Written by Hillel on April 15th, 2012
So Google didn’t hire you, but you still want to do cool things like engineer a miniature device to capture indoor 360 degree panoramas. Not to worry. The key to reaching this challenge lies in the art of breaking down goals into manageable pieces. You’ll need to build these pieces separately and then integrate. Finally, you can iterate your results stepwise toward perfection. While your device is short of perfection, however, you should probably call your progress “Beta”.
First, you’ll need a small computer platform to do the work on. This platform needs to be mobile so size is key. It will need to be powered by a portable battery source, and provide a wireless connection for access from your mobile device (e.g. phone). An Arduino, BeagleBoard, or Rasberry PI will do. For the purposes of this entry, I’ll just use the BeagleBoard TI ARM Cortex platform because, at the time of writing, it is currently the most capable and accessible of the three.
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Posted in BeagleBoard, Pan/Tilt, Panorama, Photography Passion, Photography Workflow, Uncategorized | No Responses »
Tags: BeagleBoard, C++, Control, Embedded, Linux, Maestro, Pan, panorama, Servo, ServoCity, Tilt, Ubuntu, USB, WIFI
Written by Hillel on December 27th, 2011
In July of this year (2011), my family took a comprehensive trip to Israel for the grand tour. We hit all the major highlights, and everyone had a blast. I shlepped my Nikon D700 on the trip, and several lenses to cover possibilities. By the flight home, I had taken over 20,000 photos from the southern resort of Eilat, to the Golan Heights in the north.
Many of the photos were actually series. Some series were collected to make sure a particular event was not missed. Some series were performed as bracketed shots which could be later combined to synthesize HDR composites. Other series were bracketed simply to provide a palette of exposure options to choose from later – and thus insurance for the specific photo opportunity. Still other series were collected for the ultimate purpose of generating stitched panoramas.
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Posted in Panorama, Photography Passion, Photography Workflow, Uncategorized | No Responses »
Tags: Boat, City, Coastline, D700, Israel, Jaffa, Long, nikon, panorama, Port, Shore, Stitch, Tel-Aviv, trip, Yaffo
Written by Hillel on August 26th, 2011
It’s natural for a father to want to share his passion for hobbies with offspring. My father tried endlessly to introduce each of his three kids to the philatelic world, but could not find a single taker among them. To this very day, he is continues to fill out duplicate albums in the hopes that one day, as if by sudden inspiration, his kids will wake up and fulfill his lifetime dream. Still, when it finally dawns on you that your kid’s interests may never intersect yours, there’s always… well there’s always your nephew!
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always had hobbies, but computers, photography, and guitar have always placed at the very top. For example, I was one of the first kids in my high-school class to own and program a personal computer at a time when most had never heard of these world-changing machines. This path eventually led to an entire career in 3D software development.
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Posted in Photography Passion | No Responses »
Tags: 3D, Alexander, Billly Goat, Camp, Computers, Geek, Guitar, Hillel, Jonesi, Longwood, Music, panorama, Passion, photography, Steinberg, Summer, Washington
Written by Hillel on March 20th, 2011
I’m often asked to take pictures for a special event. At some point later, I’m requested politely to just send the pictures to an email address “when I can”. I don’t have a quick answer for this, so I’m writing this BLOG entry to address what looks like a straight-forward request… but isn’t. The short answer is that there is much more to professional shooting than most think. For this discussion, I’m going to assume “Frank” is asking for the pictures. Below is a summary of the reasons why Frank will probably not get the pictures in an email. Let’s begin.
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Posted in Photography Events, Photography Workflow, Uncategorized | No Responses »
Tags: art, bridge, calibration, camera raw, frank, Hillel, lossy, nikon, photography, photoshop, professional, spyder elite, Steinberg, steps, technique, workflow
Written by Hillel on December 20th, 2010
Figuring out your next photography quest is like picking a good restaurant. You don’t want to eat at the same joint frequently because you will likely find it boring over time. You don’t want to pick a restaurant randomly because the odds of the place having food you like, a comfortable setting, and reasonable prices is low and ultimately risky. Recommendations from friends are a good start, but even then, tastes vary. Critiques can’t be relied on either. A friend may rave about a place, and you might then decide on a whim to go and try it out. After your little experiment, you’re left wondering if you came to the wrong place, the friend was simply distracted by a waitress, or they were paid handsomely for their recommendation.
