Peculiar Camera Mounts

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Jameela M Boardman
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Peculiar Camera Mounts

Post by Jameela M Boardman »

Image

For this scene, I needed a camera mounted high up on a wall opposite the stairs to a couple of attic rooms, to create the illusion of a coffee house with a balcony. Using a piece of flat mild-steel strip bent into an 'L' shape, with a hole drilled in it and a 'G' clamp, I attached my camcorder to the top of a ladder! ...All small and medium size cameras have 1/4" Whitworth / UNC mounting threads, so such a bolt was used. Both up and down and sideways angle adjustment was possible, and being a camcorder there was plenty of zoom available.

So while I was up the ladder, I switched the camcorder on and also my separate sound recorder in my pocket, did a hand clap for synchronising them in editing later, then down the ladder, up the stairs, through the door, sit at the table - whence the scene could start! ...Below is a 'freeze frame' from that scene recorded as shown.

Image


Another Scene... "Two Sides of the Same Coin"

Image

This scene required a spinning £1 coin superimposed in front of a background image. I chose to use blue as the chroma-key colour. The focus was a problem, and I ended up using manual focus set to the closest the camera was capable of, then sliding the block of wood in and out until I had a nice clear picture. This camera can magnify the image on it's screen 6X to help with manual focus. Notice the cotton thread, which is wrapped around the fan spindle, as I gently pulled this thread I got a super video recording of a spinning coin close up.


A NOTE ON INSERTING PHOTOS IN THIS FORUM
For those not familiar with how to do it; images are enabled on this forum, but the current free IAC website hosting does not have enough digital space to allow uploading to the site directly. So it cannot work simply like uploading to Facebook.

However, this Forum has many advantages over Facebook being multi-threaded and postings are more permanent. Images can be posted, but it currently has to be done manually and via an external location on the internet. This could easily be improved, but a little money would need to be spent by the IAC.

1. The first point to say is that the file name you use must have no spaces, in the above example I cannot use:
"camcorder on ladder.jpg"
rather it must be either: 'camcorder-on-ladder.jpg'
or just: 'camcorderonladder.jpg'
Numbers can be used as well, but no spaces.

2. Next, upload your picture to either a personal website or a club website. Uploading to Facebook would only work if the page is publicly viewable -- because if we have to sign-in to see it, then it is of no use for this purpose.

3. Now we need to know the exact web-address of the picture, this is called a 'Uniform Resource Locator' (URL), it consists of four parts...
The protocol//the domain name/the folder path/the file name.
In the above example, it is...
https://www.northspirit.org/camcorder-on-ladder.jpg
My website is only small and everything is in one folder, so there is no path as such. Other websites may be much more complicated.
To find the full web-address or URL... on a computer, right click the image on your chosen website picture, choose "Copy image location" or on an Android device, long tap the photo then do the same. (Sorry I do not know how it is done with iPhones or iPads).

4. Finally, copy and paste this URL in your text of a new forum posting wherever you want the picture to appear, then highlight it in exactly the same way as you would highlight text to make it bold or italic... A little further along that same bold/italic tool bar, you will see the image icon with a tiny picture of mountain on it. Clicking this to your highlighted URL, will add the [img] opening and closing tags.

Click 'Preview' to check it works, and congratulate yourself!

Then 'Submit' your new posting to the forum with an image in it.

...one down side though, if your image is deleted or moved on your external website, then your picture is lost on this forum!
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TimStannard
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Re: Peculiar Camera Mounts

Post by TimStannard »

Two examples of inginuity. The ladder trick is straightforward enough, but another to file away for future reference, but the spinning coin is real thinking outside the box. We used to have a club member (long since deceased) as many clubs have who could turn his hand to any minor engineering feat. Throw a problem - "How can I get a shot that ..?" and he'd not only come up with a solution but manufacture it.

Heath-Robinson ideas are what can make amateur (or vocational) film making such fun.
Tim
Proud to be an amateur film maker - I do it for the love of it
ned c
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Re: Peculiar Camera Mounts

Post by ned c »

Interesting, valuable, Jameela; suggest you send for publication in the magazine. There was a complaint that the magazine spends too many pages reminiscing, these applications are the perfect antidote to that.

ned c
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Jameela M Boardman
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Re: Peculiar Camera Mounts

Post by Jameela M Boardman »

There was another 'peculiar' shot I did with this Lumix compact camera and the fan, but I don't have a photo of it.

It was in the local woods near here, and I set the fan horizontal with a bit of plywood over the three blades, with the camera sat on top resting on its back looking upwards towards the sky through the trees. Because I could no longer see the camera screen, I used the camera WiFi link to a Panasonic Image App on my mobile phone to control the camera. Then I slowly rotated the 'fan-plywood-camera' assembly by pulling on a thread, same as in the above photo. So this shot showed the trees turning! ...it worked well (eventually).
Richard Scarsbrook
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Re: Peculiar Camera Mounts

Post by Richard Scarsbrook »

Here's an improvised tripod I made on a recent wild camping trip......

