tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41388475858527097742012-02-05T07:18:25.251-08:00.Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.comBlogger1691100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-65520483285587489392012-02-05T07:18:00.000-08:002012-02-05T07:18:25.260-08:00

Just some production pics from a sci-fi film we're shooting on the Red Epic this weekend.

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-37110263229497262432012-01-28T07:15:00.000-08:002012-01-28T07:15:14.830-08:00

To my dearest Canon, Since you have neglected to produce an updated 5D for video and instead created a very expensive video camera, I would like to humbly request a few minor updates to my beloved 5D mark II's firmware. Provide a mode where we can crop into the center of the sensor and decimate the pixels by two (3820x2160) so I can avoid the line skipping/moire problems I always get on every

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-64153445465051781442012-01-25T20:56:00.000-08:002012-01-25T20:56:50.170-08:00

I'm knee deep in production this week so this is going to be a short post on some resources that recently became available for color correction and grading. First off, Shane Hurlbut's blog has a guest entry from Vashi Nedomansky discussing the very basics of color correcting and grading footage.  Excellent beginner read.  It made me think about a thing or two again. Also, Blackmagic Design just

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-33345527876188185132012-01-15T13:16:00.000-08:002012-01-15T20:15:27.016-08:00

Over the holiday break Hope called me up and wanted to do another photo session with her fierce posse.  The first assignment... ?  Band photos.  What immediately popped into my head was the well known and maligned band-against-a-brick-wall photo.  Check out the hall of shame at this link.  I declined to join their club.  Hope described the shoot as if the ladies were going on a comedy tour and

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-63724384717009052052012-01-07T13:41:00.000-08:002012-01-07T13:41:29.891-08:00

If it wasn't obvious from the Pike Place Market post last week, I spent Christmas at home in the Seattle area.  Now that I'm sitting here listening to Blind Willie McTell, a CD (yes, they still exist) I received as a Christmas present, it's time to pull out the holiday photos.  The picture below represents one of the more unexpected gifts I received this year.  Anyone familiar with the move "A

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-79378684619875166252012-01-02T15:20:00.000-08:002012-01-02T19:12:04.407-08:00

This last winter I had a chance to work on a feature film called "Neshima" about ancient warriors in a battle over a treasure. I only worked on about one-quarter of the film, so even I don't know the whole story.  My adventures with the cast and crew can be read about here and here. Neshima is very ambitiously being done on a shoe string budget with deferred compensation for most people

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-11831988743953626162011-12-31T11:09:00.000-08:002011-12-31T11:09:22.666-08:00

I think the photo above represents how most out-of-towners think about Seattle.  Yes, it does rain often but in volume New York City (43 inches/year) gets more rain than Seattle (38 inches/year).  In fact, Seattle is ranked 44th among major US cities for annual rainfall.  If you think Pacific Northwesterners sit inside all winter next to a daylight mood lamp hoping for the sun to return... well,

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-21227238700728857732011-12-28T17:37:00.000-08:002012-01-02T19:13:02.599-08:00

I'm on a self proclaimed photo hiatus at the moment, mostly due to the holidays.  So I wanted to throw some street photography type pics up on the blog from hanging out with Hope, JJ, Shealyn, and Acasia on the eve of Christmas eve. First off... JJ emulating the wine drinking nightlife, even though this was 4:30 in the afternoon. This image brought me way back to junior high, but it's probably

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-29910089056786541692011-12-22T20:43:00.000-08:002011-12-22T20:45:13.286-08:00

Before anyone gets the wrong idea, this blog post does not feature any bikini photos of Lara Flynn Boyle on the beach.  We're going green with tree power!  Quick question:  What do you do when your DP comes to you and says we have to figure out how to fly a $65,000 camera down a zip line without a safety net?  Keep in mind that all we have is the budget for a couple ropes and climbing hooks.  My

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-22216349920300137402011-12-14T21:52:00.000-08:002011-12-15T13:45:53.048-08:00

