I loaded up my car with more gear than I could possibly use (and could possibly fit into my Mazda) and headed to NYC.  The shoots were over two days, each with a different photographer, art director, studio and models.  Each day also had a different concept and look.  On the first day (working with David Goldman) the theme was a “Splash of Color”, where we wanted high-key glamour lighting with one dominant color in each shot, be it in the makeup or the props they used.  On this shoot we used the Canon and lit the models with three Kino Flos “wrapped” around their faces.  This gave us a very soft look.  On the second day (working with Christopher Robbins) our concept was “Metal”.  The makeup artist (the excellent Agata Helena) used shimmery, metallic makeup on the models and we lit for a more contrasty, dramatic look.  On this shoot we used the Sony.

On both shoots we had two setups, one for shooting stills and one for shooting video.  Since the photographers were lighting with strobes we couldn’t share our setups (and in fact we couldn’t shoot simultaneously as the strobes would mess up the video).  Being new to working with photographers I enjoy watching how they setup, and even though some of their tools are different I think there is a lot to be learned from how they light for stills.  (And I know they were both very interested in learning the video side of things so hopefully they picked up some tips and techniques from me too.)  On both days they were shooting with a Hasselblad medium format digital camera (I am not sure the model) but I understand this is a camera with a price tag in the range of tens of thousands of dollars, and man did the images coming off that thing look great.  Even on the raw images that were being displayed on the computer I had never seen anything quite so sharp.  Working in a seemingly resolution-stunted format (even shooting HD video) I was a bit jealous of the clarity they could get when enlarging these images.  Obviously the need for such a high resolution image on the motion side is somewhat limited, but still, I was a bit jealous.

Now on to my little camera comparison:

I have certainly been a huge fan of my EX-1 since I got it two years ago, but buying into the Canon DSLRs in the past six months has rekindled some of my passion for making images.  Still every time I shoot with my Sony (which, actually, is more often than my Canon) I am blown away by how crisp and detailed the pictures are.  So I was really looking forward to having these two shoots back to back as a little comparison.  The bottom line is that they both look great.  BUT, I found that working with the Sony was a lot easier on the second day for one major reason…. monitoring.  I have a nice Dell HD plasma with a Blackmagic HD-Link box to send the HD-SDI from the Sony into the DVI of the monitor.  This box also has hardware in it to calibrate this screen much like a more expensive production monitor.  This gives me EXCELLENT feedback on my color, exposure, etc.  It really feels like what you see is what you get.  Plus the LCD on the EX-1 itself, is both high resolution with great color rendition so even that alone is a great monitor.  The Dell also has an HDMI port so I had planned (since we were in a stationary, studio environment) to use the larger monitor with the Canon as well, but I find that the image I get on the Dell looks much more muted and less contrasty than what I “think” I am getting based off the Canon’s LCD (plus my experience with the camera).  So while it is fine for framing and focus it is harder to use it to adjust white balance or exposure.  David and I both decided that we would just use the small LCD on the back of the Canon, instead of the Dell (which unfortunately shuts off the camera’s LCD when plugged in….otherwise we’d use both).  Due to the lack of “proper” video camera features like color bars (for calibrating an external monitor) or histograms (for checking focus) I find that I can get the images close on the Canon, but that I need to do a bit more work in post to adjust the color and levels of the image than I would have to with the Sony.  In this case shooting against a flat white background, I found it harder to assess the exposure level on the background, and in post I ended up having to bring up the level considerably more than I thought.  (It’s possible these cameras are going to make me relearn how to use an external light meter…. an item fairly foreign to most video shooters.)

Regardless, once I tweaked the colors and levels a bit, I really love the images out of the Canon.  Are they better?  That’s certainly subjective.  The Sony is certainly a sharper, more detailed image, and it’s harder to get a shallower depth of field, but that said, with these subjects we didn’t necessarily want shallow focus (both photographers were shooting in the f11 to f16 range, after all).  I did really like the look of the Canon on the close-up shots, and the ability to put a long, macro lens (the 100mm) creates a look that I cannot achieve on the Sony.  But it’s very comforting to shoot where you know what you are getting based on what is on the screen.

But the images speak for themselves, and I think most will agree that they both look quite nice.  I cut together this 90-second video of selects from both shoots.  I think it’s pretty easy to distinguish the two cameras, but the Canon is the one on the brighter white background.  Enjoy!

