Tuesday (25-September-2018) — New Jersey

Home Cooking. Hearty Whole Grain Rye Bread.

Another day of rain. The weather for the last few weeks is more like Seattle, Washington or Bergen, Norway. I decided to make some hearty whole grain rye bread. I ran out of rye flour, and the new batch I got is the whole grain version from Bob’s Red Mill.

I  set up a Insta360 One camera to take images for a time-lapse video of the process. While in Germany earlier this summer, my brother showed me the Insta360 One camera. I was impressed because it could take 360 degree images, and convert them into “little planet” or “tunnel view” images. I have created these type of images for several years by taking 20 or more images with a high-resolution DSLR or mirrorless digital camera, and then using the AutoPano Giga program to convert the images into a 360 degree view. (Note, I just read on Thom Hogan’s blog that Kolor will no longer be selling the AutoPano Giga program.) The process would take hours of processing, and required fast computers, and lots of memory. The images ended up being very large — often over a gigapixel in size. So I decided to try this new camera. Granted the image size would not be as large, but if only viewed on the internet does it matter? Also I would be able to make time-lapse 360 degree videos. I’ve created three time-lapse videos of the bread making (Panorama, Little Planet, and Tunnel View). Let me know what you think. There are some idiosyncrasies with the Insa360 One camera system that I will talk about later when comparing with other 360 degree camera systems.

Hearty Whole Grain Rye Bread Recipe: Rye Flour (1 cup); Sprouted Wheat Flour (1 cup); Bread Flour (1/2 cup);  Sorghum Flour (1/2 cup) Flax Seed (1/4 cup); Chia Seed (1/4 cup); Dill Seed (1 tbs); Anise Seed (1 tbs); Caraway Seed (1 tbs); Fennel Seed (1 tbs); dry milk (1/4 cup);  cocoa (1 tbs); instant coffee (1 tbs); salt (1 tsp); egg (1 large); flax oil (2 tbs); water (1 1/4 cup); Maple  syrup (1/3 cup). Above ingredients added to Panasonic Bread Bakery. Yeast (2 tsp) added to yeast hopper and the unit set for Whole Wheat Bread (Rapid) and started. Three hours later, the loaf of bread was removed and allowed to cool.

Bread Making – Insta360 One Camera – 360 Panorama View (1080p 24p)

Bread Making – Insta360 One Camera – Little Planet View (1080p 24p)

Bread Making – Insta360 One Camera – Tunnel View (1080p 24p)

Ten-Years Ago (19-September-2008) — Utah

Gone to See America 2008. Moab Utah Photography Workshop with Winston Hall. Day 5: Arches National Park.

Time-Lapse Video of a Hike down Park Avenue in Arches National Park. Winston Hall talked me into carrying a tripod on my shoulders so the Nikon D3 camera would be above my head. We set the camera up with a 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens and had it take images every 15 seconds. I used the ~850 images to make a time-lapse video of the hike. This was before the days of the lightweight GoPro cameras. All of the images have been re-processed with Capture One Pro for the new version of the time-lapse video.

Thanks to Jim Batey, I’ve added an image he took of me wearing the Tripod Headcam.

Tripod Headcam. Park Avenue Trail, Arches National Park. (Jim Batey)
Tripod Headcam. Park Avenue Trail, Arches National Park. (Jim Batey)
Park Avenue Hike — Image Locations

Five-Years Ago (15-September-2013) — New Jersey

Late Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

I was stalking a small Green Heron at the local Sourland Mountain Preserve trying to get some images of it catching a fish or frog. All of a sudden there was a commotion in the middle of the pond. Two Canada Geese started a full out smackdown. It was like a junior high school fight. The other geese in the pond formed a circle and made noises supporting their team. The small Green Heron didn’t know what to think.

I used the images I took  (Nikon 1 V2 camera, FT1 adapter, and 180 mm f/2.8D lens) to create a short time-lapse video. The burst mode with the Nikon 1 V2 camera was really useful to get lots of images in a short period of time with all of the activity.

Friday (24-August-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Summer Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey.

The second clear night in a row, at least until early morning when some clouds came in and the lens was covered with condensation again. This time I increased the focal length to 10 mm on the 8-15 mm fisheye lens. Both star trails and a time-lapse video of the nighttime sky.


Star trails over New Jersey. Composite of images taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 100, 10 mm, f/4, 30 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro, and the composite generated using Photoshop CC (statistics, maximum). Individual images from the slide show can be viewed here.

Four-Years Ago (28-July-2014) — Russia

Gone to See Europe 2014. Day 58: Semester at Sea, Summer 2014 Semester Voyage. Saint Petersburg, Russia.

On our last day in Saint Petersburg, I attended a Master Cooking Class. I actually took more pictures than doing any cooking. The Russian food (Stuffed Cabbage and Borscht) we prepared was great, and I used the pictures to create this Time-Lapse Video.