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Give 'Em A Spin - A Fun Family Photography Project
UPDATE: Hey this is fun, however (as some commenters indicated), it may be risky to young joint if you're spinning to fast. Holding your loved one under the elbow is safer.
This is by far one of the most fun family projects ever featured on DIYP. (Oh yea, I said this on the title).
We all know what kids like best - spinning. The only thing that kids love even more than spinning is sharing the spinning pleasure with a family member spin Dad till he passes out.
Fortunately for us photogs, spinning creates a great panning like effect. But wait how can you spin and take the image, I mean both hands are holding your precious one.
Reader Mr Din has figure out the secret. Learn how to spin and photograph your kid in 5 easy steps.
1. Create a Chest-o-Strap
This is actually where the DIY part comes in:
a. With a strong fabric, create a Hexagon shape like the one in the image on the left (click for bigger size).
The width of the strap should be a little bigger than your camera and length should be a little smaller than your torso.
b. This is the first "fun part"- cut a hole just bigger than your lens in the middle of the strap. The hole needs to be just a bit bigger than your lens because you are going to place your lens in that hole. More about that in a second.
c. If you have sewing skills sew a luggage strap to the ends of the strap.
2. Wear The Chest-o-Strap
Not that easy, my friend. However we have a picture to assist.
Place your camera lens inside the hole you created in step one. Now, wear the strap. Click the luggage clip behind your back and adjust the length.
If this is a big SLR, you may want to wear the strap first and only then place the SLR inside.
The image on the left shows a big DSLR, but this will also work with a smaller point and shoot, just make the hole smaller.
3. Adjust Camera Settings
Set your camera on shutter priority (that TV for canon users).A shutter speed of 1/40 should be find but you may have to go a bit up or down depending on your spinning speed.
4. Remotely Triggering The Camera
OK, a small obstacle, but one that you can easily overcome with one of the following options:
- Use a release cable combined with burst mode. Don't have a release cable? Build one yourself, or use a dead mouse.
- Use the self timer function.
- Use a remote trigger (like pocket wizard) and ask one of the blurry persons around to trigger the camera for you.
5. Spin! Spin! Spin!
Get out to the yard. Hold both hands with your friend, son, daughter, wife or hubby and spin till you drop.
If are using a release cable (the best option) set your camera on slow burst mod, lock the release button and spin away. Sort the good images from the bad ones later.
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Comments
Wow, Fabien on DIY
Wow, Fabien on DIY photography !! Great post, and really fun pictures.
Very cool spinning dad!
yo! you are one very cool spinning dad! and very creative too! Thanks for sharing!
WOW
When do fisheyes come in handy? Seldom, but when they do, watch out!
This is a great post and a wonderful idea for anyone shooting families. Strap the camera to dad, plug in the remote control and fire away. You could even have the rest of the family laughing and running around in the background of the shot for fast shutter speed stuff. Also with a bit of fidgeting you could shim up the camera to capture both people for this and other things like staged dancing shots.
I am trying to think as far back as I can and I am unable to recall seeing this in anyone's work so it would seem the industry is ripe for this type of work to come into the mix. It's a great tool to have in the bag.
To note, the actual chest harnesses made for this type of thing are not all that expensive, though I do applaud the effort to keep things simple and inexpensive. Just thought I'd put it out there for anyone wandering if a product exists for this purpose.
Thanks
Eric
cable release question
Just how are you supposed to trigger the cable release if you are using both hands to swing the kid? And what is "slow burst mod" Is that a Nikon thing? Hmm...
Great results. I've often thought of designing something to strap my camera to my chest to do this, but never got around to it. Now I have no excuses :)
re: cable release question
As for the first part, most cable releases have a locking function, where you can "lock" the remote in continuous shooting mode - this simulates a long press of finger on the release button. This function is sometimes used when shooting stars.
Slow burst mode means that the camera will take several pictures as long as the shutter button is pressed. Some cameras has the option of choosing how many images will be taken in burst mode: high burst mode - many pictures per second or slow burst mode - less images per second.
Too Bad
My kids are grown. I'd love to try this. I'll have to see if I can borrow one of the neighbor's kids instead :). Very neat article!
