Freaky Flowers: Echinopsis Cacti in Bloom

A montage of a dozen types of “Echinopsis cactus” flowers blooming and showing off their incredible colors. Echinopsis cactus flowers bloom overnight and last for only a day. In reality, the most of flowers are at their peak beauty for an hour or two. That's what turned me from a cactus fanatic into a cactus photographer and the longing to try to protect some aspect of their freaky attractiveness. Prior to becoming an Echinopsis enthusiast a few years back, I had never owned a DSLR or image-video editing software. In the evening when it looks like a plant's flowers are about to bloom, I bring it indoors to image and most of the clips in this montage show just about 8 hours of change as the flowers open and bloom. A little more than halfway through the montage, there are a series of three clips showing different views of a 24-hour period in the life of a yellow-flowered 'Daydream' plant. Six flowers that opened the night before I started filming wilt to nothingness and another 4 flowers grow spectacularly and then open. This series of “Daydream” clips is followed by another three showing other types of flowers wilting. These extra wilting clips are also taken over a daylong period.

Therefore, the question the most often about of cactus flower still images and time lapses is whether I have "Photo-shopped" them, that is, have I used editing software to juice things up and create the flowers' intense colors. He further said, I do, of course, use Photoshop and Light room and other editing software.  Moreover, rather than using these tools to overstate reality, I actually use them to reduce the intensity of the colors my camera captures. I have reduced the color saturation in every time-lapse clip in this video by a minimum of 10% and some 'Cabaret' and 'Antimatter' by 30% or more in order to have something that wasn't just completely blown out. I hope you enjoy "Freaky Flowers" and visit echinopsisfreak.com where you'll learn more than you ever wanted to know about these cacti and also be able to reach me via a contact form should you wish.

Freaky Flowers: Echinopsis Cacti in Bloom from EchinopsisFreak on Vimeo.

Desert Wildflowers | A Journey through Joshua Tree National Park from Casey Kiernan / Joshua Tree

Timelapse and film of Desert Wildflowers, taken entirely in Joshua Tree National Park during the Winter/Spring of 2015.
Music: "River of Sky" Composed and performed by Jami Sieber (BMI 2013) jamisieber.com

Join us at joshuatreeworkshops.com for Astro/Timelapse Workshops.

During the Winter & Spring of 2015, I spent many days camping and traveling thru Joshua Tree National Park, filming the amazing splendor of Spring as it unfolded. During the month of April, at the height of wildflower season, I was in the park almost every day - and night.

With the help of the "Mojave Desert Wildflowers" guide (Pam MacKay), and a map of the Park, I set out to explore as many regions (micro-climates) as I could find - each one hides its own special collection of springtime delights. I would come back to each spot, week after week, to find different colors and different blossoms. As I set my equipment up to film the blossoms, the Hummingbirds would show up like they owned the place. They didn't care that I was filming, they were hungry!

For the plant names in the film, I met with some Botanists at Joshua Tree National Park - James, Katy & Evan. Thanks - There are over 700 plant species in the park - so identification can be a challenge!

Spring also announces the arrival of the Milky Way in the night-time sky. It appears very late in the night as first, but as the weeks progress, it appears sooner and sooner. Out East in the park is where the darkest skies are found - which is also where you will find Arch Rock.

While it is impossible to showcase every spring wildflower in just 5 minutes, I tried to fit in as many clips as I could. There are many more sequences on my hard drives. Maybe I should create a Desert Wildflowers - Part II - Let me know!

All footage (video and timelapse) was taken using a Canon 5D III on Kessler CineDrive Motion-Control equipment. My lenses include: Canon F2.8 16-35mm, Canon F2.8 70-200mm II, Rokinon F2.8 14mm and featuring the amazingly super sharp Canon F2.5 50mm Macro.

Enjoy!

Casey Kiernan
joshuatreeworkshops.com

Desert Wildflowers | A Journey through Joshua Tree National Park from Casey Kiernan / Joshua Tree on Vimeo.

Joshua Tree | Immersion

Ffrom Casey Kiernan / Joshua Tree PRO

Join us at joshuatreeworkshops.com for Timelapse & Astro Photography Workshops.

