Aerial Photography in the Land Down-Under

The creative possibilities for photographers expands as technology innovates. With the rapid proliferation of drone technology, capturing stunning, cinematic footage has never been easier. In addition, social media platforms like Instagram and SkyPixel have made story-telling and story-sharing much more animated and compelling.

SkyPixel is a global community of aerial photographers and has now become the largest and most popular online platform to share inspirations. It recently hosted one of the largest drone photography contest, 2016 SkyPixel Photo Contest, receiving over 27,000 entries from more than 140 countries around the world.

“Through this competition, we aim to show the world why aerial imaging is the next evolution of photographic art, and highlight new talents found on SkyPixel,” which was the goal stated on their website.

The 2016 SkyPixel Photo Contest has also set the precedence for the caliber expected of the participants. The contest was divided into multiple categories, in order to encourage different levels of aerial photographers as well as versatility of themes. Let us take a look at two favorites, to get a taste of the great work people are doing with drones.

“The Earth” by Heng Li placed third in the (Professional) Beauty category. This photograph features what appears to be deep blue ice mounds and caves, shot in twilight, with a wheel of light created by the photographer in the middle. The photo reflects the mystique of the earth’s landscape as well as its unfathomable vastness.

Another favorite is “Overbridge” by Chenghan, that was the (Amateur) Beauty first prize winner. The picture shows morning fog filling the air above a dam underneath a bridge. The unique perspective gives the impression that the sky is in fact below the bridge, and not the other way around.

In these two photographs itself we see how modern aerial imaging has unlocked immeasurable potential in photography. Here’s a glimpse of the other winning submissions from the contest: http://ift.tt/2kzP8dZ.

On March 2^nd, SkyPixel announced a new campaign, this time its first region-specific aerial photo contest called Australia from Above. The contest is open to drone photographers from across the globe, as long as the photo is captured in Australia. The two main sponsors of the competition are DJI and Tourism Australia – a reflection of the standard the SkyPixel Contest will be holding its participants to.  For those who want to share their creative inspiration with the rest of the world, you can check out http://ift.tt/2mzmE6i.

Currently, the SkyPixel platform is like a Getty Images for aerial photos with social engagement features like Instagram. Like any other social networks, it would be interesting to keep an eye out on how this aerial community develops over time. The results from the Australia from Above Photo Contest (to be announced in May) will surely stun everyone as well, bringing to the world an entirely new experience of landscapes, wildlife and culture from the land down under.

“The Earth” by Heng Li, SkyPixel

“Overbridge” by Chenghan, SkyPixel

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How to make innovative party videos?Tips you shouldn’t miss

We have seen tons of reunion pictures like these, how about something innovative videos this time?

Freeze the time:

 ‘Share your food’

Pierce through door/fence

Maybe you have seen similar videos before, but they were too complicated to get and required lots of equipment. We are going to show you how to get these just with your smartphone.

PART 1

‘Freeze time’ actually started with Bled matin’s Mannequin Challenge:

【Chinese actress Ma Sichun’s Mannequin Challenge】 ：

This is how it works: everyone freezes and keep still simultaneously, then the camera guy/gal threads through people and get a long-shot.

Difficulty: ★★★☆

Key Points:

1. It is more interesting to include a lot of people, but that gets more difficult, too.
2. The camera guy needs to decide how he/she is going to move the smartphone. Get a few ups and downs to make the video fun to watch.
3. Get one to give commands. When he/she says ‘freeze’, everyone stops moving and the camera man starts to shoot.
4. Shoot in spatial places.
   Recommended editing app：

 iMovie（free）is really good for this. Import your footage into iMovie, you can accelerate a few parts to get the feeling of motion.
PART 2

One GIF we posted earlier has caught much attention.↓↓↓

Many readers asked how we did it. We actually reversed the video.
Difficulty：★★☆

Key Points：

1. Design your actions, imagine what you get after reversing.

Reversed video is：Get off the car→ wear jacket→ wear sunglasses→ walk forward. So when you are shooting, just reverse all actions: Walk backwards→ removing sunglasses→ Take off jacket and toss away → get into the car.

Recommended app：

 ReverseVid（free）supports to shoot in app or import footages for editing.

Be innovative on this one! See this:

Or stir out really cool latte art:

PART3
“Pierce through fences is actually stop-motion animation. Shoot many pictures and turn them into a video.

This one can be very very interesting:

Three guys floating in the video, is actually made of quite some jump-up images. Adjust angles of jump and connect them all—it seems three guys are rotating on brooms.

This video is similar:

This is actually how we shoot piercing through fences.

Key Points:

1. Two actions should be consistent: where the characters are, their action ranges, directions etc.
2. Shoot steadily.

Recommended app：

imotion

Make your videos creative in next party, hope you can have a lot of fun!

