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2) Youtube’s transcoding sucks butt, that is to say antiquated and outdated.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!