In any case, I have yet to see a anywhere online that has put all of these amazing films in one place. So, I've decided to present some of the most recent cinematic time lapse masterpieces right here for your viewing pleasure. I would recommend, if your computer can handle it, to turn on HD and view these in full screen. It'll be worth it, I promise.

Android Dreams is the visual genius of Samuel Cockedey combined with the soundtrack from Blade Runner by Vangelis. This is the first time I've seen a time lapse put to this type of soundtrack, and I must say, it definitely works well. The entire work took about a year for Samuel to shoot, using a Canon 5D MkII. There's a great interview with Samuel on Season 9. Also, don't forget to visit Samuel's website for more of his great work.

The opening scene to Toronto Tempo, by Ryan Edmond simply fascinates me. Nearly every time I get the chance, I love to sit in the front of the train and watch it pull in to each and every station along the way. Ryan's execution of this is perfect. What makes this time lapse from the city I love so great is that he gets places that not many people see in Toronto, and even brings along his Dynamic Perception Stage Zero Dolly to get the moving time lapses. All in all, a great execution, and certainly one that should make Toronto proud. More of Ryan's work can be found on his website.

If I ever needed any motivation to move to Iceland, this video by Joe Capra (SCIENTIFANTASTIC) would most certainly be it. Captured over the course of 17 days, Joe pulled off what I truly believe not many people have the ability to do. Simply amazing landscapes with great vantage points, and once again, a great use of that beautiful motion dolly. What's also great is that I'm pretty sure the plane at the 30 second mark is the same plane that Sean Stiegemeier incorporated into his time lapse, Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull (considered, by me at least, to be the one time lapse that started this whole trend). Definitely visit the Vimeo page for the video and check out Joe's other works.

With possibly one of the most beautiful time lapses you'll ever see, Dustin Farrell has created an amazing video that I think I've watched at least 10 times. Serene, yet invigorating, I think this video might just become the video that I use to pump myself up for whatever creative endeavour I intend to take on. Also, if you were thinking that some of these photos would make great desktop wallpapers, Dan Levy is way ahead of you.

Check back in a couple days to see Volume 2 of my favourite time lapses.

(See full post for more)

With this search term, the first two results are, respectively, @BBYCANADAJOBS and @BBYCanadaDeals. Seeing as I'm not currently looking for employment with Best Buy Canada, I'm going to assume the second result is the one I want. (by the way, I never did get a response from their twitter account, despite trying to communicate with them twice over the course of two weeks.)

I think I know why I never got a response though. With over 11,000 followers, I'm sure they're on the receiving end of a whole bunch of chatter on a regular basis. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the chatter is made up of people checking in on Foursquare and mentioning the store, or from promotions and advertisements. It can be pretty easy for my simple request to get lost amongst all of this, especially if they employ a relatively small social media team. (Perhaps they should take some pointers from @TD_Canada, who has no less than nine individuals monitoring their social media accounts. The've even responded to a general mention of TD I once made.)

So, I have a suggestion. Twitter should introduce a Business/Location symbol that is directly associated with their ongoing promotions and can be used when checking into a place. Now I know I clearly haven't thought this through fully, but it's late and I thought it was a pretty decent idea.

Google Maps has business pages, and I would imagine the Twitter Location symbol would work in very much the same way. Individual locations, or the location as a whole can register as a Location on Twitter, and they would be given a unique name preceded by unique symbol - let's use the asterisk *. Best Buy Canada would now have a Location page on Twitter that looks like *BestBuyCanada. The main twitter account could respond on behalf of the location, but all the information would be retained on the Location page. Much like Facebook's now failed "Places" and the wildly popular FourSquare, you could look up information about a Location, or even check in to it by mentioning it.

"@mkshft: Just arrived at the downtown *BestBuyCanada to buy my copy of Gears of War 3! #GoW3"

Twitter could even incorporate limited time promotions, much the same way that the Canadian government does with the Do Not Call list. I can remove my name (opt out) from it, but any company I have done business with in the last 18 months may contact or market me. With Twitter Locations, we could make this much shorter, say 2 weeks. For two weeks after I visit a location, sponsored tweets from that company/location can show up in my timeline, unless I choose to opt out earlier.

