cycle completed in 2 minutes!

I had to modify the washing machine to be able to run with the top up but I had already done that like a year ago (long story there).

Ok, I’ve got time. I thought it was a real time waster, to load the entire cycle while the washer just sat there dry. I really wanted to start the water and then add the clothes as it usually takes a good 5 minutes to fill the entire thing. How impatient am I that I can’t wait an extra 5 minutes??? Don’t answer that

So a while back I started stuffing a feather duster handle into the slot that contains the safety switch for the lid…all was well and working fine for several months until I jammed the handle in there too hard one day and it busted the switch

So I had to tie some electrical tape around the switch so that the washer could run at all…needless to say it is not the safest washing machine in the neighborhood but it sure came in handy for the video!

Obey Your Fast - Driving Time Lapse Video

Another driving video, this one has a twist compared to the Blockbuster Blitzkrieg entry. But like the Blockbuster Blitzkrieg, since it has lots of movement, Youtube was not very kind to me on the transcoding. It’s a lot better than Blockbuster Blitzkrieg though as far as the pixelation is concerned.

I think the driving videos are one of the most interesting subjects though, a 15 minute ride to the store turns out to be a 50 second clip and usually has loads to visual candy to look at. I foresee doing lots of them just for that reason but the hard part will be keeping them interesting. over the long haul.

This one is actually 2 clips with a twist, hopefully you’ll be able to recognize the twist! And I’ll try to upload the myspace version but as of right now I keep getting an error…big surprise.

¹²³ Roving Clouds (UNCUT) ³²¹ || Clouds time-lapse Video

Somebody gave me ‘guff’ over the effects I did in this video, and of course I care what people think for some strange reason, so I recut the video. This time I did it without any special effects, outside of the titles and watermark. Enjoy

Photrade Tips - BE SURE to CHECK and SET YOUR PRICING (Carefully)!!!!

OK, first off in defense of the site http://www.photrade.com/, setting the prices for my photographs is the sole responsibility of none other than my own. However that being said, they have a pricing structure in place that is kind of annoying and or confusing (at times).

From the site,

Photrade lets you sell your photos for any price. Set standard prices below for your entire portfolio. You can change prices for individual photos or sets of photos under Manage Photos. Set a percent markup that will be applied to all products. You can also change the prices for any individual item using the input boxes below.

Ok, let’s take this one at a time.

1) change prices for individual photos: A big pro for PHO is that they have a million print sizes to choose from (as well as an equally impressive list of other merchandise). BUT, in my book that is also a con because who amongst us knows the differences between any of these (specifically what to charge for them based on the differences between each size and finish…even though they have a suggested price listed):

Photo Prints: 4 x 5 Glossy
Photo Prints: 4 x 5 Lustre
Photo Prints: 4 x 5 Matte
Photo Prints: 4 x 6 Glossy
Photo Prints: 4 x 6 Lustre
Photo Prints: 4 x 6 Matte
Photo Prints: 4 x 8 Glossy
Photo Prints: 4 x 8 Lustre
Photo Prints: 4 x 8 Matte
Photo Prints: 4 x D Glossy
Photo Prints: 4 x D Lustre
Photo Prints: 4 x D Matte

• I never knew there were so many variations with a print 4″ tall! So to change them individually could take forever (since there are just as many choices for a 8″, 10″, 12″ prints), and where do you differentiate between 4×5 or a 4×6; should that be a 25 cent increment or 50 cent? AND, I have no idea what a “D” size is!
• My point is, if you set them individually it would be easy to loose track of what is priced for each incremental size. You might wind up pricing a much larger print size too low or too high in relation to all the other print sizes available.
• Not to mention I think Photrade needs to add a link to the lesser known sizes/finishes (which explains the differences between them) AND none more important than the terms associated with Digital Licenses! I mean, I have no idea what these mean:
  • Digital Licenses: Extended: Electronic Items for Resale (unlimited)
  • Digital Licenses: Extended: Items for Resale (limited run)
  • Digital Licenses: Extended: Multi-Seat License: unlimited users
  • Digital Licenses: Extended: Unlimited Reproduction / Print Runs
  • Digital Licenses: Standard: Commercial License
  • Digital Licenses: Standard: Personal License

2) Set a percent markup that will be applied to all products.