I keep wanting to come up with another word for this 4 day shoot other than "epic," mostly because we shot on the Red Epic and it seems like there's going to be a bad pun slipping through somewhere throughout this post.  I'll attempt to tread lightly, but no guarantees.  I haven't been watching Carrot Top videos... swear. The RV shown in my previous post showed up at my house around 9pm on

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-35856551345321993332011-12-08T20:54:00.000-08:002011-12-08T21:07:39.393-08:00

The desert seems like a good place to blatantly rip off Jim Morrison for this blog title, however this blog post should be slightly less hallucinogenic than The Doors infamous drug fueled romps through the desert.  Quite pathetically, this blog post is rated G by the motion picture photographer, namely me. I spend last weekend on a trek through the Anza-Borrego Desert during a 4-day film shoot.

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-5324295765693762632011-11-26T15:58:00.000-08:002011-11-26T16:01:04.888-08:00

Just a quickie this week.  What seems like a long time ago (two months) I worked with Brett and Jed Winn, collectively known as the Winn Brothers, on a skateboard ad for Flexdex.  The Winn brothers run a production company called Titan Arts.  We filmed it on the boardwalk at Mission Beach and I was sure we were going to get shut down without a permit.  Sure enough, half way through the shoot the

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0Northern San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA32.78866846230929 -117.2098859746093932.67688796230929 -117.27463747460939 32.90044896230929 -117.14513447460939tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-70113375523126999782011-11-19T18:49:00.000-08:002011-11-19T19:23:36.140-08:00

I spent last weekend with my favorite red head, Hope, and her partner in crime, JJ.  Clarence and I drove up to Holly-weird for Hope's art direction of a commercial catalog shoot.  Her instructions for inspiration included American Apparel, A&F, and JCPenney.  I never, ever, ever, expected to be told that I should be inspired by the advertising work of JCPenney, never mind A&F's teenage semi-pr0n

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-49298605851432752932011-11-12T21:16:00.000-08:002011-11-12T21:16:25.473-08:00

Clarence came over last weekend and showed me some of the photos he's been retouching lately with the Photoshop Elements Sketch effect.  I told him, "I bet I could do that in After Effects," and the challenge was on.  This is the type of nerd-gasm challenge I like to take on every once in a while.  Surprisingly it only took about 20 minutes to guess-timate a close approximation to what we were

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-15421706158692339262011-11-03T14:51:00.000-07:002011-11-03T15:39:46.674-07:00

There were just too many wonderful pictures to share from Saturday's cyclocross race here at Lake Hodges, so this became somewhat of an epic post when I started uploading all the pictures.  I'll let lovely Laura made the introduction here.  Yep, she raced in that outfit too, however I think her biceps negated the cream-puffy-ness of the skirt and pink iPod holster.  John "the cleaner" Camerino (

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0Rancho Bernardo, San Diego, CA, USA33.04349349624358 -117.0761493618164232.996936996243576 -117.13151086181642 33.09004999624358 -117.02078786181642tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-45190745835316697362011-10-30T18:46:00.000-07:002011-10-30T18:47:37.037-07:00

While I finish up more artistic work, this week's blog post is going to be a technical tutorial on how to use Canon custom picture styles.  Sometimes I refer to them as picture profiles, so you'll just have to forgive me if I slip up and call them that from time to time.  In previous posts I discussed how to use the Canon Picture Style Editor software and Canon provides instructions on the web as

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-1599566350736534762011-10-22T10:56:00.000-07:002011-10-22T10:56:20.032-07:00

So if two associated works are called a sequel and three works are called a trilogy, what do you call four? Maybe it's series, a journal, a sequence, or a serial? Usually in Hollywood an over-exploitation is referred to as a "franchise." I'm not sure. Whatever... this is part four. After hiking in the Hoh Rain Forest we headed south along the coast for our overnight accommodations at the

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0Aberdeen, Washington, USA47.4763759640699 -123.8557437832031447.1048494640699 -124.45335028320314 47.847902464069904 -123.25813728320314tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-68123514967121125282011-10-14T20:57:00.000-07:002011-10-14T20:57:55.807-07:00