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AoAozYX-65zkgoR7ye3 ... w?e=sAtbot

Clicking the above hyperlink will reveal the picture, but the 'insert picture' feature below (small mountain icon described in Jameela's post) doesn't seem to work.

Image

Cheers
R
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TimStannard
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Re: Peculiar Camera Mounts

Post by TimStannard »

Richard Scarsbrook wrote: Wed Oct 14, 2020 12:35 pm Here's an improvised tripod I made on a recent wild camping trip......
Brilliant, Richard. Shame the camera wasn't a Boxwood Brownie ;)
Tim
Proud to be an amateur film maker - I do it for the love of it
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TimStannard
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Re: Peculiar Camera Mounts

Post by TimStannard »

Jameela M Boardman wrote: Wed Oct 14, 2020 7:38 am There was another 'peculiar' shot I did with this Lumix compact camera and the fan, but I don't have a photo of it.
I'd definitely take up Ned's suggestion of writing an article for FVM - even if it's only a half-page (indeed it might be more successful as a short piece with bullet points and photos).
Tim
Proud to be an amateur film maker - I do it for the love of it
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Jameela M Boardman
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Re: Peculiar Camera Mounts

Post by Jameela M Boardman »

Dear Richard, I think your URL won't work directly as an image in the page because it is 'embedded' into 'One Drive'.

To work as an image file, it needs to end with an image file extension like: .jpg .png .gif

It is a tremendous pity that uploading images to this forum wasn't easy for all of us!

But I do love your wild camping tripod! :D


On the wider issue of these article-like posts being presented on FVM magazine as well... I think our conversation of this forum is a major asset, even more so now as our freedom to meet each other is severely restricted due to this virus. We learn so much from each other, and the feeling of being in a like-minded community is really valuable. ...This doesn't happen with writing for the magazine!

Also the spontaneity of this forum is great -- to have a free hour and just write a mini-article when it comes to mind, then read it over a couple of times to check the grammar and spelling, then click 'Submit'. Job Done, it is published, and we can all see it instantly.

So my preference would be to upgrade this forum to accept images internally, not have to rely on external websites.
Last edited by Jameela M Boardman on Thu Oct 15, 2020 5:37 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Dave Watterson
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Re: Peculiar Camera Mounts

Post by Dave Watterson »

Richard has a talent for improvising ways to film himself, when necessary. Take a look at 'Holding Back the Tide' on vimeo.com/455040840.
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Jameela M Boardman
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Re: Peculiar Camera Mounts

Post by Jameela M Boardman »

Thank you Richard...

Inspirational to all us lone filmmakers!
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Jameela M Boardman
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Re: Peculiar Camera Mounts

Post by Jameela M Boardman »

UPDATE

You must use the URL of the image itself, NOT of the page in the address bar, which in this case is 'One Drive'... Do this by right clicking or long tap on the image in its original location, then choose 'Copy image location'. This is then pasted into your forum post, and 'Insert Image' clicked (tiny mountain icon) to the whole highlighted link. This is now an external (remote) picture in your forum posting. e.g...


Image
Richard Scarsbrook
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Re: Peculiar Camera Mounts

Post by Richard Scarsbrook »

Thanks Jameela

BTW this is the film I made with footage from the improv tripod (plus some handheld and some on a little gorillapod).

https://vimeo.com/455042353

Cheers
R
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TimStannard
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Re: Peculiar Camera Mounts

Post by TimStannard »

Richard Scarsbrook wrote: Thu Oct 15, 2020 4:50 pm BTW this is the film I made with footage from the improv tripod (plus some handheld and some on a little gorillapod).
A wholly satsifying little film. My wife has decided we should visit the fells, but I think one look at this will put her off - great scenery, but I doubt she'll be up to the walking! (Neither will I but as I'll be less incapable than her, no-one will ever know)
Tim
Proud to be an amateur film maker - I do it for the love of it
tom hardwick
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Re: Peculiar Camera Mounts

Post by tom hardwick »

I like your enthusiasm for the thought that IAC members will gather here to read articles Jameela, but I fear the reality is that few of them bother to visit. The statistics for the site show how tiny the traffic density is, and I suspect that getting involved with the 'inter-web' is beyond a lot of them.

Nice idea to have the site upgraded to accept images directly though, and this should be done with just a smidgen of the money saved by having BIAFF online this year. In the past I have uploaded images to accompany my words, but such is the gerfaffle I seldom bother.
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