Shot for Zuma Press. If you wish to license any images please contact sales@zumapress.com
(Below) Seattle, Washington – November 26, 2011 — Workers clear broken windows at a vandalized U.S. Bank branch in Seattle, Washington on Saturday. Vandals broke nearly every window at the north Seattle bank early Saturday morning and left a spray-painted message that read “revenge for Occupy Oakland.” The damage is estimated in the tens of thousands.
Shot for Zuma Press. If you wish to license any of these images, please contact me or sales@zumapress.com
Today Occupy Seattle protestors joined up with protestors from Occupy movements in Bellingham, Everett, Tacoma and other cities to stage a Black Friday protest at Wal-Mart in Renton, Washington. There were a lot of Seattle photographers there but not too many members of the media, which sometimes does happen at these kinds of events. I shot some images on the iPhone using the Hipstamatic app and I also shot pictures with my usual workhorse camera, the Canon 5D mark II. See some of my Occupy Seattle Wal-Mart protest pictures below:
All photos copyright Seattle photographer David Ryder.
The Kodak Zi8 is a great little tool. Here is a quick Kodak Zi8 review to help you decide if you should buy it or not.
Pros:
The Kodak Zi8 shoots 1080p HD video.
Input for external microphone.
Uses SD memory cards, not built-in memory.
Great size. Small but not too small. Kodak Zi8 is about the size of an iPhone.
Cons:
Not all HD is the same. The Kodak Zi8 footage quality leaves something to be desired.
Battery life is short.
Still photographs are poor quality
The Kodak Zi8 makes for a decent secondary camera for b-roll, detail/secondary angles for interviews, and for time lapses. It’s also great for attaching to something like bicycle handlebars without having to worry about breaking an expensive camera. I wouldn’t write a Kodak Zi8 review without saying that the battery is crap and the still images it takes are pretty useless. But that’s fine – it’s still worth buying and it’s better than a Flip camera.
Why is it better than a Flip camera? What is better – Kodak Zi8 vs Flip? Well, the Flip doesn’t use SD cards so you are limited to what the Flip’s built-in memory can hold. Also, the Flip doesn’t work with external audio. And if you know anything about good multimedia and good film making, it’s that audio is everything. That said, the Flip shots slightly better footage than does the Kodak Zi8, but everything else about the Flip camera is worse. The Flip isn’t bad, it’s just worse in comparison to the Kodak Zi8. Review it differently if you disagree, and send me your review so I can read it!
So what about the Kodak Zi8 vs Flip vs GoPro? If you’re in the market for a pocket HD digital video camera, then you are probably looking at the Kodak Zi8, the Flip camera, and the GoPro. The benefit of the GoPro is that it’s rugged and the newest version of the GoPro shoots better quality footage than both the Flip camera and the Kodak Zi8. The GoPro is, however, more expensive. So it’s really in another category, but it is similar to the Flip camera and the Kodak Zi8. So in the context of a Kodak Zi8 review, I’ll have to say that the Zi8 is the best choice, and if you have extra money or want to send a list to Santa this year, then consider the GoPro as an upgrade. But keep in mind that the GoPro has the same audio drawbacks as the Flip camera, and in the audio arena the Kodak Zi8 is the winner.
I’ll finish this Kodak Zi8 review with a little endorsement for the iPhone 4S. If you don’t care about audio, then ditch the Kodak Zi8 and pickup an iPhone 4S. It will shoot as good as all three of the pocket digital video cameras mentioned above, but it’s the only one that makes calls and tells how to get home when you’re lost … ! Good luck shopping.
I recently directed a short film in partnership with producer Jim Perich-Anderson about the wetlands restoration project on the UW Bothell/Cascadia College co-located campus. The film highlights the remarkable transformation of a once heavily degraded wetland – which was essentially just a cow pasture – into an outstanding educational and environmental resource. Have a look at the film below and check out the UWB/CCC building dashboard website, where the film is featured.
I’m happy to announce that I’m now represented by Zuma Press. Thanks to Zuma and the great team that founder Scott Mc Kiernan has assembled. Zuma represents thousands of photojournalists worldwide and millions of images. Contact sales@zumapress.com if you wish to license any of my work, or click the logo below to browse their entire archive.