Continuing our adventure around the Olympic National Forest, on Tuesday we left Sol Duc heading south along the western coast of the Olympic Peninsula.  The second stop in our daily hiking plan was the Hoh Rain Forest.  Primarily known for its large mossy trees, the surrounding forest receives on average 12 to 14 feet of rain per year - and people think it rains in Seattle!  On this particular

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0Olympic National Park, 600 E Park Ave, Port Angeles, WA 98362-6798, USA47.60060748938635 -124.3460086757812647.197994489386346 -125.15362567578126 48.00322048938635 -123.53839167578127tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-50377515573014290582011-10-07T12:57:00.000-07:002011-10-07T14:37:35.855-07:00

Monday afternoon we left Hurricane Ridge and headed toward Sol Duc, with a stop over at Lake Cresent.  Although Lake Crescent is a serene vista itself, we only had time for one short hike at Marymere Falls on the way to our night's accommodations.  Some interesting factoids from Wikipedia: The depth of the lake has been unofficially measured to 1000ft (second deepest in Washington) and the deeply

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0Port Angeles, Washington, USA47.9696978793527 -123.8634685451660347.7076103793527 -124.77108454516603 48.2317853793527 -122.95585254516602tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-89068148920014354832011-10-02T22:28:00.000-07:002011-10-03T08:06:52.854-07:00

I feel like if I was Catholic this blog post would begin, "forgive me follower, for I have sinned.  It's been three weeks since my last blog post.  I lusted after adventure and pictures, rather than take care of my duties to blog."  Hopefully this multi-part series of road trip (!!!) pictures makes up for my laziness.  The week before last I spent in Washington State venturing around with mom in

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0Port Angeles, Washington, USA47.982108971666385 -123.4657291347656447.720021471666385 -124.37334513476564 48.244196471666385 -122.55811313476563tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-62820671816200882662011-09-13T09:43:00.000-07:002011-09-14T20:40:32.853-07:00

Saturday September 10th I was supposed to only be filming until midnight...then the 3rd camera guy decided not to come...then the other shooter's camera failed.  Needless to say, I was up until 3am on Sunday 9/11, which wasn't a good thing because I had a 9/11 event to shoot on Sunday morning and an 8am call time, which meant 3 hours of sleep max.  Augh!  Such is the life of photography. My

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-10683801513572445932011-09-05T22:22:00.000-07:002011-09-05T22:47:54.428-07:00

It's raining here today, so this seemed like an appropriate time to catch up my rainy day D.I.Y. projects on the blog.  This time out I am attempting at improving the Canon 5D Mark II audio so that it can produce usable production audio.  ...just fair warning - this blog entry may go off the edge of the nerd-cliff just a bit. Why can't it record good audio?  Well, one of the reasons is certainly

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-58586951034378922132011-08-25T09:12:00.000-07:002011-08-25T11:31:58.402-07:00

Clarence bought a GoPro camera last weekend and let me borrow it for the week to figure out the work flow to integrate the footage into our normal HDSLR productions.  The first thing I had to do it pick this little action camera apart and figure out how it really works. The first items I checked for are exposure lock and white balance.  No check on either.  Everything is auto, i.e. designed for

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-20845352454858438772011-08-18T09:34:00.000-07:002011-08-18T09:39:21.845-07:00

Last night was the screening of our 48 hour film "Box."  They had a red carpet, photographers, videographers; essentially an excuse to play dress up.  I mean, I knew I was going to be standing next to three incredibly beautiful women most of the night (many thanks to Clarence) and I didn't want to feel wholly inadequate in their presence - so I played dress up too. It's a nervous rush to the

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-64115308919640159042011-08-15T20:57:00.000-07:002011-08-15T20:57:36.648-07:00

Just an immediate heads up that this is a tech-worthy nerd blog entry for those inclined.  From my last blog entry you probably know that last weekend was my first foray into 48 hour film making.  Fun but challenging.  Also challenging was the budget.  We needed daylight balanced lights, but didn't have the budget to rent Kino's or a set of Arri HMI Frenels.  A couple sets of the Lowel Tota's

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-86566020691090511232011-08-10T20:14:00.000-07:002011-08-12T07:41:34.247-07:00

