Eric Cheng » photographer, technologist, author, musician, father

Large silicone headset hanger for safe, under-desk mounting

The Neetto silicone headphone hanger is the only mountable headphone hanger I've found to be large and soft enough to hold headphones without leaving compression marks. Here is a 3D-printed adapter that will let you use this mount under your desk.

Comet NEOWISE over San Francisco, July 12, 2020

A random thought on Facebook led to 60+ productive comments from other photographers, resulting in a 3:15am journey to San Francisco to set up for a shot of Comet NEOWISE, which was ostensibly to be positioned just over the Bay Bridge.

Glacier in Alaska, 2007

It’s time to start using Amazon Glacier Deep Archive for backups

Let’s talk data storage and cloud backups. It’s time: I’ve started uploading backups to Amazon Glacier Deep Archive, which is about $1/TB-month. My data is categorized as “warm” and “frozen”. “Warm” data is active: it is kept on my workstation or on my primary NAS, and is backed-up to a second local NAS as frequent, ...

Underwater Filmmaking Legends: Howard / Michelle Hall, Marty Snyderman (VR180)

Relax for a minute with 3D-180 vignettes from Torres Del Paine National Park in Chile (Patagonia), and of ancient redwood trees in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, Northern California, including footage from the Grove of Titans.

“Take a Breath” VR180 Scenics: Patagonia and California Redwoods

Relax for a minute with 3D-180 vignettes from Torres Del Paine National Park in Chile (Patagonia), and of ancient redwood trees in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, Northern California, including footage from the Grove of Titans.

Underwater Philippines: RED Hydrogen One / Gates Underwater Housing

The RED Hydrogen One smartphone is too novel for its own good, but I was able to use it to take some casual 3D (stereoscopic) underwater pictures by putting it in a Gates Underwater Housing, and lighting scenes with a pair of Gates GT14 lights.

Steel Wool Spinning in 3D-180 (VR)

Arcs of Fire (Steel Wool Spinning in VR 3D-180)

I have been imagining for years what it would be like to create a moving version of the striking still photographs of steel wool spinning, which are almost all long exposures of 10 seconds or more.

Underwater Apo Island, Philippines, in VR 3D-180

I spent 2 weeks in December at Atlantis Dive Resorts & Liveaboards in Dumaguete celebrating the 70th birthdays of Marty Snyderman and Howard Hall Productions. Instead of shooting a normal underwater cameras, I brought a prototype stereoscopic underwater rig comprised of two Z CAM E2 cameras, iZugar MKX200 lenses, a custom housing by Blue Ring Imaging, and two Gates Underwater Products GT14 lights.

Facebook Wall, archive shot from December 2011

A 470-megapixel version of the Facebook Wall in 2011

In December of 2011, I went to the abandoned Facebook headquarters at 1601 S California Ave in Palo Alto, California. A guard let me in, and I set up a tripod in front of the famous wall just inside the entrance...