Judge's Chamber

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

On Saturday I attended a photography workshop that I found on meetup.org. It was hosted at the house of this wonderful photographer, John. After all the attendees arrived we sat down and went over exactly what HDR photography was and how to go about putting together HDR photographs. We then went out to this location just off the West Warwick bike path, where this Red caboose from the old New Haven/Hartford RR sits as a memorial to the old railroad that once went through that area. The River Point Mills which now house condos are across the street.

We then went back to John’s house and put together a few HDR examples. I worked on a few more tonight and they are in the gallery above. I am using a plug-in for Photoshop called HDR Efex Pro by Nik Software. It has a lot of presets to get you started but also has a lot of options to help customize the look of your photos. It comes with a 15 day trial which I am currently using because I am not sure if  I want to spend the $160. If you are interested in HDR photography leave some comments or e-mail me for more information.

India Point Bridge I-195 Timelapse from Chris Judge on Vimeo.

Click here to check it out in HD. There are some things you may miss by watching it on this page.

Tonight after work Nate McCourt (@nmccoart) and I decided to go out and shoot a little. We decided to go and do a couple timelapses of the city of Providence from different locations. Our first stop was the India Point Bridge which looks over I-195 and the new I-Way that was built to go around the city. Here are the details of what we shot on the first timelapse:

Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens EF-S18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
36mm
.8 sec Exposure
160 ISO
5 sec Interval
F 6.3

East Bay Timelapse – January 3rd from Chris Judge on Vimeo.

Click here to check it out in HD. There are definitely some things you may miss by watching it on this page

Here is the second timelapse we did. After leaving the India Point Bridge we wanted to get a full view of the city so we went over to the top parking lot of the East Bay Bike Path. We spent about 10 min getting the camera ready and our hands were going to fall off but it was worth it. After sitting in the car for 45 minutes and listening to the encore of today’s Opie and Anthony Show we had our pictures. We got very lucky as you will see very quickly at the beginning we only had a cars lights come into the shot noticeably once. Because of the wide angle there are a lot of things going on in this shot and I have noticed something different every time I have watched it. Here are the details:

Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: EF-S18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Focal Length: 33mm
f4.5
2sec Exposure
7sec Interval
ISO 640

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Pop Art Ornaments Christmas

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Here is your first look at this years family Christmas Card. Isn’t it precious?

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Here are some pictures that Kate and I took at sunset today. We got home from shopping and the light hitting the clouds looked unbelievable. So we walked up Third Ave. and went back into the woods where the boat ramp is at the end of Court St. Leave some comments below on what you think.

Backyard Timelapse Laurel Beach Milford, CT from Chris Judge on Vimeo.

Camera: Canon 7D
Lens: EF-S 18-135mm (Kit Lens)
Focal Length: 18mm
ISO: 1250
Aperture f3.5
Exposure: 15s
Interval:3s

It was taken over 4 1/2 hours from 7:30 to midnight.

This is my first timelapse. Please give me any advice on what you think may have happened when the sky got washed out near the last third. I think it may have been because the moon rose behind me which was not there when I took my test shots.

I did not set the white balance correctly before I started it and I had to shoot in JPEGs because I only own a 4GB CF card. Not enough room to store enough RAW files, the next time I may just shorten the timelapse so I can capture RAW files.

I am also not sure if the kit lens is the reason the stars look blurred or if I just did not get it in focus, I tried to focus on lights that were a couple miles in the distance.

If you know the large field in Laurel Beach, this is the tree that we built our huge treehouse in when we were kids.

Here is the second timelapse I did on Friday night of Thanksgiving weekend. Here are the settings for the camera, it was not as bright out so it looks a lot better. You may want to enlarge to full screen if your computer can play it back smoothly.

11-26 Backyard Timelapse Laurel Beach from Chris Judge on Vimeo.

Camera: Canon 7D
Lens: EF-S 18-135mm (Kit Lens)
Focal Length: 18mm
ISO: 1000
Aperture f3.5
Exposure: 5s
Interval:3s

On January 9th, 2011 I will be running in the Walt Disney World Marathon down in Orlando. I ran a half marathon in September and thought it would be silly if I did not try and run a marathon after working up to do that much. I then wanted to make sure this endeavor would not go wasted on my personal selfish reasons and pride. So I will be running to help cure a disease that is very close to my heart and family.

My cousin Alex was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis when he was just a baby. Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a life-threatening genetic disease that affects the lungs and digestive systems of approximately 30,000 children and adults in the United States. Everyday Alex has to go through rigorous treatments and take numerous medications just to keep his symptoms in check.

This last week has been tough as I have not been able to train due to having a little tendinitis in my foot. It has been getting better but trying to run on Saturday may have put me back another couple of days. For as long as I cannot run on my feet I am going to try and work out in our training room at PC in one of our rehab pools that has an endless current that I can keep my legs in shape without the impact of running on asphalt.

I am hoping to raise money over the next month and a half to donate to help find a cure of Cystic Fibrosis. I have set up a fundraising page through the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Click here to donate to this charity that is so close to me. This will be the toughest physical challenge in my life but it does not come close to comparing to what Alex goes through everyday.

A couple of years ago we wanted to improve the production at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. Our first experiment was using a small green piece of fabric, could not have been more that 5′ x 5′. We set up in our SID’s office against a wall and had a pretty awful lighting setup. We could only film them from their chest up.

So that got me thinking and researching, how could we make the green screen somewhat professional looking and be able to show more of the athlete. I did some research and with a little ingenuity was able to build this full setup. PVC piping was bought at Home Depot and we had them cut it for us. We then went and bought a roll of green photo backdrop paper from Hunt’s Photo and Video.

The athletic department had a set of Lowel lights and we borrow a set from Academic Media Services on campus. I usually just use two lights to fill the green screen and use two lights to light the subject. I do not usually use an accent light in the back because I do not have a light that is a small enough point to keep out of the shot and not create shadows on the green.

The angle of this picture shows a really bright spot on the right side of the green screen, it does not show up as much when looking from the front of the screen. The back lights are hardly pointed at the screen as they start to wash out the green because of how bright they are.

The subject will stand about 4-5 feet in front of the green screen as to not cause shadows on the screen. And today we actually did our full length stand up with Coach Keno Davis. We pulled the photo backdrop so it would go under where he was standing, I have not started to key it out, but you may be able to see it in the Providence College Men’s Basketball media guide. I will hopefully post what it looks like when it is finished.

All in all it was very cheap to build and serves it for the purposes that we need it for. And we can easily get different color backdrops for interviews or standups that we may need to do for other projects we may have.

For those of you who don’t know, my cousin Alex was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis when he was a baby. He is one of the bravest people I have ever known. He has the best sense of humor and is great to be around. None of you could ever imagine having to go through the daily treatments and hospital visits he has had to endure over the first 15 years of his life.

The only person who can even come close to his bravery and strength is his older sister Eva. She has been by his side through all the good times and bad. She is a role model for all of us for how she has supported her brother through everything a CF patient has to go through. Eva spoke at the Fall Fling, a Cystic Fibrosis fundraiser at the Venetian Hotel in Garfield, NJ.

If you do not well up or full out cry while listening to Eva speak, you do not have a soul.

Please pass this video on to anyone you know to learn the story of my cousins Alex and Eva, and this awful disease.