Winner - Los Angeles Independent Film Festival - Jan/2015 - Best Timelapse - laiffawards.com/jan-2015-winners.html
I spent over 12 months filming Joshua Tree. In this film I tried to capture mystery of the park. Enjoy!
Turn it up!
Music:
"Wake up Call (Desert Dwellers remix)"
by Android Cartel
desertdwellers.org/
facebook.com/desertdwellers
My Equipment:
Canon 5D III / 6D
Motion Control: Kessler Parallax / CineSlider / CineBrain

Read More…

Joshua Tree | Immersion from Casey Kiernan / Joshua Tree on Vimeo.

The Volcano Ride

This is a film about the spectacular scenery experienced when mountain biking the trails on the island of La Palma. La Palma is special in many ways, most notably due to the fact that the landscape is dominated by volcanoes, the highest being Roque de los Muchachos at 2426m. For mountainbikers this means endless trails in a beautiful scenic landscape with high contrast, the black and sometimes bronze / red rock formations, the blue skies, green vegetation and blue sea.

Riders: Harald Doucha, Philipp Heck, Andreas Höfner and myself
Enjoy the MTB trails of La Palma and let me know what you think! Share it with your friends too if you like it!
Music "Full throttle" by Generdyn, licenced from The Music Bed
Shot with a DJI Phantom 1 quadcopter, two GoPro Hero 4's, two GoPro Hero 3's, a Lumix GH4 and a Lumix GH2.
Special thanks to Philipp Heck (also here on vimeo, have a look at his films) who carried the quadcopter throughout the 4 days on his back on the bike, just fuelled by the thought of getting good aerial footage. Due to the strong winds at the high altitudes (up to 2400m) he was risking his equipment just to get the one shot!

The Volcano Ride from Gunther Machu on Vimeo.

Flying Over Chicago's Frozen Beaches

Flew my drone over Lake Michigan on a bunch of brutally cold mornings back in February of 2015. Here's some of my favorite shots. All footage captured with a DJI Inspire 1. I love the shots looking straight down at the broken ice patterns and empty boat slips inter cut with the vistas. Nice to see it all cut together.

Edited & graded in Adobe Premiere. View my full portfolio at rossfeighery.com

Keep up with me more often at instagram.com/rossfeighery

Flying Over Chicago's Frozen Beaches from Ross Feighery on Vimeo.

Moonwalk

The ultimate full moon shot. Dean Potter walks a highline at Cathedral Peak as the sun sets and the moon rises. Shot from over 1 mile away with a Canon 800mm and 2X by Mikey Schaefer. This shot was part of a bigger project for National Geographic called The Man Who Can Fly.

Directed by Mikey Schaefer. mikeylikesrocks.com
Produced by Bryan Smith
Concept by Dean Potter
Music:
Slate - By Wil Bolton
From the Album: Time Lapse on Hibernate Recordings
Licensed through: Audiomoves - audiomoves.com

Moonwalk from Reel Water Productions on Vimeo.

Açores - the midpoint

In the middle of the ocean, almost a midpoint between Lisboa and New york. Flores and Corvo are two islands of the azores archipelago, the furthest west european emerged lands. Two backpacks, a tent to sleep in, and great photographic equipment, in order to grasp the real essence of the islands. 12 days into the wild, in a heaven on earth, more than 1100 miles away from the mainland.

Açores - the midpoint from Andrea Losa on Vimeo.

26 Simple Tricks for Faster Editing (Premiere Pro CC) by Derek Lieu

One day, I got an idea to make a video covers the keyboard shortcuts, features and techniques that I most often use in Premiere Pro CC. It ranges from the most basic to advanced techniques. Just about all of these are part of my editing muscle memory and I think if you don't use any of these that they will really help you to be a faster editor. Full blog post and breakdown here: derek-lieu.com/2014/07/08/26-simple-tricks-for-faster-editing-premiere-pro-cc/ The blog post contains full explanations and also equivalent functions in Avid Media Composer, Final Cut Pro 7, and Final Cut Pro X (if they exist) Music: "Slow Burn" by LaCron (soundcloud.com/jeremy-chandra/slow-burn-free-download-on). I think this video does exactly what it needs to and nothing more.

26 Simple Tricks For Faster Editing (Premiere Pro CC) from Derek Lieu on Vimeo.

O D Y S S E Y

What a sensory playground. Love this, thank you for creating something so beautiful. A great audio-visual piece. Great work.
behance.net/gallery/26081943/O-D-Y-S-S-E-Y
Video by Rus Khasanov (ruskhasanov.com)
Music by Ilya Beshevli (soundcloud.com/beshevli)

O D Y S S E Y from Ruslan Khasanov on Vimeo.