This last weekend was the madness that represents the 48 hour film project contest in San Diego.  You get a genre, line of dialog, character name, and prop at 7pm on Friday and have to turn in a fully finished film by 7:30pm on Sunday.  The clock picture shows how close we were cutting it and this isn't even the time the director left with the film!  Last year there was talk of the delivery

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-61106709683453591042011-07-30T18:33:00.000-07:002011-07-30T18:33:47.333-07:00

Last Saturday was our annual bicycle club race in San Marcos around the university campus.  I volunteered part of the day and shot the rest of the day, which was an interesting fight with outdoor conditions.  Between the extreme contrasts of morning daylight coming over the horizon and fast moving subjects with me having a relatively short lens the racing action shots were a bit...well, difficult

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-31943035540222677002011-07-21T22:01:00.000-07:002011-07-22T06:03:04.609-07:00

Today's post mainly consists of random whatever tourist gawker pictures from Comic-Con 2011.   I mean you have to to take pictures at a convention that covets the still image.  It's like heresy against the church of Stan Lee not to.  The imagery...well what can I say?  The archetypes were mostly as you would expect: the usual depiction of overly powerful men with super-human ability to fend off

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-22438649478134857542011-07-17T21:41:00.000-07:002011-07-17T21:43:02.617-07:00

I recently posted a composite photo to my Flickr account and my friend asked me about the editing process.  Just for kicks I decided to use Adobe After Effects as a still image tool.  I know, I know, people now days refer to any image manipulation as "Photoshopping."  I understand how tech society takes nouns and makes them verbs just as the case with "Googling", "Emailing", or "Texting",  but

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-15134042774288746392011-07-06T21:47:00.000-07:002011-07-06T21:47:01.816-07:00

For those in the USA July 4th is Independence Day.  It officially commemorates the signing of The Declaration of Independence from Great Britain in 1776.  The congressional vote took place on July 2nd, but the exact date of the signing of the declaration is a source of dispute among historians.  Some claim that the declaration was actually signed on August 2nd.  What isn't in dispute is that the

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-2060047396669490152011-07-01T12:01:00.000-07:002011-07-01T12:01:19.758-07:00

Time for some light hearted Friday afternoon camera pr0n (safe mi-spelling).  This is my latest beast out of the machine shop and is actually upgrade-able to fit a full size video camera - like that's ever going to happen, but still.  The goal here was to make a sturdy mount with a quick release so I can quickly change out cameras or exchange the camera between this rig and my shoulder mount.

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-10301234196611931802011-06-22T21:44:00.000-07:002011-06-23T08:02:10.350-07:00

Day two of my family visit in Oregon was an emotionally rough day.  The picture above is the former home of my grandparents, Ed and Elsie.  I spent most of my summers there.  That house meant freedom to be a kid.  I was able to sleep in, play in the nearby woods and open fields, use my grandpa's tools and scrap wood bin to build stuff without adult supervision, and watch as much MTV and

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-8090222559223056232011-06-21T21:45:00.000-07:002011-06-22T16:25:37.334-07:00

This last weekend I made a trek up to Portland Oregon to celebrate my great Aunt Bertie's anniversary of her 29th birthday (at least she would want me to put it that way).  It was a surprise party none the less.  Lots of colorful presents, cards, and the usual assortment of decorations.  What I find is after enough anniversaries of your 29th birthday the party conversation quickly turns to who is

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-83986580733670894952011-06-14T06:53:00.000-07:002011-06-14T06:53:25.206-07:00

Here in San Diego we have the 48 hour film making competition coming up at the beginning of August.  Teams are starting to form.  Equipment and locations are being reserved.  Producers are bracing for the financial strain.  All I know if that I'll need a good night of sleep on that Friday before the contest.  Typically the filming lasts anywhere from 12-18 hours on Saturday; possibly longer with

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-77524505162452542672011-06-05T15:31:00.000-07:002011-06-05T15:31:07.325-07:00