Photo by Keegan Hobson

Photo by Brian Matiash

Now it’s time to geek out:

Certainly the highlight of this weekend shoot was meeting some other photographers as well as getting to use some AWESOME equipment.  Due to Jack’s popularity among the social media crowd (and his reputation as a photographer) he got several companies to donate gear for us to test out during the shoot.  Westcott Lighting sent us 4 TD5 Daylight softboxes for us to use.  Jack opted for these constant light sources (instead of the normal strobes) to aid in the video I was shooting so that we didn’t have flashes going on constantly.  These are great lights; they run cool (which was great for the models as we surrounded them pretty closely with the fixtures), and have a nice, soft output.  We did discover that the lower light output (compared with strobes) meant shooting at a slower shutter speed for stills, so Jack was stuck shooting on a tripod, but he liked the quality of light and found it much easier to get instant feedback on the way the light was falling (which is much harder to see as you adjust a strobe).  I may get one of these to compliment my Kino Flo as another daylight lamp, as it’s cheaper and more compact than the Kino.

The biggest drool factor came from the generous donation of lenses by Lens Pro To Go, a local company that rents and ships lenses and cameras all around the country.  The sent us some VERY nice Canon lenses including a 35 1.4, a second 24-105 (as Jack and I both like using this lens), and the MONSTER 200mm 2.0.  This behemoth of a lens has about a $5K price tag and is as beautiful as it is expensive.  The other photographers their made good use of this lens, and I strapped it on my 7D and Zacuto shoulder rig for a few minutes, but mostly as a joke.  It was a heavy, awkward setup and with the 7D’s cropped sensor this becomes the 35mm equivalent of a 320mm lens, so not entirely made for handheld, but shockingly with the image stabilization and the Zacuto shoulder support I was able to rip off some usable, stable shots.  But this only stayed on my camera for a few minutes.  On the second day, Paul, the owner of Lens Pro showed up with some more lenses (including some for the one of the few Nikon shooters there) and the new Canon 1DMk4.  I only tried it for a few minutes and didn’t have an opportunity to shoot any video with it, but it felt solid and very pro!  Between what Lens Pro gave us and Jack’s already HUGE collection of lenses, I was in heaven and probably used a dozen lenses over the course of the weekend (mostly for fun)!

Big Bertha... Photo by Chris Conti

Photo by Keegan Hobson

Photo by Chris Conti

Aside from the gear, it was great to get to meet and work with several other local photographers.  It’s funny how buying into these DSLRs as a video guy has gotten me thrown into the world of photographers, but I really love it (and have 2 more shoots doing motion stock footage with 2 photographers in NYC next week).  We are certainly more alike than different in our professions.  So without further ado, I want to shout out specifically to Chris Conti, Brian Matiash, and Keegan Hobson.  They are all very talented and all in about the same position as each other, just starting out professionally in the industry, and very passionate about their work.  It was quickly apparent that we all had different skill sets and we spent a lot of the weekend sharing tips and techniques.  I enjoyed being the lone motion photographer there and sharing that aspect of the business with everyone.  I also want to thank Jack’s friends and Cape photographers Michael Skeggs and Glen Bacci for their assistance.  It was equally as inspiring to watch Jack, a 30-year veteran in the business, who seems to have just as much drive as we do.

Photo by Brian Matiash

Photo by Brian Matiash

Photo by Brian Matiash

It was a great weekend, that felt more like a collaborative workshop than a job, and I know that we’ll all work together again soon.  I really encourage you all to check out all of these photographers websites (and their takes on this shoot in their blogs) and see what they are up to.  And check back as I post the outcome of this shoot in a few weeks.  I will leave you with some frame grabs from video I was shooting with the 7D.  Enjoy!

I have always been a little weary of whether I could even view 3-D properly.  You know those pictures that are supposed to pop out at you if you look at them the right way?  I have never achieved that effect, despite much time spent staring and concentrating.  Apparently my eyes (I think they call it binocular vision) just won’t produce that image.  And earlier 3-D technology was the same way for me, never really popping out the way people sitting next to me said it would.  But I knew that the technology had improved so I figured I’d check it out.

