Blogs with Balls Wrap-up and Highlights Video

I returned the beginning of this week from Blogs with Balls in Las Vegas. Visiting Vegas, even if it is for work, can be a risky place but I came back in one piece and not completely broke. (I fared better than my traveling companion Rob Baker, who came back with a case of H1N1. No joke. Although he is doing much better now.) The folks from HHR Media put on an excellent conference, that was well-attended and had some great panelists. I got the sense that for people in the sports blogging world, who are doing this as a business, this event was one not to be missed. Unfortunately as a mostly non-sports fan some of the names, faces, and discussions were lost on me, but it was clearly a successful event.

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Rob and I shot video and stills during the panels, which they will be distributing for people who could not attend the conference. We also did some shooting during the two parties on Thursday and Friday nights. One was sponsored by ESPN and was a premiere of a documentary as part of their “30 for 30″ series. The second night, which was definitely the highlight of the trip for me, was the Blogs with Balls Charity Poker Shootout. This event was sponsored by Carbon Poker and put together by Dan Levy from On the DL Podcast. The event was to raise money for Ante Up for Africa, a charity started by poker pro Annie Duke and actor Don Cheadle. Playing for charity is great, but playing at the stunning Hard Rock Casino with 99 other players, including a dozen poker pros was A BLAST! I surprised myself by making it to the final table, getting knocked out in 8th place. Not too shabby, if I do say so. And I did this while jumping up to shoot interviews and b-roll, in between hands.

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Me and poker pro Annie Duke

All in all it was a great trip. Technically everything worked out quite well. I shot a little bit with my new Canon 7D, but mostly it was used for stills. I did take it out one night for fun and shot some very nice looking video in some very low-light situations. I may try to put together a little video of the extra stuff I shot. I mostly used my heavy, but maneagable EX-1 rigged out on my Zacuto shoulder mount system, with 2 wireless mic receivers, Zylight on-camera light, and battery for the light. It is kind of a monstrous system, but it is much easier to shoot handheld with, especially with extra lights, batteries and mics.

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