Eyeonbend.com Adding High-Def Webcams Expanding View of City’s Life
A bird’s eye view of Bend’s eclectic physical and cultural landscape just got even wider with the announcement of new vantage points for cutting edge web cameras capturing the City’s daily life, and attracting viewers from all over the globe.
Since launching over four years ago, eyeonbend.com has utilized perches in the Old Mill District and atop one of downtown’s tallest buildings on Bond Street, to provide unique perspectives on the urban-environmental interface via Oregon’s only free public high-definition webcams.
And the pictorial panorama is expanding with the use of a revolutionary High Definition camera downtown and news of installations covering the Deschutes River and an additional cam on Wall Street complementing the original city center site and offering multiple views of downtown.
Since its inception eyeonbend has given north and south views of Downtown Bend and a superb view west of the Cascade Mountains. The second camera has shown an east view over the Old Mill District and Pilot Butte, together providing a “look out your window” view of the activities and weather around Bend. Viewers can watch the sunrise or sunset; check the weather or road conditions, view downtown and Old Mill district events live.
The venture is the initiative of local information technology consultant Michael Kellogg, who hit on the idea after monitoring the progress of Central Oregon construction projects for out-of-town clients utilizing time lapse photography.
As a spin-off idea he switched gears to capture a sequence of wider horizon and Cascade Mountain Range images and the end result was a rich cinematic-style product.
Regional television viewers may already be familiar with eyeonbend’s take on Bend as its iconic views serve as a backdrop for local News Channel 21’s news and weather alert segments on NBC and Fox daily, with time lapse techniques giving a vivid representation of patterns.
Visitors to eyeonbend.com can also choose to view live depictions of Bend, see the latest full day exposures, from sunrise to sunset – with photos snapped every 30 seconds – or view captivating highlights from the last few days.
The site is also accessible via smartphone, and includes a link to archives of pictures and videos illustrating “Bend in a Day” backed by mostly original acoustic soundtracks provided by Kellogg, who is also an accomplished musician. The cameras record from the early hours to midnight, seven days a week and stream live every day of the year.
“We are providing something that no one else is offering right now in not only archiving daily patterns to tell the weather story in Bend, but also giving a look into the secret life of the city itself 24 hours a day,” said Kellogg.
“The view from above the tallest building downtown gives us and our viewers a unique vantage point to see how nature and the city co-exist and people enjoy that we can capture the unfolding of some of the rich variety of attractions including festivals and sporting events staged in the central area.
“We are excited to be bringing an even wider perspective to the public with the additional webcams broadening the scope downtown and offering views of our treasured artery of the Deschutes River.
“We are seeing hits from people monitoring the happenings in Bend from all over the world, whether they are contemplating a visit, are former residents or just savoring the flavor of our special part of the environment.”
Kellogg added that eyeonbend has amassed archives featuring hundreds of videos and thousands of pictures that could be accessed by interested parties, including perhaps those who want a souvenir of a day that coincided with memorable experiences in and around the city.
The “Bend in a Day” videos capture the flow of the city’s life through changing shadows, patterns of moving traffic and pedestrians, the buffeting of winds on the landscape and the dance of clouds and rainfall. Time lapse techniques also offer a glimpse into the continual processes of snow and water evaporation as part of the reflection on the region’s dynamic weather patterns.
“We are using remote controlled cameras that broadcast a live video stream over the internet to multiple viewers at the same time and take still pictures to be assembled into movies later,” said Kellogg.
“The cameras can move through a full panorama of 360 degrees and are able to capture low light events like the moon setting over the Cascades and views of the busy streets after dark.
“Eyeonbend features new time lapse videos daily. Each camera is set to take a picture every thirty seconds from sunrise to sunset.
“The cameras take over 4,000 still pictures a day and we use these pictures to make daily time lapse movies lasting about 90 seconds. These videos are extraordinary because time lapse photography reveals nature and the flow of the life in the city not seen any other way. You can also browse through photographs and watch feature videos of special events, rainbows, full moons, lunar eclipses and more, all set to music.
“Our vision is to create a utility where everyone can access live views of Bend 24 hrs a day; to expose the flow of life in Bend and feature nature’s otherwise invisible beauty.
“We also have the ability to document and archive Bend in daily time-lapse videos and to help promote Bend as a town of opportunities, resources and possibilities, and we strive to build on eyeonbend.com’s vision as an informative center regarding events in Bend and in providing live coverage of daily happenings downtown and beyond.”
541-410-6955, eyeonbend@gmail.com, eyeonbend.com.
