Posts Tagged ‘camera’

Video research in the open – researcher, camera, and others.

Monday, April 30th, 2007

Next week I will participate in the workshop Video Interaction Analysis – and how to do it (program (PDF)). Here is my abstract:

In this presentation I will put the actual presence of researcher and camera in the field into focus. After positioning the actant bundle researcher-camera in the hierarchically structured social field of the railway terminal, I will present several video sequences. These sequences demonstrate techniques employed both by the people in the camera’s perspective and by the researcher-camera – techniques in which distance and the controlled normality of the terminal are maintained. However, other sequences show how this normality is frequently broken and challenged. People are getting closer than is expected, they approach, inspect, conspire with, and question the bundle researcher-camera. Taken together, an emergent set of practices is being analyzed: strategies and tactics that make video research in the open an exciting but also ambivalent process.

The workshop is organized by the DFG research project The effect of computerized knowledge in the operating theatre, from a gender perspective, which is based at Humboldt-University Berlin, Institute for Social Sciences.

Workshop on video analysis.

Wednesday, March 7th, 2007

On May 11-12th I will participate in the workshop Video Interaction Analysis – and how to do it (PDF) which is organized by Ulrike Tikvah Kissmann. As she writes: The aim of the workshop is to bring together video analysts with different methodological backgrounds and to discuss how their approaches differ. For that purpose, the presenters have been asked to make the stages of their analysis as transparent as possible. I will try to dive into the transparency or openness and offer those video sequences for discussion in which people display their stance (scepticism, interest, evasion…) towards me and my camera. The title for my presentation is Video research in the open – researcher, camera, and others. I am really looking forward to the workshop and I am confident that the atmosphere and setup of the workshop will be allow for fruitful, non-defensive discussion of methods in practice.

Digital Photography.

Friday, November 3rd, 2006

I am really content with my new camera, a Canon EOS 400D. The image quality is most excellent, the amount of noise even at the maximum ISO value (1600) is quite small, it reacts almost instantaneously, and it offers a whole lot of interesting, useful, and even easily accessible settings. Photography has become even more fun!
Before buying this camera, I used my old Canon EOS 300 to make slides. After four to eigth months I would take all my new slides and scan them in a several day session using a high-resolution slide scanner (a Nikon 4000). Even with all the time and work that I invested during these scanning marathons, the image quality of the pictures taken by the 400D is just plain better, especially regarding noise. And that is not even considering the numerous usability advantages of digital cameras. The best thing is that I can still use the lens that I bought for my 300: a pretty good Canon EF 28-105 II USM. Not losing this investment is what finally convinced me of buying the 400D. The only disadvantage is that the 400D crops images at a 1.6 ratio. That means that all my pictures are effectively taken at a longer focal range – 28-105mm becomes 44.8-168mm. Because of this, it has become difficult to shoot interiors… I guess that means I will need to get a wide angle lens eventually.
photo of Oslo at night taken from planeThe picture you see here is showing the limits even of this new camera: I wanted to shoot Oslo at night from the plane with which I arrived here the evening before yesterday. I particularly liked the scene because of the moonlight reflecting on the waters of the Oslofjord. However, planes are moving fast and even with ISO 1600 the camera needed a one second exposure time. Thus the result shown here.

Moving pictures.

Thursday, October 30th, 2003

Yay! Yesterday I finally got the camera which I need for my dissertation project. I am going to make short video cuts in ferry passenger terminals and train stations and will then analyze them in detail. As the camera wasn’t delivered with a FireWire cable I can’t yet transfer the video recordings from camera to Mac, but as soon as I am back home I will be able to do this and perhaps present you with a few neat clips to awe at.

If you are wondering what camera I chose: it is a Canon MVX100i.

Getting started.

Tuesday, June 17th, 2003

It’s not an easy task. I am still working around my dissertation, not on it. This doesn’t seem to be a kind of behavior that is easily changed – I always have to complete all kinds of “infrastructure related tasks” first, and then I can start with the real work. Might be a good thing, though. It signifacantly trims down the number of possible excuses and makes the later work experience somewhat smoother.
Well, what are the things that do I have to do before I will make the first observations? I have to get IDs for the libraries in Darmstadt, I have to organize a DV camcorder, and I have to read some more literature about harbours, train stations, and video analysis. Urgh. Too much stuff in the pipeline. However, I guess will get some of it done or at least started next week, because I will stay in Darmstadt from coming Thursday until Friday next week…