In addition to managing the San Diego Filmmakers Vimeo account, I also got roped into doing the motion graphics for their pre-meeting advertising video.  My first attempt was pretty simple and pathetic, simply because it was the first After Effects project I had done - not saying the new one is pro quality yet, but I'm improving.  As research I went out on the old Interwebs and found a couple

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-82662067136519294562011-05-29T19:17:00.000-07:002011-05-31T15:36:58.392-07:00

My previous post about the color shift of the Fader-ND neutral density filter got me thinking about another issue I've run into in the past.  I was setting up a shot last year after buying the Promaster 3-in-1 Cool Light shown below.  It's a simple soft box with four 85-watt fluorescent bulbs.  The bulbs *say* they are color balanced for 5500k, but in actuality the color balance of the camera

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-36870042329317654332011-05-23T10:08:00.000-07:002011-05-23T10:08:39.561-07:00

Last Monday I had a chance to go on Safari at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.  For a fee they take you out into the nature preserve with a park ranger on a flat bed truck and even let you feed the giraffes.  It's a simple morning breakfast of acacia leaves, but much better looking than their normal brown dry "dog food."  The park hosts 3500 animals with 4-5 tons of zoo-doo removed every day. 

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-3572558368148387982011-05-15T11:31:00.000-07:002011-05-15T11:31:00.400-07:00

When I was writing my last blog post a question came to mind; "How do I quickly adjust for the Fader-ND's green tint if I'm already white balanced?"  A quick experiment was devised in my living room the next afternoon.  First we'll start with a simple setup that includes the camera in live view and a white balance card.  I did a custom white balance to the card, which is illuminated by simple 

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-16811581928849650662011-05-08T11:00:00.000-07:002011-05-08T11:59:09.634-07:00

After taking my camera outdoors and trying to film I quickly realized the need for neutral density filtering. On a sunny SoCal day you're lucky if you can stop way down to f/22 and get a picture correctly exposed. It's just too darn bright... and of course you really want to be shooting with the aperture open to f/5.6. A reasonable priced solution came in the way of the fader-ND product from

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-42490223129883605772011-05-01T22:19:00.000-07:002011-05-05T09:40:23.013-07:00

On Friday night I downloaded the new Technicolor picture style for the Canon 5D mark II.  Being familiar with picture style editing for the Canon SLR's I had some ideas on what to expect.  I typically use Faithful, Sharpness=0, Contrast=-2, and Saturation=-1, which gives me a fairly faithful color reproduction, but definitely leaves something to be desired as far as exposure latitude.  A custom

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-5017766923728195892011-04-26T21:04:00.000-07:002011-04-26T21:09:10.162-07:00

I noticed a cool technique a while back and scratched my head for a few moments on how they were getting these bokeh (the blurred stuff in the background) shaped images without post processing.  The answer was by using a cut out shape close to the lens.  Commercially they sell a Bokeh Master's Kit, but it's simple enough to create a close approximation using a sheet of paper and a printer.  In

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-61362578888349373942011-04-21T07:57:00.000-07:002011-04-21T07:58:18.252-07:00

This last weekend I spent at the Emerald Cup Bodybuilding, Figure, Fitness, and Bikini Championships just outside of Seattle.  Before the show the promoter, Brad Craig, asked me to take some behind the scenes photos.  Little did Brad know that this was like asking a heroin addict if he'd like some more.  I had brought along the Canon S90 point and shoot due to travel limitations of other audio

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-31623124439388385352011-04-10T18:41:00.000-07:002011-04-10T18:50:33.237-07:00

I was filming at a local television studio yesterday.  We had two 5Dm2's.  I was using my usual 24-70 L series lens ($1400) and a Sekonic meter to measure exposure.  The other provided camera had a 50mm f/1.4 ($370) consumer lens.  Being a multi-cam shoot, the first thing we needed to do was match the cameras for both exposure and color. VSI asked the studio manager about the color temperature of

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-50758038965221722172011-04-03T10:15:00.000-07:002011-04-03T10:15:17.364-07:00

Today's post is about a location scout I went on yesterday with solar light films for an upcoming short called Zombie Man.  I thought it might be interesting to discuss some of the logistics of working with a location. Take a look at some the pictures below and think about what you see then read below to get my thoughts on what I see. As a DP here are some of the things I see.  First, we're

