Nostalgia Series: "9 Minutes at Virtual Piha" in 3D

I was going through my folders of 3D photos and video the other night. I have loads of photos...and a lot less video. Most of the video isn't very good as a hand-held camera can really only produce a steady shot if you stand there and don't move or move only rarely. Plus, the Fujifilm Finepix Real 3D W3 camera has an annoying tendency to mis-read the focus and I end up with a minute or two of video that would have been utterly awesome if only it weren't so far out of focus it's of no use. I got caught that way a fair bit in the early weeks of owning the camera. Less so in recent times.

I got to my 2011-09-13 folder and watched my videos taken at Piha, a wild west coast beach on the north west edge of  Auckland. They have wind distortion. They are at times quite shaky as the receding waves sucked the sand out from under my feet. But they put me back in the moment and I loved seeing the depth in the images that only 3D can provide.

 Piha is a bit of a magical place and it occurred to me there may be people out there who would appreciate seeing it in 3D. Maybe people who know it and who live far away. Or people who have heard about it and who might like to see it. In the end, I made a video of some of the more interesting parts of my stumbles around in the surging waves having given up trying to keep my trousers dry.

The sound is raw. I did try to dampen the wind noise in the camera mics, but then I also removed a lot of the roar of the ocean itself. So I left the sound alone. People can turn it up, down or off as it pleases them.

Here it is: "9 Minutes in Virtual Piha". Not great. Not polished or professional. Just 9 minutes of roaring ocean and dark sandy beach......if you feel like seeing in it 3D....as I saw it when I held the camera.

This video looks awesome on my glasses-free LG Optimus 3D phone's 3D display. If you haven't got this phone or the HTC Evo 3D, then seriously consider it. Everyone I show it to is amazed at how good the 3D is and how well it works with YouTube. 

3D "HDR" Style Auckland Skyscapes

I was walking home from work late yesterday afternoon and as I crossed the Northern Motorway at Sunset Road, the Sun went behind a cloud. For someone wanting to shoot a photo of the sky that's a good thing. Otherwise the Sun more or less wipes out everything else in the frame because it's so bright.

I took these two photo on my LG Optimus 3D android phone then later used GIMP v2.6 to transform them into something a bit different. But....I didn't actually do anything to them that I coudn't have done with the editing tools right on the phone. I just didn't think of it until later. :-)

These are stereo 3D. I've shrunk them to 1024x384, but that's still a lot bigger than the display size in this post, so if you want to see them larger, just click on them.

Auckland Sunrise - 2011 09 20

I walked to work this morning. Along Glenfield Road below Sunset Rd is a stretch with a high retaining wall. It's great place to take photos to the east without trees or buildings getting in the way of the shot.

This photo was taken with an LG Optimus 3D phone, then brightness, contrast and saturation adjusted with GIMP to more accurately reflect what my eyes saw. Very few cameras actually catch an outdoors scene exactly as you it. But they get more than enough to let you fix that. On the other hand, indoor shots tend to be more accurate and require less 'post-processing'. To be fair to the LG Optimus 3D phone, the image editing app (2D and 3D) in the camera app (in the phone) would have let me do all of these adjustments right in the phone.

Click the image to see the full size.

20110920 - 07:02 - Sunrise over the Hauraki Gulf

"The Gap" at Piha

I'd heard about "The Gap" at Piha and while I was there I thought it might be good to go and have a look. Before I did that, I was wandering around on the main beach, taking in the sights and sounds as well as getting my feet wet as the waves slid up the beach, flat and fast, after each surge.

At one point, I happened to look to the cliffs beyond the south end of the beach...and saw a huge plume of white water appear in - and ABOVE - the gap in the cliffs. It must have been utterly huge to be that big and that high relative to the cliffs.

I headed over there immediately. The walk to The Gap was steep but short, then swept away across the face of a hill. It took maybe 15 mins to get there at a fast walk once I got onto the track from the beach.

It certainly is a dramatic place. I shot this video from a point above the generally sand-filled channel the gap gives entry to. I wasn't lucky enough to capture a wave anything like the one I had witnessed from the other end of the beach, but imagine a plume of water on the left side of the gap that was higher than the face of the cliff. It had to be for me to see it from the bottom of Lion Rock.

I didn't stay long as the rain was visibly coming in from the Tasman Sea and it looked like it was going to set in when it arrived. But I had time to shoot these two minutes of video. They may give you sense of the power and magic of this place.

Turn the sound up! It's 95% roaring sea and waves, 5% wind.

(Click through to YouTube to see this video in 2D or in a different 3D format.)

Footprints at Piha

Went to Piha this morning and spent several hours there taking 3D photos and video. One of the shots I like best is this one of a pair of footprint tracks in the sand. In taking the shot, the Sun was so bright I couldn't see the screen on the Fuji Finepix Real 3D W3 camera, so I held it down around waste height, tipped it to what I though might be good angle...and pressed the shutter. The result was exactly what I had hoped for. I was lucky.

This image is a red /cyan anaglyph. If you want to see it in full size, click on the image below. You need red/cyan glasses to see the 3D effect. It's well worth it. The effect in this image is powerful, IMHO.