It’s our first hardware design and it’s been a long time coming. We hope you’ll help us spread the word. – We’ve been working continually on it for about 9 months and now it has launched on Kickstarter. The SPEEDCinema is a versatile camera motion dolly for video and time lapse work.
It’s a portable 3 in 1 Slider/Rail/Dolly system for video & time lapse work that features an EXPANDABLE rail system and unique a reconfigurable design.
A portable SPEEDTube kit starts at $159 for Kickstarter backers and complete dolly kits with wheels and mounts start at just $298. The project needs to raise 25k in funding to go into production.
This is a system that’s been a long time and coming and it does something no other system we’ve seen has offered. It can be as long or short as you want, travels anywhere and configures for nearly any situation.
Our sister company Atomic Feather Design just launched a new project that has been in the planning stages for about 9 months. It finally launched on Kickstarter. The SPEEDCinema is a versatile camera motion tool for video and time lapse work.
SPEEDCinema is a portable 3 in 1 Slider/Rail/Dolly system for video & time lapse work that features an EXPANDABLE rail system and unique a reconfigurable design.
A portable SPEEDTube kit starts at $159 for Kickstarter backers and complete dolly kits with wheels and mounts start at just $298. The project needs to raise 25k in funding to go into production.
This is a system that’s been a long time and coming and it does something nothing we’ve seen has offered. It can be as long or short as you want, travels anywhere and configures for nearly any situation.
Custom business cards made using rubber stamps and heavy mount board. Cost is roughly seven cents each.
These are the new gallery cards I made up for Nathan and I. I’m always trying new card designs, but I’ve been wanting something with a hand made impact that can be produced easily and on demand here in the studio.
They’re made using a heavy 4 ply white mount board and self inking rubber stamps that cost about twenty dollars each. Using our straight mat cutter board, we cut slices about 3.5in x 1.5in from the 32×40 sheets of board that cost less than ten dollars each. The cards are them stamped, our names on the front in brown with lots of open space. The back is stamped with the studio details in black.
The neat thing is we can make thee on demand. They’re beautifully thick and we can change the look at any time with a fresh stamp. Making it far less expensive than order small batches of custom cards of this weight. They’re minimal, but based on the board price and the cost of the stamps, these cards come out costing about .07 each if the stamps are only used for about 1000 cards before being updated. They can be re-inked of course and be used for far larger quantities. Of coarse there’s some labor involved, but they don’t take long and it’s part of the fun.
Just one of the many ways to produce hand worked a card with a bit of impact. So far I’m enjoying them… Gav
The profile interface on 500px.com. Really nice and clean.
See update to review below original article…
by Gavin Seim. So I’m pretty jaded to photo sharing sites. They all seem about the same. But 500px.com has caught my eye. I just setup a profile and here’s what it looks like… http://500px.com/gavinseim
500px is a photo sharing/portfolio/social network site all rolled into one. It’s not exactly the same as other photo sites, but it’s compelling. One, because it’s clean. The opposite of Flickr and many others. But the main feature to me was the rating system. People can like and dislike images and that controls how they rank on the site. Finally, a site that based recognition on how good your image is, rather than how many groups you add it to. Could there be problems with a rating system? Maybe, but it seems they’ve designed it pretty well, with vote effect varying by age of the image, how many previous votes etc. At least they have one.
Not that other similar sites are bad, but as a Flickr user I’ve become tired. It’s filled with clutter, never really improves, and the interaction is way down. FB is great for reaching out to the masses and having a presence, but in truth it’s pretty lousy for presenting art. 500px is a little like a portfolio and a ongoing photo competition all in one. The challenge is ON.
Now my main space is my own website, but social sites like this can be a great way to interact and gain new eyeballs. 500px even allows users to sell images, and make a nice website. Both are things I’d rather do on my site for now, but these are cool tools for someone looking to make a clean simple space on the web.
500px definitely looks interesting. I plan to take a break from Flickr for awhile and see what I think. There’s a free and a paid membership and even the free version seems fairly feature rich. Not that it’s perfect. 500px lacks a lot of the exploring features, maps and beyond that we may be used to on other sites. But bear in mind it’s a newer project. Hopefully they can keep the features rolling out and not mess it up while doing so.