As far as I could tell the 3-D in Avatar DID work for me.  While I never felt that the characters were sitting in my lap or that I wanted to reach out to try to touch what I was seeing, I did see images emerging from the 2-D space.  I would say, though, that it took me about 10-15 minutes of the film to settle into “how” to view the film, and I felt myself getting a little headache at the beginning.  Long story short (as I don’t want to make this a review of Avatar), the 3-D was cool, but I left the theater feeling that it did not greatly enhance my viewing experience.  If felt a little gimmicky to me.

Now I don’t want to sound like some antiquated techno-phobe.  I am far from that.  I LOVE new technology in the video field, and I try to embrace and use new tools as early as possible.  I think, for the most part, advances in video imaging have really increased the viewing experience, as well as my enjoyment of producing these images.  I just feel that 3-D is one of those things that does NOT need to become the norm.  I know when HD came out, I looked at it as the holy grail, and a VERY expensive acquisition format, and now I have been producing at least 85% of my content in HD for the last few years, and shooting in some flavor of HD for about 5 years.  But I look at 3-D and hope this does not become as prevalent in the tv/movie world as HD.  Several tv networks are starting to build and roll out 3-D channels, and camera companies are starting to design 3-D rigs.  Panasonic has developed this 3-D camera at a relatively affordable $21K.

So why don’t I like this?  Well last night I turned on the Grammy Awards for a few minutes, just in time for the tribute to the late, great Michael Jackson.  Right before the song they said to put on your 3-D glasses, and a little icon reminder appeared in the lower corner.  Well, as it turns out, I don’t have a pair of 3-D glasses?  Do you?  So I sat and watched what I dubbed as “No-D” as a blurry Celine Dion and then many other famous singers came on the screen.  My nice HD plasma screen suddenly looked like crap.

Basically I don’t want to have to wear glasses to watch tv.  Many people already need some sort of corrective lenses, but they probably don’t want to have to put on additional glasses to view 3-D content.  Can they make 3-D TVs that don’t require glasses?  I don’t know.  But either way I am not sure I really need to feel THAT connected to my television.  I imagine some content would probably be neat in 3-D but I don’t think I need to feel like Al Roker is popping out of my television set.

While it would probably be interesting to shoot some 3-D footage for specific projects, I don’t think it needs to be the norm for all production.  I imagine the equipment and post-processing load would be greatly increased, and I have yet to experience all the merits of 3-D.  Will it become as ubiquitous as HD is now?  I don’t know, time will tell.

I would love to hear your comments though on this issue.

My wife Kate and I found out in late November that she was pregnant.  This was fantastic news.  It had actually taken us some time to get pregnant, so it was wonderful and surreal to get the positive test result.  We actually had started a blog last winter when we started trying to get pregnant.  We certainly hadn’t anticipated it taking as long as it did, but writing this blog was a nice way of sharing what we were going through and keeping us upbeat about the whole situation.  And we picked up a lot of readers experiencing similar trouble and it was nice to have that online community.

Anyways, so now with fatherhood in the forecast, it has made me think a lot about my life, my family and my work.  I know that I will always be passionate about the work that I do, but come early August, I certainly imagine that that little baby will trump everything else in my life.  At least I hope so.  Even in watching these my wife through these early stages of pregnancy I am really understanding what a miracle this is.

So how will it change my work?  I am not really sure yet.  Certainly I am hoping to cram as much work as possible into the year leading up to the birth so that I can take some time off once the baby comes.  But, like it or not, work will have to continue.  I look forward to figuring out the right balance of work and family, and I am sure it will shift, but that is one of the benefits of working for myself.  I have talked to other artistic people who have discussed how their work changed after having children.  They’ve said that it made them see things differently and the new experiences (and more importantly watching their children have new experiences DAILY) gave them a different vision to their work.  I imagine and hope that will be the case with me.

One thing I am sure of is that our child will get pretty comfortable very quickly with getting filmed or photographed.  I can certainly imagine that this baby will have a well-documented childhood.  Kate and I have already started to incorporate some video in our blog, including this video, which is probably one of the most emotional things I have ever shot (and at 6am mind you):

I am entering my fourth year of being freelance and am more excited than ever.  Last year, which started out a little slow, and gave me a lot of concerns given the economic “crisis”, turned out to be a great year.  I continued working for some old clients, and picked up a bunch of new ones.  I got to work on a couple different documentary projects, shot a few music videos, and short films.  I traveled a fair amount, taking over 25 flights, and god knows how many miles in a car.  I started using some new technology, shooting video on DSLRs, while still embracing more conventional video tech.  I embraced social media as a business tool and started using Twitter, through which I have made a lot of new friends and contacts, and even landed a couple jobs.  I started my new website (thanks to Rob Baker) and started blogging.  Professionally (and personally) it was a rewarding year.

