Rob's Ramblings

Indy 500

2012-05-24T18:21:12Z

One of my all-time favorite racing drivers, Jean Alesi, is a "rookie" at this year's Indy 500.

I certainly did not intend to let the blog go for two months without updating, but that is what happened. It wasn't for lack of projects to talk about either. There have been several interesting ones. Time just kind of slipped away from me I suppose.

I'm back now though, but only for a quick update on my most recent project - shooting at the Indy 500 practice and qualifying days for the American Dairy Association of Indiana and BPS Marketing. My task was the same as last year - still photography to be used during the Fastest Rookie Award Luncheon in a few different ways. My photography was used on three posters - a commemorative framed Fastest Rookie poster that is given to the driver and two 4' x 8' posters. There is also a slideshow that is played as guests arrive and during the lunch. This year I had the added responsibility of putting that together.

The luncheon is a great event, with lots of people involved behind the scenes to make it go off without a hitch. That was made much more difficult this year by the controversy around who was actually the fastest rookie. Newcomer Josef Newgarden made the top nine shootout for pole position with a speed of 224.677 mph. Long-time Formula One driver Rubens Barrichello was next with a 224.264 mph, placing him at tenth position, just outside of the group that ran again to try and win the pole position. In the Pole Shootout, Newgarden posted a 224.037 mph average over the 4 laps. This is what is used as his official posted qualifying speed. This also happens to be slower than Barrichello's posted speed. So who's the Fastest Rookie?

2012 Indy 500 Fastest Rookie Josef Newgarden & almost fastest rookie Rubens Barrichello

We went by the letter of the law and said it was Rubens. We had the posters done, animations (with the posted speeds) done, trophy engraving was done, press releases were sent. Then some conversation started happening. After several high level talks with executives at the Indy 500, it was decided that Newgarden should be the fastest rookie. This went down Monday afternoon. The luncheon took place Tuesday. Needless to say, things were a bit tense Monday afternoon, but the team at BPS handled it great and we had things switched over to Josef Newgarden in record time.

The lunch went off fairly smoothly and we had lots of compliments on another great show this year. Next week I'll already be looking forward to it again next year! In the meantime I hope to get some sleep!

I'll be posting some of my pictures before too long, just as soon as I get a chance to go through them again with the luxury of time to look at them closely.

From The Roof

2012-03-27T17:28:33Z

As a follow-up to my Day with the Mayor, last week I was invited back to shoot for a couple hours on the roof of the Government building in downtown Indianapolis. My main task was to shoot some time-lapse footage of the city to be possibly used in the documentary.

Here is a single frame from the main time-lapse setup I shot.

Alan Berry, the man behind the creation of the documentary, asked me about possibly doing a tilt-shift miniaturization type shot. Unfortunately I don't have a tilt-shift lens and there was no budget to rent one for this, so I decided to try out CrumplePop's ShrinkRay X plugin for Final Cut Pro X. Below is a before & after video of the filter and it's effect on two of the other setups I shot.

I'd love to hear what you think of the look with and without the plugin. Have a strong preference of one over the other? Let me know by leaving a comment either here on the blog or on my Vimeo page.

I could have easily spent a lot more time up there. We were there during the middle of the day so the light wasn't the prettiest, but we got lucky with the weather as it was an absolutely gorgeous day. We also had limited time, but I made the most of what we had. Hopefully I can get back up there some day or night.

It's been awhile since I've created any desktop/wallpaper images, so I decided to make a 2560 x 1600 image available free to download to use as a desktop image. And a first for me, I also created a version specifically for the new iPad with Retina display, although it will work just fine on older iPads. You can get those over on my Downloads page. Just look for the Downtown Indy file (they're in alphabetical order).

More photos coming soon!

You Never Know

2012-03-05T19:25:11Z

I'd love to shoot more professional sports, but one of the fun things about shooting amatuer sports is you never know how big they may become in the future. Case in point.... on May 15, 2008 I travelled with my daughter's third grade class to an Indianapolis Indians minor league baseball game. I was just beginning to develop a passion for photography so I made sure I had my camera in hopes of capturing some decent shots. It was a tight game that day, but the Indians pulled out a victory on a base hit in the bottom of the ninth inning by a young outfielder named Andrew McCutchen.

