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Slow motion aerial birds eye view of fireworks exploding

Mark Frauenfelder at 1:36 pm Mon, Jul 2, 2012

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[Video Link] Jeremiah says: "This is a video I shot using giant helium balloons, a GoPro, and a bunch of fireworks."

Fireworks rig

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

    Up Next: A bird’s-eye view of a brush fire!

    But seriously, that’s a great concept well executed.

  • Stonewalker

    I seriously love this video.

    Also, the firework’s screams remind me of Super Metroid… ah…. :)

  • EggyToast

    I love the video, but it also seems to work as proof that fireworks are more impressive when viewed from the ground.

    • jimh

      And at night, generally.

      • EH

        And from a stable vantage point.

  • Antinous / Moderator

    I once flew from Boston to San Francisco on the Fourth of July, timed just right to watch fireworks displays all across the country.

    • phlavor

      If it was on purpose, that’s pretty bad ass.

    • Finnagain

       Seeing huge thunderstorms from above is pretty cool too!

      • Antinous / Moderator

        Some of the fireworks displays were under cloud cover, so yeah, technicolor hailstorm.

  • styrofoam

    As I clicked it, I thought, “Cool!” and then thought, “Wait a second.  Aren’t fireworks generally going to explode in 3 dimensions?  So a top view should look a lot like a bottom view and a lot like a side view? 

    Maybe different for those odd fireworks that add dimensional halos or orbits.

    Glad to see I was mostly right.

  • http://twitter.com/TheRedMonk01 Red Monk

    All fun and games until you blow up your balloons with a rocket.

    • Tim Drage

      I would have thought that both fun and games can DEFINITELY continue into the ‘balloons destroyed by exploding rockets” phase.

  • stumo

    Am I the only person that noticed a dog running around on the ground, often towards the fireworks just after they went off (and, with the final firework, just before a second was about to go off)? Made me very uncomfortable 

    • Tim Drage

      No just you. Thanks for that, I was starting to worry that nobody would be able to concern-troll this boingboing post.

      • http://twitter.com/jeremiahjw Jeremiah Warren

        I see what you’re saying, but the dog was fine. It did give me a scare during the filming, we kept him away after that. The fireworks were on an elevated platform so he was ok. 

      • Sparg

         A slight bit of indirect concern-trollage in the first post about brush fires.

    • http://twitter.com/jeremiahjw Jeremiah Warren

      The dog was fine, but it did give me a scare during the filming, we kept him away after that. The fireworks were on an elevated platform so he was ok. 

  • Finnagain

     That’s what I was hoping for!

  • Vian Lawson

    The doppler effect as the rockets whizzed past the camera was also extremely cool.  

  • http://twitter.com/sirkowski Sirkowski

    Slow motion?

  • zuben

    Surely there must be a better way to persuade balloon boy to come back to Earth.

  • Henry Pootel

    Oh yea, money shot there!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ray-Perkins/1314630060 Ray Perkins

    Apparently YouTube has the ability to  apply image stabilization to uploaded videos. Anyone know how to invoke it?

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ray-Perkins/1314630060 Ray Perkins

       Never mind – it’s an editing option the uploader can use. Pretty cool. Maybe Jeremiah can give it a try.

      • http://twitter.com/jeremiahjw Jeremiah Warren

        I thought of stabilizing it before uploading, but the video wasn’t really at a high enough resolution to do so. 

        • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ray-Perkins/1314630060 Ray Perkins

           You can stabilize a copy after uploading. Here’s a quick example (watch the timestamp bounce around): http://www.youtube.com/watch?edit=vd&v=6QG981CLZbo (before: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdsb9AzlVsc&feature=relmfu )

  • MarcVader

    Now just imagine what this is like for actual birds in flight at night. Worse than flak probably.