I hope to continue this trend in 2010.  I am hoping to make some more time for some personal projects, and also cultivate new partnerships with writers and directors.  I would like to expand my work into some other avenues, maybe doing more commercials and tv projects, and further develop the documentary work that I have enjoyed so much.  I hope to collaborate as much as possible and really push each project to be the best it can be.

I want to thank all the clients, colleagues, friends and family that have supported me in my professional ventures.  I feel really blessed to have a job that I am so passionate about and working on projects that help to promote, raise awareness, entertain, or inspire.  Happy New Year!

I have written previously about packing for travel, and fortunately for this job, too, I could pack pretty light.  We were shooting a lot of b-roll with available light in the warehouses, and a few interviews, mostly on the warehouse floor.  I brought only 2 lights and a bounce card, which helped keep things more portable.  All told I had three bags to check (tripod, Kata case (with lights, cables, stands, etc), and a small bag with my clothes).  Unfortunately the airlines have a ridiculous pricing scheme for checked bags.  The first bag is $20, second is $30, and third is $125!  Ridiculous!  The client who I was traveling with only had one checked bag so we saved a bit by having him check my third bag.  But still, in this or similar industries, the costs for checking gear can sometimes surpass the ticket cost.

Our first shoot in Indy for DJO went off well.  I have done three of these case study videos for Kiva already so I am pretty comfortable now with all their lingo and the kind of footage we need so it makes it much easier.  We got to the airport for our flights to San Diego with plenty of time but our flight was already an hour delayed.  We had a short layover in Detroit before our second flight and I was already concerned that we might miss it.  Long story short, we were pulled from our flight because we WOULD miss the connection and found ourselves on a different airline with moments to spare.  So we got to San Diego that night, finally.  But no bags.  All I had was my camera (which I ALWAYS carry on) and some mics, batteries, etc.  No tripod.  No lights.  No clothes.  At this point it was about midnight and we had an early shoot at the DJO headquarters doing a couple interviews.  So, while en route to DJO the next morning we made a quick stop at Target to buy a cheapo tripod.  Something that could at least hold the camera (barely) for an interview.  And I decided to wing it for lighting, and we hoped to get lucky with a well lit space, or we could shoot outside or something.  As it turned out we got very lucky and DJO had their own photo department for shooting their product shots and the guy there had a small video lighting kit of some Dedolights.  And a nice Bogen tripod.  Total score.  That made things MUCH better.  Seeing as this was the second time I have had bags not show up for a shoot (and both times happened to be for Kiva) I am trying to figure out a kit that I can carry on with a small light and tripod with the camera but not sure I can do it if it’s just me.

That’s my rant on traveling.

The rest of the shoots went well and our other flights went off without a hitch.  I got to see Reno for the first time and got to play a little blackjack, so that worked out.  Kiva has been a fun company to work with.  They make an innovative product which is highly photogenic and dynamic so I always enjoy shooting their bots.  They also like to do some fun videos in addition to their product or client case study videos.  We shot this one a couple years ago for them to send to their clients around the holidays.  Earlier this year we made this video to show the basic idea that led to the creation of Kiva Systems.  Enjoy!

As I understand it, traditionally photographers who shoot stock photos or footage do it on their own and then try to sell it to a stock company (like Image Source, Getty, Corbis, or the hundreds of others out there).  I have sold some footage in the past to a stock company in this way.  Rarely does a stock company contract the photographer with a particular assignment as was the case here, but I believe since this cross-media product that Image Source is offering is so new, that is how they have obtained these stills and footage.

The Shoot:

The shoot consisted of two days shooting models around Chatham, MA (on Cape Cod).  I was the DP of the motion footage and Jack Hollingsworth was in charge of the stills and directing/producing the whole shoot.  Jack has been working for years in the stock photo market, so I really looked to his experience and eye throughout the whole production.  (By the way, Jack is an AMAZING photographer who has shot all over the world.  Watching him work was pretty inspiring, and his shots were really impressive.)  We were producing content for two themes.  The first day was “Friends” and the second day was “Couples”.

