Safety First
We’ve been asked to ‘rescue’ time lapse cameras provided by others – that have been mounted unsafely, or just don’t work – a few times now. So I thought it would be a good time to share some experiences we’ve had in this field.
Firstly, this week we recconoitered a site in the UK, and while there we saw a time lapse camera covering another angle on the same site. Here’s a picture:
So, other than the fact that they’re using sandbags to weigh the camera down, there seem to be multiple dangling cables with no sort of restraint, a couple of random flagstones, and of course a big plastic box. Our cameras are self-contained, and mounted safely, on professional bracketry with no trailing wires.
Carrying on the sandbag theme, here’s a system that we rescued in London a little while back:
This one proved that if you make your camera mount out of a huge wooden sled, and place it on a smooth roof with a downward angle and no parapet, guess what? When the rain comes, it will slide off. In this case, it had fallen on to a public area, and it was pure luck that no-one was underneath at the time. We made it safe.
But – where are the sandbags, I hear you ask? Well, they’re so small, you need a close-up:
That’s approximately 6kg of mini-sand bags, suitable for ballasting a doll’s house in a quiet room.
A couple of things about that camera. Wiring, not very safe:
Also, if you can see the sky through holes in the casing, it’s probably not really weatherproof:
The second camera we found on this site (not working, horizon off-balance and out of focus) was mounted on a tripod:
Really. We love tripods. But they’re only any good if they have an operator behind them. Otherwise they don’t tend to keep very still if it gets windy…
Moving on, here’s a scaffolding tower, built by a well-meaning but inexperienced subcontractor for one of our clients.
We weren’t ready to risk using this – so we consulted with a UK scaffolding engineer, and provided a comprehensive report of the safety issues. A new tower was built, and certified to EU safety standards.
Finally, here’s a ladder we found on a site – again, not in the UK:
There’s a serious point to be made here. We love doing our job, and we love the films that we make for clients. But no shot is ever worth risking our safety, or the safety of others for. We follow rigorous UK work-at-height regulations, wherever in the world we’re working. Three of our engineers are first-aiders. All engineers have IPAF licenses for operating cherrypickers and scissor lifts, and CSCS site safety cards. We devise – and follow, meticulously – comprehensive risk assessments and method statements for every single job that we do, and we’re learning all the time.
Creamfields
We were commissioned by Cream to shoot the Creamfields Festival 2011, from Green Field – through the Festival – and back to Green Field again. A mammoth undertaking, we placed two Lobster Pot cameras (still shooting away as they break the field down). Two weeks later, we sent three of our finest staff, with six ‘day-shoot’ time lapse cameras and a wide range of lenses. 
We’ve shot over 65,000 high-definition images, which will be whittled down to some rather fine time lapse by our friends over at Mocha TV.
Nendaz, Switzerland
Here’s a little bit of cloud time lapse from recent adventures in Switzerland:
Nendaz Station, Valais, Switzerland from Lobster Pictures on Vimeo.
Balloon Fiesta
To mark the Bristol Balloon Fiesta 2011, we shot a quick time lapse of the morning launch from Clifton Suspension Bridge:
Balloons Time Lapse, 12 August 2011, Bristol from Lobster Pictures on Vimeo.
We’re hiring
We are looking for a Systems Administrator / Developer.
Our ideal candidate will have 2+ years relevant experience, be a whizz with Linux and know their way around Windows and Mac OS X.
Based at our offices in the centre of Bristol, UK, you’d be joining a passionate, highly motivated team, who work hard to produce brilliant and beautiful products for our clients.
You will be helping our web developers to maintain Linux servers, Windows based systems and Mac OS X workstations. You’ll need a strong understanding of network topology, as well as routing and TCP/IP problem solving. Some knowledge of managing a cellular WAN and using VPNs would be great.
Experience of server-side scripting in PHP, Perl or Bash is essential. We run our LAMP stack on servers running Ubuntu and it’s completely CLI.
We have many projects in the pipeline that we may want you to get involved in or take a lead on, depending on your skills and experience.
We make a lot of the Lobster Pot system in house, so if you can solder, that’s a plus. We’re a small (but fast expanding) company, so being able to pitch in with a wide variety of tasks is essential – and strong communication skills, both internally and with clients, are essential.
Required:
- Networking configuration, debugging and fault finding
- Network security
- Linux server administration (Ubuntu / Debian)
- Server side scripting (PHP, Perl, Bash)
- Experience working in a mixed OS environment
- Knowledge of using a LAMP stack (configuration and maintenance)
Desirable:
- Python
- AWS (S3 in particular)
- Cryptography
- Soldering
- Computer Science or similar degree
Closing date: 19th August 2011
Candidates must have permission to work in the UK, and speak English to a very fluent standard.
Please apply by emailing a CV and covering letter to michael@lobsterpictures.tv
Absolutely no agencies.
Tagged employment, hiring, recruiting |Experiments in time lapse
We’ve had some footage from the Forth Road Bridge near Edinburgh sitting on the shelf since 2008 (the original experiment we conducted in 2003). The new ‘warp stabilise’ filter in After Effects allowed us to revisit this, and we’re impressed with the results:
Forth Rail Bridge from the Road Bridge – ambulant time lapse from Lobster Pictures on Vimeo.
We’re hiring, again
Due to our unprecedented growth in the UK and Europe, we’re looking for more staff.
Lobster Pictures designs, builds, installs and manages innovative time lapse and monitoring cameras and software. We work for a wide range of clients worldwide, including BBC, Siemens, Network Rail and Toyota.
We’re looking for an Junior Electronic Engineer. Based at our offices in the centre of Bristol, UK, you’d be joining a passionate, highly motivated team, who work hard to produce brilliant and beautiful products for our clients. Ideally holding a degree in Electronic Engineering, you’d be expected to pitch right in to active projects on day one. We’re expanding fast, so there should be a great career trajectory for the right candidate.
Essential:
Electronic construction (soldering & wiring)
Mechanical Construction skills
Linux Server Experience
Network Administration (configuring, debugging)
Desirable:
PCB design
CAD experience
C++, ASM programming
PHP, PERL scripting
Electronic Engineering degree or equivalent
Candidates must have permission to work in the UK, and speak English to a very fluent standard.
Email your CV and a covering letter to robbie@lobsterpictures.tv . Closing date: 29th July 2011.
Please do not phone, doing so will have a negative effect on your application.
Absolutely no agencies.
Matthew Day Jackson
We have deployed a highly specialist time lapse system for Matthew Day Jackson, a New York based artist with an exhibition currently showing at Hauser & Wirth in London. The system is shooting RAW images with a large-sensor camera and a lighting gantry we designed. Integration with Lobster Vision means that Matthew can view the progress of the work from New York. It’s at a secret location and we can’t share details of the project at the moment, but we’re very excited about how it’s looking so far!
Neumunster, Germany
We installed a Lobster Pot camera at Neumunster, near Hamburg, Germany – overlooking a prestigous new retail development for McArthurGlen. Here’s the latest shot, updated every hour:
Solar Installations
We’ve been very busy with time lapse and monitoring for Solar installations recently. Four, in the last month, for clients including Toyota and Lark Energy.
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