So, what do you think? Is this just a half-baked idea, or could you actually see it working? Let me know in the comments.

I decided to challenge myself a little bit for this trip. Seeing as I am not yet able to afford - or get my hands on yet, for that matter - a Fuji X100, I figured I'd might as well go the closest route. Yes, I made a makeshift X100. Ok, not really, but I just needed an excuse to use the word makeshift. I actually used my D700 with a 35mm F/1.8 DX lens. For those of you paying attention, the D700 is an FX - or full frame - body, which means that the lens I chose is not technically made for my camera body. Regardless, I turned off auto-DX crop mode, and slapped the lens in place.

The great thing about using this lens on a full frame body, aside from the fact that prime lenses are just awesome, is that the smaller the aperture, the more noticeable the vignetting becomes, which you'll definitely see in the photos below. I could have cropped or otherwise adjusted to remove the vignetting, but I rather like the effect. Enjoy!

Shooting outdoors can sometimes be a hassle. The sun is a light source without a dial. Without the proper know how, under compensation for the sun's intensity results in way-too-bright pictures, and overcompensation results in the exact opposite. The key is to find the middle ground  that will give a nice light, but not distract or blow out the image too much.

Today's cameras and flashes come equipped with some pretty awesome technology, but one of the most impressive is TTL, or through-the-lens metering. This allows the system to determine the proper flash exposure with little user intervention. That doesn't mean you're out of the woods for doing any work though.

First, you'll want to determine your ambient exposure. Before you mount the flash to the camera - or if you already have, before you turn it on - adjust your settings to meter how you want your background - or anything that the flash doesn't hit - to look. Don't worry if your subject is dark, they'll be lit by the flash. You only want to worry about overall exposure here.

Now I'll admit, the sky in the photo above is a little blown out. But hey, mistakes happen. Besides, I think it works for this shot as it removes the detail from the sky and puts the focus back on Christine and Jason. So if the subject was too dark in the first step, how did we get them so bright? Mount your flash, my friends, and let TTL do the work. After you've got your baseline exposure, you can turn the flash on and take another shot. Subjects too bright? Don't adjust your camera; adjust the flash, maybe putting it down by a third of a stop.

Once you get the hang of it, it should be pretty simple to do a lighting setup like this in less than a minute. Not only does it look impressive when you do so, but the final results are much better than using that dreaded pop-up flash.

Oh, and when I said simple, I meant simple. Sometimes a VAL (Voice Activated Lightstand) works wonders as well.

PS, take note of the difference in light between where the flash hits. That was the difference between my ambient exposure and my flash exposure.

Happy shooting!

Hit the jump for more...

In terms of the editing, I took a very different path than I normally would, but I'm rather pleased with the results. The photos have a slight HDR-style look, but nothing over the top. This was done with some tweaking of the highlights and shadows. As a finishing touch, I added a sepia overlay and dialed it back until I was happy. I hope you enjoy!

View the complete set on Flickr

More below the fold...

Okay, it wasn't really a bad encounter. I didn't end up in the hospital getting rabies shots to my behind, screaming in pain from the claw marks and scratches left from a vicious raccoon attack. Not that I wasn't afraid that would be the case. Apparently, raccoons can be rather timid, playful, and well, nice.

Christine has raised several raccoons at her home when they were found abandoned and left for dead. They grew up both in the wild, and under the care of a human. Now that Boo - so affectionately named because of her fear of pretty much everything - is all grown up, she wanders around, fending for herself, but comes by the house every evening for snack.

This is the closest I have ever been to a wild raccoon, and probably the closest I will be in a while. Boo was kind enough to let me get right next to her to snap a couple of photos while she ate. It definitely was an experience I wont forget.

View the set on Flickr.

See the finished photos after the jump...

Jason and Joash are always a lot of fun to work with. Be it a musical serenade or a late night gig at the local pub, I quite enjoying listening to them play. Here's what we ended up with from the shoot last Monday.

View this set on Flickr.

More below the fold...

The Cotton Carrier is built from many high quality components. Military grade lexan for the holster. Ballistic nylon for the straps. Not to mention the entire lineup comes standard with a lifetime warranty. This is definitely a product you're going to want to take a second look at.

I almost forgot... Price? The system is less than $200!