It seems to be quite an exciting time in photography at the moment. While half the world seems intent on discussing rumours about upcoming products from Canon, the rest are getting on with taking pictures and making some really cool stuff.

Keith Loutit is one such person. Keith is a Syndey based photographer who, according to his videos on Vimeo, has quite a penchant for playing with tilt-shift lenses and making timelapse videos. 

His video "Bathtub V" is one that really caught my eye. The title is great (you'll understand why when you watch it) and it shows just what can be done with a little thought and a good idea. It also shows how important sound is to an AV show. The music fits very well and provides a great backdrop to the visual action.

If you have a spare 15mins, then have a look though his Vimeo channel but if you're short of time, go straight to Bathtub V, his latest work.

Watch Bathtub V from Keith Loutit on Vimeo

Here's a little tip based on a rather irritating experience!

I took delivery of a cheap (£20) lavalier mic (that's a tie clip mic for those that aren't into their sound yet!) called an ATR-35s. OK, it may not be the best 'personal' mic in the world, but at that sort of cost, does it matter? No, in fact, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of sound it achieved recording direct into the EOS 5D Mark II, even with Auto Gain Control playing its tricks!

Anyway, this lavalier mic is on a looooong cable - like 3m or more. Again, this was a good thing becasue it allowed me to clip the mic to the subject and have the cable run away, back to the camera, and still hidden. 

Anyway, the problem came with the on-off switch. It's located on the side of a little battery compartment that you can clip to the belt of the subject. All was going well until the subject re-positioned the unit with the on-off switch and somehow knocked the switch off. Cue no sound recording for the next 5 or 6 clips and no knowledge by me as there are no audio level meters showing on the camera during recording. 

So how should you avoid it? Two steps: 1. Gaffer tape over the switch once set so it can't be knocked
2. Check the sound recording after every couple of clips to make sure all is still working properly. 

If at some stage we get the abilit to have headphones plugged into the side of the camera to monitor audio as it's being recorded, we'll be home free, but for now, it's a case of pay attention and make sure everything is right each time you get to record. 

Microsoft have announced the winners of the Future Pro Photographer competition, with the top prize going to Neil Losin from California for a great picture entitled Twighlight Flight.

 You can see a gallery of the winning images from each of the categories on the microsoft site, though personally I prefer the Sports and Photojournalism category winner by Thomas Simonetti over the awarded grand prize winner.

No disrespect to the 2009 winners, for they produced some great images, but I also prefer the selection of category winners from 2008 over the 2009 set.