For the first day we had 4 women and we shot them hanging out, talking, walking, taking pictures, etc.  Now, I have to say, shooting this stuff felt a little silly at times.  I think the types of action that traditionally work for a still photograph can look a little cheesy as motion, but I also know (as did the client) that this is the type of stuff that sells in their collections.  We shot on a couple of beaches near Chatham and were very fortunate to have unseasonably warm weather for December in New England.  We had bright sun, which we had to diffuse quite a bit with a 4×4 diffusion frame so that we didn’t have overly contrasty shadows and squinty models.  We also went into the charming downtown area to shoot the women shopping, drinking coffee, etc.  The second beach we went to was at sunset and we shot until there was no more light, but I felt we got the best stuff there.  The setting sun created an amazing warm glow, and the dunes were an awesome backdrop for shooting.

The second day we had two sets of baby boomer couples.  The forecast called for rain all day, so Jack and I discussed what we could do inside.  We came up with a few setups in his very nice Cape-style home that we could do, but it was challenging as the lighting requirements for motion and for stills is quite different.  We lucked out again, as we ended up getting decent weather during the morning.  It was overcast, but at least we didn’t have to deal with hard shadows.  We took our couples to a nearby bike path and then a pond to shoot some different “scenes”.  By lunchtime the rain had started so we went to a local nursery to shoot the couples buying holiday plants.  The nursery was great because it was essentially like shooting in a giant softbox with frosted white windows surrounding us from all sides.

The Camera:

Image Source had previously used the RED One for all their motion stock in the cross-media collections.  This is obviously a great camera, but they were curious about the new Canon DSLRS to see if they could shoot faster and cheaper with a high enough quality for their collections.  While I had my 7D along, it was mostly used for behind-the-scenes shots and I used Jack’s 5DMk2.  Image Source knew a little less about the 7D, so they wanted to try first with the full-frame, higher megapixel 5D (although I think the quality would have been almost indistinguishable).  I was in camera heaven as Jack owns almost every Canon L-series (their highest end) lens in existence.  I spent the day before the shoot just trying them all out on my 7D and was in love.  During the shoot I actually only used 2 lenses, the Canon 24-70 2.8 and the 70-200 2.8 IS (which I used probably 75% of the time).  I definitely felt like I was able to shoot pretty quickly with the setup.  I had previously written about the limitations of these cameras, and the biggest was monitoring as the client just had to watch on playback and couldn’t use an external monitor, but we got by pretty well.  The client agreed that we were able to get a lot more shot than with the MUCH bigger RED package.

When playing back the footage on an HD monitor back at the studio, the client seemed very happy with how the footage looked, and we’ll see if it flies with the tech people at Image Source.  To my eye, the biggest issue with these DSLRs is the aliasing and moire pattern that can happen on some textures, but I think since most stock content is for web-use, some of the weaknesses are easily overlooked.

All in all, I really enjoyed working with Jack and Lisa (the client) and Brad Nielson (Jack’s assistant, and Photoshop-guru), and all the other folks who helped on the shoot.  It was really nice to work on just creating great, high-end looking images, and not have to worry about sound or acting or all the other things that I often have to think of.  I found that very refreshing.

I put together a few clips from the shoot so you can see how the Canon did.  All-in-all I am quite happy with the image, but you can be the judge.  Enjoy!

Our biggest challenge technically was the audio.  The farm we were shooting on was right next to a fairly busy road, and we had A LOT of street noise.  I pretty much knew this from scouting the location, but when it came to shooting time, it seemed worse.  I think in the end it will be fine, but it was definitely a pain, as we would try to do pickup lines in between road noise.  This doesn’t make for a great situation for the actors to really get INTO their scene or the director to necessarily know if he got a good take performance wise.  In this case, the location was so great visually, and since the production needed a donated location we were probably limited to this farm anyways, but it just reiterates the point to ALWAYS THINK OF AUDIO.  First and foremost, really.  Again, Dave Manahan did an excellent job, though, and I think we have plenty to work with and even if there is background street noise, the dialogue is clear.

