Just a few months ago, in November 2011, I took a three-week trip to Vietnam, and this is a quick video of some of the beautiful sights I experienced. I’m still going through and editing my images and will put a more detailed post of my travels, but for now take a look at the video to watch one of my favorite hobbies-within-photography: timelapse photography.

I just love getting excited about something, even if it is just for fun … it always seems to fuel my passion for other things I do, like writing and photographing food. I also plan on really exploring timelapse photography in-depth over the next year, so if it’s something you’re curious about watch my blog … I’ll have some great tutorials, webinars and resources for everyone.

Last week I took a photography trip to Moab with my friend Dave (seen throughout this video … he’s the guy with the mohawk). My main goal (other than to have a relaxing time away from “the office”) was to get enough video and timelapse to put together a fancy video of my trip. I ended up with a ton of car-mounted footage with my new GoPro, along with some timelapse videos and a few nighttime star photographs. We had an awesome time, got lots of great photos/video, and I think that from now on whenever Dave hears John Mayer he’ll think of Moab (I had control of the music, hehe).

I’ve done my share of timelapse photography, but wanted to kick it up a notch and asked my friend Harley (our local MacGyver) if he knew of a way to create a “Timelapse Turntable” rig so that the timelapse footage would move as it was doing the intervals. He worked his magic, created something (that looked akin to a bomb) and showed me how it worked … and I got to test it out in Moab. The results are awesome!

Here’s the gear used to create the above video:

• GoPro Hero (car-mounted footage)
• Canon 60D with Canon 14mm f/2.8L IS II lens (Timelapse footage)
• LCD Timer Remote for the 60D (https://www.linkdelight.com)
• Canon 7D with Canon 70-200 f/4L IS lens (Additional footage)
• Harley’s Timelapse Turntable rig
• Premiere Pro CS4 (editing)
• Music © Tomasz Gierygowski, licensed from iStockphoto.com (link)

For more information on the timelapse turntable, take a look at Harley’s blog to see how it works and how he put it all together:
- Timelapse Turntable: Project Overview
- Timelapse Turntable: The Making Of

On Chase Jarvis’ blog yesterday they issued a challenge to do a “60 second landscape“—pretty much just 60 seconds of a landscape recorded in video format. Since I was in Moab photographing at Arches National Park this week, and just happened to be doing the trek out to Delicate Arch shortly after viewing the blog post, I thought it would be a perfect setting to take on the challenge.

Video was created with a Canon 60D, Canon 14mm f/2.8L IS II lens at Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, Moab, Utah on May 6, 2011.

Here’s a quick video tutorial on how to use the crop tool in Photoshop to crop to a specific size and resolution, or to change the photo’s perspective.

Click here to view this video on YouTube.

Here’s a quick video tutorial on how to use the TWAIN plugin to scan files into Photoshop.

Click here to view this video on YouTube.

Windows users:

You’ll likely need to open Photoshop in 32-bit mode in order for TWAIN to work. Here’s how:

To scan files, go to “File > Import” and select your scanner.

Here’s a quick video tutorial on how to create a brushed metal type effect using Photoshop.

Click here to view this video on YouTube.

Here’s a quick video tutorial on how to “color pop” to an image using Photoshop.

Click here to view this video on YouTube.

Here’s a quick video tutorial on how to change the color of someone’s shirt using Photoshop.

Click here to view this video on YouTube.

Here’s a quick video tutorial on how to find and remove sensor spots in your photos.

Click here to view this video on YouTube.