Fast forward to today, and I see on ESPN's website that McCutchen, who was an all-star last season, has agreed on a new contract that will pay him over $50 million for the next six years and keep him out of free agency and arbitration. Major league baseball star in the making from the sounds of it.

You never know who you're going to shoot at games like these, so it's always a good idea to get a program and enter in the metadata for the players when you get home. Aperture (and Lightroom) have made this much easier to do and search for that key player/subject in the future. BONUS - Minor league sports allow great access and views, which are the hardest things to get at a professional sporting event.

A Day with the Mayor

2012-02-17T05:59:01Z

This past Tuesday I had the good fortune of tagging along with a documentary film team that was shadowing Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard around for the day. My task was to document the day shooting stills. They may or may not be used - that's totally up to the producer/editor of the film. Part of the deal was I retain full license to them so I can use them however I wish in the future. Because of that, I'm going to share a few here with you.

It was a long day that started off meeting at radio station WZPL at 6:30am and finally finished around 9:30pm at the conclusion of a mass Valentine's Day wedding the Mayor presided over at a Mexican Restaurant. In between we had stops at the gym for a workout, a press conference at Kroger's headquarters, NBC affiliate WTHR, Hispanic radio station LaLey 1590AM, Indiana Math and Science Academy West, Steak & Shake, and the Fieldhouse for the beginning of the Pacers game against the Miami Heat. Most of our afternoon was spent at the Mayor's office on the 25th floor of City Hall. We sat in on a couple of meetings, got a tour, met a lot of the crew up there, and just hung out a bit.

Everyone we met was extremely friendly and accommodating. I couldn't have been more impressed with Mayor Ballard and his team. I'm sure it was a bit annoying having four of us tagging along and having to explain our presence all day. He, his wife, and son were all so nice and so down to earth. It was an honor hanging out with him for the day.

I also want to give a special shout out the Mayor's Press Secretary, Paula, who was a huge help in getting us around from place to place and giving us the lay of the land. Yet another super nice person working to make Indianapolis a better place to work, live, and play.

And of course I want to give a shout out to Alan Berry for inviting me along for the day. He and his crew of Mark and J.D. were fun to hang with for the day. As for the documentary, hopes are that it will be entered in the Heartland Film Festival this year. No promises, but if it does, I'll be sure to let you know.

Rob Recommends...

2012-02-10T18:15:12Z

Today I'm rolling out a new feature here on the website - Rob Recommends...

I get asked a lot about the different apps I use, whether it's on the Mac or an iOS device. I thought it would be a good idea to put all of that here and share with everyone, so that's what I did. Head on up there in the navigation bar and click on the Recommends link or just click here. There is also an RSS feed that you can use if you'd like to keep track of new posts that way.

I'm going to try and do one a week. If you have any questions about specific apps, looking for an app that fulfills some sort of need, or just general questions, use the Contact link above. I'll either reply directly to you via email, or if it's something I think everyone could benefit from, I'll post it on the Recommends page.

My First iBook

2012-01-24T13:06:22Z

Last summer I put together a book using Apple's Aperture professional photo software to show off the result of spending five days shooting the 2011 Indianapolis 500 practices and qualifying. I ordered a hardcover medium sized book to be able to show friends, family, and prospective clients. It cost $75 plus shipping and tax. I'm very proud of the book, yet there are several photos I wish I would have presented a little differently.

Jump forward to last Thursday and Apple's iBooks Author software release. The process of creating a book in Author isn't that much different from doing the same in iPhoto or Aperture. The templates aren't quite as handy for creating a photography book, as Author is trying to make it easy to create text books for schools initially. It doesn't take too much work to modify them and work around some of the shortcomings, which I'm sure will be addressed in future updates. Some of those include not being able to change the page color (you have to add a shape, send it to the background, and lock it), shapes and graphics cannot be used as links, there's no way to add author information unless publishing to the iBookstore, and the formatting of the including widgets are limited.

