Welcome to Michael’s blog. Michael Andrew, (aka Michael The Maven) is a freelance producer, photography instructor, tech innovator, and when needed, disaster aid specialist. Disclaimer: Michael is a participant in Bhphoto & Amazon affiliate programs that provides an advertising commission if you purchase through links on this website.
I had an epiphany today about the Sky Cam. I am often asked about how to make these, which is why I have posted the construction guide on my store. The Sky Cam is a way to secure your very expensive SLR camera on top of a painter’s pole which will allow you to take pictures from 10-30 feet in the air. One of the problems with using the Sky Cam is that unless you have a special Zig viewer which is a small camera that fits over the view finder and plays on a detachable monitor, you cannot see what you are taking a picture of.
I just realized, the new Canon “Live View” feature solves this. All you would need is a video coupler, ($.99 at Radio Shack) and 20-30′ of video cable, just plug it into your Media Store / Portable DVD player. You can see everything! If you are going the transmitter route, you are good to go! (If not you have 10 seconds before the timer fires. Ive learned that if you go this way, set up your AEB right next to each other and it will take 3 pictures).
Here is the sketch I made this evening:It will be a while, but I have a video in the works on the Michael Andrew Sky Cam. The adapter itself can be made for about $25 from materials found in most hardware stores. If you are serious about making one and would like the very detailed instructions you can purchase Michael Andrew Sky Cam Adapter Guide Here.
Does anyone know anything about this video? Is it for real? I mean…if it is I am a little freaked out. Its about 8 minutes long, but wow…if this is real its amazing.
I apologize for the down time on the blog. My hosting company has made some improvements, I hope we will see the results. I had a great shoot today and will be posting a forum video on Youtube shortly. Please Standby!
Photoshop Express launched today. For those of you who don’t know what this, its basically a place for your to store AND edit your photos on line. I believe this is truly revolutionary because other photo sharing sites such as Flickr do not allow you to edit, organize and SHARE pictures like this. Especially on the share part, slideshows, emails, embedding all made super easy. Look for Photoshop Express to give sites like Flickr a run for their money, because it offers features that are not available anywhere else on the internet for free.
Facebook and MySpace have really revolutionized “social picture sharing”. I was impressed to see that there is a sign in feature on PS Express that allows you to sign into Facebook, Picasa, and photobuckt and edit those pictures on those sites.
Photoshop Express is VERY VERY limited in what it can do compared to the regular, armed to the teeth Photoshop. We are talking, extremely basic stuff here….no layers, masks or whatever. Photoshop express reminds me of the very earliest versions of Photoshop Elements. In any case, most casual photographers will find these tools useful and helpful.
Check it out…its fun, its free, its a nice place to store pictures online. I signed up.