Cnidarian Lifeforms (more coral time lapse)

[Tremont]

http://www.vimeo.com/6079680

This is some of my earlier work (from about 6 months ago), created with a canon XSI camera + 100mm macro lens and a static mount. Shows off some of the more interesting types of corals and behavior.

I originally edited this to be sync'd to the close encounters of the third kind soundtrack, and I was too lazy to go back and re-edit it to something else...so it just kind of has another soundtrack slapped on.

 

[Reef Bass]

Way cool! I particularly enjoyed the polyps ingesting and ejecting food. It's neat how much motion is actually going on over time with what seem like stationary corals. Beautiful specimens too. Good job man!

 

[Recty]

As always, very cool. You've got a real knack for this stuff.

Do you mind if I ask? Do you get paid for your videos or is this all just for fun?

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

Check out the worm @ 1:35!!

 

[Tremont]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15522671#post15522671 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Recty

Do you mind if I ask? Do you get paid for your videos or is this all just for fun?

I get paid AND it is all just for fun

 

[Recty]

Winning combination.

 

[hollback]

Very cool!

How often are you taking a photo? How quick is time sped up?

 

[Tremont]

Most of these varied greatly in the amount of time between shots. For example, after you blow water on them and let them open up a few times, most zoa's will open up very fast, like in 5 minutes. So those shots were mostly 1 fps. The LPS eating ones on the other hand - were usually much longer, literally a whole night sometimes and even then I wouldn't get to see the very end before my halides ruined the shot. Those I would shoot at 3 to 10 seconds per frame and then speed it up as necessary in post.


It's all played back at 30 fps.

The chalice and favia shots really surprised me when I did this. They are by far the coolest/"trippiest" moving of all the corals I have. They are always undulating and wiggling and deflating/inflating. If the favias get covered in sand you will literally see the whole thing"shudder/deflate/inflate as it tries to shake off the sand. I've also seen chalices deform their skin to allow bits of food that land on it to roll directly into their mouth. I think corals are a lot more conscious than they look.

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

Your work may be some of the coolest/"trippiest" photography with corals I have ever seen.

 

[Hookup]

inspiring honestly... thanks for the breakdown on how it was done... certainly gives me enough to try to recreate/experiment...

What software do you use to combine the photos into a movie?

 

[Tremont]

If you just shoot in jpeg mode you can get easily get away with using virtualdub (100% free software) to combine them into avi's. I use Sony vegas to do all of my final editing/soundtrack/etc...Both this and Montipora were done with jpeg/vdub/vegas.

Now I shoot RAW and use after effects which allows you to load up your RAW's as a sequence and modify part of the conversion at any time. For example, if at any point you want to go all the way back and modify the RAW import settings, you can np while keeping the rest of your filters/processing in-tact.

AE is expensive though, and dramatically increases my storage/processing requirements.

 

[IPT]

Amazing, really well done. It is quite cool to see all the movement that generally goes unnoticed with casual observation.

 

[chi3f]

looks great nice shots

 

[corwin]

too cool

 

[Wile E Coyote]

Fantastic!! I so hate people with talent...... Where can I get some!! That video is just amazing. So much happens over time that you never see unless you see it like that!! Great work! Keep it up!