The Marshmellow Test

This is one of the funniest things I have seen online in a while….

Brisbane Riverfire 2009

Here is 2249 still photos of the Brisbane River Fire festival. I could have taken the tripod and set up for some nice long shutter speed photos of the fireworks but tried this on for something a little different.

I was holding the camera with one hand extended above my head to avoid the people in front of me. I also had my 5 year old boy sitting on my shoulders so composing the photos and holding it still was very challenging!

Music: “Trance Symphony” by Atomic Cat

You can watch this in high def at: www.vimeo.com/6569449

Point Cartwright Spring

This is Point Cartwright on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. Just down the road from where I live on a beautiful Spring day (9th September 2009). It would have to be one of my favourite places in the world and where I have shot numerous models.

Today’s experiment was something a little different for me however… I have seen some pretty cool tilt-shift time lapse videos around before so I thought I would give it try. Fortunately is was an absolutely amazing day for it.

Music: “Electric Funky – You Got” by Speedsound

You can view this video in high definition at: http://www.vimeo.com/6499195

A Day in Hervey Bay…

Whale in Hervey Bay

Want something great to do for a weekend? Then I can thoroughly recommend venturing up to Hervey Bay in Queensland, Australia like we did last weekend. Peppers Resort isn’t too bad either.

Here is a series of 433 still images taken with a Canon 5d MKII from our weekend away trip to see the Whales.

The whales were not all that active this time although we did see some breaching in the distance but by the time we got over there they had settled down. So since I probably wont be adding any whale stills to my portfolio I figured I would have a play with some video again. Kind of like a family slideshow on speed! :~)

This was just thrown together very quickly…It has however given me an idea for a cool upcoming project so stay tuned for that…

Colour Grading Video for Photographers…

I have been asked a number of times recently how I colour graded the video of Myra @ Mirra. Although its no master piece I thought I would write about how I did it here…

I edit with Final Cut Pro and whilst I do have Color available to me I wasn’t getting the results I wanted immediately as it is all new to me. I do plan on spending more time experimenting with Color in the future however but a quick  fix for now, especially for photographers is to use programs you are already well versed at, Lightroom and/or Photoshop!

Here is how I did it (I wont go into the work-flow I use for importing the 5d MkII footage and transcoding it from its painful native format, but if you would like me to just let me know);

Firstly I edited all of my footage in FCP. Got it to the point where the sequence was pretty much complete. I then exported if from FCP;

- File – Export – Using Quicktime Conversion – Set a new folder and file name for this sequence.
- Format – Image Sequence ->
- Options  – Format = Jpeg – Frames per second = (whatever your footage is orignially running at.) ->
- Options – Quality = Best
- Then OK

This will export your enitre sequence to individual images so depending on its length you will most likely end up with thousands of still images.

I then import all of these images into Lightroom and make my colour adjustments on one of these still images. Copy these setting (Settings – Copy Settings) then select the rest of the images and simply Synch these settings (Settings – Synch Settings) to the remainder of the images and the changes will be made on them automatically. (This could also be done using Photoshop then running a batch.) Once you are happy with how it looks export all of the images as jpg’s again into a new folder.

Now using Quicktime;
- Goto File – Open Image Sequence
- Select the first of the graded still images and open it.
- Set the frames per second to what you are working with.
- Quicktime will now open the entire sequence and you should be able to play it to see what it now looks like.
- Now Export this graded sequence into a format you are comfortable working with.

I then re-imported this graded sequence back into FCP and made any other final editing adjustments. I also then took mine into Motion and added some titles.

Well that is it. It may sound very long winded but really the process is not much different form using Color. Once you render your footage out to go into Color then render again I found it really didn’t take much more time. And because I can make colour adjustments int LR far faster then Color I believe it actually saved me work.

Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any questions.

Myra @ Mirra Video

Video from a lingerie photoshoot with model Myra Maxwell shot on the Canon 5DmkII. Styling by Michelle Bennett, Makeup by Danielle Robinson and Hair by Rebecca Narvaez. Produced, edited and photographed by glenbowden.com.

Thankyou to the beautiful function centre Mirra in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane for the great location.

Myra @ Mirra Photoshoot

Here are a few photos from our shoot with model Myra Maxwell @ Mirra.

Mirra is a fantastic functions and events centre. It is gorgeously appointed and I would thoroughly recommend it if you were looking for a special place to hold an event. They really looked after us whilst we were there.

We were also fortunate enough to have been supplied some lingerie directly from Pleasure State which was secured by my amazing stylist Michelle Bennett.

Danielle Robinson was on hand for makeup and Rebecca Narvaez for hair.

In Print…

Nothing beats seeing your work in print… (and paid for by others) :~)

Veve Catalogue;

In Print… (cont’d)

Nothing beats seeing your work in print… (and paid for by others) :~)

Bullzye Catalogue;