Though many of you may have heard of or even seen a Rube Goldberg machine, you may not be familiar with the term. Ever seen one of those videos that starts out with a line of dominoes falling that hits a ball which in turn triggers a fan which then makes a hammer smash something? That is a Rube Goldberg machine. It’s a long series objects in motion that usually ends up performing a simple task, but in a much cooler way. Here is a very complex RG machine that takes a portrait(two in fact) using a huge collection of photography gear:
Though many photographers, myself included, may not be saying things like, “Cool” or “Wow” but something closer to, “Oh my god, I hope that wasn’t a real lens!” and, “Catch that light stand! Noooo!” there’s no doubt that these clever photographers went through a lot of work to perfect such an elaborate machine. A lot of the gear is used for product placement purposes, but it is all used in a very clever way.
You can tell that this clearly started out as more of a creative endeavor than an advertising campaign. If the RB machine alone wasn’t amazing enough, watch the video again and take a look at the background. Quite elaborate indeed.
CF cards stacked like dominoes to start the Rube Goldberg
And for those of you who still can’t get over the lens being smashed by a hammer, just thank Ansel Adams it wasn’t the tilt-shift.
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I don’t really understand the Ansel Adams reference… anyone, pretty please?
was that a real xray scanner in that ipad scanning the bags?
cool video guys hope to see more
Cheers,
TimR
That was really well done! Also, I counted two separate Optimus Primes. I approve.
Very nice. A lot of work and creativity!