Senior Design Video Project – Scene 1

So one of the final stages of our senior design project is to create a “professional” looking video that focuses on the project’s research contributions.  We spent most of the weekend working on this and too my surprise this takes significantly longer than I originally thought.   All the video was shot with a Canon D550 using either the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L II USM lens or the Canon 70-200mm f/4.0 L USM lens.  We are using Final Cut Pro for our post production which is kind of a love-hate relationship right now.

Here is a rough version of scene 1:

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Senior Design Project – iPad Multimodal Rummy

So my Senior Design team has been working nonstop for the past few days writing our multimodal multi-touch card game.  The game uses iPhones as private displays and an iPad as a communal display.  The private displays allow the players to manage (sort and group) their cards on their private display as well as aid the user on when they can/cannot laydown – which we found in user studies was  a common problem for new players.  The iPad acts as a communal display allowing players to perform common actions such as drawing, discarding and laying down. But we’ve also implemented advance features that allows players to race for a Joker once another player puts it on the “table” as well as the ability to buy cards.  We are in our last round of development with our final user study this weekend.  Our project demonstration is on May 5th so if you are in Aggieland that week come check it out!

Tags: card game, college station, communal display, ipad, iPhone, multi-touch, multimodal, rummy, senior, senior design, texas, texas a&m
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Where’d the blog go?

Wow, last semester kicked by butt; I’m glad it’s over! It’s sad to think that I didn’t write a blog post all semester. I’d recommend you add my Flickr photostream to your rss reader instead of my blog feed , at least I always post to Flickr and you’d know I was still alive.

I put together a collection of my favorite images from my first year of photography over on my Flickr site. It’s crazy to think I’ve only been doing this for a little over a year, but it has become one of my favorite things to do; I just need more time to do it. Brandon and I went to a Joe McNally lighting seminar in Houston; it was awsome! I’ve read Joe’s blog all year and his books are a must read for any photographer, so to see him in person was by far the highlight of my year. The only problem is I left the seminar regretting the fact that I own Canon equipment; Joe does everything with Nikon equipment and it doesn’t take him long to show you why Nikon is kicking Canon’s butt in flash photography.

Since it’s now 2010 I know I should make a new year resolution, but I think setting out some goals would be a better idea.

Goal 1: Take More Photos

As a beginning photographer you can never take enough photos. I’m a bit of an equipment junky, I see a shot and immediately want to purchase equipment so I can take that type of photo. In 2010 I want to start pushing the limits of what I can do with all the equipment I currently own (and it’s more than enough to make some damn good shots). I want to buy the Canon 5D mark III next year because my 40D is dead from taking too many photos not because it’s the hot new camera; like how I snuck a purchase into the goal, lol

Goal 2: Be Healthy and Happy

With juggling work and school my health tends to take a low priority and my quality of life tends to be nil. I want to focus more on making sure I’m around in 10 years so I can actually use my degree.

Goal 3: Put the Toys Away

I’ve lived the bachelor life for quite awhile, and looking back I’ve have had no shortage of toys, trips, and fun. I want to try and go a year without buying everything I want and try to limit it to what I need. I know several of you are laughing you ass off right now, but you’re the people I expect to help me stick to this

Well, that’s enough writing for me. See you in another six months….

Goal 4: Update This Website

…… 3 out of 4 ain’t bad

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Bonfire Memorial Photoshoot

Monday I got this wild idea to wake up before the crack of dawn and shoot the Bonfire Memorial as the sun came up. Wow, it was not a wild idea, it was a great idea! Only problem was my brain doesn’t work so well at 5 AM. It was one of those “I can’t brain today i have the dumb” moments. I took some great shots that looked awesome on the LCD screen but I didn’t realize until later that I had three major problems: I left the ISO at 800, I had my McDonald’s coffee cup in a few of the pictures, and I had my camera back in a few other pictures. Doh!

Right before the sun came up (~5:30) I was able to dial the white balance down and make the sky turn an awesome shade of blue. However, I noticed ghost lights in the shot. I wasn’t sure what it was or how to fix it so I kept shooting. Well after the shoot I was told that I was getting a reflection between the UV filter and my lens (stupid Canon filter). So I went back to the Bonfire Memorial at 8:30 that night to see if I could reproduce the shots. I was able to get the sky a dark blue but I didn’t like the color as much as the morning shot. The ghost lights showed up again and I took the filter off to make them go away. I’m going to have to find a filter that doesn’t have this problem.

I should have the pictures up on Flickr by the weekend.

[flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/codygreen/3545391509/[/flickr]

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Ring Dance

Well Megan was nice enough to let me bring my camera to Ring Dance. We had a great time, but my pictures are really bad. Just goes to show you that you can’t buy your way into a great shot. I have all the gear and I screwed up on exposure 101 that night! Still a few of the pictures are interesting and I told people I would post them.

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Long day

What a long day. I’ve spent the last 20 hours developing a custom django app and it lost its appeal after 4 hours. Playing with the wordpress app on my iPhone and it’s kind of nice. Maybe I’ll start bloging more, or maybe not

It looks like we might hire a director for my group at work which would be nice due to some of the crap we’ve been putting up with lately; everyone should strive for excelence at work not half-assing things! My 2 cents…

Tags: django, work
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