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-27457755038341160762011-03-26T18:53:00.000-07:002011-03-27T07:47:30.647-07:00

I received an email today from one of the local photography groups that I belong to. The email's author mentioned his upload of a Gigapixel panorama made up of over 1400 photographs. Holy cow! I thought my camera had more than enough resolution at 21 Megapixels. I've created 100 Megapixel panoramas, but those are pretty run-of-the-mill common. Gigapixels, huh? On the web... Had to check it

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-81811864180285831452011-03-19T12:58:00.000-07:002011-03-19T13:41:53.003-07:00

I had a thought the other day. Since the 5Dm2 codec is so fragile, why can't I just create a custom picture style that gets a little closer to final color correction? At the heart of all Hollywood color corrections are two tweaks. First, saturating skin tones and playing with lightness of skin - to make everyone have that freshly tanned at the beach look. Two, drive the backgrounds toward the

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-81038800856826669322011-03-05T22:16:00.001-08:002011-03-06T08:47:50.652-08:00

This weekend San Diego's Little Italy section of the city celebrated Carnevale! The exclamation point somehow seemed necessary. We all know that most Italians have a genetically dominant trait that doesn't allow them to speak without using their hands so the exclamation point is a reasonable emphasis substitute. From Wikipedia..."Carnival is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent;

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-76357309496416501472011-03-01T20:41:00.000-08:002011-03-01T21:42:16.923-08:00

While I'm waiting for projects to get kicked off this month my mind is wandering into the deep forest of technical knowledge. I sought enlightenment from my desk chair man cave and began to meditate on the concept of camera color calibration. No camera, no matter film or digital, cheap or expensive, seems to be calibrated for proper color reproduction out of the box. Why can't we simplify our

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-6059767474094478602011-02-19T21:20:00.000-08:002011-02-20T07:30:02.254-08:00

I spent a rainy Saturday in the machine shop creating a new piece of gear for my shoulder mount camera rig. Recently the Red Rock microHandle Plus caught my eye. I said to myself, "I bet I can build one of those in an afternoon." This blog post shows how I did it.I used the lathe (in the background) to create the handle, to which I mounted a bicycle grip (~$6 at local bike shop). It's hollowed

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-37847262646699409362011-02-17T20:08:00.000-08:002011-02-17T20:23:21.610-08:00

My non-audio savvy friends always seem a bit confused when I start talking about audio gain chains and causes of distortion/clipping issues. So this time I decided to put together a quick-n-dirty video tutorial on how I set up wireless audio and level monitoring into my Canon 5D mark II camera. Admittedly this information is reasonably basic for industry sorts, but not everyone is an industry pro

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-15214211845602429502011-02-14T20:11:00.000-08:002011-02-14T20:23:04.129-08:00

During my production down time I like to do a little self study on topics I know will be useful in the future. One of those topics, if you haven't noticed by now, is Adobe After Effects. I'm not really a visual effects kinda guy, but I do appreciate After Effects for what it can do to improve footage and correct problems. I found a set of ten free beginner tutorials and I wanted to share the link

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-52842754861718330912011-02-04T18:35:00.000-08:002011-02-04T19:17:58.959-08:00

As promised, here's part 2 of the tutorial discussing the conversion of footage from 30p to24p. I left off on part 1 by showing the difference between frame blending and Pixel Motion algorithms in Adobe After Effects. Pixel Motion seemed to be a slam dunk, but as I eluded to, it isn't. See the picture below. What I found is that the Pixel Motion algorithm will produce these defects that look like

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-84686670294520440972011-02-03T07:26:00.001-08:002011-02-03T07:34:06.257-08:00

Stronger is now featured on Ironman Magazine's home page. Many thanks go out to John Balik for making it happen. Also, Vimeo added the film to their staff pics channel so in the last few days it's had nearly 7k views! I'm pumped.

