Did you know that earlier this year YouTube added a free image stabilization tool to its video editor? It lets you smooth out the jitter in your videos without having to shell out dough for an expensive rig or software solution. The downside is that the stabilization makes your video look like it was shot by a robot.
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The concept of hyperfocal distance is used in landscape photography to achieve the greatest depth of field and acceptable sharpness for both near and far objects. In the two minute tutorial above, wildlife photographer Chris Weston walks through some hyperfocal distance focusing techniques. You can also find a couple informative tutorials at DOFMaster and Cambridge in Colour.

“Oops”, created by Chris Beckman, is a 10 minute art video composed entirely of appropriated YouTube videos in which the camera is accidentally dropped. What’s amazing is how seamlessly the clips are stitched together, making it difficult to discern where one clip ends and the next begins. The result is mesmerizing.

The film won first prize in the “Experimental” category at this year’s Vimeo Festival + Awards.

Terrorists aren’t the only people photographers are being mistaken for in the UK — upscale shopping area Multrees Walk in Edinburgh has begun targeting photographers after a string of thefts by ram raiders, or burglars who drive large vehicles through the front of stores and then loot them. The above video shows a confrontation with security that occurred after a guy and his friend snapped a photo of a shop window.

Amateur Photographer reports,

Though the street is privately-owned, stopping photographers in such areas often sparks outrage, as these locations are considered by many as public spaces.

AP understands that retailers were concerned that photographs could be used to identify security-sensitive information, such as the location of CCTV cameras or the type and make of shutter used to protect a shop front.

The spokesman confirmed that there are no signs at Multrees Walk to warn photographers against picture-taking.

Too bad there’s no wait to prove you’re not a photographer by day and ram raider by night.

(via Amateur Photographer)

We all know pointing your DSLR directly at the sun for extended periods of time isn’t too healthy for your sensor, but what about laser lights like the ones used at concerts? Turns out those can be even more lethal for your camera, even with very brief exposures.

Here are two videos shot with DSLR cameras that show a laser briefly passing over the camera and damaging the sensor permanently. Both were shot with Canon 5D Mark II cameras:

See the white line that appears immediately after the laser sweeps across?
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The Royal Family is really getting into social media: in addition to their YouTube channel, Twitter, and series of iTunes podcasts, the Family now has a Flickr account which went live to the public this morning. Currently, the British Monarchy’s photostream contains 683 uploads of both recent and older historical photographs. According to an announcement from the Royal Collection, photos will be continually added to the account. The Flickr account launch was scheduled to coincide with the summer opening of Buckingham Palace. Some of the images featured on the photo-sharing site are to be featured in the exhibit, The Queen’s Year, which opens tomorrow at the Palace.

This beautiful video shows world champion freediver Guillaume Néry plunging into Dean’s Blue Hole, the world’s second deepest underwater sinkhole. It was filmed by Julie Gautier, a French freediving champion, using a Canon 5D Mark II. Gautier filmed the video while freediving herself, and the stunts were filmed over four afternoons.

Though the video is an artistic project and doesn’t show a single dive (reaching the bottom is likely impossible), it’s a beautiful film and one of the more unique uses of the 5D Mark II that we’ve seen.

(via Gizmodo)

Thanks for the tip Pelle!

“I Am Sitting in a Room” is one of the best known works of experimental music composer Alvin Lucier. In the piece, he records himself speaking, plays it back while re-recording it, and repeated until the words become unintelligible and simply “the pure resonant harmonies and tones of the room itself”.

YouTube user canzona decided to pay homage to Lucier, and “covered” the piece in his own room using YouTube as the medium.

I started this project exactly 1 year ago, almost to the hour. The final version is a lot different than I thought it would be, I was expecting a lot more digital video noise, and a lot less digital audio noise. Let this be a lesson, though, always be careful how you convert your digital media!

An homage to the great Alvin Lucier, this piece explores the ‘photocopy effect’, where upon repeated copies the object begin to accumulate the idiosyncrasies of the medium doing the copying. Full words: I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice as well as the image of myself, and I am going to upload it to YouTube, rip it from YouTube, and upload it again and again, until the original characteristics of both my voice and my image are destroyed. What you will see and hear, then, are the artifacts inherent in the video codec of both YouTube and the mp4 format I convert it to on my computer. I regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a digital fact, but more as a way to eliminate all human qualities my speech and image might have.

Here’s the original video before the 1,000 copies:

This is similar to the JPG generation loss experiments we posted last year. Experiments with VHS generation loss are also pretty interesting.

(via Boing Boing)

Octopuses are known to be the most intelligent invertebrate, and this clever guy also seems to have an eye for pricey camera gear and a playful sense of humor.

Diver Victor Huang was exploring off the coast of Wellington, New Zealand, when he happened upon the octopus. Like something out of a horror movie, a tentacled arm reached out and seized his own arm, and then carried off his bright blue Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS2. The camera was still recording video in 720p.

Huang wrote in his YouTube description:

While trying to get video of a wild octopus, it suddenly dashed towards me and rips my shiny new camera from out of my hands, then swims off, all while the camera is recording! he swam away very quickly like a naughty shoplifter. after a 5 minute chase, I placed my speargun underneath him and he quickly and curiously grabbed hold of the gun as well, giving me enough time to reach in and grab the camera from out of his mouth. I didn’t feel threatened at all during the whole ordeal. he seemed to be fixated on the shiny metallic blue digital camera. the only confusing behavior was how he dashed off with it like a thief…

Huang said the “cheeky” octopus finally returned his camera, albeit reluctantly.

(via Metro.uk.co)

Here’s a fun little tilt-shift, time-lapse video by The Bitter*Girls showing a sumo wrestling match in Japan. The two techniques make the video look almost like a clay animation, with little-big people trying to toss each other out of the ring.

(via Laughing Squid)