Here’s an update on 500px, including the negatives I’ve discovered, as I’ve hung out on the site over the past week.
First, it’s the rating system that makes 500px look good. Just like any other photo site, there’s lots of poor quality photos being posted. You simply don’t see them because they don’t rank. Fair enough. It keeps to quality stuff on top which is a good things. The site is pretty much a ongoing photo contest where the prize, if you win, is a pat of the back from your peers. This can be very satisfying. Though it’s easy to get overly consumed with your latest scores and spend the day refreshing your page in anxious desire.
However! To filter up high to the top you need a LOT of likes. In principal the system is great, but there seems to be a ripple effect. It seems that someone who gets a high ranked photo or two (particularly early adopters) have gotten a lot of attention and a lot of followers. At that point they will tend to get more likes by simple nature of the fact that anything they post gets so many eyeballs right out of the gate. For the rest of users, it looks like most images will get a few views and then sit. Even if they’re really great.
Next is the comments. They feel good, but there’s very little critique. I get the sense that many comments are made in hopes of making a new connections. Not a terrible thing, and it happens everywhere. But it means comments are usually simple praise rather than thought out feedback. The other issue is the fear of negative comments. There’s a “dislike” button on images. This could be a good thing, but I’m not sure it’s needed and I think people may be refraining from constructive criticism, in fear that the receivers of such comments could dislike their own images in retaliation because they didn’t like what was said. It may be silly, but it will happen.
Also the site is filled with nudes. They tend to rank high (no surprise). Now I’m not saying they should not allow such content. Only that some users are uncomfortable with it. While those users can check a box to hide these images, they still show as image tiles that say NUDE CONTENT in glaring letters. Most the people that for whatever reason don’t want to see nudes, want them totally gone. 500px should be allowed simply be able to turn it completely off in their settings and not see anything related to it.
Lastly, the sad part is that no matter how much attention an image gets, it loses score. This seems like a real dower. The 1-100 Scores fade in time using an algorithm and that allows fresh images sift up (not sure how far down a score will go). In a way this algorithm makes sense. Problem is it’s frustrating to lose your rank for any reason and I think this will be a negative for everyone. You can have the top image on the site scored at 96, but soon it will drop and ranked with images that are just so so as if it never happened. This could be easily corrected by having each image marked with a banner of highest score achieved, sort of trophy that represented how well it did. But alas I see so such feature.
So that’s some thoughts after a bit of use. Not all bad, but not all good. I’ve tried tweeting a few suggestions to the folks at 500PX, but sadly they seem to ignore them. We’ll see going forward had they fare. 500px is cool, but I get the sense that the glow is going to fade quickly if they don’t find a way to keep people excited once they realize that their image is not likely to ever reach the top unless they have a large following.
We’ll see what happens. Don’t get me wrong, I still like 500px. But they have a short window. If they don’t listen to users and keep improving, they won’t get attention for long. Your thoughts are welcome on the comments… Gav
In case you’ve not yet noticed, there’s a new look in town. Yep, Seim Effects has been re-branded and it’s way past due. While the starry eyed text I initially used when I started all this had some memories, it was not well planned. I just made something up, having had no idea how successful all this would be.
In the end I settled on the simplicity that you see in my photography branding. No rocket ships or exploding pumpkins, because that not really me or what I do here. I got feedback from you along the way via the Facebook page and I thank you all for your input. So, why this look?
Well it’s based from the Century Gothic font which I love. I wanted a clean elegance that suggested creativity and flexability. Something that says this is not a game, but also says I love what I do. The “e” in Seim is actually used in all my Seim branded sites now, and I think it gives a feeling of openness and style. The line that leads to the “c” pays a little homage to the classic dodge tool and as you know, I’m a big burn and dodge fan in the digital realm.
Along with the new logo a few things have been jazzed up. The header was updated with a new look (that silhouette is actually a skyline near my studio). Fonts were worked a little, words spaced and paragraphs justified. I know, pretty nerdy stuff. But I’m a perfectionist and I’m super excited that Seim Effects is become a brand, not a project that looked as if it was planned over the weekend.