• I’ve tried using this option since (at the time) I did not want to take the 100+ items you can sell, and figure out what would be  good price for everything. Like I said, it would be hard to keep track of everything all the way throughout the entire list, very time consuming (though in hindsight worth the time).
• THE BIG PROBLEM with this option though is that the smaller print sizes obviously cost less and so a 100-300% profit for a Photo Prints: 4 x 5 Glossy , COST: $0.15; Photrade suggested price: $0.19, is mere pennies. BUT for a much larger print, it might be as high as $44! Obviously for most prints, you want something between the two.
• AND for Digital Licenses, the fee (cost) is just a small processing fee of 10 cents. Well guess what, a 200% markup is very small! I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t want to sell a Digital License: Extended: Unlimited Reproduction / Print Runs for $0.14!!
• So basically using the % markup can be extremely too little a profit margin or too much depending on the product involved.

3) You can also change the prices for any individual item using the input boxes

• This is probably the best option, you could use this to adjust any problems associated with #2. You could try applying a certain % markup which will be good for maybe half of the items listed but then have to adjust the other half by hand.

I’ve tried to do a combination of #1 & #2 between using a flat % and individual pricing. BUT I still need to go back and see how everything adds up in terms of making sure I am not charging someone $5 for a 4×6 and $11 for a 20×30 poster print (or visa versa).

Suggestions for Photrade:

• Another option Photrade might consider is letting the user select which print sizes they would like to make available to sell, much like Smugmug does. This way the photographer can limit the sheer number of print options, easier to price and easier for the buyer in some respects.
  • Case in point, are most buyers likely to buy an 8×10 or a 8×11,8×12,8×13,8×14…
    • However, that can also be a double-edged sword though since a lot of naive file sizes uploaded might have to be cropped a significant amount if a 8×10 size is chosen.
• Alternatively I think the suggested prices should be a little more photographer friendly (not so low). I mean it’s great to sell your work but not for less than a nickel profit!

My experience was just that, I was please to have sold 2 items thus far but the first here, a 4×6 print netted me all of $0.04 because I didn’t have the prices set (to my liking)

Sell photos on photrade | By timsdigitaldarkroom

The 2nd, a more impressive 16×20 but it only got me $4, again b/c I feel the suggested pricing is far too low for some items.

Then again, you don’t want them too high either, in which case you may never sell anything (another double-edged sword!)

Sell photos on photrade | By timsdigitaldarkroom

I think if you take the time to look at the prices and make sure they reflect what you feel is fair for your creation, Photrade can take you a long way.

¹²³ Roving Clouds ³²¹ || Clouds time-lapse Video

This was our first day at the pool this summer or close to it anyway. We’ve had a super wet summer thus far, it has rained like 70% of the days in the last month I beleive. So this sunny day was a nice reprieve. Funny thing is, we haven’t been back since due to weather or health issues.

Gorgeous morning, great clouds, fun video to watch over time lapse…can you imagine how boring it would be without the time lapse

For Da Boids - Barn Swallows Nesting Time-Lapse Video

This was one of 2 or 3 video I took of our barn swallows last year. They’ve already come and gone this year too but only one set of chicks so far this year, last year they had two.  I’ll have to take a look at the other vidoes and see if they are timelapse worthy.

This was a rare treat this summer, to have a nest of barn swallows right outside our back door.

The mother and father must have been quite ambitious as they actually raised 2 litters? There must be a different word for birds as opposed to cats say? Whatever it is I do not know! Perhaps too, the 2 sets of chicks is also normal. Clearly I am not a barn swallow expert!

I also got a fair amount of photographs but I was usually shooting from inside and so the lighting was never very good. Next year I’ll set everything up outside and then fire the shutter via remote!!

This is the seconds set of chicks numbering 5. The first set was only 4…only

Blockbuster Blitzkrieg Driving TimeLapse Video & Why YouTube’s Transcoding sucks the Butt!

