Wednesday 28 March 2012

Bruce Springsteen exhibition in Philadelphia - 'From Asbury Park to the Promised Land: The Life and Music of Bruce Springsteen'


Am I a hardcore fan of The Boss? No, I wouldn't say so. I like his music very much, especially from the late '80s and early '90s, but I am not a hardcore fan. I was at his concerts in Berlin and Dublin, but I am not the first person to buy his latest CDs, however I have almost every single one of them.
Anyhow, when I planned my trip to Philadelphia, it was obvious that I want to see the exhibition in the Constituton Center.
It was a Tuesday morning and maybe that was the reason why only few people were there (lucky me!)
What is on display? Bruce's handwritten notes, his shirts and jeans, guitars, his motorcycle. Actually there are loads of lyrics there on old and crumbled pages! Somehow I thought writing a song is a bit easier process if you have the vein. It was new to me that Bruce spent months on songs.
You can also see interviews and music clips on screens.
There was a corner where different lyrics were explained, such as "Born in the USA" and "41 shots". And you could ask or talk to the guys. I had a lenghty chat with Matthew who possess a tremendous amount of knowledge about Springsteen.

Photography was not allowed, I could only take this one.
Springsteen's corvette

All in all, if you have 1.5 hours to spare and you like Bruce Springsteen's music, the exhibition is definitely recommended!

Friday 16 March 2012

TimeLapse video at Grand Central Station, NYC

16th March, back to New York City from Philadelphia and it was quite chilly and rainy outside. Another day in Manhattan, the last thing I wanted to carry was my tripod. I had a little one with flexible legs in my bag, but if I mount the 10-22mm wide angle lens it will fall over under the weight of the camera and the lens.

Whatever, it was kind of planned to take some photos at the Grand Central Station. Tried few long exposure photos with my fave B+W ND1000 filter, but I wasn't 100% happy with the result. I put my camera on to the banister, so it was steady enough but no option to tilt it. I felt sorry for leaving my tripod at home. :-( I could do a time lapse video here!

Then I thought what the heck, let's give it a go! I took something like 480 photos from six different locations. I used my filter bag to support the camera and it was the perfect occasion to test my new intervalometer!

Check out the result here:

My first timelapse video


When I created my very first time lapse video, I had to use my laptop to take the shots, because I did not have an intervalometer.
It worked, it was OK, but there was a limitation from the Canon software. The minimum interval was 5 seconds.
My Canon shutter release cable did not have this function either.
I tried to use an application, which was great, had a lot of functions and features, but the price was astronomical.
See my first TimeLapse Video on YouTube:


So, I was looking for a shutter release cable with built-in intervalometer and I think I found a pretty good one.
It's the Shutterboss from Vello. Self-timer, interval timer, long exposure timer, quite flexible and it runs on two AAA batteries. It was around 60 USD, kinda reasonable.

Check out the timelapse video I made with it!