Shot for ZUMA Press. If you want to license these images please contact sales@zumapress.com.
November 15, 2011 – Seattle, WA – (Below) An Occupy Seattle protestor cries as she sits on the back of an ambulance after police sprayed her with pepper spray and pushed her backward with their bicycles. At least 150 Occupy Seattle protestors marched through downtown Seattle, stopped traffic, and clashed with dozens of police officers. They marched to support the Occupy Wall Street protestors who were cleared out of Zuccotti Park this morning in New York.
Shot for ZUMA Press. If you want to license these images, please contact sales@zumapress.com.
Late Saturday night and throughout Sunday, police squared off with Occupy Portland protestors while attempting to enforce Mayor Sam Adams’ 12:01 a.m. Sunday deadline for protestors to vacate the two downtown parks they have occupied since early October. Approximately 5,000 people showed up to defy the mayor’s orders, overwhelming police until Sunday afternoon when police were able to clear the parks and dismantle tents and other structures. Police arrested at least 50, used pepper spray on at least one person, but largely the protestors were nonviolent. Police, mounted on horses, charged the crowd on one occasion in an attempt to break up the thousands of people that had filled downtown streets and blocked traffic. A protestor who was later arrested threw a firework at the mounted police, startling their horses amidst the chaos and causing one officer to be lightly injured.
For an upcoming project, I filmed the gardening crew at UW Bothell doing their seasonal decoration of the big W on campus. Have a look, and stay tuned for the final project … more info coming soon. I created this with a Canon 5D mark II, 70-200 f/4 lens, tripod, and Final Cut Pro X.
I wrote a recent review that was a pretty harsh critique of Final Cut Pro X and I do have to say that Apple took care of a lot of issues with its recent Final Cut Pro 10.0.1 software update. FCP version 10.0.1 (some people think it is FCP 10.1 but it’s not … not quite yet) is a nice revision of FCP X, which smooths a few of the rough edges of the first release of FCP X.
What we get with Final Cut Pro 10.0.1 is XML capability finally, as well as improved cross dissolve (and other) transitions without having to create a second storyline. This was an overlook in the first version and seemed weird, so I’m glad they fixed that. We also get solutions to other annoying bugs like the lower thirds malfunction that I described in an earlier post. It also feels a bit quicker. I do have to say that I upgraded to a new iMac this week, and FCP X really works slick and quick on this new machine. That hardware upgrade made me a lot happier with FCP X, but I do think that in general Apple is going in the right direction with the software and we’ll see more professionals using it soon.
I’m still on the fence as to whether or not it is the best tool out there, but I am continuing to use it more and more because I don’t have to transcode my Canon 5D mark II footage and I don’t have to wait for Final Cut Pro to render all the time, as I did with FCP 7. It is also a dream to be able to sync my separate audio and video files with one click (without buying an expensive plugin). And all of this costs $300. As the software updates from Apple continue to come, I am going to use FCP X more and more as my primary editing package.
The Lomokino camera will be a pretty cool addition to my Christmas list this year …
I’m very excited about making some short films lo-fi style, with good old fashioned real film. It’s funny because so many HDSLR filmmakers using cameras like the Canon 5D mark II, they will say “shoot in 24p because it is so film-like.” But really no one is ever going to shoot with film, unlike with still photography where so many people do still shoot film. Well, I can really sense that a camera like the Lomokino might actually catch on. And even though using actual film to make moving pictures is time-intensive (and $$-intensive), it really does look rewarding and I am going to give it a go. Stay tuned for the results.
The Lomokino uses any kind of 35mm film that you select, and works by the use of a hand crank that you crank to move the film through the open shutter. Pretty awesome, huh? Does anybody remember the opening credits to The Wonder Years? With the Beatles song. That was the Beatles right? A Beatles cover, anyway.
Here are some short videos from the Lomokino site:
Sample videos:
Teaser Trailer from Lomography on Vimeo.
A Sunny Day On The Southbank – LomoKino from Lomography on Vimeo.
How to use the Lomokino:
LomoKino – Shooting, Loading and Focusing from Lomography on Vimeo.