I got an opportunity on this shoot to work with some new gear.  The 7D was still great to work with.  In my previous post I went through the pros and cons based on the first shoot and I think most of those still hold true.  One major difference between this camera and a “proper” video camera becomes apparent when working in daylight.  Every video camera I work with has built-in ND (Neutral Density) filters to help control the light entering the lens, but photo cameras do not.  This is not really an issue usually for photographers, since they can adjust the shutter speed in order to keep the aperture where they want it.  When shooting video though, you typically want the shutter speed in a certain place all the time (typically 1/48 of a second when shooting 24fps) as the change in shutter speed effects they way motion is rendered.  So when shooting in bright light or day exteriors you typically want to incorporate ND filters so that you do not have to stop down the lens aperture a ton.  I have a few square 4×4 NDs that I can use with my mattebox, but what I just bought and used on this shoot was the very cool Fader ND.  This screw-on round filter adjusts the amount of ND (from 2 to 8 stops) as you spin it.  I don’t know exactly how it works, although I assume it has some type of opposing polarizing filters, but it worked and it was great.  I could set up my shot and if I wanted to be at say F4, and there was too much light I could just turn the Fader ND until I achieved proper exposure.  Too little light and I could turn the filter the other way or take it off.  This saved a ton of time over swapping out square filters and was much more tunable.  I think this type of filter is a MUST BUY ITEM for video DSLR shooters who plan to shoot outdoors.

I also got to use my rented 70-200 f2.8 Canon lens.  This lens costs about $1300 and I may buy something in this zoom range but renting for $30 for the weekend (from Calumet Boston) might be the way to go if I don’t often call for this length.  It’s an impressive looking lens to say the least and adds a bunch of weight to the camera.  I only used it a few times so really did not get to put it through it’s paces but I did use it for what ended up being one of the harder shots to do.  It’s a shot that seems simple, but getting focus proved to be a challenge.  I wanted to do a shot of two of the actors walking together down a path.  I knew I wanted this to be a long lens, shallow focus shot and the shot needed to last about 25-30 seconds to cover some voice-over.  I had the aperture at f4 and was almost at 200mm.  My fabulous assistant camera Will Cavanagh set about 6 or 7 focus points on the follow focus to correspond to the actors’ position on the path.  It took us about 7 or 8 takes and I think 3 times we had to redo our focus marks to get the shot right as it was a challenge to time the focus pull perfectly.  It’s the kind of shot you see on TV or movies all the time and looks rather easy, but I assure you, it is not.

So I thought I would put together a little video of some shots for people interested in seeing how this little camera works for filmmaking.  I am not using the recorded audio here, but just some of the video with music.

I am heading into a busy week working for 4 days on Cape Cod shooting stock footage with photographer Jack Hollingsworth on the 7D and Canon 5DMk2.  A different type of project for me and I am looking forward to it, and will definitely blog about the experience.

Here is the video.  Enjoy!

We had a pretty slimmed down crew yesterday with just a director, DP (me), producer, assistant camera/gaffer, sound, and three PAs.  With our three cast members and our makeup person the entire film had 12 people on set which seemed to be just the right number.  Everybody seemed to have something to do and I rarely felt like we needed another hand.  (This size crew is sort of the norm for me on these types of projects and I often wonder what the purpose is of the seemingly bloated sets of much bigger productions.)

This was also the first real shoot I was doing with my 7D.  I’ve had it for about a month and spent a lot of time testing it out, but this was the first time it was on the front lines.  The verdict?  I think it’s great.  It’s not perfect, but no camera I’ve used is.

Here’s what I really liked about it:

-The size is great.  Even with rails, mattebox, and follow focus (my new RedRock follow focus arrived the day before the shoot, and it was pretty essential) the whole package is small and light.  If I wasn’t using this I would have used the EX-1 with the Letus Extreme which is so much bigger.  That certainly would have worked for this shoot but I just liked not having to lug around such a big rig.

-Filmmakers are picking up these DSLR video cameras because of the depth-of-field control, and I loved having that.  I was not going for ridiculous, razor thin DOF on this shoot, but I certainly had more control than I do with the EX-1 alone.  And I did not miss the finicky-ness of the Letus adapter which I would have used to get a shallower DOF.  I think the image is cleaner and I don’t need to worry about separate focusing elements, edge sharpness or ground glass patterning.

-This was a case where I loved that recording quality sound on the camera was not really even an option.  I had a great sound guy in Dave Manahan, and he recorded sound separately on his recorder.  I never had to be connected to him, which made things much easier.  Obviously if the camera had better sound options that WOULD be better, but I liked not even having to worry about it.