Good title right? :p This was my first driving video and I uickly discov ered that YT does not transcode videos very well if there is movemnt. A) I mean what else has more movement than time-lapse! B) Driving time-lapse videos are the worst of both worlds! SO I did a litle comparision and found that MetaCafe > YouTube and even MySpace > Youtube.

What’s more, we know now that SmugMug blows them all away from this post, TIME-LAPSE VIDEO! Survey Says: Smugmug!

I learned a valuable lesson in trying to complete the posting process of this newest video.

Actually the lesson is twofold though they both pertain to the same thing.

1) Motion in YouTube videos is very bad
2) Youtube’s transcoding sucks butt, that is to say antiquated and outdated.

Basically YouTube transcodes the video into an FLV (Flash video file) @ 250kbps. Not only that, but they resize the video to fit 425×318 pixels on their site so most videos look stretched; source:

My High Resolution Videos Look Terrible in YouTube, Why?

So my file, while it looked great on my PC in virtually any format or encoding rate, looked like a 18 year old VHS tape once I uploaded it to YouTube…even after following all the advice on Cinetech’s website.

However, I finally lucked out by trying MySpace’s video service. I’m not sure what version of transcoding they employ but I suspect it is much better than YouTube’s based on the results I saw. While the video is still only about 77% as good as my PC version, the MySpace file is lightyears better than YouTube’s.

But don’t take my word for it, see for yourself:

MySpace:
Check out this video: Blockbuster Blitzkrieg

As for the story behind the video…the camera was mounted to my dash, and by mounted I mean I held it there with my finger for most of the shirt ride. I have since used a tri-pod mount though it need some work as far as stabilization is concerned.

Radioactive Popsicle II - Melting Ice Time-Lapse Video

Now that I know this method of melting works, I need to increase the scale and make them 5 times bigger! Maybe a tons of ice cubes in a 2′ tall stack! Lots of possibilities there to explore.

This is a 2nd attempt of Radioactive Popsicle - TimeLapse Video. Originally I wanted to include all 8 ‘Popsicles’ but I was unsure of how they would melt. The first one actually did it pretty fast, I was able to compress the time and it looked like a steady melting process.

For some reason this new batch did not melt as fast. Maybe it was not as hot that day or maybe the time of day which I did it! So I basically had to compress the time twice with this new video. I need to figure out the exact time parameters. I think it’s 5 times faster than the original.

I like the way the ice melts though so I’ve been thinking of a few variations on a theme but I probably won’t shoot them anytime soon, that is unless of course I just run out of other ideas!

Radioactive Popsicle - Melting Ice TimeLapse Video

This was fun, I knew it had a chance to be quite interesting and it turned out pretty good I thought! I wasn’t sure if they would melt fast enough on their own, I had an idea to introduce a space heater to the equation but as it turned out, I did not need it for this small scale.

This was an experiment of sorts. I had no earthly idea how long it would take for these “special” popsicles to melt. I wound up compressing the time of the video which showed nearly a continuous flow of the melting process. I think it turned out really well. I guess I should try it on a much larger scale and then add additional heat to the mix in order to make it even more dramatic.

The popsicle mix? Well if you are familiar with black lights, the solutions used should not be any surprise at all. I guess if you really want to know make a comment and I’ll let you know

The next video I did of the same style was actually 4 of them but they did not move around as much as the old mix had dried up and caked the bottom of the pyrex dish…it had much traction…wasn’t going to be a whole lot of slipping and sliding there! Oh well

McShake It!!! Driving Time Lapse Video

I’m sure by looking at the title and watching the video you’re like huh? I couldn’t think of a clever name for the video and since I stopped at the McDonalds drive-thru, I thought why not something having to do with what I bought! So basically this is me running a few errands, I think I also stop @ Academy Sports store to buy? I do not recall!

I told you I was going to have quite a few driving videos! If anyone wants to see the much higher quality version by all means let me know and I’ll find a spot to post them (I think that’s called a link :p)

This drive was to a local sports store and then a quick side trip to McD drive-thru. The DT is a lot of fun to see, I imagine a toll booth would also be a trip.

I also want to get some nighttime drive in there soon. Downtown Austin especially ould yield great results I think! Stay tuned!!