I set out to transform the printed book I created into an iBook. Staying up late a couple of nights was all the time it took me to create a pretty much 1-to-1 copy of the printed book. After downloading and looking through a couple sample textbooks from the iBookstore, I realized I could do a lot better. Electronic books have much more potential than sitting statically on the page. A couple more late nights provided all the time that was needed to make the majority of the photos tappable, which opens them full screen. That's how a photograph book should be. I filled out a glossary for the drivers that have their name in the book (there's no way to link a glossary "term" to a photo in the book unfortunately) with an unique photo I had taken. I added a short video shot with my iPhone trackside showing the cars zipping by at 225 miles per hour - getting to the speed and movement first hand and hear them is something a traditional book cannot offer. I also used one of the included widgets to create a multiple choice quiz that challenges readers to name the owner of the helmet shown. This was incredibly easy to build and should pull readers into the book even more. There's also a page of links to the internet for Indianapolis 500 based links - buy your tickets, see the track map, and read the latest news, as well as links to their Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube pages.

My time the past half week spent using iBooks Author was one of much more fun than frustration. This is a tool most anyone should be able to learn and use fairly quickly. The possibilities are endless - think of interactive manuals, company handbooks, text books for schools, photogrpahy books, and behind-the-scenes movie books.

Download my 2011 Indianapolis 500 photo book, take a look, and let me know what you think, either in the comments here or via email. I'd love to hear your feedback, not only on the photography, the book experience as well.

The link will download a zip file. Unzip it (it should automatically if you're on a Mac) and drag the .ibooks file to iTunes. Make sure you have the newest version of iBooks on your iPad - you can get it here if you haven't already. The drag the book from the Books section of your iTunes library to your iPad (the books only work on iPads, not iPhones, for now).

If you don't have an iPad, I exported a PDF version from iBooks Author for you. I'm not crazy about it, for several reasons. I'll make a PDF version of my original printed photo book available here soon.

Another Media Revolution?

2012-01-24T07:19:53Z

Last Thusday Apple held a small press event in New York City focused on some education initiatives. They had several announcements, including a new digital textbook format, a revamped iTunes U, and an updated iBooks app for the iPad. The part of the announcement that I'm most excited about, and want to focus on here, is iBooks Author, Apple's new tool for creating interactive ebooks.

Like most Apple software, Author makes what was once a difficult, frustrating process and makes it so easy to create a polished ebook with interactive elements, it's fun! Author is right at home with Apple's iWork offering, especially Pages and Keynote, and can in fact use existing Pages and Keynote files so you can incoporate them in to a book via drag and drop. There are a few shortcomings, but they are minor, especially for a first release version of software, and do not stop you from completing the task at hand.

A completed book can be previewed on an iPad, exported as a PDF file, or published to the iBookstore, where, similar to the App Store, Apple takes a 30% cut of your sales for hosting the files, handling the money exchange, and the downlaod bandwidth. There has been a lot of talk about the licensing agreement, as books finished in Author cannot be sold anywhere except in the iBookstore.

So what does all of this mean? I believe this is the first shot in yet another media revolution. The video and music industries have been totally upheaved over the course of the last decade. Somehow the print and publishing industries managed to keep their lock-in intact. With iBooks Author and the iBookstore, anyone can be an author and publisher. Ever want to create and sell a book of your photography? You can now, practically for free.

Media creators should be jumping for joy, as these interactive books aren't just PDF files that you slide across your mobile device screen. No, they include video, audio, HTML5 code, slideshows that can have interactivity and feedback built in, quizzes, and an open toolset so you can build your own widgets.

I agree completely with Alex Lindsay and his take on all of this. This is an exciting time - an individual, with very little money (did I mention iBooks Author is free?!) can create stellar books (or apps, or music), have them on the iTunes Store or iBookstore, and be making money. That means more individual voices are heard, which provides us with rich views of the world as even more people can share theirs.

I'll be sharing the start of mine tomorrow.

The New Nikon D4 [updated]

2012-01-14T21:22:48Z

Nikon finally got in to the HDSLR (DSLR cameras that shoot HD video) market in a serious way with the announcement of their new flagship model, the D4.Of course, Nikon was first to market with a video shooting DSLR camera in the D90, and while the effort was a good start from a company without professional video product background, Canon soon after released the 5D Mark II. Canon's full frame sensored camera and it's video features essentially created a new market over night, pushing aisde Nikon and it's APS-C sized sensor camera that had video in what seemed to be an after thought.

