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Tesla Xmas tree

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LAN_403

Tesladownunder

Fri Nov 23 2007, 11:52PM

Registered Member #10 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 09:45AM
Location: Bunbury, Australia
Posts: 1424

I was also thinking of a reflective ball bauble or three on the tree. This might be more difficult as a preliminary setup was very uneven using my current setup.
I might need a little motor setup for a mini eye of Sauron effect to get this done properly. It might be too hard or add too much time to the total shoot.
TDU

1195861363 10 FT34595 Teslaxmasrodcircle1

Tesladownunder

Sun Nov 25 2007, 10:40PM

Registered Member #10 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 09:45AM
Location: Bunbury, Australia
Posts: 1424

Setup a bigger frame including the 7 foot star to start getting some better shots. The whole thing is 15 feet (5m) tall. There is the option of going a few feet taller if needed.

To get this picture, I have a wire from the top of the TC to the end of a fishing rod which is 11 feet long (3.3 m). The sparks jump from this point to the grounded frame and I "draw" in the sparks during a long exposure of typically 50 seconds.
I have had a number of problems that I had to deal with.
Firstly carbon tracking on the end of the rod. I had to grind that out of the fibreglass. In the end, I used the rod to connect to the mid point of 18 inches of rod (heavy copper wire) so the rod tip is no longer a point where corona will radiate from.
Secondly the connection from the toroid to the fishing rod needs to be very light and able to stretch out from the close point of only a few feet to perhaps 10 feet. My system is not ideal but uses a fishing line which passes over the toroid and has a weight on the other side to it will tend to draw back any excess. A fine copper wire is fixed at the toroid end and has a few loops around the line. The intention is that it concertinas up without dangling too close. It mostly works but needs a little refinement.

I have done the golden star as well and it works well and is very sharply defined and luminous as it is about 30 seconds worth of sparks. I use f/14 to reduce the intensity to prevent saturation.

At the end I add the flash to highlight me in natural color.

I have taken a full pic and it has come out well but I want to refine it a bit more and anyway it is a bit too soon before Christmas to put it out on the net.

Note that this technique can be used to highlight other shapes as well.

The pics show the setup and the tree with just the start of the star.

TDU

1196004702 10 FT34595 Teslaxmasframe1000

1196004702 10 FT34595 Teslaxmasframegreen1000

Tesladownunder

Wed Nov 28 2007, 01:00PM

Registered Member #10 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 09:45AM
Location: Bunbury, Australia
Posts: 1424

Here I go triple posting again (legally - 48h and new info).

The Discovery Channel senior producer is keen to run with this and if it goes to air will be my 4th segment.

It should be an interesting video if you use layering to result in the effect of "painting" the tree and star. The final result of course is just what you get with a long exposure photograph. It should have Cristmas appeal and may well get taken up by a national station. Aiming for the Sunrise program for those of you in Oz.

Unfortunately my cameraman sprained his ankle elsewhere in a stumble off a ladder with a $50k camera.

Bought one of those cheap inflatable Santa suits today and carried it home 45k on my bike (uninflated).

Hopefully will get time for more fine tuning this week.

TDU

Tesladownunder

Sat Dec 01 2007, 02:37PM

Registered Member #10 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 09:45AM
Location: Bunbury, Australia
Posts: 1424

Quadruple post - still legal. (yes, I sorta like talking to myself)

Details here.

TDU

1196519675 10 FT34595 Teslaxmasfinal1000

Dalus

Sat Dec 01 2007, 03:15PM

Registered Member #639 Joined: Wed Apr 11 2007, 09:09PM
Location: The Netherlands, Herkenbosch
Posts: 512

Almost lifelike

. But for a three made out of sparks it looks great.

Tonic

Sat Dec 01 2007, 04:54PM

Registered Member #528 Joined: Fri Feb 16 2007, 10:32PM
Location: Warsaw, Poland
Posts: 166

Whoa, this Santa Claus is scary!

Besides this, tree is awesomy, great work :)

Dr. H.

Sun Dec 02 2007, 03:43PM

Registered Member #931 Joined: Mon Jul 30 2007, 05:25PM
Location: Bulgaria
Posts: 486

Beautiful, just BEAUTIFUl. I want a new oscop Santa

Tom540

Sun Dec 02 2007, 11:14PM

Banned on 3/17/2009.
Registered Member #487 Joined: Sun Jul 09 2006, 01:22AM
Location:
Posts: 617

Hahaha

Crow187

Mon Dec 03 2007, 06:42PM

Registered Member #795 Joined: Mon May 21 2007, 06:04PM
Location: Bocholt, Germany
Posts: 35

Really nice! Thats Tesla art! =) cooool!!!!!

Tesladownunder

Sun Dec 09 2007, 11:58AM

Registered Member #10 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 09:45AM
Location: Bunbury, Australia
Posts: 1424

Its been a busy week for media for me kicked off by the Tesla Christmas tree
which gave me 100,000 hits to my site.

Yesterday shooting was completed successfully for the Discovery segment about the Xmas tree. Dean shot 1:05 hours of video over 6 hours. My every move shot from 3 angles it seemed.
I set up a little story with a cute 7 yo girl Emily (daughter of a friend) who did a great job at short notice. I think she steals the show really. Of course, Santa made an appearance as well. A bit cheesy but should set the scene.

Also had a nearly full page 3 article on the Metro Newspaper in the UK. (1.7 million readers).

There was an interview for Wired.com and one for Barcroft media (which did the Metro article) plus transferring 60M of high res pics.

Didn't get to filming for Australian TV but can reshoot if needed.

This is the Metro page 3 article.

TDU

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