Why so sad?

So as I may have mentioned in an earlier post, the technology side of things was a bit heavier than I expected. Camera battery power (those Harinezumi cameras EAT batteries for breakfast), hard drive space, and general render/upload times made things harder to accomplish than I'd thought. Nevertheless I've spent the past few weeks trying to sure those things up so that I can continue this project. I knew that there would be hurdles when I started this on a whim a few months ago, and I figured I wouldn't know what those would be until I actually got it rolling. I know a little better now and will be resuming things shortly. Looking forward to it!!!

8.2.10 Golden from Hettie Kauffman on Vimeo.

Reworking of the same idea from the day before... not as successful in some ways, but more quiet. I like quiet ;)

8.1.10 Light + Sound

8.1.10 Light from Hettie Kauffman on Vimeo.

I prefer to shoot in areas where I'll be alone. Nothing makes me more nervous than trying to shoot something in a crowded area where people can watch. I'm not sure why exactly, for the most part when I have shot in public spaces most people are nice and if anything, genuinely interested in whatever I'm shooting.  Curious people ask questions which isn't really a big deal but I think it is an issue of focus for me. Not that the people interested are distracting but just knowing that other people are noticing puts me on edge and keeps me from focusing on whatever it is I'm shooting. I like to be alone with the image, it helps me to adapt to its constant changing. This piece has a lot to do with that.

7.31.10 City Talk

7.31.10 City Talk from Hettie Kauffman on Vimeo.

So maybe not the most exciting video ever taken, but I did find some beauty in there being some constant movement as well as constant stillness. The idea is something I'd like to develop further though I'm not sure how yet. There are no effects on this video and the sound was taken from the camera (and eq-ed). 

7.30.10 Sky

Sky from Hettie Kauffman on Vimeo.

I'm noticing right now that 7.29.10 got lost in the shuffle somewhere. Apparently I never uploaded it to Vimeo. Ugh, I am not the most organized individual. At any rate, I'd been wanting to shoot the sky for about a week or so but there weren't any really good days to do it. I stepped outside to water the plants and noticed how great the sky was and got insanely excited. This video turned out so much nicer than I had anticipated. I really loved that I could see the clouds rolling in and out of existence; I'd forgotten how clouds really move. In my head they just travel across the sky, but these pictures made them seem like they are living and breathing. I hope to shoot some again, perhaps for a longer period of time.

7.28.10 Light + Paper

Light + Paper from Hettie Kauffman on Vimeo.

One of the reasons I really love the Harinezumi camera is its ability to get very close to objects. With the macro focus, I can very easily move around in places and view things that I normally wouldn't have access to with a regular camera. While playing around with where I could shoot with this thing I stumbled across what I'd noticed the night before while shooting the flower. In certain light situations I'll get vertical lines across the screen. I'm imagining it has something to do with cycles per second of the light somehow locking into the cameras frame rate at a given time (this camera seems to adjust it's frame rate based off of what its light availability is which is probably what makes it look so great). Nevertheless it yielded some interesting results near this florescent light. The video is completely as it was shot, with exception to the sound that was added later. No effects, just the camera doing what it does.

Also, the sound in this video is out of this world. If you haven't checked out Communication Vault, you should. She does some really excellent sound work  http://www.myspace.com/communicationvault

7.27.10 FLOER

7.27.10 FLOER from Hettie Kauffman on Vimeo.

At about 11:30pm I got a call from a friend "There's a flower that only blooms for an hour at midnight, one time a year and this guy's got one and he said it's going to bloom tonight. We're going, you should come. Bring your camera."

That was enough for me.

We got there and the flower was already open so I immediately started taking pictures thinking it would be dead, or closed, within the hour.

After watching until about 2am with no change, we decided that it must bloom for longer than just one hour. The next day we learned that it's actually called a Cereus flower that it opens for the entire evening but still only once a year. One of the more strange things about this flower (besides the fact that it blooms at night) is that it forms off the end of a leaf, as opposed to off the main stem, or as a main stem like most flowers. There was a bud of another flower dangling above the blooming one that I tried to show in the shots. You can see it hanging off the leaf. Really interesting!

Behind the behind

It has occurred to me, and not a second too late, that the technology side of things is going to make posting here daily a little bit of an issue. The time required to upload to Vimeo (plus any lag time from them to "process" the file) is bogging down an already time and labor intensive process. I will try to post as close to daily as possible but understand that there may be times (this past week for instance) where spending the time extra time online is not an option. The videos are still being made I can assure you; posting them might just be a little delayed. I'll do my best ;)

7.26.10 Bicycle Race

7.26.10 Bicycle Race from Hettie Kauffman on Vimeo.

Originally I strapped my Harinezumi 2 onto the frame of my bike near the wheel so that it was focused on the spinning spokes but the impact of riding over bumps in the road was too much for the camera and so none of the footage came out at all. At about mid way through my ride home from work, I switched the camera to facing backwards just behind my seat which is the footage I ended up using. I think the lens flares are pretty nice. If you listen closely you can hear music in the background- Quarantined Past. I love my bike rides home- it's a nice chance to decompress from the day. 90 degrees, 30 degrees- it doesn't matter, it's always great.

7.23.10 Purple Flower

Purple Flower from Hettie Kauffman on Vimeo.

A stop motion animation experiment.

7.22.10 83 Stones

83 stones from Hettie Kauffman on Vimeo.

First video. I am realizing that most of the shooting will be done with my Harinezumi 2 for sake of ease. This video is a combining of conversations I'd had a few days prior. Special thanks to Jax Deluca for agreeing to let me use her Communication Vault sound at will for this and, I'm sure, many up coming videos.