• Dynamite Doug, a podcast by Project Brazen and narrated by @ellewongster , takes a look at the looting of Cambodian cultural heritage by disgraced art dealer Douglas Latchford. Latchford facilitated the looting and sale of numerous Cambodian (and other Southeast Asian) artefacts which ended up in some of the most prestigious museums in the world, including The Met. Looking forward to the next episode!
There are a lot of news stories related to Douglas Latchford, the Pandora Papers, and cultural heritage looting on the website - link in description. #cambodia #looting #antiquitiestrade #dynamitedoug #podcast #archaeology #southeastasianarchaeology
  • It’s been a great week in Laos conducting a training workshop on rock art recording and other archaeological methods for the Department of History and Archaeology at the National University of Laos. The participants, both lecturers and students, were a great bunch to work with, and they picked up the principles really quickly. And as a bonus, we ended up finding more rock art than we originally expected! Looking forward to working with this bunch again in the future! #laos #nuol #fieldschool #xaingnabouli #paklai #rockart #archaeology #laoarchaeology #southeasgasianarchaeology
  • That’s a wrap for today! Learning how to systematically document a rock art site, from theory to practice. Some more data gathering tomorrow, and then putting all the information in the data after! #paklai #rockart #mekong #xayabouli #nuol #laosarchaeology #southeastasianarchaeology #laos
  • Last post of the year - looking back in the year that was archaeology in Southeast Asia in 2022. Check out the full post here: https://www.southeastasianarchaeology.com/2022/12/16/southeast-asian-archaeology-2022-year-in-review/

And see you in the new year! Best wishes to all for the holiday season!

#southeastasianarchaeology #southeastasianarchaeology2022 #recap
  • Last month I was at the Si Thep Historical Park in Phetchabun province - a less-known archaeological site, but an impressive one considering the ancient town has remnants dating from prehistoric times until the 13th century CE. Khao Klang Nok is a massive Buddhist stupa dating to the 8th or 9th centuries CE, located outside of the ancient town of Si Thep. I was able to get som cool shots from my drone, check out my post here: https://www.southeastasianarchaeology.com/2022/12/15/drone-flight-over-khao-klang-nok-si-thep-historical-park/

#khaoklangnok #sithephistoricalpark #phetchabun #drone #dronestagram #dvaravati #khmer #thaiarchaeology #southeastasianarchaeology #southeastasia #อุทยานประวัติศาสตร์ศรีเทพ #เพชรบูรณ์ #archaeology
  • Extended edit from Khao Klang Nok in Si Thep Historical Park, very grateful for the permission to take some shots for the @seameospafa post-#ippa2022 excursion.
  • Ending the second day of the @seameospafa #ippa2022 post-conference excursion on a high note - literally. Khao Klang Nok at the Si Thep Historical Park #southeastasianarchaeology #sithephistoricalpark #khaoklangnok
  • Terracotta elephant statue from the pre-Thang Long period, approximately 8-10th century. On display at the museum under the National Assembly Building in Hanoi. #vietnamarchaeology #southeastasianarchaeology #vietnam #hanoi #thanglong #terracotta #elephant #ceramics #ancientart
  • Earlier this week there was a news article about a Thai archaeologist’s attempt to repatriate a statue that was reportedly looted from Buriram province and now on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
https://www.southeastasianarchaeology.com/2022/07/08/thai-archaeologist-on-mission-to-reclaim-ancient-khmer-sculpture-from-us/

This is the so-called Golden Boy, taken at the Met last December. The label calls it a Standing Shiva(?) and attributes it to the Cambodia, Siem Reap origin but it may be in fact a representation of Jayavarman Vi. You can see the museum info here: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/39097?ft=khmer&offset=0&rpp=40&pos=3

#khmer #sculpture #looting #antiquitiestrade #themet #metropolitanmuseumofart #khmerarchaeology #thaiarchaeology #southeastasianarchaeology #southeastasia #museums #repatriation #angkor #cambodia #thailand #buriram
  • What’s in your field kit? Here’s what’s in mine: https://www.southeastasianarchaeology.com/2022/07/04/whats-in-my-archaeology-field-kit-june-2022/ #fieldwork #fieldgear #camera #drone #archaeology #photography #videography
Thursday, March 23, 2023
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Home » Featured » Pole photography for archaeology – Part 3: Parts List

Pole photography for archaeology – Part 3: Parts List

25 November 2009
in Featured, Personal
Tags: aerial archaeologygeneral archaeologymaps and mappingNotes from the Fieldphotography
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You’ve seen the polecam in action in the last post, in this post we’ll take a closer look at the polecam rig, the parts I used and the factors I considered for each part. Hopefully this information will be useful if you need some ideas about how to make a pole camera setup.



