Photos from the NC NearSpace Balloon Launch

Friend of Maker Faire:NC and NC NearSpace member @ambermae has put together a video of the photographs taken by the NCNS-6 balloon after its launch at Maker Faire North Carolina on Saturday.  If you watch carefeully you can see an airplane (FAR in the distance)!

On Saturday, June 18th NC NearSpace launched a balloon with a camera set to take photos every minute. The balloon rose to 60,000 feet before bursting and returning the camera to earth. This is a video made from all of the photos. A selected set of still photos from the flight is available here.

Launch: Raleigh, NC
Landing: Ayden, NC

Near-Space Aerial Photography Meetup

There's going to be a meeting at TechShop RDU on Sunday at 6:00pm to discuss the feasability of launching a scientific balloon to "near-space" (70-100k feet).  The plan, so far, is to "launch balloon; take photos" but hopefully it will turn into a pretty rockin' project.  There is a thread on their forum.

If you have any interest in discussing the project come on by TechShop RDU on Sunday.  You don't have to be a member to attend the meetup but you will need to register as a visitor.

Here's a video for a little inspiration.

Exposure: An expedition to the oil threatened Gulf Coast

A friend of mine, artist Phil Nesmith, is undertaking a journey to the Gulf Coast to capture images of the effects of the oil spill.  Phil uses an all-but-dead form of photography called ambrotype to capture beautiful and sometimes haunting images.  Ambrotypes are very hands-on and each one is unique. 

It is fitting to use a photographic method from the time when our lust for oil was just beginning in order to capture the spirit of this disaster. Working slowly with vintage large format cameras and with the slow wet collodion process will bound certain aspects of what images can be made, but the focus of this project is not simply to document events as they unfold. Instead, this unique approach will result in images that will tap into the elegiac qualities possible with the medium, as Mathew Brady, and others like him once did in capturing the disastrous realities of the American Civil War.

I wouldn't post this here if I didn't think that it really fit in with the Maker philosophy; embracing antique photographic media is very much an arduous pursuit of great passion.  If you'd like to read more about the project and/or donate, visit Phil Nesmith's Kickstarter site.

Maker Faire:NC Flickr Group

This is the Flickr Group that we set up for sharing photos and videos of your Maker Faire:NC experience.  If you're exhibiting and preparing a project, upload and tag some photos to whet the appetites of our attendees!  The planning team is going to throw a few pics in there as well.