|
| |||
|
|
|
|
The Time Capturer - This page describes how and why I acquired the name and gives you insight into how I became interested in photography. It describes the equipment I have used over the years and what experiences have led me to where I am today. You will also see how those events led to the creation of this website. Hello, I am Wesley (aka “The Time Capturer”), photographer for TheTimeCapsule.ca. I am responsible for creating all the tutorials and examples you will see on this website. I am also the photographer that has captured most of the images of Zack and Ken. The website you are currently visiting has silently been in the works since 2006 and has been an incredibly long endeavour. I have accumulated the interests and needs of many, many people and through many hours of research, photo editing, and planning, have tried to incorporate the most important of those into this website. I have created this website from scratch and, because of my illness, and because I am learning as I go, it has taken far longer than expected to get it off the ground. But here it is. If you would like to learn about my background and how this website idea came to be, this is my story:
Many years ago (I believe 1979), when I was just an 11-year-old boy, an ice jam caused major flooding in my small town.
Around age 18, I began delivering rural mail and, because I had a rather nice income, I purchased a Canon T-70 with a 50mm lens.
I began photographing everything around me that I felt was appealing.
In 2000, I was living with friends and had access to a computer and the internet. This was an entirely new realm for me and I began to explore other photographer's websites. Before long, it became a dream to one day have my own website and I began to cram my brain with information. Right-clicking on a webpage and choosing “View Source” will display a webpage's programming code. I created a copy of this code in my computer (not knowing about copyright laws at that time) and began making small changes to the code to see how it affected the layout of the webpage. It was very interesting and I caught on to it very quickly.
In 2004, I purchased my first real computer.
As of February 2010, I am still using the same computer, although it now has several replaced parts.
The next year, when the digital camera age was getting hot, thanks to a friend and co-worker that had one, I purchased a $30
Vivitar Vivicam 3350.
A couple of months later, the camera began erasing all of my pictures when I plugged it in to my computer.
The camera didn't use memory cards, but relied on it's small 6 mb internal storage.
I was getting frustrated and I knew it was time for a new camera.
I spent a little more money this time ($135) and upgraded to a Concord Eye-Q 3040.
In the film world, the images are called photographs, photos, pictures, or prints. In the digital world, the term image capture has replaced all those other terms. I was accumulating a lot of these image captures in my computer and, before long, I began to realize each image represented a moment in time. If they were referred to as “image captures,” then it would naturally follow that each image would represent a captured moment (or, captured time ). From that point on, I have called myself The Time Capturer, and have refered to my images as time stamps.
At the end of May, I bought a new car.
Because my loan was more than the car's purchase price, when June came around, I upgraded my camera again.
I purchased a Fujifilm Finepix S5100 for just shy of $800.
At 6 megapixels, this camera hit the mark; evoking memories of the images I used to get many years ago with my Canon.
As summer turned into autumn, and autumn began to give way to winter, the images and videos were piling up and the need for some kind of filing system was becoming evident. I could see that, at the rate I was capturing images, I was soon to have quite a mess in my computer. So, I designed a filing system that would work with two images, or two million images. As of this writing, I have approximately 30,000 images and 1,500 videos. My filing system is still in use today (though slightly modified to include other types of files), and has worked flawlessly. Generally, if I do one photo shoot on any given day, all images from that shoot would become a group. If I did more than one shoot on that day, each shoot would become a group. My filing system can handle 100,000 groups (probably more than I'll ever accumulate in my lifetime), and each group can contain 10,000 individual images. But there's more. Still dreaming about having my own website in the future, my filing system includes an ID number, leaving room available for 1,000,000 IDs (photographers). Each individual image filename looks like this: 000000_000_00000_0000.jpg where the first six digits is the photographer ID number, the second three is the type of image, the next five-digit set is the group number, and the final four digits is the image number in the group. This setup allows for 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) possible images per image type. With the space for 1 million photographers, that's ... well, that's a whole lot of pix. In my computer, these images are arranged in folders, where each folder is the date on which the images were captured. This way, I can always find that one specific image I'm looking for. The tutorial, “Creating a Filing System,” will explain this system in more detail as well as present other options for your own image cataloging needs.
Just after Christmas, my most recent cat began having problems and he was put on a diet of “perscription” food.
A week later, I had just finished moving us to a new location and I developed a nasty virus of my own.
Without the need to be at home for my cat, I began hanging out with my co-worker friend; spending more and more time with him and his family. Despite my increasing illness, my friend and I would go out on photographic tours, increasing my desire to capture the best images possible. Eventually, my friend's two young boys (Zack and Ken) began going with us and they soon became the subject of our images. At the beginning of June, I made an offer to the boys to go professional and get paid for their posing. Everyone liked the idea, but I wasn't sure if I was capable. I had always been a nature photographer; the subjects don't move. Now, I was planning to capture images of the boys, in their own element, doing what boys do. I decided on a trial photo shoot to see what would happen. The backyard swimming pool was just filled the day before, but the temperature was very hot and, when the boys got home from school, they didn't care that the water temperature was only 69 °F (20.6 °C); they wanted to go swimming. Immediately, I noticed two problems. I could keep up with the boys, but the camera couldn't. Because of all the motion, I decided on autofocus, but the camera's autofocus wasn't fast enough and I kept missing shots. Video was also limited. The camera had powered zoom. Once I began capturing video, I could no longer zoom in or out, and the focus locked. If my subject moved closer to the camera, or farther away, they'd go out of focus. I think that was the only thing I disliked about that camera. Overall, I was pleased with the results but, if I was going to pursue this endeavor on a more professional level, I knew I was going to need a new camera. Upgrade time again...
