Dave's Photo & Travelblogue

Snowboarding Helmetcam Update

I had a few questions come up about my video setup… so here it is, in all its simplicity. At first it was side mounted, but this hurt my neck after several hours, so now it’s on top.

Equipment:

• Nvertigo-X Skydiving camera helmet with chin cup
• Canon Vixia HF200
• Kenko KGW-05 wide adapter
• Manfrotto 323 quick-change adapter
• Newton cross ring sight with Schumacher rotating clamp
• Home-made neoprene “camera condom,” from an old wetsuit hood
• Piece of gaffer’s tape over the “mode” switch so it stays on video, can’t be bumped to photo mode (which screws everything up if you don’t notice it)
• Pattex glue for the neoprene (glues neoprene like nothing else, according to some friends who SCUBA)

Photos of the new Neoprene cover with side opening. I left an open area by the lens so the Instant AF sensor can still work.

I made this side opening cover after many pain-in-the-$%# moments on the slope, when I had to completely remove the (old) cover to use the viewscreen.

Settings:

• Highest quality setting, at 1920×1080 Full HD
• Shutter speed (Tv mode) 1/500 or higher (maybe 1/250 but then you get a bit more motion blur in the video)
• Optical stabilizer on, though it doesn’t help much when you are moving
• Virtualdub and Deshaker software used to stabilize clips
• Editing done with Pinnacle Studio 14 Ultimate Collection

Hope this helps some other camera-amateurs like myself! Next on my list (if I find time) is to make one of the home-made steadicams from PVC pipe, like you see in many YouTube tutorials. Not sure I’d put it on the helmet, but for handheld stuff, it might eliminate the need for the (slow, slight-quality-reducing) Deshaker step.

Best Omelette Ever

For such a tasty dish I must use the French spelling! Now this is some pretty food…

Omelette Ingredients:

• Homemade whiskey/chili oil, red pepper, shallots, garlic – sautéed with some basil, oregano, and salt
• 2 eggs and a splash of milk, beaten and poured into the sautéed vegetables
• 2-year aged Cabot cheddar and a bit of smoked Black Forest ham folded in the middle

There’s nothing better, the day after spending 8 hours on the ski slopes, than waking up and eating a serious breakfast.

Random omelette tips:

• I use a non-stick pan from Ikea. 1 tsp oil or butter should be enough to keep the mixture from sticking.
• Use a low heat on the stove; otherwise you have a problem in the initial stage before folding. The bottom will burn before the top is cooked all the way through.
• Tilt the pan occasionally before folding (2-3 times). Roll the liquidy part around to keep it evenly distributed.
• I put some ingredients in with the egg as the omelette cooks, and then add a few more things just before folding. Then it doesn’t get too fat to fold, as happens when you try to stuff a cup of meat, veg, and cheese in the middle.

Cats in Heat

Haven’t you always wanted to know how hot a cat is? A friend of mine who’s a home inspector has finally answered that question. And the camera he used to do it is such a cool piece of photographic technology that I have to share it!

Note the cat’s very cold nose (of course!) and hot eyes & ears.

Eric uses the thermal camera to locate problem areas in a house under contract (or during “energy audits” to help save on energy bills). Some of this stuff is completely intuitive, but I’d still never think of it myself. Here’s an area of missing insulation (summer heat leaking into an air-conditioned house):

And there’s obviously some dangerous electrical fault here at the hot breaker:

I really want to get one of these cameras. Unfortunately they’re damn expensive: the Fluke Ti10 costs over $4,000! Here it is, in all its glory:

Now a final shot, showing the thermal cam in use. Note the temperature scale on the side.

It’s unlikely that any of my readers will buy a house in Richmond, VA. But if you do, look up Eric Babcock at Home Inspex, and let him know that I sent you his way. He’s an old friend, and a really thorough home inspector.

Wherever you may buy a house, ask about thermal imaging. The extra $ it may cost is nothing compared to the price tag for fixing one of the home problems that it can find in just a few seconds. I love technology!

Here are some more gratuitous thermal pics of random stuff…

Dutch Raceboarding Team

In December, a lot of racing teams head to the glaciers to get in extra practice before the snow starts falling at lower altitudes. I met some lovely raceboarder women at Hintertux, who (if I remember right) were from a Dutch snowboarding team. Here’s the best footage:

Watch the video in HD on YouTube.