-I used one lens all day, the Canon 17-55 2.8.  I have always used primes with the Letus (and I have a Nikon/Canon adapter so I can use them) but this lens was all I needed for the interiors we were shooting.  I rented a Canon 70-200 2.8 for some of the exterior shots, but we didn’t get to use it today.

-The pictures look great.  Steve and Robert (the director and writer/producer) came over today and we went through it all.  It’s pretty amazing that these pictures are coming out of a camera that costs only $1700.

Here’s what I didn’t like so much:

-Monitoring is a pain.  I have a small component HD monitor and a larger HDMI/SDI monitor for the director/client that I use, but on this camera when you plug in one of the video outputs (HDMI or composite) you lose the picture on the built in LCD.  That means that I would have to view the monitor too, which logistically for this shoot was not going to work.  I needed to have my eyes on the camera, so while we tried that setup for the first shot, we just stuck with the camera alone, and the director would watch the LCD with me.  I have a Zacuto Z-finder which is great for helping to set my focus marks, but I did not use it too much so Steve could see the LCD too.  It worked fine, but it’s not ideal for every shoot and I am looking into some different monitoring options so I can send HDMI to a small on-camera monitor and my larger director’s monitor.

-Another note on monitoring: I am used to my EX-1 where I what I see on that LCD is pretty darn close to what I see when editing.  That is not entirely the case with the LCD on the Canon or even the through the HDMI output.  Fortunately a lot of my tests with the camera have helped me to get more confident with what I am seeing on the screen.

-While the picture is great, especially at this price-point there are some limitations to the codec.  Most of which will not be noticed by 99% of the viewers but there are some things that a user needs to know are triggers.  Plus I think the images from the camera need a little more tweaking in post.  While I sometimes grade the EX-1 footage to give it a different look, many times the footage straight from the camera is perfect on its own.

But all in all I was very happy with the cast, the crew, and shooting with a newer camera.  Here are some frame grabs from what we shot yesterday.  Enjoy!

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.

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.

But here is the first of several highlights videos that Rob and I put together for Blogs with Balls.  Enjoy!

I find packing for air travel to be somewhat of a pain.  Baggage costs are now astronomical, plus the logistics of transporting gear through the airports can be quite a hassle.  I tend to pack lighter than some other productions, typically with a smaller lighting kit then when I am shooting locally.  My goal is to check 2-3 bags and carry on the camera, laptop, and enough accessories that if that was all I had, I could shoot something.  Last year on a trip to Central Pennsylvania (flying to BWI) my large checked bag did not show up and I had no lights or tripod.  I was reduced to find a small camera shop and bought the best tripod they had (which was only $50 and ridiculously underequipped for a large camera), and fortunately could rely on available light for the warehouse I was filming in.  Basically I try to keep on my person whatever I need to get by in a pinch.  I also always look for rental houses in the area I am shooting (which sometimes does not exist in more remote places).

On this trip the only lighting I need is for run and gun interviews so I packed my Zylight Z90 LED light.  This is a very versatile little light that I can put on my camera or a stand and is really all I will need for this shoot.  I did bring an extra Sony EX-1 as we will be shooting some different things simultaneously and I also have my new Canon 7D, for it’s inaugural shoot.  I will mostly use the EX-1s this week as I need to run 2 wireless mics and an on camera light, but hope to get some creative B-roll with the 7D.  We may get out on the strip tonight to shoot some fun videos to show at some point during Blogs with Balls so I may use the 7D for that.

So I have my large rolly Kata case (the OC-97) with my tripod, several wired and wireless mics, the Zylight, my Zacuto shoulder mount system and other accessories.  I have 2 Kata backpacks (the HB-207…I love this bag) with the EX-1s, the Canon 7D and lenses, batteries, media cards, and a couple mics.  I sort of felt like a walking Kata advertisement, rolling through the airport this morning.  We checked in fairly easily with only a 70 dollar charge for our three checked bags (after shifting some stuff in the big bag to keep it under 50 pounds).  So all in all, it wasn’t a bad travel experience, but it helped to have Rob around to help out.
So on to Vegas and Blogs with Balls.  More to come in the next few days.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Last weekend I went out to watch a friend race in the Gran Prix of Gloucester cyclocross race. I decided to bring my EX-1 and film the event. Lots of bikes, colorful jerseys, some beers in the beer garden, all made for a great day of filming.

