Yet another gorgeous spring day in San Francisco, the sun is shining and we are all looking forward to enjoying it this weekend. But first, a look back.
East Bay SmugMug Meetup
This week Joby went to the far reaches of the East Bay to participate in the East Bay SmugMug Meetup. Many photographers were present to mix, mingle, discover new products and critique each other’s images.
Got an event you would like Joby to attend? Let us know!
This Week’s Favorite Photo from the Flickr Gorillapod Love Pool
Skunkwork Photography captured this great perspective of a Corvette on his Nikon D90, with Sigma 10-20mm and of course a trusty Gorillapod.
Pretty in Pink Care of the UAE
The Pink Panther has left his mark on advertising in the United Arab Emirates. This very pink advertising ran throughout the country for a bundle deal with Panasonic cameras.
Gorillapod Magnetic Travels Well on Gadling
Gadling, the self-professed top travel blog, gave the Gorillapod Magnetic it’s seal of approval this week. The tweets for the post summed up the review nicely; “perfect for the perpetually upside-down, traveling, photographer.
Great Title – Flickr Style
Clever names and titles crack me up, even better when it is used to explain a new found devotion to Joby products. You can see this new convert to Joby Ballhead with the post “life, AB.”
A few weeks ago, I was eating out in New York at the Fatty Crab – playing with your food makes it taste so much better. The food was awesome, the company was fun, but I could barely hear a thing that was being said. When I saw the design for the Cave Restaurant on Contemporist, I was grateful to not be alone in my concern. The beautiful, organic wood arcs remind me of the inside of a ship but with the added benefit of creating sound isolation for diners.
Description from the architects:
We aim to change the way we eat and chat in restaurants. The acoustic quality of restaurants contributes to the comfort and enjoyment of a dining experience.
We have experimented with noise levels in relation to the comfort of dining and the ambiance a cave like environment can create. The timber profiles generate a sound studio atmosphere, and a pleasant ‘noise’ of dining conversation, offering a more intimate experience as well as a visually interesting and complex surrounding.
The series of acoustic curvatures were tested and developed with computer modeling and each ‘timber grain’ profile has been translated and cut from computer-generated 3-D data, using Computer Numerical Control (CNC) technology.
Wednesday we participated in the Cool Products Expo at Stanford University. Having originated in a classroom at Stanford, the Gorillapods felt right at home. There were a bunch of innovative products at the show including carbon fiber guitars by Blackbird Guitars, the action-sports inspired portable crib by Guava Family and the perfect product for those of us not gifted with a green thumb – Easy Bloom.
I came across this mesmerizing video on the Picture Perfect blog today and loved it. I then read that some of video was shot using a Gorillapod and I had to share. Composed of 35,000 stills stitched together, the video shows a day in the Life of New York but with Lego sized proportions. Some details on how the film was achieved from the artist Sam O’Hare:
It is shot on a Nikon D3 (and one shot on a D80), as a series of stills. I used my Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 and Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 lenses for all of these shots. Most were shot at 4fps in DX crop mode, which is the fastest the D3 could continuously write out to the memory card…
I did some initial tests a while back using a rented 24mm tilt-shift lens, which is the standard way to do this. However, after my tests, I found it made much more sense to do this effect in post, rather than in camera. Shooting tilt-shift requires a tripod, as it is very hard to stabilise afterwards, and gives less flexibility in the final look. I opted to shoot it on normal lenses, which allowed me options in the depth of field and shot movement in post. I used a tripod for the night shots, and my Gorillapod (which is much more portable) where possible, but many locations—like hanging over the edge of a roof or through a gap in fencing on a bridge– had to be shot hand held, and the inevitable wobble removed afterwards.
Love it!
Montreal City Time-Lapse by Martin Reisch
Awesome find on twitter this week by the Canadian Artist Martin Reisch aka @safesolvent. Joby fan that he is, he posted his spontaneous time-lapse photography of the Montreal Skyline that he captured using a Gorillapod Focus.
