Sir John Carling Building Demolition

Built in the late 1960's the Sir John Carling building was reduced to rubble in less than 20 seconds today. It's not every day that you get to see a controlled building implosion, so along with hundreds of other people in Ottawa I woke up early and headed down to Dow's lake to capture the show. It was pretty interesting to see a building just disappear from the skyline that quickly. The rain started up about 10 minutes before the implosion, but thankfully I brought along my Kata Rain cover to keep my gear dry. Check it out in the video below, and I've slowed it down for you in the replay starting at the 50 second mark.



Exif Data
Camera: Canon 5D mkII
Aperture: f/6.3
Exposure: 1/125
Focal Length: 200mm
Flash: Not-Fired
ISO: 800
RODE VideoMic
Kata E-702 Rain Cover
Post processing included some video editing including slowing it down to 25% normal speed

Daffodils Timelapse Video

Just a quick little timelapse photography video I did of two daffodils opening. I used my old Canon XTi that was modified to use the 400plus firmware which has a built in intervalometer. I photos at 2 minute intervals for a total of 82 shots. Play it in 1080p full HD glory and enjoy this timelapse video!



Exif Data
Camera: Canon Digital Rebel XTi
Aperture: f/10.0
Exposure: 1/50
Focal Length: 41mm
Flash: Not-Fired
ISO: 200
Post processing included batch exposure adjustments, cropped 16x9, create timelapse video @ 15fps

200 Gallon Salt Water Reef Tank in HD - Video

I took a few videos of this very nice 200 gallon salt water reef tank a little while ago, and I finally got around to editing them together to create a montage. Video quality is quite decent this time around since I used a tripod most of the time. What did not help is that my daughter liked to shake the tripod now and then while I was filming! I should also really invest in a nice fluid movement head for the tripod when shooting video, since the head I was using is somewhat jerky when panning. Lighting was pretty good because he has an equivalent of 800W of metal halide lights pumping out of his 120 mixed LED light source. The only issue with lighting is the blue (night) lights cast a very strange purple colour on reflective/luminescent objects. Nevertheless, the video still looks great, to me. Make sure to watch it in full 1080p HD glory for the best image quality.



Exif Data
Camera: Canon 5D mkII
Lenses: Canon 24-105 f4 IS L USM, Canon 50 f1.8

Pileated Woodpecker in HD - Video

I ran into this pileated woodpecker again yesterday, so I thought I would take a few videos of him pecking away at some trees. Unfortunately, I did not have my tripod with me at the time, so the video is a little shaky. It didn't help that it was -1ºC out and I was trying to hand hold a 5D mkII with battery grip and a 70-200 f2.8 IS with 2X TC attached as steady as possible! I also did not have my external mic with me, so the audio is not the greatest, but that's not a big deal anyway since I was in an area between a busy parkway and a school with kids playing outside for recess!
I still think it's a pretty decent video of this woodpecker at work. Make sure to watch it in HD for the best quality.



Exif Data
Camera: Canon 5D mkII
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure: 1/30
Focal Length: mostly 400mm
ISO: 640

Northern Flicker Woodpecker

Today's shot for the "Photo a Day" project is called Northern Flicker Woodpecker. This smart alec woodpecker likes to knock on the metal cap on my chimney because he knows it will make a louder noise to signal his territory. I took a short video of him doing this as well before he flew away. Sorry about the bad audio, I did not have time to go grab my external mic.

Exif Data
Camera: Canon 5D mkII
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure: 1/400
Focal Length: 200mm with 2X TC (400mm)
Flash: Not-Fired
ISO: 500
Post processing included conversion from RAW, cropped, and unsharp-mask