1. A Pole
Well, you can’t do pole photography without a pole! The pole I used was a telescopic fibreglass pole by Hastings. The pole extends to 30′, and has a collapsed length of 66″. The pole weighs about 11lbs (5kg) which is not too unmanageable, especially if you attach a strap to the body and haul it over your shoulder. I even managed to carry it onto a city bus and also in to a Perodua Kancil, one of the smallest cars in Malaysia. The individual sections of the pole has little pegs that lock in place, which was one of the main reasons I got it, but on hindsight that might not have been such a good thing (you’ll see why in my next post). The other appeal for the Hastings Hotstick was the customisable heads that can turn at 30-degree angles. This allows me to tilt the camera 90 degrees to take portrait shots, as well as angle the heads to take the overhead aerial shots. The other poles I considered was the wonderpole (no head), this telescopic antenna mast (too long when collapsed), an a giant Manfrotto tripod (at 24′ it was too short for my requirements, a little heavy at 24lbs, but it had a built in tripod which would have been really useful).

2. Camera
The other important component of the polecam of course is the camera – in this case, a Canon G11. The G11 is a prosumer compact camera that has many of the functions of a DSLR. What I was really looking for was the ability to shoot in raw (as in raw data recorded by the camera’s sensor, opposed to the JPEGs that are pre-compressed). I also appreciated greatly this model’s articulating LCD screen which in some cases stood in for an external video monitor. The movable screen was really handy especially because it was hard to move the entire camera when it was being tethered to the end of a 6-foot pole. The downside of this camera for me was the not-wide-enough angle of the lens; compared to other cameras of its class, it was relatively more heavy (13 ounces). Other cameras you might want to consider using for your polecam is the Lumix LX3 by Panasonic, which is about half the weight and apparently a favourite among pole aerial photographers, or the Pentax Optio which has the advantage of being both light and waterproof, and also the Nikon Coolpix P6000, that at 28mm is even less wide than the G11, but has the advantage of inbuilt GPS.

The camera was attached to the pole in two parts – first, I used the GPS antenna attachment for the hastings pole, which had a 5/8″ head. I the connected this attachment to the camera using this 5/8″ to 1/4″ adapter.

3. Wireless Remote
The wireless remote was a little more tricky, because the usual infra-red remotes only have a range of five metres or 15′. For a period I was toying around with the idea of a really long USB cable, but the maximum effective distance a cable can carry a signal is also about 5 metres. Fortunately, there are quite a few third-party radio-frequency wireless remotes out there, with far longer ranges than the IR ones. This remote that I used has a range of 80m – more than adequate for my 10m requirement – and can be attached to the camera’s hotshoe or another 1/4″ screw thread.

4. Video monitor
I guess the video camera and monitor is strictly optional – if you didn’t mind adjusting the camera, raising the pole, shooting, collapsing and rechecking the shot every time. I think given enough practice, it would be possible to use the pole without a visual aid. I didn’t have this luxury, so I found a baby monitor and wireless camera from an electronics store. The camera was about the size of my finger and had a narrower frame of view than the camera; so if I could see it on the monitor, I could definitely capture it on the camera. There were still a couple of drawbacks with this system; if I used the camera zoom, the accuracy of the video feed was less effective so the video cam was only good for the wide shots. The second drawback – a major one – was the battery life of the camera itself – it only lasted half an hour! With that amount of time, you might be able to get one or two different locations, maybe three if you’re experienced. I might consider powering the camera directly with batteries, but this would add extra weight onto the rig, which would make it harder to control at the higher elevations.

5. Fasteners
Finally, the glue that holds everything together – or making sure that your thousand-dollar investment doesn’t fall off and shatter to pieces! I used a number of small gadgets to fasten the entire rig to the main pole, all of which I got from the hardware store. You probably would have noticed that the video camera was attached to the main camera using nothing but blu-tack and rubber bands. I was quite surprised that it held as well as it did, but it was pretty steady throughout the whole field test. Because the hotshoe space was used up by the video camera, the receiver for the wireless remote was attached to the side of the pole using a small gorillapod and then wired to the camera. Finally, the wire and the camera strap were fastened onto the pole using a ring clamp. The ring clamp acted as an insurance policy just in case the 5/8″-1/4″ adapter ever got dislodged. In reality, nothing in the rig ever came apart during the field test, although the adapter had to be tightened every now and then.

And that’s how I assembled my polecam. In the next post, the last of the series, I end off with some evaluative notes about the operation of the polecam, how it measured up against my requirements and show off my bleeding fingers. =D

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Comments 5

  1. Ann says:
    13 years ago

    LMAO on the Gorillapod. This is the best use of it I’ve seen up to now! Good solution with the babycam though, will suggest that to my kite-flying friend.

    Ann

  2. Andrew says:
    13 years ago

    Very Nice. I do a fair amount of clambering up tree’s to get aerial shots.

    I could save a lot of twig bashing using that device.

    What was the total cost (exclusive of the digicam)

  3. noelbynature says:
    13 years ago

    Thanks. I have a cost breakdown in my fourth and final post, coming up in about an hour’s time!

  4. noelbynature says:
    13 years ago

    Thanks Jonah! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you too!

  5. Jim says:
    13 years ago

    Hey,

    Just ran across this and thought folks may be interested in this:

    http://lightroomers.com/the-polester/871/

    Good luck above and beyond!

    Jim

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