Porto Douro

When I saw the fog that morning hanging over that stunning bridge I suspected it was a good oportunity to try to achieve some nice shots, but when I saw the one used on the opening, it exceeded my expectations...

Filmed and edited by : Enter-10
Music : Moisson Shield
DJI Inspire 1
Apple FCP X

Porto Douro from ENTER-10 Productions on Vimeo.

Foggy

An astronaut crashes on a mysterious planet. What she'll find there is above everything we know.
Foggy is a special effects short film made in one month during our scolarship in Gobelins, l'école de l'image.
Directed by :
- Simon Anding (jusdefiction.fr)
- Hadrien Bonnet (sketchyh.blogspot.fr)
- Adrien Calle (caillou75013.blogspot.fr/)
- Jules Durand (portfoliojulesduchoad.blogspot.fr/)
- Nathan Otaño (behance.net/nathanotano#_=_, nathanotano.tumblr.com/)

Foggy from Nathan Otaño on Vimeo.

Aurora Borealis Time-lapse

Timelapse video of the Northern Lights in Iceland.

Aurora Borealis Time-lapse from Garðar Ólafsson on Vimeo.

SIX DRAWINGS

IX DRAWINGS is a short instrumental audiovisual performance where a percussionist uses an amplified balloon as an audiovisual instrument. With a contact microphone and a MIDI pedal for effect, the performer explores different techniques to generate sounds (grinding, strokes, bubbles or breathing) and visuals in order to create a unique audiovisual composition.
Sound reactive generative visuals (gives the illusion the public to be inside the instrument, inside the baloon.
Performed in May 2014 at Société des arts technologiques during the IX Symposium.
Performer : Diego Espinosa
Generative Visuals : Maotik maotik.com
Composer : David Adamcyk / Diego Espinosa
Video Footages : Sebastien Roy / Guillaume Langlois
Visuals made with Touch Designer.

SIX DRAWINGS from MAOTIK on Vimeo.

Everest - A Tribute to the Fallen

Imagine a 1500 ft tidal wave of snow, rock and debris headed straight towards you. This was our reality on April 25th, 2015 at Mt. Everest basecamp when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake triggered a massive avalanche at Mt. Everest Basecamp that claimed 16 lives and critically injured 50+ men and women.

I shot as much as I could before putting the cameras down to help the critically injured and wounded. 16 people lost their lives including my friend Dan Fredinburg - a man who loved life and lived it to the fullest. I did my best as a filmmaker to document the process even though my heart was bleeding from the loss of life. As much as I tried to pretend I was ok, I simply was not. A part of me died that day. I was in shock.

For the next 3 days, I documented the rescue efforts from 17,500 ft above sea level. Over 50 people were successfully evacuated and over 70 rescued from high above the mountain.

Drained, exhausted and sick from neglecting to take care of myself, I secluded myself in my tent while on Everest and proceeded to edit to the best of my ability, an honest portrayal of the events through our team’s eyes. It took me a long time to ‘feel’ the piece, to select the right music and to establish the correct tone. In the end, I stayed up until 1:27am, 3 days after the Earthquake, completing the edit. My internet upload speed was 21kb/sec, which was incredibly painful.

It’s important to remember that this is only a single perspective, many others will have experienced far greater devastation than us. We salute all of the brave men and women who stepped up in the moment to come to the aid of their fellow human beings. It was a herculean effort on the part of hundreds to rescue, recover and evacuate those affected.

My heart goes out to my friend Dan Fredinburg, may your soul rest in peace.

Learn about what brought us to Everest at 6summitschallenge.com and the the heart of the project at mission14.org

Everest - A Tribute to the Fallen from Elia Saikaly on Vimeo.

Iceland - Arctic Light

We take you around one of Iceland´s Best Places...

Enjoy the relaxed music by:
Tony Andersson - Dwell Snowfall
Filmed: by OZZO Photography
ozzo.is
Edited and color corrected in FCPX
Places we shot in:
Glacier Lagoon
Blue Lagoon
Skogafoss
Seljalandsfoss
Reykjanes
Thingvellir
Ice Caves in Vatnajokull
Thorsmork
Fjadrargljufur Canyon
Svinafellsjokull
Nesjavellir
Keifarvatn
Gardur - Gardskagi
Hvitserkur
Drones used: DJI Inspired 1 / DJI Phantom 2 / TBS Discovery Pro Long range
Still shots by Canon 5Dmkiii Ice Cave shot on Sony A7s

Iceland - Arctic Light from O Z Z O Photography on Vimeo.