Nikon released two more cameras soon after - the D300S and the D3S, but both were limited to 720p video. There were also lots of complaints but the usual artifacting from these types of cameras - rolling shutter (the jello effect) and aliasing issues. Meanwhile, Canon continually rolled out new models, making the video in each model successively better. In September of 2010 Nikon introduced the D7000, an affordable HDSLR that was capable of 1080p, and was one of the first to implement auo-focus during video capture, as well as face-detection focus. Unfortunately, there were still several limitations in using the D7000. Changing focus modes and exposure are a pain, at best. I've shot several times with the D7000, each time being impressed and totally fustrated.

As a Nikon shooter that captures both still and video for a living, I've been anxiously waiting for a pro body that was at the top of the line for shooting stills, but also could be a great video camera, not just in terms of output, but in functionality too. I've been wanting to replace my aging Panasonic HVX200 for a few years now, just waiting for the right camera to come along. Is the D4 it?

It's too early to tell for sure - once I get a chance to shoot with it on a production I'll know more. On paper though, and from some of the early samples that have been released, it definitely looks like a winner on all fronts. On the still side it appears that Nikon has taken what was already the best still camera in the world, the Nikon D3S, and made several changes that should bring performance and quality improvements. A new 16.2MP sensor, increased ISO capabilities (now at 100-12,800, and can be extended out to 50-204,800!), a revised AF system, a brand new flash/metering system, a new image processor, in-camera HDR, and in-camera timelapse creation. The insides aren't the only thing that saw improvement - they re-thought the placement of controls on the back of the camera that make shooting in portrait mode identical to landscape mode. Wheels, joysticks, and buttons are now easier and quicker to use and much more ergonomic.

On the video side there is also a lot to be excited about. The D4 can shoot 1920 x 1080p at 24, 25, and 30 frames per second, and at 1280 x 720p can capture up to 60 frames per second. The most exciting feature though is a clean uncompressed 8-bit 4:2:2 signal out the HDMI port. This means that an uncompressed signal can be captured with an external recording device, like the AJA Ki Pro mini, for the highest quality possible. Uncompressed output allows you to bypass the relatively restrictive 24Mbps H.264 recording the camera does when recording to the compact flash card. It also bypasses the restricted maximum length recording time of 30 minutes. The D4 is currently the only DSLR camera with uncompressed out HDMI.

The D4 also has a few other tricks up it's sleeve. While recording you can change the ISO, shutter speed or aperture, and the aperture adjusts smoothly, Nikon calls it Power Aperture, producing a much less jarring change in exposure. There is a headphone jack for monitoring audio, which can be viewed on screen with a levels graphic and those levels can be adjusted during recording in 20 increments. The main buttons can be illuminated when shooting in a dark environment, which is very likely with the ISO range of this camera!

One final really cool feature is the ability to control the camera wired or wirelessly using any device with a web browser. Using either an ethernet cable from the camera to a laptop, or the new optional wireless transmitter to any wi-fi device (think iOS device here), you have direct control of all the camera functions, can see a live preview when the camera is switched in to LiveView mode, trigger recording, set focus points (by touching the screen of an iPad, for instance), or transfer images or video that reside on the camera. There is no special app that is needed, as the software is built in to the D4. Genius!

If you'd like to read or see more abou tthe Nikon D4, I'm including several links to articles and videos that I've found informational so far. I'm really loklin gforward to shooting with this ground-breaking camera.... and I'll be sure to let you know when I do!

Nikon USA's D4 page

Rob Galbraith D4 Overview

DPReview D4 Overview

DSLR News Shooter D4 Video Run Through Video

Nikon Rumors Article with links to several videos, including wireless control, menus, and 11fps burst

Corey Rich's Why Video, shot exclusively with the D4

Joe McNally Blog Post on his experience shooting with the D4

Bill Frake's Straw Hat Visuals D4 video from Istanbul

New Year, New Look

2012-01-10T05:01:31Z

I decided to start off the year with a fresh new look for the website. I've also connected my photography website, where clients can view proofs and order prints, to the site here to make all of my online presence a little easier to find and use (you can view it by using the STILL link above). I haven't quite decided how to handle some of my other domains, like rcsportsphotos.com for my sports photography. I'm trying to decide if I should keep them a separate identity or move them to my robchinnphoto.com portfolio/purchase site.

Hopefully you'll find the new site a lot cleaner and easier to read. That was one of the main goals, and I'm pretty happy with it so far. I'm sure there will be small modifications here and there as I work to nail down exactly what I want.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-23T17:54:48Z

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you have a happy, healthy, and exciting 2012!