The Ben'enator » admin

CES 2012 Aftermath

admin — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:43:08 +0000

I took a lot of the BCCHardware Crew to CES 2012 this January and we put in some long hours and got a lot of work done. Check out our coverage over at BCCHardware.com – if you want to pick and choose, check out the list below.

If you prefer to look at pictures, you can check out our daily image galleries here.

I hope you find something interesting! We sure had a good time and a lot of fun bringing you some great CES 2012 coverage!

Nikon D4 Launch

admin — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:27:30 +0000

If you have a bit of time this morning (January 24), you can head on over to Kelby TV and watch the big unveiling and demo of the new Nikon D4. I’m pretty excited about the technology although I won’t ever be able to afford this. The interesting thing is that that it features a full webserver, Cat 5 network and a lot more.

More info about the D4 of course over at Nikon.

CES 2012 In The Bag

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:52:44 +0000

Once again, I was blessed to be able to attend CES in Las Vegas this January. The company I own – BCCHardware.com, managed to scrape together enough money to secure a house where a total of five of us stayed and took in North America’s largest tech show.

This year marked Microsoft’s last keynote and I believe, the start of some new things in technology. We saw innovation this year as well as a lot of major improvements to the technology that we’re using. For me, it was exciting to see and to be a part of. Please check out our Eye-Fi enabled Flickr Gallery here.

For all of the CES 2012 coverage done by the BCCHardware team, please go here. If all you want is pictures, you may go here and enjoy six days of pictures from around Las Vegas – and the trip getting there.

6 Great New Year’s Resolutions for Photographers

admin — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 01:47:04 +0000

Lisa Bettany over at MostlyLisa has put together a great article covering six things that every photographer (budding or professional) consider when taking photos this year.

Her 6 picks are:

I will learn how to use my gear.
I will practice my technical skills.
I will take more pictures.
I will not be limited by the gear I own.
I will learn to edit my photos and critique my own photos.
I will not give up on a potentially great shot.

Epic clouds at Disneyland shot with an iPhone 4 & Camera+.

This young lady is an inspiring Canadian as she does a lot of work with a great Canon 5D Mark II, but also uses her iPhone extensively as well the Camera+ app. Take a look at her work over here.

New Years Resolution – My Only One

admin — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 07:36:44 +0000

Well, it has been way too long since I’ve updated this site, and I only have one resolution this year, and that’s to make this site more inhabitable to those of you that decide to spend your precious time checking out all of the projects that I do.

This year has actually been a banner year for me as we’ve seen some pretty massive growth over at BCCHardware.com

Also, our podcast – WeeklyTechUpdate has grown like a weed and we are currently sitting at 136 episodes and will be broadcasting from CES 2012 in Las Vegas running from January 10 – 13. Our coverage will start as early as January 7th with our LAN Party Road Trip (stay tuned. It will be epic). Make sure you listen and watch for live coverage coming to you all through the week.

The amazing thing about our Podcast is how much bandwidth we suck from our host. We’ve upgraded dedicated servers twice this past year and there’s still no slowing down or looking back. Recently I bought WTUFiles.com in order to keep our podcasts rolling without crashing our site. Here’s hoping that works out.

There is a lot more to come, so make sure you keep BenHeide.com on your radar!

HDR – Video? Yes Indeed.

admin — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 02:44:27 +0000

Online galleries are fully of over saturated HDR pictures that consists more of exposure blending that actual “High Dynamic Range” processing. Still, the effect is pretty interesting and if done properly – doesn’t look horrible and can enhance a photo. The downside is that many people overuse HDR and saturate too much for an unrealistic photo effect. While this is certainly good for illustration purposes – it isn’t always indicative of true “photography” – IMHO.

That being said – video has been left out of the loop – until now. Soviet Montage Productions has posted up some HDR video that they achieved by shooting with two Canon 5D Mk II cameras. In order to shoot the exact same image, they used a beam splitter to send the exact same image to each camera. The end result is pretty interesting.

HDR Video Demonstration Using Two Canon 5D mark II’s from Soviet Montage on Vimeo.

Although the effect on buildings, traffic and scenery looks pretty natural – the effect on people is a little different.

