SMELT 2010 - Preparations - Seandálaíocht

SMELT 2010 - Preparations 23/02/2010

I spent yesterday researching and organising things for Smelt 2010 which is fast creeping up on me. One of the fancy things I'd like to do for the smelt is some time-lapse photography so I devoted a bit of time to figuring out how my still relatively new digital slr works; familiarising myself a bit more with terms like apeture, shutter-speed and ISO. The result is a test video of me working for a couple of hours in my little home office:

It reveals a weird tendency to play with my beard (shared by all bearded men i'd imagine) and a dangerous sedentism that reminds me how much exercise I don't do.

Besides that, preparations are coming along and the Smelt will go ahead on the 6th and 7th of March. The one big thing I need to sort out is a bellows system, which I will make if need s be but I would be more than happy to borrow if someone would like to donate!

For people who would like to come to see the smelt (taking place in the Irish National Heritage Park in Co. Wexford) the schedule will hopefully run as follows:

Friday 5th - I'll be there prepping and setting up the smelting area and probably starting construction of the furnace
Saturday 6th - Completion of furnace and pre-firing with wood. Ore preparation and roasting.
Sunday 7th - The smelt (volunteers needed!)
Monday 8th - Clean up

All are welcome to come but if you can't make it I will be putting up videos and images from the smelt on the project's website.

Comments

Aidan O'Sullivan

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 2:09:17 pm

Great - how did you that by the way, a sequence of time-lapse photos, but technically how?

More to the point, look at the position of your neck and shoulders on a continuous basis - get ready for the neck pain!

Brian Dolan

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 2:40:39 pm

You need a camera which can take photos at intervals (in this case every 15 seconds) which you then stitch together in a video editor.

In my case I used my Canon 450D SLR camera with an intervalometer (basically a timer) that I bought for it. It lets me control shutter speed, exposure etc etc. I used Picasa 3 from google to combine the images into a video.

It's relatively straightforward technically. The trick is getting the intervals, exposure and shutter speed right.

I just got a proper computer today so I won't be crouching over my laptop, the next few months of writing up will still be dangerous though!

Stephen Dolan

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 9:53:00 am

Best of luck with the smelt. I wouldn't mind coming down to check it out, but will have to see if the rest of the family want to come along...