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Posted in Places | No Responses »
Tags: bald, BLOG, conowingo, dam, Eagle Photography workshop trip maryland dam conowingo, eagles, elk, fish, Hillel, lighthouse, neck, panorama, park, photography, river, Steinberg, susquehanna, trip, tripod
Written by Hillel on October 31st, 2010
I’ve always loved science. From an early age, my father fostered this interest by exposing me to many of the branches of science through a variety of activities, experiments, and mini-lectures. Though he didn’t have the same knack as Brian Greene and Stephen Hawking for distilling complex theories into digestible concepts, he did spark my interest in science, and how its methods can be used to make sense of the world around us – and for the most part, already has.
At an early age, we put together a large mirror-based telescope with an electric motor to track the stars, and he taught me how to align the base of it towards the North Star. I learned the difference between solar and lunar eclipses, and the disparity in distance between the near planets and the almost unimaginable distant stars. Though his information wasn’t always reliable, his enthusiasm was guaranteed as he fielded most of my questions. Later I would take an introduction Astronomy course at the University of Maryland and fill in many of the missing gaps that I had either failed to ask or understand.
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Posted in Celebrities | No Responses »
Tags: 2010, Bill, Engineering, Father, Festival, Guy, Harold, Hillel Steinberg, Nye, Science, Steinberg
Written by Hillel on March 9th, 2010
Everyone loves a good Bar Mitzvah party. Kids and adults are everywhere, running, eating, singing, and dancing – many choosing to do more than one of these activities at the same time. Those not dancing in the dim and flashing lights can be found twisting in pink glowing hula-hoops. As the kids finish wrapping their friends in toilet paper, they parade across the floor in conga lines while the adults lift the honored family high in flimsy chairs.
It is exactly for these reasons that photographing a Bar/Bat Mitzvah party is as tricky as landing a rover on Mars. Lighting, motion, and depth are key elements to the camera and photographer. When there is good lighting, negligible motion, and minimal depth, your four year old niece can take the shot with a cheap point-n-shoot with good results. When the lights are dim, everyone is running around like a sale at Macy’s, and there’s action at every distance, you need to prepare like an astronaut or your pictures will look like… well… like a four year old took them.
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Posted in Photography Events | No Responses »
Tags: Bar Mitzvah, Bat Mitzvah, camera, event, Flash, Hillel, Jewish, party, Photography Events, settings, simcha, Steinberg, technique
Written by Hillel on March 3rd, 2010
In late December, my family and I headed down to Disney World for Winter break to get away from the weather here in the DC metro area. Though much of our time was spent at the Animal Kingdom, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Epcot, we did make our way out to Seaworld. I’ve been to Florida’s Seaworld on many occasions, but this was my first time here looking through the eye of a Nikon D700 and a the 70-300VR lens. As we entered the park, we headed right over to the killer whale show called “Believe” which was just then starting. When I was younger, I was in awe of the grace and power of these creatures. Indeed, I was able to capture this on camera, while I observed my kids relive my previous visits.
I wasted no time, and began setting up for various shots – knowing pretty much where the whales were going to appear and what they were going to do by watching the hand cues of their trainers. Unlike in previous visits, however, I was experiencing the show in a new way. The whales always look huge at these shows. But, by seeing the trainers up close in the glass, I realized just how critical and yet dangerous their jobs are. I also realized just how much fun they were having. Soon I was taking nearly as many shots of the trainers as I was of the whales.
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Posted in Florida, Places, Sea World | No Responses »
Tags: Branchaeu, Dawn, Dawn Brancheau, death, Disney, Dolphin, Hillel, photography, Seaworld, Steinberg, tragic, Whale, World
Written by Hillel on March 1st, 2010
I already have a web site where I can showcase different techniques and the results of my various endeavors. But, I don’t have a real good way of candidly discussing my thinking behind some my work. As a result, I have created this BLOG to give me a chance to record and share some of my personal experiences in photography with you.
Posted in BLOG | No Responses »
Tags: BLOG, Hillel, introduction, photography, Steinberg