Here are the details of the shoot from Martin’s perspective:
so i went out with my 5D Mark II, 40D, MacbookPro, iPhone as usual (yes, i tend to travel light) and the sky looked fantastic so i found myself down by the waterfront near Montreal’s Peel Bassin (one of several classic skyline vantage points) looking for a perfect place to shoot from.
As always, the best place to view un-obstructed skyline is in the middle of the water, but with a Gorillapod i was able to hug the railing on the bridge and stick my lens through the frame giving me a centered and perfect FLOATING clear view of the city!
I shot a frame every 4 seconds for 4.5 hrs and It held for the entire time without even a slight shake or slide! I keep my Gorillapodmobile 3G for my iPhone in my bag too, so i managed to snap a shot of myself waiting beside my timelapse with my laptop.
Joby in the International Press
Joby was feeling quite continental this week with a feature of the Gorillamobile in the Italian Vanity Fair and a piece on the Gorillapod Magnetic in DSLRmagazine.com in Spain.
After pouring through hundreds of creative and enchanting photos from photographers all over the globe, we are excited to announce the winners of the Joby Photo Contest!
(Check out the the winners’ loot below.)
So, without further ado…the Grand Prize Winner for his breathtaking and creatively constructed view of the Eiffel Tower is: Daniel Remler.
Daniel Remler
As part of his prize, Daniel’s photo will be displayed in the June 2010 edition of Popular Photography.
In his own words, this is how Daniel, a German freelance photographer, was able to capture the shot:
The pictures were taken during my France trip last year in December. On this trip I took my Canon 40D SLR, the Gorillapod and my little Canon IXUS, just in case.
Unfortunately this ‘case’ eventually happened. My SLR suddenly didn’t work anymore and it turned out the shutter was broken. So I used the little IXUS for the rest of the journey. Those circumstances made this image actually possible because the upper platform of the Eiffel tower is surrounded by a close-meshed fence. I would never have got my SLR through it, but the little IXUS was perfectly made for this shot.
I saw the giant shadow of the tower and thought, this view is awesome. I wanted to link the shadow with its origin: the tower. But I would have needed a super wide angle lens to capture the whole scene. So instead I decided to take a series of 5 single images which I would later stitch together to a panorama at my PC. I used my Gorillapod which I winded around the railings and then step by step tilted my camera.
At home I edited the ready stitched image in Photoshop where I removed the saturation of everything but the river. I also sharpened the picture and increased the contrast by using the curves.
It’s Friday and its time to share a little bit of the fun that has been happening around here.
Swagapalooza
Last week a few of us from Joby had the pleasure of attending Swagapalooza, an at times raucous event where companies showcase their products to a gathering of social media greats – and some others. Guy Kawasaki keynoted and a bevy of hard core twitterers joined in the fun. The live twitter feed made for some “interesting” moments. Joby CEO Forrest presented some of the creative ways Joby products have been used for photography including an awesome shot by our Director of Industrial Designer inside Notre Dame in Paris. Despite rules against tripods, our wily Gorillapod was welcomed into the venerable cathedral, allowing for some great photos even with the low lighting.
Here is the image that was taken inside of Notre Dame and the set-up:
Here is a video of our CEO Forrest speaking:
Twestival
Joby was thrilled to be involved in the San Francisco Twestival event last week, which successfully raised over $10K for Concern Worldwide, an organization which seeks to bring education to the world’s poorest children. Concern has been implementing innovative programs and solutions for over 40 years. The worthy caused brought together a number of people from the social media to tweet, drink, listen to music and drink some more.
Press
We love the press love…here are some recent hits which make us feel – oh so very happy.
Best title of the week goes to Graphic Design & Publishing Center who wrote an article entitled “You need a tripod…a Gorillapod.” While the title may not be subtle, they certainly get the message across.
Honorable mention from a few weeks goes to this ultra long but very funny title from Cult of Mac; “iPhone apps weekly digest: The day Mr. Mediocre came to town and got smashed in the face by Gorillacam.”
