Video Controlled R/C Car Project

I'll be showing you something a little bit different today.
Usually I post about my photography or 3D work, but since this is a development blog, I thought I would change the pace a bit. Today I'll show you something I've physically made; something I've been wanting to do since I was a kid. Basically, I've strapped a wireless camera to an R/C car, which can then be viewed from a television. I even made a video about it:



And here is an update on the project which I created a few days later:

2013 Catch-up: Street Photography in Vietnam

It's time to start getting all these catch-up posts out of the way again. If I don't do them soon, they'll never get 

done and I'll have to recreate that above image with a 4.

Late last year I went on a family trip to Vietnam and Singapore. It was my first trip where I bought my DSLR, and by extension the first time I've been out of the country while shooting manual. It seems that most tourists these days are toting around cameras more expensive than their air-fairs, but they seem to only use them for happy snaps. 

Bringing along something that bulky and expensive on holiday seems a bit excessive when you're not going to use it to its full advantage, but I'm not going to start ranting about it. At the end of the day, people are free to buy and use whatever the hell they want no matter how silly it may seem. The only times I really got angry with them was when they were using the equipment out in the rain. Seriously, I don't know why they do it, but people willingly carrying around laptops, cameras and phones in the rain really confuse me. I would just think that would be common sense. 

Either way, Vietnam is a fantastic country. From crowed cities to lush, green and humid rainforests, Vietnam is a really fun place to visit and photograph. Most of these photos were taken in Saigon, but a few were taken in day trips out to the countryside.

 

Death of the American Diner

It's a very early mid 20th century morning at this New Jersey Diner. The night shift was fairly slow, but the staff are gearing up for the normal rush of morning traffic in an hour or so.
Things are going quite swell for this diner, and probably will for another 20 or 30 years. Sooner or later though, people are going to start going to big name chains instead, and the busy main road this diner is on will get cut-off when a huge highway it built nearby isolating it from most traffic.
This is when, sadly, it will close down and die like many other diners across the country just like it.

I mentioned this render a few posts ago when it was still in its infancy, but now I feel that it is completed. Sooner or later I will render a high-res version of this for portfolio purposes, but for now I have to get over a RAM problem (which is like a cold that won't clear up).
So what's next you probably weren't going to ask? Well, I was thinking of creating some architectural renderings. I'm also considering getting into Zbrush as I have an idea for a scene that was utilise it in the vast archives of my head.

Beach Bum Photography

A few months ago I posted an entry about practising photography in the wild, surrounded by nature. I was lucky enough to be a mule to the elements last weekend again as I went camping up north to a place called Sandy Cape (which is about 20 minutes further North from the town of Jurien Bay). I travelled up there with some friends for the Easter Long Weekend.
Since the campsite was already totally full (even though we arrived Good Friday morning at about 9.30am) we were able to find a suitable place to camp up the beach which was only accessible by 4X4.
It was great camping right on the beach. You can literally wake up and transfer straight into the ocean, as it's hot enough in that part of Australia. 

And drink lots of... ahem, lemonade.

First off I should mention that the area is called Sandy Cape for a reason; it really isn't the best place to bring a DSLR. Everyday I was cleaning sand off it, and I didn't dare swap the lenses. That would of caused misery for all involved.
Luckily I easily got by with my standard 15-35mm, and took some shots that I'm quite happy with. The fact that it wasn't really windy at night helped me greatly too, I was able to do some exposure shots straight on the beach (which is something I've always wanted to do).

20 minute exposure at about 10pm.  I tried to take one at 9pm the night before, but it still picked up the sunset o.O

Sandy Cape the left, Green Head to the right.

My home for 3 nights; I was very reluctant to leave. That amount of time without my computer was actually quite refreshing. 

30 second exposure with the ISO cranked up.

White, sandy uninterrupted beaches.  Welcome to my awesome home country of Australia. 

Trees are an old joke in this area of country. 

Just a bit of fun. 

2013 Catch-Up: Singapore on Film

Hey hey, welcome to another instalment of the 2013 Catch-up series. In this post we look at another fine piece of vintage camera equipment; the Canon EOS Rebel II.

Since I shot a few rolls with my Olympus Trip 35, I really wanted to shoot film using an SLR. I found this particular camera in a small shop in the middle of Ho Chi Minh City that was no bigger than my bedroom. For some reason there are vintage cameras for sale everywhere over there, and I picked it up for a pittance (about $25 Australian).
It wasn't until I got back to my hotel room that I noticed only my telephoto lens fitted it, and I wasn't keen on shooting a whole roll of really zoomed in photos of stuff.
After Vietnam I went to Singapore, and it was there I bought the second hands lens you see in the photo above. I thought it was a pretty good bargain at the time for roughly $150AUS, but after some use I think the sweet old man in the camera shop may have ripped me off. No bother though, it's still usable, just a bit stiff.
It was great shooting film in the middle of Singapore; as soon as I ran out of film it wasn't hard to find a camera shop and buy some more. There are more camera shops than cafes there.

The following photos are shot in and around Orchard Road: