photoSentinel captures a well-timed photo of the winning gardeners celebrating!

The team at photoSentinel would like to send out a huge congratulations to Fleming’s Nurseries and Phillip Johnson Landscapes for winning both the Gold medal and the Best In Show honour for their Trailfinders Australian Garden presented by Fleming’s at London’s prestigious Chelsea Flower Show.

The photoSentinel Pro, was there to capture every moment of the historic project, the first time an Aussie team has taken home the coveted Best In Show award.

Chelsea Flower Show stalwarts, Fleming’s Nurseries, approached photoSentinel technology to document the event after the photoSentinel Pro was used to record a rehearsal of the garden-build last year. Our small team of ten staff are pretty proud to have partnered with such a high-profile event!

Our founder, Andrew Harrisson, was stoked! “It’s wonderful to see the photoSentinel technology go from a back-of-an-envelope design just a few years ago to documenting an Aussie team win the Olympic gold medal of the horticulture world! The photoSentinel Pro is used by photographers all over the world to document construction, agricultural and mining projects, but this is the first time it’s watched over an award-winning landscape gardening project! It’s designed to be used anywhere over the world, and the team at Fleming’s was able to pick it up from our office in Watsonia and just a few days later be beaming progress photos from London all across the world.”

The solar-powered and weather-proof photoSentinel Pro took a photo of the garden construction every ten minutes and then uploaded it immediately to a public internet gallery over the 3G network. The photos were also compiled into a time lapse movie, documenting start-to-finish of the project in just seconds.

Leanne Gillies of Fleming’s Nurseries was thrilled to have a time lapse movie of the Gold medal winning garden. “The photoSentinel Pro was so easy to setup and use, and captured an excellent record of the whole project. As well as providing a great time lapse movie, the photoSentinel web gallery allowed our Melbourne team to see up-to-date progress of the garden at anytime, from the other side of the world.”

The Trailfinders Australian Garden presented by Fleming’s was not only awarded with a prestigious Gold Medal but also with the ‘Best in Show’ honour – a feat never before achieved by an Australian team. Designed by sustainable landscaper, Phillip Johnson of Phillip Johnson Landscapes, the finished garden took a total of 17 days and over 2,500 man-hours to build, transforming what once resembled a bare soccer pitch into a sustainable garden retreat. The garden even included a studio structure, designed by Melbourne-based architectural firm, Studio 505, that was crafted specifically for the Queen’s height!

Check out the ongoing live footage of the garden.

The latest time lapse movie can be seen here.

If you have multiple installations associated with a homepage, your URL will first land on the menu page. Here you can allocate four images to the four corners of the page. On this menu page the images will snap to a maximum height of 300px and/or a maximum width of 300px.

If you click on one of the thumbnails on the menu page, you’ll be taken to the gallery page for that installation. This is also where you’ll automatically land if you only have one photoSentinel installation associated with the homepage (i.e. there will be no menu page to choose between multiple installations). There are two gallery layout options to choose from: Classic Gallery and Modern Gallery. To view live examples, click on the images below.

Classic Gallery

The Classic Gallery gives room for four logos, shows the thumbnail strip along the bottom and displays a smaller main photo. As with the menu page, the Classic Gallery will display the same four images in the corners of the screen. The images at the top of the gallery page will snap to a maximum 90px, while the images at the bottom will snap to 50px; there is no maximum width. When choosing what size images to upload, keep in mind that the same images will snap to a maximum height of 300px and/or a maximum width of 300px on the menu page.

Modern Gallery

The Modern Gallery gives room for two logos, shows the thumbnail strip along the left and displays a larger main photo. The Modern Gallery will display the same two images as appear on the left top and bottom of the menu page. On the gallery page, these images will automatically snap to a maximum width of 245px. There is no maximum height, but don’t make it too tall or you’ll have to scroll to see the whole bottom logo. When using this gallery option, we recommend uploading images sized at 300px x 300px, and the top and bottom left images will be automatically resized to 245px wide in the gallery.

To upload your images:

1. Click on the Homepages tab in the top menu bar.
2. Click on the cogwheel of the homepage you want to edit to go to Edit Homepage.
3. Select Classic Gallery or Modern Gallery from the dropdown menu.
4. If you want to upload new images, click on Upload New Image and follow the prompts.
5. Put your new images in their place using the drop down menus.
6. Click on Save & go to Gallery to see your homepage with your new images.
7. Click on a photoSentinel installation to see your gallery page.

We put a fully operational photoSentinel Pro (kitted out with a Nikon D3100)  inside an extreme cold unit and set it to an extended high duty cycle – triggering one photo roughly every two minutes and connecting to the 3G network to upload a photo every 10 minutes, for 14 hours a day across 27 days. Over the time, 8000 photos were taken. For the first week the photoSentinel Pro was tested at a constant -10^oC (14^oF), then further down to -24^oC (-11^oF). At -10^oC the system was run on mains power and at -20^oC it run alternatively on mains and battery/solar power.

