One thing that’s become downright trendy these days is seeing the world from an animal’s point of view. A few months ago, I saw an art exhibit about animals that included the work of artist Sam Easterson and his “bird cams,” which gave a whole new meaning to the phrase “bird’s eye view.” Sam is interested in points-of-view from non-human beings. For his “bird cams,” he strapped tiny cameras to the heads of several species of bird. I saw the world from the point of view from an ostrich, a chicken, a duck, and some others. Apparently, Sam Easterson has also created an “octopus cam” and a “sheep cam,” as well as buffalo and alligator cams, and countless other animal cams. He has collected footage from over fifty different animals—even seemingly dangerous ones. The miniature cameras Sam uses are ones normally used for surveillance purposes. He then strips them of their plastic casings, leaving only a circuit board and lens. He hopes the videos will cause those who view them to better appreciate the natural world. [
Wonderful Shot dog camera by Takara Tomy– which is exactly what you suspect it is: a camera strapped to your pooch, so you can see from his or her point-of-view– is a 3.5 megapixel camera with 8 MB internal memory, a rechargeable battery, and timer that goes every 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 30, or 60 seconds, so that your dog can take pictures all day while out roaming. You can control the camera to take pictures using a remote control. Another option is setting the camera to take pictures at the interval you specify. It comes with a collar clip, and instructions in English.
Recently, Photojojo, a neat website that often features DIY photography projects, posted instructions for making a DIY doggie-cam—the poor man’s version of the Wonderful Shot dog camera.
All you need for this easy project is a Gorillapad and a digital camera. You screw your camera to the Gorillapad and bend the legs around your dog’s neck. You should adjust the settings on your digital camera, so it either takes continuous video footage, or is configured to capture images every minute. Voila! You now have your own homemade doggie-cam.
I’m not a dog owner, personally, but imagine that the dog-cams work just as well on cats, though I can’t imagine the footage being particularly exciting. Who knows, maybe I’m wrong, and Joseph turns out to be a better photographer than I am. “Cat-cam” does have a nice ring to it, though.
