Lightning (in slow motion)

Britain from Above (WAY above)

"A new BBC series makes use of satellite technology to create stunning images of Britain from above. Mark Sanders reports. Andrew Marr presents the series Britain from Above, the first episode of which will be broadcast on Sunday 10 August at 2100 on BBC One. "




Video and photo have always had a strange relationship. Sometimes a video can show things that a photograph can not, but sometimes a photo can show things that a video can not. Specifically, a video is many, many photographs shown in rapid succession - one after another. What you see looks like smooth motion, but every frame (still image that makes up the video) shows only one moment in time. There are a couple ways to alter this - slow motion takes many more frames, and then plays them at a slower speed, so what we see on video appears to happen slower then it does in real life (in some cases,thousands of times slower - like popcorn popping.) Video can also be done in time-lapse, where frames are removed, so that action happens faster then it does in real life - such as taking the construction of a building shot for a year, and condensing it down to an hour-long video.

This video take yet ANOTHER approach. This video tracks the flight paths of airplanes, the connections of cell phones, and the paths cabs take through London, and shows it on a map. Eath path is shown by a line drawn on the map, like the path was actually drawn on the map. But instead of leaving each path on the map, even long after the airplane has landed, or the cab reached its destination, the paths fade away after a time. The result is a great composite, and a really cool video. Check it out here


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7539529.stm

Ball falling into Sand

Dogs. Lots of Dogs.

I think my only comment for this one is dogs. Lots and lots of dogs.
For a semi-slow-mo video, this is pretty cool. Dogs. Lasers (or is it neon?) And a really funky beat. I like how you can see the dogs skin/fur ripple as they jump or freefall, how its all wrinkly, and fluid, like the fun is just hanging loosely on the dog. I don't like how in some of these shots, the dogs look downright scary. At 1:17, that dog looks like its about to take my leg off at the ankle.

Popcorn - at 5400 FPS

I found this vid while searching for something on Youtube, and thought it would be worth sharing. Normal video is around 30 frames per second - 30 images shown every second to create the illusion of motion. This video was shot at 5,400 frames per second - 180 times as many individual frames of action recorded compared to normal video.