GigaPan panorama of Folk Fest fans 2011

View this image in Full Screen and zoom in to see yourself with amazing detail!

Here’s me setting up our GigaPan Epic Pro at Folk Fest. Photo by Jack Bawden. I used a 1D Mark-IV and a 24-105mm F4L lens to make the panorama. I would have rather used a longer lens like a 200 or 300mm to get more detail but I only had the first three songs to shoot.

New Bike Lanes in Edmonton

I love assignments like this. “Just make a pretty picture” to illustrate new bike lanes.

A newly marked bike lane along 106 St. south of Whyte Ave. in Edmonton on August 4, 2011. Photo by Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal

Aerial photos of south Edmonton

I was lucky enough to be sent up to do aerials of southern Edmonton for a story about urban sprawl. Here are a few of my favorites. You can view more here. I must say I didn’t realize how much Edmonton had grown until I saw all the new houses from the air.

It’s amazing that I’ve only lived in Edmonton five years and I can say “I remember when this was all farm land”.

13-year-old track (and hockey) star Tyree Harriott

Thirteen-year-old sprinter Tyree Harriott won four gold metals for Alberta last week at the tri-provincials in Regina. He poses for a photo at Strathcona high school in Edmonton on July 30, 2011.  Photo by Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal    Read the Story.

 Here is how I lit the picture. Three 580EX’s with Pocketwizard Flex5’s. 1/200, F8, ISO50. Canon 24mm f1.4L. A Honl grid on the back flash. Oh and his Mom holding a reflector to shine catchlights into his eyes.

Old Bank of Montreal Building at Night

I get to work one day and I’m told that they are knocking down the old Bank of Montreal Building across from the Edmonton Journal building and I better setup a time lapse camera before they knock it down. I frantically setup a camera before the knock it down and start snapping a photo every hour.

Then I find out it’s going to take about two years for them to knock it down so my time lapse camera may be a little premature.

Here is a cool photo I made from it though. It’s always amazing what you get when you setup a camera and snap for days on end.

The former Bank of Montreal building at Jasper Avenue and 101 Street in downtown Edmonton on July 27, 2011.  Photo by Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal

Teaching video in Cairo Egypt

I’m in Egypt for the next 11 days training the media staff at Children’s Cancer Hospital Egypt 57357 how to do better video, photography and online strategy. What a way to spend my summer vacation from the Journal!
I’ll be posting way more pictures and video later as well I’m going to blog about what I taught at NPAC in the next month.

Here is a shot of the hospital. It really sticks out like a sore thumb because of the modern architecture. It is 100% supported by donation which is where I come in. I’m going to help them strengthen their image and help them tell their story.

It’s funny how when you are in a foreign land EVERYTHING is a picture. I wonder if I took an Egyptian photographer and plunked her in downtown Edmonton what photographic opportunities she would see that I ignore every day…

First Place Video of the Year with News Photographers Association of Canada!

I’m extremely honoured and humbled to have won 1st place team video of the year with former Journal reporter Ben Gelinas for my Brain-injured Comedian video in the annual News Photographers Association of Canada annual Pictures of the Year contest for 2010.

I also won third place single multimedia of the year for my first World Record Dodgeball video.

The event was held during the NPAC annual conference in Winnipeg. There were amazing speakers and fun times.

w00t!

A picture of me taking a picture of me getting the award. Photo by Phill Snel / National Post

I also won third place single multimedia of the year for my first World Record Dodgeball video.

One of my favourite photographers Scott Strazzante spoke at the conference which was awesome.

The Globe and Mail's John Lehmann gave an awesome seminar on new tech tools for photography.

360-degree video street view tour of devistated Slave Lake

The Journal got an exclusive tour of the devastation created by the Slave Lake wildfire. Videographer Ryan Jackson set up four cameras on top of a vehicle to capture a 360-degree view as he drove through the town.

Here is my newest 360-degree video of the fire destruction at Slave Lake. I used the same workflow as my 360-degree World Record Dodgeball video
I felt the only way to truly show the extent of the damage to Slave Lake was to do a 360-degree panoramic video similar to Google Street View.

I used four GoPro cameras to capture the video and then stitched the video together. I have since bought a fifth GoPro to use for future videos.

I setup everything on the ground first.

A flash stand worked well for raising the camera above the roof of the Jeep.

Dent puller suction cups from Princess Auto. $5 each!

Even with the super strong suction cups you still need tie-down straps for safety.

I looped the tie-down straps inside the car.

Journal reporter Jana Pruden and me in Slave Lake. A lady in Athabasca was making these shirts to raise money for Slave Lake.

When we got back to the hotel I dumped all the images into my main laptop and then had four more laptops (total of five) processing the video into panoramas. I used a D-Link Gigabit Switch for the network and I had a D-Link DNS-343 8TB NAS drive for backup storage.

When I got home I had all five laptops processing the panoramas.

Five computers means five times the wires!

Athabasca Fire Fighters and Bikini Car Washes

Athabasca volunteer fire fighters (left to right) Ryan Bodnarchuk, Brant Marshall, Bryan Hall, Justin Zahara, Travis Shalapay and Denis Mathieu pose for a photo at the fire hall in Athabasca, Alta. on May 21, 2011. The fire department helped battle the wild fire that devastated Slave Lake last weekend. They celebrate the 100th anniversary of the department next week. (Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal)

Athabasca residents (left to right) Lauren Perrott, Aleksey Schmidt, Roseanna Schmidt, Katrina Bulas, Kristie Nicholson, Holly Williamson, Jordon Major, Amber Schmidt and Tabitha Topola held a bikini car wash on Sunday and raised more than $1,500 for Slave Lake residents devastated by wildfires. Slave Lake, a town of more than 7,000 was evacuated on May 15th before wildfires destroyed nearly one third of the homes. (Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal).

I love my job! Photo of me by Jana Pruden

Nature’s View of the Fire at Slave Lake

A cinematic journey through the charred forest around Slave Lake. The Journal’s Ryan Jackson couldn’t go inside Slave Lake on Friday so he decided to go into the forest instead and show how the fire has affected nature. Video by Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal

Here's me in the forest with my slider and camera. Even though the fire was mostly out I had to be careful where I stepped. It's really humbling to see what nature can do. Bug spray and dust masks are your friend. Photo of me by Jana Pruden

Here is my DIY slider that I built for camera movements. It worked okay but I've since bought a real Kessler PocketDolly.