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-8419646067686791552011-01-30T13:20:00.000-08:002011-01-30T20:56:47.131-08:00

First...I know, I know, I'm supposed to be doing part 2 of the frame rate conversion tutorial - which I'll get to this coming week. Today is a recovery day for me after an short adventure working at the Los Angeles Fitness Expo yesterday. Ironman hired me on for the day to work at the bodybuilding show. Of course, I took this as an opportunity for street photography since I'd never been to the LA

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-14363755271348036962011-01-26T19:33:00.000-08:002011-01-27T10:38:43.290-08:00

My bodybuilding documentary, Stronger, was shot during the interim while Canon was still scratching their heads about why 24p should be available on the 5D mark II. The thing is that I still want it to have that film motion 24p look, but at 30 frames/second the footage looks like video. What's worse is that the Canon firmware I was using at the time only supported 30.0 frames/second, not even the

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-58389311596979346132011-01-23T10:00:00.000-08:002011-01-23T10:21:07.652-08:00

I shot a documentary about a bodybuilder in October of 2009, then started editing as time allowed in December in hopes to make the deadline for the Seattle International Film Festival. Foolish as I was, I produced a product that I never really felt was complete. It was 23 minutes, no music or polish, but told a respectably compelling story of David Patterson, a bodybuilder who's been to the rodeo

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-48972909235536447122011-01-10T07:36:00.000-08:002011-01-10T11:54:28.643-08:00

Technically, this post should be called noise "redirection" on HDSLR footage but we'll get to that in a bit. About a year and a half ago I shot a documentary with the Canon 5D mark II firmware in it's infancy. No 24p, no manual exposure, no manual audio, obviously not the best way to do it. On top of that I was in Washington State in September/October with cloudy light and no light kit. The

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-11395589593958273942011-01-03T19:16:00.000-08:002011-01-03T19:59:32.483-08:00

When you're trying to do a video project, such as a documentary, it's often just a labor of love. Nobody is getting paid, and there's no commercial use. However, sites like Youtube regularly scan videos for copyright violations where someone has their cat dancing to Lady Gaga, then automatically replace the existing soundtrack your choice of cheese-ball keyboard demo song. Meet your new best

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-50374950659188523242010-12-23T12:30:00.000-08:002010-12-23T13:31:41.518-08:00

Let's face it, nothing in photography is cheap. However, time lapse is still one of those things that can be done on limited resources and with software that already comes with everyones' computer.The more expensive solution, for me at least, is the Canon TC-80N3 intervalometer shown below. As a side note...it is Christmas and it's not too late mom - just saying. These devices go for about $145

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-67156122906656172662010-12-19T08:11:00.000-08:002010-12-19T09:42:44.287-08:00

I think I should preface this post by writing that I was never a party person. I was always the first one to put in ear plugs at a concert or club. Drinking was never my thing either, so chemically induced ear plugs weren't going to happen. Clarence convinced me (bad influence inferred) to go out clubbing with him at Quality Social in downtown San Diego. His friend, DJ Joey Jimenez, was spinning

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-79173040448582131942010-12-18T13:51:00.000-08:002010-12-18T13:58:08.236-08:00

I found a video on Vimeo today that won for "best narrative" of 2010 called "Thrush." I just thought I would throw it out here on my blog because the ending felt so true for we photogs - but I'll leave that for you to find on your own.

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-18073789917719498052010-12-04T19:50:00.000-08:002010-12-04T21:14:05.743-08:00

The Help-Portrait 2010 event is wrapping up about now, except maybe for Hawaii and other Pacific islands. Help-Portrait is about giving people who normally couldn't afford a portrait, a printed portrait of themselves before the holidays. Our group in San Diego hit with the blinding force of a 4800 Watt-second Profoto pack this year at three locations: The Bayside Community Center, St. Clare's

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-62587914140291793002010-11-28T23:02:00.000-08:002010-11-28T23:27:31.907-08:00

Time between projects typically means testing out new gear. Clarence, of course, couldn't help but indulge in a shiny new Pentax K5 as soon as it became available in the U.S. We headed out to Shelter Island on San Diego bay this afternoon to try out the low light capability and the interval shooting function of the camera. I brought my 5Dm2 along as well, but since the Canon cameras don't have

