Thursday, May 14, 2015

TIIA4 (The Internet Is Awesome)

Let's start this out right with a Lindsey Stirling video. This video was made for the YouTube Music Awards where Lindsey was among the top winners of the year.



Next we have a Piano Guys video, in a video that is one of my favorite things they've ever done.



Carly Rae Jepsen recently released a new single, and the video made headlines everywhere because of who she got to star in it. This song and the video, are two of my favorite things this year. :p



Alaa Wardi just covered a song that I had never heard of, (which is not surprising, given the country of origin) but now love.



The Gregory Brothers, famous for "Song-ify-ing" the news, recently songified an argument about Batman, between the Vlogbrothers, Hank and John Green, and it is just about the catchiest thing ever. I bought it immediately, and it's been on repeat on my iPod ever since.



Mike Tompkins recently covered one of my new favorite recent songs, and he did an amazing job. As he always does.



Last, but not least, I will leave you with Player Piano's version of Bohemian Rhapsody. I LOVE when music of one genre is completely transformed into something totally new. They did an amazing job with this one.



P.S. As great as that was, it can never compare to the greatest version of Bohemian Rhapsody of all time, the version by the Muppets.

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Back At It + New Camera

Well, I'm done with school, back home, and ready to get back to blogging. I have a lot of posts I need to catch up on, hopefully I will get to them all within the next month or two. I still have all my pictures from last summer to go through, including my pictures from the Lindsey Stirling concert I attended, and my cousins' and my trip to Colorado.

Some news, after filming the videos that I eventually turned into class, I decided that I needed a new camera that could get some shots my big bulky DSLR couldn't get. I like my big camera, but even though it has a video feature, you can't do very much with it aside from straightforward filming. You can't zoom, or even move the camera without it going out of focus, and it is pretty heavy, as I found out, trying to do an overhead shot by hold it it stretched out over someone for 4 minutes. I want to make a lot of videos this summer, just to practice, so I really needed something more. I had heard and seen great things about a tiny camera called a GoPro, so I decided to get one. I sold my old computer and used the money to buy this little beauty.


It is a great little camera. Extremely portable, and you can move it anywhere, and it's always in focus. You can even use it to get still shots, making it perfect for taking pictures in public without drawing a lot of attention to yourself. The only downside is that it only takes things using a super-wide fish-eye lens, but that is easily corrected in Photoshop, should you so choose. I actually like the effect for certain things, so I usually leave it.

One of the cool things about the GoPro, is that they make a ton of accessories for it. I've gotten a whole bunch of things for various uses. I have two housings for the camera, one of them waterproof, as well as a dash cam mount, letting you film yourself while driving, or get footage of the road.


I also have two poles for different kinds of overhead shots, or just to give you something to hold onto, to stretch the camera into places you can't reach.


For walking footage, I have a backpack clip, for more covert filming, and a head-mount, for a first person perspective.


So, with the new camera, I filmed the last video for my class, and after school, am continuing to film videos. I have lots of ideas, and will keep busy all summer. In the next few weeks I will start uploading my videos to YouTube, and I will blog them as they go up. In the meantime, pictures and more are coming! Stay tuned!