Other great press clippings this week include a piece on the Gorillatorch for in the Atlanta Journal Constitution and a piece on the Gorillamobile for Smart Computing.
Spring has arrived here in sunny San Francisco and it seems like the appropriate time to spring the blog back to life. At the risk of extending the metaphor too far, we also have lots of new stuff going on around here. We recently moved to a sparkling new office space (see photo below) and I am now here to keep you informed about all things Joby, interesting happenings and hopefully not too random musings.
Scenes from the new Joby office
So to give you a better sense of who I am, these are a few of my favorite things (trust me, you should be grateful, you can’t hear me sing).
*Creactive (n): [ Creative+Active=Creactive ]
1. A person who lives a creative and active lifestyle.
2. The community who influence and inspire Joby products.
We’ve long been known for supporting photographers and for our innovative photography products, notably the Gorillapod family. These days cameras are getting smaller and smaller, and they’re starting to converge with mobile devices.
Gorillacam app for iPhone
There’s no better example of this than the iPhone, which has inspired legions of “iPhoneographers” and has even become the most popular camera on Flickr!
To support iPhone users and their photography we first launched the Gorillamobile for 3G/3GS, which has rapidly become a bestseller. Today we are pleased to announce that we’re extending our support for iPhone users even further with a FREE camera app!
The Gorillacam is a fast, feature-packed app designed to extend the iPhone’s native camera functionality. Gorillacam adds many features that are unavailable in the basic camera application, including a self-timer, time-lapse, and continuous rapid-fire shooting. You can see the full list of awesome features over here.
The Gorillacam is the perfect companion for the Gorillamobile, making self-portraits, timed shots, low light photography, or getting crazy camera angles a breeze!
We partnered with the amazing folks over at AppTight to create what we feel is one of the best camera apps available. AppTight has built a number of successful iPhone apps, including the popular iCommute SF, and they really delivered for us, and for you!
We’re excited to hear what you think of Gorillacam, so go on over to the App Store and try it out. We take user feedback to heart, so tell us what features you want in future releases, and we might just build ’em!
Ah the excitement of Christmas! Do you remember what it was like as a child when you’d count down the days until St. Nick’s arrival, barely able to sleep for all the anticipation?
Well just because we’re all grown up now doesn’t mean we have to be any less excited! To give our fans and customers yet another reason to get excited, we’ve created an Advent Calendar to count down the days until Christmas.
Every day we’ve got a different treat in store for you, from discounts to giveaways to funny little surprises. There are 24 different treats, just waiting for you to uncover them.
Check out our Advent Calendar daily to see the latest goodies, and get excited! Santa Claus is almost here!
We never cease to be amazed by our customers and their nearly infinite creativity. So many amazing images have been captured the world over using Gorillapods, and we absolutely love it when customers share their photographs with us. From happy accidents like the crasher squirrel, to carefully crafted nature shots by award-winning pros, Gorillapods have enabled users to capture some incredible imagery.
To celebrate the creativity of photographers everywhere, Joby is proud to announce a brand new photography contest! We’re looking for your very best photographs, taken with or without a Gorillapod. The grand prize winner will receive our entire Gorillapod line, and will have his/her photo published in Popular Photography!. There are lots of great prizes for runners up, too.
We know that you probably have some amazing photographs, and we want to help you share them with the world. Just as our customers are passionate about photography, we’re passionate about building great products and promoting the creativity of our fans and users.
Full contest rules can be found over on our contest page, but here’s how to enter:
Send an email to contest@joby.us with up to three (3) images. You can send us a link to the images, or attach them to the email (max attachment size 10MB).
Each entry must include the following info:
Your full name
Your email address
Contact phone number (and/or mailing address)
Your country of residence.
Where the photo was taken.
Was a Gorillapod used in the creation of the image?
Questions? Email contest@joby.com. We look forward to your entries!