YC – 2010 Tenth Avenue North Keeps it Real

admin — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 05:03:40 +0000

I find that in my travels, many people – including myself at times – put on a mask that disguises what they are feeling. Often we act socially acceptable instead of how we feel like acting, and while this is a good thing if it prevents violence, it is still a mask. Honestly, I find that religious people are some of the worst – and that is why I believe that Christians should be different. Christianity is not merely a religion, but a relationship and sometimes relationships aren’t easy and fun every day.

I had the opportunity to interview 10th Avenue North and I found them to be one of the most refreshing, honest bands that I’ve ever talked with. Jeff, Mike, Rueben, Brenden and Jason were kind enough to hang out with me even though they were exhausted as they were a last-minute fill in. Take a listen and find what our Christian duty is, and how life can get ahead of us. There is no defeat, only a chance for a better tomorrow.

Listen to the interview here.

YC 2010 – Featured Worship Bands

admin — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 04:33:29 +0000

One of the highlights of YC Alberta 2010 was of couse the band lineup. This year, bands included Bluetree, Matt Maher, Leeland, Manafest, Jason Upton, Thousand Foot Krutch, Disciple and Skillet. Bluetree hails from Belfast, Ireland and they led many of the worship sets and even mingled with the students and staff in attendance over the weekend. It was great to have a chance to talk to Aaron Boyd and even do a personal photo “quest” for him. For those unfamiliar with Bluetree, think of them as a cross between U2 and Hillsong United. They have a great sound, serve a Great God and have great things planned for the rest of 2010. They will be at Rock the River later this summer.

Another band that headlined this year was Leeland. They have a mellow sound and have hearts set of fire for God. Not only did I manage to enjoy their worship sets, I got a chance to sit down and talk to them about youth, vision, ministry and how they stay focused when so busy and doing the same songs over and over. Catch the audio interview by clicking here.

Make sure you check out all of our YC Alberta 2010 pictures here.

Canon To Do Good In-Camera HDR

admin — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 07:11:16 +0000

It looks like Canon is filing a patent to do some “good” in camera HDR in the near future and they have redone the way HDR is done in order to do this on-the-fly. Typically, High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography is done by post-processing a few different exposures onto a single image. Canon is doing things differently and now, you’ll be able to take photos like this or this photo by a single click of the shutter.

Photography Bay has more details and the initial impression is that it will be pretty decent. Time will tell, but I really like the ability to tweak and customize. Having it done with a single click will take out the creative process and then it becomes a standard image like every other picture snapped.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, preliminary image capturing is performed using the image capturing unit, and the exposure time is assigned to each pixel based on the result of the preliminary image capturing. Image capturing can thus be performed with a wide dynamic range without a loss of highlight detail and a loss of shadow detail. – USPTO Appl. No. 12/630,594, ¶¶ 11 & 14

Doritos, Viral Videos and Billy Reid

admin — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:18:54 +0000

We had a chance to sit down with Billy Reid regarding video creation, how to make them viral and who is staying ahead of the curve. Aparently, Doritos is a company that gets it. At the very least, it appears that someone at Doritos has teens that watch Youtube. Doritos has been hosting a contest over the past month that gives people the opportunity to make a video and try and make it viral in order to win a bit fat cash prize. While this is a nice end result – the long term result is that you’ll learn how to make viral videos, get a lot of traffic, make some money and become internet famous.

We’ve included the interview at the end of Episode #41 of Weekly Tech Update and in order to make things easier for you, we’ve also included it as a separate download over here.

For more on the Doritos Viralocity campaign, check the press release here or you can watch as many of the video submissions that you want over here.

“We’re living in an exciting time for video creators, and the Internet has opened doors for people like myself – huge doors.” says Billy Reid “What’s great is that Doritos is giving anyone in Canada with a video camera and access to the web a shot at creating a winning ad. The best part is that they’re putting the final decision into the hands of the Internet. The Internet decides who wins. This is powerful. Basically, expect the unexpected, it could be your next door neighbour who comes out on top.” – Billy Reid

Catch our interview with Billy Reid over here.