To summarise the results (contact us if you would like to see the full report), the photoSentinel’s electronics operated normally in the extremely cold conditions, without a single temperature-related complication. Consistent with anecdotal evidence from Arctic photographers, the Nikon D3100 performed fine as well (though we’re not sure if taking it that cold would affect warranty).

As you would expect, the 7.8Ahr Li-ion battery lost some performance, but still performed at an operational level. Battery life (with no recharging input) at -20°C (-4°F) was about one third shorter than at room temperature (~20°C [68°F]) and lasted roughly two full days. It is recommended that a larger battery (12-18Ahr) be used for such cold conditions, particularly in locations with poor sunlight.

The only real issue was condensation on the camera lens and housing window – a complication faced by cold-weather photography no matter what equipment is being used. Our test conditions meant the photoSentinel Pro was transferred from the warm and humid office environment straight into the cold unit. Conditions out on the field would be different and if appropriate care was taken (e.g. opening the housing immediately on moving into below freezing conditions to minimise the air moisture), this issue may be mitigated. We’re in the process of conducting further testing with high quality silica gel and a condensation film on the window.

So, all in all, the photoSentinel has passed the cold testing with flying colours, though a blizzard might compromise the clarity of the photos!

Here in Australia we have the opposite issue – heat! There are numerous photoSentinel Pros snapping away in the Australian desert at temperatures as high as the mid-40s^oC (mid-110s^oF). This in situ testing has shown the photoSentinel works just fine in the heat (and there’s certainly enough sun for the solar power!). With increasing enquiries from even hotter places (such as UAE and Saudi Arabia) we’re in the process of setting up some more controlled heat testing. Stay tuned!

If you read right to the bottom of the article, you’ll see that, in response to many a cry of ‘impossible!’, the author contacted Wesely directly to ask about the technique. Wesley confirmed that, after months of experimenting, he had perfected a technique that he thinks could capture a single exposure for as long as forty years!

To date, the longest project the photoSentinel has been used to document was just shy of three years. Anyone interested in aiming for forty years?

The post-production that makes this video so strong includes:

• strong title sequence
• dynamic written commentary that fleshes out the story
• tilt-shift style framing of the main subject
• rewind, fast-forward and replays
• zooming in and out to focus on the action
• short, sharp sound effects for zoom transitions and dynamic text
• speeding up and slowing down the photo frequency
• informing the viewer of the length of time covered by different sections of the video (e.g. ‘Core destruction: 5 months’)
• night time and day time shots
• change in music and style for a different stage of the construction project

This video is a great demonstration of how much good post-production can add to a construction time lapse. We’d love to see more like it!

The time lapse featured here starts with a movement from night time to day. No need to watch the whole video (though the crowd control does look pretty cool); just notice how the opening creates a sense of anticipation. Sunrises and sunsets are  great story-telling devices which can signify beginnings and endings. Which got us thinking… why not start a construction time lapse movie with a sunrise over the site? We’re always looking for ways to make construction time lapse more engaging and better tell a story. All it would take is one morning, just before the construction project begins, to set the photoSentinel to shoot a stunning sunrise that could begin the time lapse movie. Combined with some dawn sound effects, this could be an engaging opening.

Photographer Jim Goldstein is trying to Kickstart a new product called the Photographer’s Social Media Mouse. It detects when a photographer is distracting himself or herself on social media websites and shocks his or her finger in order to get him back to the business of editing photos or doing business communications.

We could certainly use one or two these at photoSentinel Headquarters for slow Friday afternoons!

In other random information, did you know photographers have a patron saint? You’ll be flattered to know that we share our saint with laundry workers…

Happy April Fools Day!

If you’re doing some short-term, dolly time lapse to accompany the photoSentinel’s long-term footage, perhaps a handheld feel could add something to the clip?

Shot over 15 months with a Nikon Coolpix 5400 (we’re using a Coolpix S6300 in our soon-to-be-released photoSentinel Lite), Orr captured 40,000 photos of the changing seasons from his forest-surrounded home.

We’ve commented on Orr’s use of soundscape before, and this video is no different. The soundtrack of forest animals adds an engaging extra element to the time lapse movie, making you want to keep watching. Orr describes his thoughts in creating the soundtrack on his website.

Which got us thinking… How would a construction time lapse be enhanced with a soundtrack of the worksite?

Not in this time lapse of a day in New York City. Photographer Samuel Orr has filled out his time lapse with a fantastic soundtrack of people chatter, subway announcements and ship horns, creating an immersive and engaging experience. You not only see NYC in fast forward, you also feel like you’re there.

Samuel Orr is on an ambitious mission to chronicle a full year of changing seasons in NYC. If the finished product is as good as this teaser, it’s going to be a joy to watch.

What creative soundtracks have you put to your time lapse?