I will be using a SPOT device this summer, which allows friends and family at home to track a team’s progress in the wilderness. Between July 14th and Aug 8th you can watch a trip down the Yukon’s Alsek River and through the Hakai Coastal Wilderness of BC by following this link: SPOTBRUCE

During the last few months I have really been getting excited about shooting time lapse sequences - in nature - with my camera. It started with the realization that the new Nikon DSLR’s have built in intervelometers - which allow a photographer to take a series of photos over time; for example a thousand images, one every three seconds. When stitched together, they form a movie, showing clouds moving, snow building up, leaves unfurling, etc. I got interested simply because I find the results extraordinarily cool.

In the process of learning, I have ripped the shutter out of my D200 (while trying to clean dust spots on the sensor - an expensive mistake!), bought a D300, ordered a stepper motor to do motion controlled pans and tilts, and built a dolly and track - able to be driven by the stepper motor - which allow for long slow sweeping moves. I am still not at the point of being ready to share the results - OK, perhaps I am a bit of a perfectionist! But for now, suffice to say this new arm of photography has got me totally stoked.

And it has changed my eyes for the natural world. I now am totally aware of the speed with which clouds are moving, and in which direction, just in case a great time lapse opportunity presents itself.

Since I am not yet ready to post my time lapse work - here is a little video from someone else to get you stoked. It does have a bit of time lapse in it, but mostly it is about biking. This dude has mad skilz. Check it:

An unusually poignant human interest story on a young, autistic basketball player. It is a few years old, so you might have seen it, but if not, check it out. This is truly cool: