Four Canon Digital SLR cameras shooting about 900 frames an hour ( with the kit lenses) mounted on gigapans and mounted on a long panel, attached to a tripod with a super duper car type battery-
and the results will make up a 10,000 frames which will be combined in a time lapse video. We will be able to see it at some point!
-and here is the story how this came to be on the blog today.
After school I was hightailing it up to Mount Washington to do a shoot for an engaged couple. On the way up the mountain at the top, I saw some camera equipment and a huge tripod. The guy manning it started to wave to me and then jog to keep up with my car as I slowed to a red light atop Grandview Ave. It was a former teacher of mine, Dror Yaron, now at Carnegie Mellon. I had taken one of his early Gigapan classes at Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild. {Here is the link to one of the gigapans I shot in 2008.}
I said , “I have to go shoot an engaged couple at the Duquesne Incline platform”, and he said, “Stop back here after that.”
As it turned out the couple couldn’t make it and so I parked close to the spot Dror was and walked down the sidewalk of McArdle Roadway, high above the Monongahela River.
In a few minutes the Senior Systems Scientist Randy Sargent and another CMU Robotics team member Anne Wright (forgive me Anne I didn’t get your title but remembered the “e”) arrived on the scene.
Randy had been there since 5 AM and planned to shoot until 11 PM. Oh my.
It was really cold, too. They were taking turns with the equipment. Later on I returned at 10 during the Steelers game just to document the commitment to the project. Randy had donned the ski gloves at that point.
I asked Randy about what he wanted to do when he was a child and he said he always liked to build things. EVERYTHING. Not just lego but pieces of scrap lumber from construction sites. I find that interesting how people are guided on a path to their current work.
Sunset was at 4:53 PM on Thursday the 8th of December.
Here is the link to the site to learn more about the projects and the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.
Nicely done.
oh wow
What an amazeing and educational post. Love the pictures, learned about a gigapan and saw the link to Carrie Furnace photo shoot. Our class went on a shoot to the Carrie Furnace and I took photos and made a DVD out of them but boy the view they took were amazing. Also love your gigapan photo of the hotel. As always what a source of information and encouragement you are.
What a photo!
WOW!
Looks cold!
I love it. There I said it.
Fascinating, and a new word for my vocabulary. After enjoying the hotel gigapan, I hope we’ll be able to see the finished time lapse gigapan.
Oh, I’m cold just looking!
Wow.. what a cool project! I was just reading about time lapse the other day thinking it would be cool to try but had no idea!
I admire them for their perseverance. That was an awfully cold day to be, basically, just standing around for over 18 hours. I do hope we’ll get to see the end-result.
Wow, I clicked on you because you commented on Island Traveller’s blog – but of course I got another photographer! 🙂
I read your story – your old teacher racing up to your car, and then those great photos. How choice was that. That sounds lovely. Your photos are beautiful too. Merry Christmas!
Cool Ruth, now I see what you were so excited about… literally : )
Wow, that is DEDICATION! I’d love to see the final product when it’s available for viewing…