Canon Rebel T4i on the 4th of July

How can you celebrate Independence Day without fireworks and a catchy blog post title? The Canon Rebel T4i on the 4th of July kicked off a pyrotechnics display with a high ISO video test. I was so busy capturing the bombs bursting in air in 1080p video, I only have 2 megapixel video screen grabs of the July fourth explosions. No worries, the glorious Full HD video will suffice!



Armed with a plethora of enormous firework cakes, I cranked my Canon Rebel T4i/650D wide open and the ISO to an amazing 3200 to capture this 1080p video shot at 29.97fps. I paired my T4i/650D with an EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS lens and captured audio with a Senneheiser MKE400 shotgun microphone. For editing, I used Final Cut Pro 6.0.6 with the Canon E-1 Movie Plugin to transcode to AppleProRes422. Finally, for support I used Benro 3580 tripod legs with a Manfrotto 701 HDV video head.



This is my kind of bakery! Explosive cakes piled high to the amazement of children and crying babies. Consider it a Filipino obsession with ornate gunpowder displays for grown adults as well.



Cousin chaos returns for America's Independence Day! Family is more powerful than gunpowder bursting in air, except for my baby daughter's loaded diaper of mass destruction.



ISO 3200 is the limit for Canon T4i video capture. I expected noise and grain at this level for a proper exposure for extreme dark followed by flash bang moments. Shooting wide open at f/2.8 challenged the venerable T4i CMOS sensor for light gathering. Of course the more expensive Canon 5D Mark III and the 1D Mark IV is at least two ISO stops cleaner but the T4i is over three times less expensive. Not too shabby for entry level!



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Serena on the Fourth of July

The Stars and Stripes are big and bright. My newborn daughter is four months old on this very Independence Day. A celebration of a nation and the many milestones of Serena. The laughing, giggling, smiling and rolling over on her tummy runs deep in the hearts of her mom and dad.



Only if milestones could explode and cause pyrotechnic havoc, my son would pay more attention to more sentimental occasions. This is the extent of my firework photography. Grilling ten pounds of meat and conducting the explosive celebration was not conducive to image making.



There is no doubt Serena looks like her mom and her big sister. My oldest daughter loves her baby sister with all her heart. The uncanny resemblance is unmistakeable. Check it out yourself.



Every month from now we will see Serena grow and her family glow with anticipation. I could very well see an Apple i-device in her future, pink of course.



Serena is poised to crawl east on Hillsborough Avenue towards her favorite restaurant. Just follow the trail of slobber and spit-up.

You can view more pictures shot with the Canon EOS 5D Mark II in my Serena on the Fourth of July 2011 Gallery.

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Happy Birthday America !

"Rain,rain go away, please comeback another day." Luck would have it that our 4th of July weekend became a three day rain storm hampering Independence Day festivities. The only glimmer of hope through the torrential shower was the brief moments of sunshine and rain free moon lit nights. The 4th of July fireworks display at Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek turned our wet frowns upside down.



The water slide,lazy river and aquatic activities exposed the ironic circumstance of the wet and rainy weekend. My family saturated in water play and frolicked in chlorine till the wee hours of the night despite the inclement weather.



Swim,eat,sleep and repeat. I interrupted this mantra with a photographic slap in the face. I captured the wet weekend with the Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, the EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS version II and the EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L lenses.



Water logged and stuffed with breakfast,lunch and dinner buffets, we managed some exercise at Downtown Disney in the humid and stifling summer heat. Here comes more irony. We traveled by car and foot just to have a hearty lunch at T-Rex, A Prehistoric Family Adventure Restaurant. You guessed it, a fun tourist trap for hungry families disguised as a dinosaur themed eating establishment.



The Ice Age may have killed the dinosaurs, but it did not stop our desire for an after lunch dessert. Gluttonous crime scene tape surrounded the ice cream homicide at the Ghirardelli Soda Fountain & Chocolate Shop. Sorry no pictures! I was consumed by diary products.



My mini-clone says "My dad and I will be right behind you in the buffet line."

You can view more images in my Fourth of July Weekend 2010 Gallery.