Another way to get the shots hands free
One of my favorite features of my D200 is the Interval Timer Shooting. Set that up to shoot every second for as long as you can stomach it and you should have as many shots as you need!
Chest o Strap
I think this is a great idea thank you for the post
nice
One of the other photoblogs (maybe the flickr blog?) posted spinning photos a while back. Their solution to the problem was much more low-tech: one person holds the kid, another holds the camera and shoots over the shoulder, all spinning together.
re: low tech
hi Katie,
From my chat with Mr. Din I understand that he took this approach even further.
His low-tech solution included piggy-backing his wife.
Very fun but one word of
Very fun but one word of warning. Doing this activity, holding them by their hands and spinning them, can cause injury, and I don't mean by accidentally letting go. A young child under 3 to 4 years of age can get a dislocated elbow . Search on "nurse maids elbow" The child's weight stress the ligaments in the elbow and pops something in there out of joint. It happened to my 2 year old. It was obviously very painful, from her crying.
The fix though can be done at home though, most people take the child to the ER; she had had this happen about 4 times. read up on it to be careful.
Congrat
Congratulation, the idea is excellent and the result is awesome :)
When my sister was young, I
When my sister was young, I don't remember the exact age. My father was spinning her round like this and she was enjoying it telling him "more more again again". Until her shoulder painfully dislocated. Afterwards my sister was in hospital for a few hours and my father was taken away to a private room and interviewed by social services. Ridiculous I know, but please be careful if you're spinning your children around like this.
Non-DIY options, too
If you don't think you can hack the chest strap on your own, Op/Tech makes almost identical strap (Mfg # 5301002).
As for triggering, couldn't you also a pair of PocketWizards, one connected to the camera with a trigger cord and another in the hands of the grateful spouse.
Of course, that'll only help if you already have PWs. Otherwise the cost is prohibitive.
Sigh.
More and more often, whenever anyone posts *anything* to do with kids, someone else pops their head up and says "This is a really bad thing because...". This is the second time I've seen it this week, the other related to that other favourite activity of children on beaches: covering themselves in sand.
I've got a plan. Children are clearly such tremendously fragile creatures that as soon as they are born -- and surely better that by caesarian -- I vote we wrap them in non-allergenic cotton wool and put them in oxygen tents in darkened room for 16 years without any stimulation: after all, you never know what might be dangerous for 'em.
Alternatively look around you. Children are bloody strong creatures. They survive, and have survived for countless millennium, being born into downright hostile and unfriendly environments (http://isw.me.uk/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core%3AShowItem&g2_itemId=635&...) yet survive to adulthood themselves without significant issues. If you want to succumb to nanny-state thinking then sure, go for it, they're your children. But please don't try to get the rest of to ruin our children's childhood with these continual scare stories.
i
*applauds you*
*applauds you*
Not an easy idea
If you try to do it with your wife.... :)
http://www.flickr.com/miguel_ags
I did it with my wife!!
.. I mean trying to take spinning captures with my wife on my back. She would grab the kid's hands leaving mine free to take pictures... believe me, it hurts, it really hurts your back, unless you're pretty big and your wife pretty light :D
that's how I came up with this idea :D
Great idea - would not have
Great idea - would not have ocurred to me. I'm sure it could be used for other things as well!
Thanks for the hints. Couple
Thanks for the hints. Couple of months ago I took a similar shot with 8mm Peleng fisheye in my living room. I used a gorillapod zoom plus a belt to fix the camera on my chest, 10s self timer to trigger the shot and 1/10s
( http://www.flickr.com/photos/diego_rivera/3533152637/ ).
I am going to retake it based on your advises, probably with remote trigger, wide-angle lens and a bit shorten exposure.
funny as. will defo try this
funny as. will defo try this out ... whenever i become father ;)
Why not just set your camera
Why not just set your camera on timer and have it hanging from your neck with the strap it came with?
re: timer and strap
Hi Kim,
The timer thing will work great. If you don't use a dedicated strap, whoever, the camera can break loose and hit anyone of the innocent bystanders, including whomever is on the spin.
Congratulation,
Congratulation,it's a nice pic. new view . rotation , movement its live picture.
totally genious !
what a great technique to have such stunning results !
i liked !
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