This was my second attempt at getting on-slope footage; the camera is now top-mounted to avoid neck strain from side-mounting. You can probably guess I was playing with the camera settings and stabilizing software. From this footage I learned that I need a faster shutter, at least 1/250 but more likely 1/500.

The combo of AviSynth, VirtualDub, and Deshaker to process the raw video is fantastic for the moving-camera scenes! I’m still loving the Canon HF200. You can read more about that in my previous helmetcam post.

The next videos I post will be even better, as I’ve added a ring sight to the camera rig now. However, I only have a minute or so of useable footage so far. Any raceboarders out there who want to volunteer as a film subject?

Family & Friends Plan

This January I made a plan to meet with a lot of family and friends in the US. Here’s the photographic evidence…

My brother has a knack for making funny poses in front of the camera.

Not Park 'n Eat, but Eat 'n Park... with 20 eat 'n smart menu items!

Sometimes the best shot is the one just AFTER making funny faces at the camera.

I heard someone once fell in the water here?

This tree had nice, sweet-smelling flowers despite that it was the COLDth of January.

These friends of mine could not stop laughing.

These portraits were taken in Pennsylvania and in Richmond, VA with a Nikon D90. Most are just the 18-55 VR lens, but the last one is the 70-300 VR to provide a short depth-of-field and get some blur going.

Snowboarding Helmetcam: First Test!

I shot footage of some friends skiing and snowboarding at Hintertux in November. Finally, I’ve found time to stabilize the video files and edit everything. At some points, it looks almost as good as a steadycam would be. A few shots are not so stable; the first few (when it was cloudy/dark) were harder to stabilize. Here it is:

Watch “Testing the Helmetcam” in HD on YouTube.

A few notes for the videographers out there. Optical stabilization sucks in high-G environments. In skydiving, and apparently snowboarding, it can make your footage even more shaky/unviewable than having no stabilization at all. This is due to the mechanically controlled optical element bouncing around in the lens at high-G.

Also, in these vibration-heavy environments you need a fast shutter speed. Otherwise you get strange moments (like you see in my video) where the scene seems to pop in and out of focus: these are heavy camera shocks blurring the motion!

To make the videos stable, I used Virtualdub (open source) with the Deshaker plugin (open source). It was a huge effort to set up and learn, and I’d only recommend it to fellow computer geeks.

For the next shoots, I’m going to use a shutter speed no less than 1/250th. I also have a skydiving ring sight on the helmet now, so I can keep the subject centered in the frame.

Camera: Canon Vixia HF200. Shot in 1920×1080PF. Editing software: Pinnacle Studio 14. It is a royal pain working with full HD files, even on a 3-core 2.something.GHz system. The high-quality deshaking method I’ve figured out takes 30-45min per minute of video. But the results are pretty!

Happy Holidays, from…

Vienna, with a gift of chocolate dipped nuts and fruits…

Salzburg, with a carol played on brass…

For the religious among you, there’s this from a Salzburg cathedral…

And finally, Happy Holidays from Munich!

Chevre Walnut Egg Star

It’s no secret I love to cook.  But most of my dishes aren’t really designed with gourmet plating in mind; they just taste good.  Here’s one personal creation that’s a bit different… the Chevre Walnut Egg Star (copyright 2007 by David Douglas… hehe).  I justify adding it here because I have some nice photos and it’s a really visual food.

Recipe Ingredients per Egg Star:

• 5-6 quartered pieces of untoasted white bread, in triangle shape
• 1 large egg
• 1-2 Tbsp brown sugar (real American dark brown sugar, not the medium “raw sugar” used for Caipis)
• 2-4 Tbsp sliced or crumbled Chevre or other goat’s milk cheese
• 1 small handful roughly crumbled walnuts
• Butter for the pan
• Maple syrup to add later

Recipe Directions:

• Have all the ingredients ready to add in before starting, because it goes very fast once the toast is in the pan.  If you leave it too long, something will almost certainly burn (toast, cheese, or brown sugar).
• Melt some butter in a frying pan on medium heat.
• Add the triangles, flipping them over immediately so both sides have some butter.
• Cook the triangles for a minute or two until one side is a bit toasted.  Then flip them over and create a star shape as seen in the picture above. You can use 5 or 6 toast quarters depending on the size of your pan and your appetite.
• As soon as the triangles are flipped, crack the egg into the middle of the star so that it fills the open space between the toast pieces.
• Quickly add the crumbled Chevre, walnuts, and brown sugar (I recommend in that order).  Try not to get too much sugar on the pan itself, or it will quickly caramelize.
• Cover the pan with a lid so the heat cooks the egg from the top (you can’t flip this baby).  This also melts the cheese.
• Check every minute or so until the egg is done to your likeness (quite runny, in my case).  Turn the heat down if you plan to cook it longer, to avoid burning the bottom of the toast.
• Serve with maple syrup for those who want a bit more sugar (me!).  Gimme some sugar, baby.  Enjoy!

Here’s what it looks like in the pan:

And on the plate!  Goes well with a side salad of strawberries and physalis…

If you do try out this recipe, I’d love to hear how you (and/or your kids) like the Egg Star!  And remember, you saw it here first.  Hope you enjoy it!

Pink Bike

I was intrigued by this pink bicycle in Paris:

The angle at which it was hanging on that fence begged for an optical illusion shot.  The bright, contrasting colors and unrideable bent wheels brought it all together for me.

I wonder if it’s still there?

Japanese Okonomiyaki

I’ve long wanted to visit Japan, but haven’t made it there yet (unless you could a connection at Narita, where I bought some Suntory Japanese whiskey).  So, when a friend needed a place to host a Japanese party to cook traditional okonomiyaki, I happily volunteered.

Wikipedia says okonomiyaki is made of two Japanese words, meaning “what you like” and “grilled.”  It’s a bit like a giant pancake, where the batter is mixed with various ingredients: cabbage, pork, bacon, octopus… whatever you like!

Here’s a shot of the batter, just beginning to cook:

Okonomiyaki batter, freshly poured in the pan

That’s a variant with octopus chunks.  It was very tasty.  Thanks to the German gentlemen who sliced the octopus.  This is not easy, as it’s quite slippery.  Another tip if you are looking to buy octopus or squid in Germany: they are both often called Tintenfisch (inky fish).  So, make sure you know which one you’re getting.  Long, tubular body with small tentacles = squid, small body with long tentacles replete with big suckers = octopus.

Slicing the octopus for okonomiyaki

Here’s a shot of the whole process:

All the stages, from batter to finished product

I couldn’t decide if the octopus or bacon okonomiyaki was better.  Then I remembered how much I love bacon…

Bacon okonomiyaki, halfway cooked

At last, the finished and garnished okonomiyaki.  It’s traditionally doused with barbecue sauce, mayonnaise, seaweed flakes, and fish flakes, as I understand.

The finished product: okonomiyaki with bbq sauce, seaweed, and fish flakes!

We sliced it into pieces before devouring it with chopsticks. I’m curious how it’s eaten in Japan: with the fingers? Or, is it broken into bits with chopsticks? It doesn’t seem possible to pick up the whole thing at once with the sticks, though I’m only a Western chopstick expert, not a native user.

Here’s the recipe from our Japanese master cook, Nina:

• At first, we need to prepare wheat flour (405), water, egg, cabbage, and oil. In addition, add some favorite cooking ingredients such as cheese, pork, Dashi-no-moto, etc. It may be a good idea to customize your okonomi-yaki with octopus and squid, beef, or garlic.
• Important: have to mix flour and water before adding other ingredients.
• Don’t forget to add some oil in the frying pan!
• Cook with a very low heat. Put sliced meat on top of the okonomiyaki. If you don’t use any sliced meat, it’s a good idea to put a lid over the pan to aid in cooking.
• Flip it over (with 2 spatulas if needed). It’s finished when the second side is cooked through. Try it with your favorite sauce!

And here’s a recipe with proportions (though mine was made by an authentic Japanese expert, so I cannot vouch for this recipe 100%): Okonomiyaki recipe

If you’re a Japanese food & culture lover, you’ve got to try this dish!  Even though I’ve never yet been there, I felt as if I were in Hiroshima at a traditional restaurant eating this famous Japanese food.  Enjoy!