Remote Photography Revisited

Last week I spent some time with my family in Florida. The trip was fairly relaxed,and I had some free time to work on remote photography. 

For as long as I can remember, my grandfather has had bird feeders in his backyard. I set up my camera at sunrise and sunset to catch the birds when they would be at their most active, and the light would be the best.

Image of a Cardinal shot with a remote camera.  

Image of a Woodpecker on a bird feeder shot with a remote camera.

More about how I rigged the camera and images of the setup are after the jump.

Click to read more ...

Revolutionary War Cannon

For years I've had an idea for a shot I wanted of a revolutionary war cannon. But it wasn't untill recently that I've had the necessary equipment to make it happen. My idea was to take the shot from the front, and just to the side of the gun. The men who fire the gun all wear ear plugs, and are standing behind the muzzle of the gun, but I wanted the camera to be in front of the gun. Therefore the only reasonable way to do it was to set up a remote.
I set up a body with a 12-24 lens at about five feet to the left and two feet in front of the end of the gun. I racked the lens out to 12mm and fired the camera remotely via pocket-wizard. It's hard to determine the exact second a cannon will fire on any given shot. The man firing the gun is lighting a small bit of black powder that travels down the touch hole and ignites a larger charge in the breach of the barrel. Luckily it only took two firings of the cannon to get the timing just right to get the flame coming out the touch hole and front of the gun.

Revolutionary War Cannon
EDIT: I've also posted a video showing all the pictures from the two firings.

Update on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at 8:00AM by Denny

You can learn more about this cannon and the men who fire it on the 2nd Pennsylvania / 43rd Regiment of foot website. 

Corcoran Student Awards Ceremony

This past Tuesday were the annual student awards at The Corcoran. It was a little calmer than in years past, but was still fun to shoot. The top photo was shot with a remote camera I set up in the back of the auditorium. It was my first attempt at remote photography, and it I'm fairly happy with how it went. I learned some things to do differently next time, so it was a worthwhile experiment.