I loved my Fuji, so I decided to stick with the same brand.
I purchased a 9 megapixel Fujifilm Finepix S9000 for just under $1,000.
After purchasing some pool toys to use as props, I did another test with the new camera. After introducing two rounds of toys to the boys, resulting in two groups of images that day, I was convinced I could tackle the challenge I had given myself. But, as fun as the pool was, it wasn't the environment I wanted to photograph. I wanted to photograph the boys doing something different; something they've never done before. With my illness still worsening, I discovered I was suffering the early stages of Fibromyalgia, but I pressed on, and scheduled a trial photo shoot that would better represent what future shoots would be like. This trial would take place at a nearby conservation area. This was a beautiful place but, because neither of the boys' parents drove, they had never been there before. Being a nature photographer, placing the boys in a nature setting would help me ease into this new field. It went well; the boys were free to do whatever they wanted and, for the most part, pretend the camera wasn't there. The boys and I both adapted quite well and this conservation area would turn out to be where most of our future shoots would take place. It was now time for our first official paid photo shoot. This shoot would be mainly posing, and would take place at our local park. The boys were great. Kenny understood what was required of him and performed very well for a seven-year-old. Ten-year-old Zachary also performed well and volunteered several of his own poses. All in all, the shoot was an excellent experience and the boys got to play at the park for awhile before and after, resulting in more “kids-being-kids” images. Many more photo shoots would take place that month and I was spending most of my time with the boys and their parents. At the beginning of July, I gave in to the urging and decided, instead of paying rent for a place I wasn't using, I'd give it to them, and I officially moved in. Also at that time, I made the decision that my photo shoots would no longer concentrate on posing. Instead, realizing the boys had more fun just being themselves, I would just capture moments of time as they played, explored, or whatever they happened to be doing at the time. Throughout the summer, thousands of images of the boys began accumulating and the discussion began about what to do with them. Looking at them as a whole, it became evident that they represented the boys discovering new things, exploring new places, and finding new critters to capture (and release). I began to realize I was documenting their growth; capturing new steps in their life. Before long, the idea of “Footsteps Through Time” was born. It was to be an illustrated story, documenting the boys' lives as they travelled through time. “Footsteps Through Time” is a multi-chapter story where each individual photo shoot is a chapter. It is well illustrated with both images and video, and is now the basis of this website. Although the first few chapters have been completed, the story itself has yet to have a finish. The story will not end until the boys stop doing photo shoots. Although the frequency of the shoots has dropped considerably, they still occur. This is due, in part, to my illness, for which I am now classed as disabled, and also because the boys are older now and would rather spend time with their friends or their videogames.
While developing this website, I've been doing a lot of research.
I am still new to digital photography and need to learn some more things.
However, during this time, I realized other people are wanting to learn as well.
Digital cameras have come down in price to the point where just about anyone can afford one.
People are asking me how I've done some things that I've done.
It seems child photography is now my specialty. Not portraits, though. I don't seem to be very good at them and I can't seem to master indoor photography. My specialty seems to be the action shots; capturing kids being kids. I still do posed shots but the kids obviously have more fun when they pretend the camera isn't there. When they smile, you know it's true joy and not a requested smile-like look on their face. I don't ask for smiles. In fact I usually ask them not to and, instead, pretend I'm not there. The other thing that makes a difference is, I usually get in the action with them. If they are swimming or otherwise playing in water, I get farther from shore than they are. This way, the shoreline is in the background and you will get more sense of where they are playing than if there's just water behind them. I have also gotten onto a merry-go-round to photograph their expressions as the background blurs with motion. This type of photography is very rewarding. I do photo shoots of kids when their parents request them but I prefer teaching the parents how to do it themselves. A single photo shoot of this type can span several hours and many photographers would charge megabucks to eat up so much of their time. But I can spend the entire day with a single family and not feel as though I could have spent that time doing anything better. I see it as an opportunity to teach, perfect my own techniques, and to maybe learn something new along the way.
Currently, I use a 12.2 megapixel Canon EOS Rebel XSi D-SLR (aka. EOS 450D) that I purchased in December, 2008.
This is my first “true” digital SLR.
I would suggest this camera to anyone, as a professional tool, or as a good starter. It is perfect for any type of image you would like to capture. It can be used fully automatic or fully manual, or anywhere in between. Between shoots with the boys, I revert back to the nature photography that I've always known so well. This camera is great for close-up nature. Although I don't yet have a macro lens, I find the 75-300mm zoom captures beautiful close-ups -- provided the subject is just past the lens' closest focus range.
