Dominique Grenier
09-12-2009, 07:23 PM
For a reason I can't explain to myself, it seems that in order to truly "get" a concept, regardless of how intelligent you are, you have to make some painful mistake at some point.
In my case, the concept was "ALWAYS test a new technique before using it somewhere you don't want to screw up". You think you know where I'm getting at? No you don't.
Some context first. A few weeks ago, I was at the Chateau de Versailles, close to Paris, France. I live in Canada, so its not like I go to France very often.
While I was there, I decided to make a time-lapse of the crowd in the garden in front of the Chateau. So I find a sweet spot very close to the Chateau with a great view, I set my 40D, I find a great composition, gear everything up and fire it up. Everything goes smoothly.
At some point, my girlfriend, who was with me, tap on my shoulder, pointing at someone. To my surprise, I see Leonardo DiCaprio walking straight into my frame. I was like, how funny is that, I'm at the Chateau de Versailles on the same day as Leonardo DiCaprio! Worst (or better), he stop in front of us, looking at the Chateau, which is behind us, so he's actually looking straight into my camera, apparently not noticing it (that's what's great with time-lapses, since you don't have to stay behind the camera, people think you're not shooting…).
I was kind of stocked. Obviously, my time-lapse wasn't sellable, but just for the bragging rights, it was cool! And I could always somewhat blur his face and nobody would notice him.
After some time he left, so I let my time-lapse finish. When done, I looked what had been shot. And that's where it hurt.
See, in my previous time-lapses, I sometimes had flicker, apparently caused by the fact that the aperture don't always open exactly in the same way, causing exposure variation. A fix for that, I red somewhere, is to unlock the lens by slightly turning it, disconnecting the electronic communication between the body and the lens. Seems logical.
Buuuuutt, since I was taking somewhat long exposure (1.5 second) and I didn't had enough NDs I was shooting at something like f16. But it didn't occurred to me at the time, that when you unlock the lens, the lens open up completely. So I wasn't shooting at f16, but at f2.8! You can picture yourself what I was looking at: complete pure white frames! Fuuuuuuuuck. Fuck.
In my anger, I reformatted the card (what!?), like for destroying all evidence of my stupidity, or something. Yeah, even more stupid, I know.
But it's not over yet. Sometimes later, when I calmed down, like 6 hours later, I decided to not touch the card for the rest of the trip, and try to recover the data when I get back to the studio, to see if there's something I can salvage… for the sake of proving to my friends that I didn't dream it! But a few days later, while at the beach at night, shooting another time-lapse, my camera bag tipped over in the sand (something that never happen), and all my cards got in the sand. I recovered everything… except for THAT card. I had like 6 cards in the bag, but I lost THAT one. Talk about bad karma.
Anyway, I'm not a huge "celebrity" fan, but it would have been kinda fun to have Leonardo DiCaprio in one of my time-lapse, like I said, if only for the bragging rights!
Now I totally accept that mistake are part of the continuous learning process… but does it have to be THAT stupid!? I guess everybody have painful, humiliating experience like these (I hope?)… what's yours?
In my case, the concept was "ALWAYS test a new technique before using it somewhere you don't want to screw up". You think you know where I'm getting at? No you don't.
Some context first. A few weeks ago, I was at the Chateau de Versailles, close to Paris, France. I live in Canada, so its not like I go to France very often.
While I was there, I decided to make a time-lapse of the crowd in the garden in front of the Chateau. So I find a sweet spot very close to the Chateau with a great view, I set my 40D, I find a great composition, gear everything up and fire it up. Everything goes smoothly.
At some point, my girlfriend, who was with me, tap on my shoulder, pointing at someone. To my surprise, I see Leonardo DiCaprio walking straight into my frame. I was like, how funny is that, I'm at the Chateau de Versailles on the same day as Leonardo DiCaprio! Worst (or better), he stop in front of us, looking at the Chateau, which is behind us, so he's actually looking straight into my camera, apparently not noticing it (that's what's great with time-lapses, since you don't have to stay behind the camera, people think you're not shooting…).
I was kind of stocked. Obviously, my time-lapse wasn't sellable, but just for the bragging rights, it was cool! And I could always somewhat blur his face and nobody would notice him.
After some time he left, so I let my time-lapse finish. When done, I looked what had been shot. And that's where it hurt.
See, in my previous time-lapses, I sometimes had flicker, apparently caused by the fact that the aperture don't always open exactly in the same way, causing exposure variation. A fix for that, I red somewhere, is to unlock the lens by slightly turning it, disconnecting the electronic communication between the body and the lens. Seems logical.
Buuuuutt, since I was taking somewhat long exposure (1.5 second) and I didn't had enough NDs I was shooting at something like f16. But it didn't occurred to me at the time, that when you unlock the lens, the lens open up completely. So I wasn't shooting at f16, but at f2.8! You can picture yourself what I was looking at: complete pure white frames! Fuuuuuuuuck. Fuck.
In my anger, I reformatted the card (what!?), like for destroying all evidence of my stupidity, or something. Yeah, even more stupid, I know.
But it's not over yet. Sometimes later, when I calmed down, like 6 hours later, I decided to not touch the card for the rest of the trip, and try to recover the data when I get back to the studio, to see if there's something I can salvage… for the sake of proving to my friends that I didn't dream it! But a few days later, while at the beach at night, shooting another time-lapse, my camera bag tipped over in the sand (something that never happen), and all my cards got in the sand. I recovered everything… except for THAT card. I had like 6 cards in the bag, but I lost THAT one. Talk about bad karma.
Anyway, I'm not a huge "celebrity" fan, but it would have been kinda fun to have Leonardo DiCaprio in one of my time-lapse, like I said, if only for the bragging rights!
Now I totally accept that mistake are part of the continuous learning process… but does it have to be THAT stupid!? I guess everybody have painful, humiliating experience like these (I hope?)… what's yours?