Posts Tagged ‘DSLR’

Welcoming the AF-100

So I recently received my newest addition to my camera collection, the Panasonic AF-100.  There are countless sites and blogs that talk about this camera, so I will not go into lengthy details on what this camera does, etc.  Most of you that are reading this post probably know a fair bit about this camera already, but I just wanted to post some of my initial reactions to working with it.  My time with it has been a bit brief, do to a busy month involving staying home with my son for a week, and some other shoots out of town where the new camera was not the desired tool for the job.  That said, I’ve had a fair amount of time to play with it at home, and have taken it on a few jobs.  Next month I start some big projects where the AF will be the main camera, so I think pretty soon, I will know all the tricks for getting this camera to sing. Read more…

It’s small, it’s HD!

So back in April I wrote my recap of attending my first NAB conference.  I discussed how one of the items I was checking out to buy was a new HD field monitor.  I wanted something to work with my 7D (which I was starting to use more then) and my EX-1 (as well as any other camera going forward).  I was most interested in the existing Marshall 7″ offering, the prototype Marshall 5″ and the SmallHD DP-6.  I settled on the SmallHD and soon after returning from NAB, pre-ordered one.  The big selling point for me (other than image quality) was that the DP6 would have HDMI, Component AND HD-SDI inputs.  Neither of the Marshall monitors had that.  This meant it would work with any camera out there, which was a huge plus.  They “guaranteed” that we would have the monitor 75 days after purchase.  That was fine; I wasn’t in a huge rush. Read more…

Another 48 Hours

So here’s how it went down:

At 7pm Friday night, my buddy Keith texted me: “Sci-fi”.  I responded: “Ick”.  He wrote back: “I’m sorta thinking ick also”.

I was about to embark on my sixth effort in a 48 Hour Film Project and Keith had pulled Sci-fi as our genre.  I didn’t really want to make a Sci-fi film.  Neither did he.  We had the opportunity to throw it back and go for the “wild card” genre, but that could have been worse. Read more…

NAB Wrap-up

I just got back last night from my first trip to the NAB Show in Las Vegas, and after a good night’s sleep I am now beginning to feel human again.  It was a short trip, only there for 2 full days, but I sacrificed sleep in order to pack each day with as much stuff as possible, and my head is still spinning a little from everything I saw and everyone I met.  This trip also included what will hopefully be the first of many All-In Film Charity Poker Tournaments on Monday night.  It went great, and was well received.  I will go through my highlights of the whole trip for you all. Read more…

Beauty and Beautiful Cameras

This past week I had two shoots in NYC for Image Source.  I did my first shoot with them back in December and it was their first time using the Canon 5DMkII, but they were thrilled with what they got from it and liked the stuff I was shooting.  The client I worked with on that shoot (Lisa Curesky) passed my name on to other art directors at Image Source and photographers they work with, which landed me these gigs.  I went into these jobs pretty stoked as the content of these shoots (“beauty”) was different than what I am used to.  I have certainly shot a ton of people with the goal of making them look as good as possible, Read more…

Meeting of the Minds

Last weekend I did a second project with photographer Jack Hollingsworth.  We hit it off on the first job I did with him back in December, and seemed to have similar styles and way of working.  This time, Jack hired me to shoot a video to promote him as a photographer.  He really understands the power a video can have of giving potential clients a glimpse at his style and personality, which will ultimately help in getting him hired.  So Jack had a two-day photo shoot planned, doing several lifestyle and glamour photography with 10 different models, and my job was to shoot behind-the-scenes footage of him working. Read more…

A New Year

Well it’s a brand new year, new decade, and a good time to reflect on the past year and come up with goals for the next one.  I had the good fortune of spending New Years with my wife and some other folks in sunny Jamaica, on a work/pleasure trip.  A friend of mine is developing some property in Jamaica into a resort/tourist attraction and he hired me to come down and do some video and photos of the progress.  I went down 2 years ago, when he was just starting out, to do a video, and he wanted to update people on the progress.  It was not a lot of work, and frankly spending some time (especially in the winter) in 85 degree weather was a treat. Read more…

The Stock Market

The other week I got to take part in a fun shoot on a type of project I had never really done before.  And, this was the first job I had gotten through Twitter!  (For those who think that Twitter is just about finding out what someone had for lunch, it’s not.  I use it pretty much solely to get tips and ideas from industry people.)  A guy I follow posted that photographer Jack Hollingsworth (@photojack) was looking for 5D/7D video shooters in the Boston area.  I got in touch with Jack, and he checked out my stuff and I got the gig. The job was for Image Source, a stock photo/footage company based in London that has started to release a new line of products that they call “cross-media”. Read more…

Romeo Files – Second Shoot…with video!

Last weekend, the weather cooperated and we got in our second (and final) day of shooting for the Our Spirit series, “The Romeo Files”.  I had hoped to get this post out sooner, but Thanksgiving and family stuff got in the way.  The second shoot day was long and somewhat rushed as we were unable to shoot any exteriors on the first day due to rain.  Seeing that over 60% of the script called for exteriors, and that mid-November daylight is pretty short, we had a lot to get done, but despite getting behind schedule on the first few scenes of the day, we caught up and finished just as the sun was setting. Read more…