March, 2011. Missing my video capabilities (not a feature of the XSi), I purchased a 10.3 megapixel Fujifilm Finepix HS10.
It doesn't replace my Canon but is a nice companion.
Again, it is only a bridge camera but it makes a nice “take-anywhere, just-in-case-camera.”
Like I said earlier, the boys don't go out much anymore.
I try to get out on my own as much as I can but, there are days when my health just won't allow it.
And I don't know how I'm going to be tomorrow so it's hard to make plans.
As anyone with Fibromyalgia would know, life is difficult to plan without knowing what tomorrow will bring, but, as long as there is someone wanting to learn, I will go out.
Likewise, if Zack and/or Ken get bored and decide they want to go out as well, I will take them -- and you will see the results right here on this website...
The Time Capturer If you would like to know what Fibromyalgia is and how it affects me, click here... |
The town's river is lined with dikes from north to south to protect the most vulnerable areas that were built on the flood plain.
Flooding here is extremely rare and 1979 is the only flood that has occured in my lifetime.
The ice chunks that filled the river caused such a back up of water that the dikes overflowed.
Using a cheap $1.98, 110 format, film camera I bought at the corner store, I took many pictures of the event, but none of them turned out and I was very distraught.
The following winter, probably because of my disappointment, I received my first “real” camera for Christmas; an
Opticam 3000 EE II.
It was at that time that my first interest in photography began.
For several years, I lightly pursued this interest but never really devoted a lot of time to it.
I took more pictures of my cat than anything else.
At that point, I began to realize my potential and started to revolve my life around photography, making sure whatever I did could include it.
Aside from my cat, I began photographing friends, cars, and flowers.
I even began a series, “Nature's Oddities,” that included a cluster of mushrooms and a tree that appeared to be tied into a knot.
Then, in 1990, because I was undergoing financial hardship, I had to sell my camera equipment to settle a debt with a friend, and photography fell to the wayside.
The images were extremely low quality, measuring 480 x 640 pixels (a mere 0.3 megapixels), but the actual exposure of the images was impressive for such a cheap camera.
Suddenly, my interest in photography returned, but this time, with digital images instead of film.
This camera was one of the first digital cameras on the market that combined a CMOS sensor with high resolution.
The Concord Eye-Q 3040 featured a 3 megapixel CMOS sensor, a 4x digital zoom, a 1.6 inch color LCD viewing screen, auto focus, 7 mb of internal memory, an SDMMC card slot, video clip capability, and a macro setting for close up photography.
This camera had better overall picture quality and a better storage system; making use of memory cards instead of internal storage that depended on the batteries staying in the camera.
I really liked this new camera and captured many images with it.
But there was something new.
This camera had a high quality video feature as well.
I began experimenting; eventually getting used to how it all worked.
The Concord had video capabilities too -- infact, so did the Vivitar -- but neither of them recorded audio; just video.
Suddenly, I found a new interest.
Photography never took a back seat, though; I found a way to make them work together.
I had just had surgery on my foot so I was already off work for a month.
It turned out to be good timing for another reason because, just after I began to get better, my cat's kidneys suddenly failed.
I was devastated.
My best friend of 11 years was suddenly gone.
I've never gotten over it but, I gradually began to get back to normal.
However, something else was happening.
I began getting sick in another way, though I didn't know it at the time.
It just felt like I wasn't getting enough sleep.
It still captured the same great images, but with more megapixels, the images were larger and clearer.
The video was the same size but much better quality.
The autofocus was a lot faster, and the zoom was manual, not powered, so I could zoom in and out as fast or slow as I desired, whether capturing stills or video.
The Fujis were both bridge cameras and, therefore, had fixed lenses.
The Canon is much closer to the camera of my dreams.
I can use any Canon lens from any Canon camera and, with an adapter, any lens from any other camera.
My options are wide open and this is what I originally wanted.
It has the capabilty of 3.5 shots per second up to a total of 53 full resolution images or 6 RAW images.
It can connect to my computer and I can use the computer to control it and even capture images -- without ever touching the camera.
It has a huge array of accessories available; both through Canon and independent manufacturers.
Because of their low cost and high availability, I have an assortment of lenses, filters, and other accessories to complement my collection.
One of my favourites is the wireless shutter release ... a must have, in my opinion.
Unfortunately, Fuji still insists on utilizing “AA” batteries for a power source so I will have to start buying them again, but the videos will be worth it.
An improvement over my previous Fujis, is this one is capable of 1920 x 1080 pixel, full HD video with stereo sound.
It will even capture high speed video up to 1000 fps, but results in tiny physical demensions, too small to be of any use.
Either way, I love it and it even captures some nice images.
It's main use for me right now, other than the video, is the extreme close ups I can't get with the Canon.
© 2006-2012 TheTimeCapsule.ca