You can read more about filming the event on my blog.

Edited by Keith Wasserman
Music by Queen

As it turned out, cyclocross is a pretty perfect sporting event to film.  It was an all day event with different age groups and categories racing each hour, so there was plenty of time to get footage.  The racers did 4-6 laps of the course, so you could shoot in one part of the course for one lap and then move for the next one.  Plus the racers wear brightly colored clothes, and, well, bikes are just cool.  I had hoped to have my new Canon 7D in time for the race but it didn’t show up until a few days later, so I used my EX-1.  In hindsight, this was a much better choice anyway.  The zoom lens on the EX-1 covers a much bigger range than the lenses I have for the 7D (plus I’d have to switch lenses frequently).  I also think some of the focusing aids and overall functionality of the EX-1 as a proper video camera make more sense for shooting sports (at least this event).  Plus, I shot a lot of overcranked (slow motion) footage at the race, which CAN be done on the 7D, but it’s slightly less versatile and probably is a poorer image quality than the EX-1.  I shot a lot of the “real time” footage at a higher shutter speed than normal.  I would normally keep the shutter at 1/48 of a second when shooting 24p, but I like the look of fast sports with a faster shutter (generally around 1/250 of a second).  Some people poo-poo that look because of the staccato look but I like it.  You’ll see both shutter speeds and the effects they have represented throughout the video.

But it was a great day, the weather held out (although I was partly hoping for the downpour we had the previous day as that would have looked very cool), and I came back with a ton of good footage.  I went through about 90 minutes of footage that I shot and pulled out the selects (about 10 minutes worth).  Then I passed it off to my friend Keith, who is an editor, to cut it.  I really enjoy sometimes handing off my footage to other editors and it’s always interesting to see what they do differently than I would.  We worked together at coming up with a good soundtrack for the short video (thank you Freddie Mercury), and then he went to work.  I did some of the finishing color grade to the piece when he was done editing, just to make the look a little more punchy.

So check out the video we came up with and if you are shooter who enjoys filming sports, I highly recommend checking out a cyclocross event.  And I think I got the bug and may compete in one of these races next year!

So I went over, armed with my trusty Visa card, to buy my very own 7D.  This was really the first time I had even touched one (other than this past weekend when I nearly accosted a photographer at an event I was at who had one around her neck), and it felt very robust.  Much heavier (in a good way) than I expected; it felt very pro.  Unfortunately the lens I had ordered online was not expected to arrive until the end of the week, and I couldn’t stand the idea of going home without a lens (since I was buying the camera body only), so I looked through the selection at Newtonville, as there were a couple other lenses I had planned to purchase.  They had me try a fantastic wide-angle zoom, the Tokina 11-16mm 2.8.  It looked great, felt great, but I had not planned to buy that one (yet).  I was looking for a “normal” range prime lens and was deciding between the Canon 28mm 1.8 or the Sigma 30mm 1.4.  Well they did not have the Canon in stock.  I had read mostly favorable reviews about the Sigma and the Canon is a much older design, so I opted to go with what they had, so I could play at home.  So I left Newtonville with new camera, lens and a few spare batteries in tow, and a significantly lighter wallet.

Now here is what kills me…first is that I had purchased some Compact Flash cards with the lens I had ordered online, so I have nothing to shoot on until they arrive, and second is that I have three projects that I need to finish editing over the next week and have literally zero time to go out and shoot.  The camera spent all day sitting on my desk just staring at me, asking to be used.  I have certainly turned it on a bunch and put it into video mode and walked around the house, framing up nice shots of my dog, or my wife Kate cooking dinner, or my coffee cup on my desk.  And the stuff looks great, but I can’t even press record because I have no CF cards yet.  Sigh.

But soon, I will have what I need and my current projects will be done, and I can go out and use it, and then start putting it to work.  It is already very clear that this camera shines in low light compared with my beloved EX-1 (which for an HD video camera is quite sensitive in low light), and it has a very nice shallow depth of field due to the much larger sensor.  Will it become my “A” camera?  Probably not.  My EX-1 is certainly more versatile for many situations, and there are some drawbacks to shooting video with a DSLR like the 7D, but it has a very nice, filmic look that I think will work well for scripted or stylized shoots.  I am definitely going to take it to Blogs with Balls next week in Las Vegas, along with 2 EX-1s and put it to use.

Can you tell I am excited?