Aerial PhotoSynth of my neighborhood

I shot this series of photos on December 18th, 2009, of my neighborhood (Trailside Point) in Laveen, Arizona. These photos were taken using my Hawkeye RC place and a Canon SD960 IS digital camera.

My First True 720p HD Aerial Video

This is my first aerial video shot in true 720p high definition. Up until now, my videos were all shot at 640x480, then upscaled and cropped in Adobe Premiere Elements.

My wonderful wife recently gave me a new camera as an early father's day gift. It is the Canon PowerShot SD960IS, which shoots H.264 encoded video at 1280 x 720 @ 30 fps.

The purpose of this video is simply to display the HD shooting ability of the new camera.

Hawkeye: My New RC Plane for Aerial Photography

I bought a new RC plane recently that is specifically designed for aerial photography. It's called the Hawkeye, and it was designed and manufactured by Joel Scholz of ElectricFlights.com. In addition to being well suited for aerial photography, it also breaks down to fit inside a carry-on suitcase so that it can travel easily.

Below are some of the videos that I shot recently with the Hawkeye (in order from newest to oldest). As you can see from the earlier video, I had a heck of a time getting the video to be free of vibrations. In the end, I learned that the Hawkeye is very sensitive to out-of-balance propellers. Once I bought a prop balancer and balanced my props, most of the vibrations went away.

Photosynth - It's not just for inaugurations...

You may have seen the "Photosynth" panorama of President Obama's inauguration on CNN.com. If not, Photosynth is a tool developed by Microsoft which allows you to upload a series of photos of a particular scene, and the Photosynth software stitches them together into one big, navigable, 3D panorama.

Here's a couple that I made from aerial photos taken with my RC plane. I made these just to experiment with the software, but now that it's gaining popularity after the inauguration, I'm going to have to make some more.

Beautiful Sedona, Arizona:


South Mountain in Phoenix, Arizona:

More Aerial Videos from my RC Plane

You can view these directly from the embedded videos below, but it's much better to follow their links and watch them in high resolution on the Vimeo site...


Super Cub over Cesar Chavez Park and High School from Clipper453 on Vimeo.


Touch and Go from Clipper453 on Vimeo.


Air-to-Air from Clipper453 on Vimeo.


Air-to-Air Redux from Clipper453 on Vimeo.

Gov. Sarah Palin, Mark Wahlberg on SNL

I was really hoping for some kind of dialogue between Tina Fey and Sarah Palin, but this skit was very funny, nonetheless. When the two of them pass by one another, it truly is remarkable how much Tina Fey looks like Sarah Palin. Between this and Mark Wahlberg's surprise appearance, it's no wonder why SNL has come back with a vengeance this year. Say hi to your mother for me.

The Scariest Thing About Tina Fey Impersonating Sarah Palin

What's the scariest thing about Tina Fey's impersonation of Sarah Palin? Is it how much she looks like her? No. Is is how much she sounds like her? No. Is is how well she's able to duplicate her mannerisms? No.

The scariest thing about Tina Fey's impersonation of Sarah Palin is how LITTLE she had to change the actual dialogue in her Saturday Night Live sketch in order to make it sound funny.

Don't believe me? Watch the SNL version below, then watch the actual Sarah Palin CBS interview below that. Very frightening.

When I first learned of John McCain's VP candidate selection, I initially thought it was a bold and clever move. But the more things heat up with respect to the financial crisis, and the more I see Sarah Palin's lack of experience shine through, the more I'm considering voting for Obama. It will be interesting to see the VP debates later this week.

One of the funniest SNL skits I've seen in a long time

I really hope Tina Fey comes back to SNL, if for no other reason that to portray Sarah Palin. This is classic...