Articles written by Patrick Hall

For some people, Halloween can be a stressful time as you panic to come up with that perfect costume that will impress all your friends and help you score big with the opposite sex. Photographer Tyler Card decide to one up everyone by creating his own lifesize working Nikon D3 which can capture all of his trick or treating fun. Check out the demo below and then head to the full post to see how Tyler made it in his BTS video.

Lee's wedding video A Moving Moment created a lot of discussion about how to get high production shots with minimal gear. The truth of the matter is Lee handheld 90% of the footage and used our favorite slider, The Atlas 10 Slider, for the remaining 10% of the shots. Olivia Tech has recently demoed a knock off slider called the Konova Slider and explains some simple techniques that can really up your video production easily and on a budget. Olivia is also using the main lens Lee used in his video, the Tamron 17-50 2.8 VC, which has the best vibration compensation of any 2.8 lens in this range. If you want the quality of a true Cinevate Slider for a little less money, we have had awesome results using the Cinevate Atlas Pulley System as a fully functioning slider. Just make sure you put a solid ball head on it first!

Last week we featured part 1 of ReDefine's interview with Chase Jarvis. The second half of the interview was just released and Chase talks a little about pushing yourself and being your own biggest critic while at the same time taking all the negativity that comes with being in the spotlight with a grain of salt. Lee and I have seen so many ridiculous comments about photographers and their work here on Fstoppers and other popular websites (heaven knows I've taken a few punches myself). In today's uber web social world, sometimes it seems if you haven't caused a stir of criticism of some sort then perhaps you haven't made something profound. It seems as photographers, most of us are driven by creativity and competition but the best competition you should have is with yourself. I hope you guys find Chase's words encouraging as he reminds everyone that even at the top of your career you are going to face people who question your vision. Stay strong and keep truckin' because the light at the end of the tunnel, may be you! Goodnight!

Awhile back we shared a few videos of photographers intentionally throwing their cameras in the air. Well now the Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera actually makes that feat much easier. The new camera allows photographers to create 360 degree images with 36 individual cameras arranged in a buckeyball shape (any organic chemists out there?). Using an accelerometer, the spherical camera takes a photo at the apogee when there is the least amount of movement for surprisingly sharp images. It's also made of soft collision material which just begs you to throw it at someone's face or fling it with a water balloon launcher. The whole project is pretty interesting, and you can read more about it on Jonas Pfeil's website.

Using drone octocopters to take breathtaking aerial footage is nothing new. But what would the results look like if you could combine a stabilized drone with ultra high def 5K footage from the Red Epic? That's exactly what OMstudios did with their self proclaimed "OM-copter". By using the drone, directors can now produce stunning high def and slow mo aerial shots without the high cost of renting an actual helicopter. Of course you have to be able and willing to secure a $58,000 video camera to a remote controlled octocopter in the first place! Check out the OMstudio Vimeo Channel for some great commercials and other video projects.

The OM-Copter gives wings to the Red Epic from omstudios on Vimeo.

A new photoshop algorithm featured at the Adobe Max 2011 is almost too good to believe. Somehow engineers have figured out a way to take extremely blurry images (by photographers' standards at least) and render them sharp and usable with the click of a few buttons. The goal behind this software is not to fix improperly focused images but rather to fix motion blur caused by a shaky camera or a slower shutter. The crowd's reaction at 1:18 is worth watching this video alone but if this technology ever makes it to future copies of Photoshop then this will no doubt rock the digital world in a way we've not seen before.

Eric Curry is a photographer who specializes in painting with light. Unlike using strobes to exposure your photos, painting with light requires you to use long exposures and constant light sources to effectively "paint" over your subject and capture it on your sensor. The newest image in Eric's American Pride and Passion series is one of the most complex light painting images I've ever seen and the behind the scenes video shows just how much work goes into such a big project. Click the full post to see the final image and be sure to click on Eric's website to see many more examples of his layered light painting photographs.

Chase Jarvis has become one of the most inspiring figures for both amateur and professional photographers alike. His successful career as an advertisement photographer has only been eclipsed by his overall entrepreneurship. Recently Chase sat down for an interview with Tamara Lackey to explain his self proclaimed "10 year overnight success". I absolutely love his statement "what makes you hirable is not your technical proficiency, that is assumed...it is your vision: how you see the world." So many photographers focus entirely too much on their lighting and completely overlook creating an image that resonates with their viewer. There is a quote that says something like "a photograph that requires a caption is a failed photograph" but I think a photographer could go further and say "people don't care about what you had to do to create the photo, they just want to be wowed by the final image."