 

 

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Though Gopro Karma Grip lack a few more features, it fits my needs

Bought GoPro Karma Grip at end of Nov. Works great with the hero 5 black, great case it comes in. The grip is easy setting up and using, make sure you do update on GoPro site for camera and grip, it recognizes right away when plugging in USB to computer, it directs you every step of way. It is pretty durable and I read complaints on it being noisy, but I don’t have that problem. The device does lack a few more features as the DJI Osmo‘s, but it fits my needs perfectly. I do have a problem with how long it takes to charge, ( hours ), but once it’s charged with the GoPro camera connected, it seems to last a good while. After charging, I had it in case with camera connected about 5 days without use, and the bar lights on the grip were still full. Then I used it to film about a hour straight without pausing, and the light on bar went down only one notch, and the GoPro camera went down from 96percent to 95percent, so it seems to hold charge pretty well ( I also use the GoPro supercharger to charge ).

The stabilization is pretty good, after testing quick movements and light jogging around yard, this produces stabilized video shots, you wouldn’t think so while filming, seems like the footages are jerky, but it’s not.

Now when using this and looking at your filming while recording, the bracket bar does hinder some of your viewing, but it’s not too terrible. I did think though when using the camera off of Karma Grip, it does have good stabilization when you go into menu and set this up, but when you connect the camera on to grip, that stabilization cut’s off and you now use the grip internal stabilizer, would be nice if it could hold camera and grip stabilization, you would even double the stabilization. So when the Karma Grip shuts your camera stabilizer off, you have to remember to set it back in menu when not using the grip. I have not used this in heavy sports action like biking, etc… but it suits my needs when I want to pull out quickly to do some videoing in close quaters and semi fast movements. I can also use my voice commands when using this grip. I would highly recommend this.

Scan GoPro forums and Amazon to discover a long topic of “Karma Grips button’s don’t work”.

“I fully charged the Karma Grip, hooked up my Hero 5 Black and tried to turn it on. The grip showed 4 lights, the stabilizer kicked in but the camera did not turn on. I manually turned on the camera and tried to use the shutter button on the Grip. It did not work.”

“Don’t buy this. I was so looking forward to this stabilizer, as I think the GoPro 5 (which I love) makes the best camera for a stabilizer. But this Karma Grip is so buggy. I turned it on and off 20 times (I counted) and only once, did it turn the camera on, and never could I get the “record” button to work on the grip. I’m all for trying to make things work, but this buggy out of the box is a huge red flag. ”

Many owners have the same issue and returned it for repair.

“I returned my Karma Grip for a replacement, I hope the replacement works, I find the build quality of the grip to be good, it was good to see the grip charging the GoPro but all functions around recording and power on/off where unresponsive.”

I think it’s the firmware problem, maybe firmware update makes it works with the Karma Grip.

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Snapchat drone: the next Lily?

Snap is the company that owns one of the hottest social media apps Snapchat. But recently the company has worked on building its own Snapchat drone according to a report from The New York Times. It is said to have worked on a drone that would connect to the iOS and Android Snapchat app and let users take photos and videos from aerial angles and is believed to also have investigated and built a 360-degree camera. Details about the drone and any of its other capabilities remain under wraps, but the work is said to help Snap “bolster” its repositioning and rebranding as a modern-day camera company.

Business Insider reported that Snap has been in conversations with drone companies. Snap was interested in an acquisition with Lily Robotics which offers a drone that tracks and follows its owners and simultaneously shoots video, creating a hands-free recording experience similar to Hover Camera.

Let’s take a loot at Lily selfie drone firstly.

Shaped like a giant M&M with propellers, it measures 3 inches high (80mm) and roughly 10 inches square (260mm) and weighs 2.8 pounds (1300g) — and toss it in the air and its motors will kick in automatically as the drone takes flight. The body is completely sealed, too, so along with flying it in the rain or snow, you can actually toss it into water.

There is no radio controller for the Lily Camera drone, or at least it’s not a typical one with sticks and switches.

Out in front of Lily Camera drone is a built-in camera that uses the same 12-megapixel Sony sensor found in the GoPro Hero3and Ion Air Pro 3 action cams. Along with 12-megapixel stills, that camera can capture 1080p video at up to 60 frames per second or 720p at 120fps. Plus, the tracker has a built-in mic that’s synced with the camera, allowing you to capture audio from the ground.

It has a limited range. Altitude is set from 5 feet (1.75 meter) above you to a maximum of 50 feet (15m) with a minimum distance of 5 feet from you to a maximum of 100 feet (30m). It can reach a top speed of 25mph (40kmph).

Other issues are that it lacks gimbal and remote controller.

So is the Snapchat drone more innovative than the Lily drone? What can we expect from the Snap Drone? Would you buy a Snapchat drone? Let us know in the comments below.

 

 

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