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-25857654562583607822010-11-26T18:51:00.000-08:002010-11-27T15:55:51.240-08:00

For the last few years I've been adopted into the Nasworthy family during Thanksgiving Day. So what am I grateful for at Thanksgiving besides pumpkin pie?...having friends that take me in like family...my brutha' in photographic crime, Clarence...hope for new opportunities in the new year...my one and only mother - even though I'm a bad son and don't call her enough. Gratuitous pictures of the

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-47430156810912620652010-11-21T19:41:00.000-08:002010-11-24T13:31:58.165-08:00

By way of my day job I picked up an HP eStation printer a few weeks ago, which just happens to come with an Android web pad ("Zeen") as the printer's control panel! Obviously the play here is to get people to print from the web, but as a photographer and cinematographer I'm finally finding out what all the iPad tablet religion is about since the HP device shares many of the same core capabilities

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-54688002210041702332010-11-07T15:37:00.001-08:002011-01-06T18:27:46.483-08:00

Clarence and I took a leave from work Friday to go visit our friend and starlet in Hollywood, Hope Rosemary. Camera gear in tow we were intending to mostly take pictures of Hope, but at the last minute her French room mate decided to join us...This time I decided to use Patrick Demarchelier, a French fashion photographer, as an stylistic influence. His style seemed appropriate for what we were

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-43635926272825709352010-10-27T21:16:00.000-07:002010-10-28T16:03:31.282-07:00

Last night my musically inclined friend Ken dragged me out to his favorite watering hole; a dive bar named "Last Call." He was there recording a jam session by the group of musicians that show up as regulars on Tuesday. He came in, plopped down a field mixer the size of a 30" LCD TV, set up a couple small condenser mics in a stereo cross pattern above the bar...and away we go. The bartender

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-31772672339136568362010-10-25T11:53:00.000-07:002010-10-28T05:59:51.475-07:00

I would say that I have soup for brains today, but chicken stock is way too thick to describe the current state of my gray matter. Yesterday Holly came over at 11:30am to work on her 2 minute documentary video for her technology in education class. It turns out that she had made just a tad less progress on the edit than I would have hoped (i.e. nothing was really done yet). She called her husband

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-28524670924428679062010-10-21T19:16:00.000-07:002010-10-21T19:23:27.565-07:00

Got word today that "What is a Bgirl?" won best documentary at the SCIFF film festival in Washington State. It's being screen this Saturday. Over 2100 views on exposureroom.com as well.

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-22257743021301103272010-10-16T20:22:00.000-07:002010-10-16T20:36:28.311-07:00

Out trolling for something to do on a Saturday night and ran across this amazing video on Vimeo. I definitely recommend clicking on the Vimeo logo and viewing it in HD....as well as the more amazing making of. This team has unbelievable skill in compositing. They composited much more than I ever expected.

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-34360913463360868592010-10-11T21:38:00.000-07:002010-10-13T21:57:38.954-07:00

My phone rings at 7:40pm on Saturday evening. It's Clarence. Evidently things aren't going quite smoothly on the hip-hop music video shoot for a musician who goes by the moniker "Mask." The conversation goes something like this...Clarence: Man, get down here. They only have a Home Depot tungsten light and the lighting isn't going so well.Me: Well, they are custom white balancing, right?Clarence:

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-4123698201144925892010-10-05T20:48:00.001-07:002010-10-06T07:15:43.599-07:00

Last Sunday I had a chance to decompress after a couple days of working on the Ironman Bodybuilding Championships just outside Seattle. My mom and I headed over to Whidbey Island to a Buddhist themed nature preserve called Earth Sanctuary. My mom had the winning auction bid for a tour by the owner of the private preserve earlier in the year.Any trip to the Washington San Juan Islands starts via

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-88540654021033932752010-09-28T06:12:00.000-07:002010-09-28T06:20:12.686-07:00

After a whole lot of hassle from YouTube (upload gets to 99.9%, then crashes) Shaun finally got the "Intervention" comedy short posted last night. As usual, the video turned to mush on YouTube, but should be better on Vimeo when they get it uploaded.

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-38125656768356700322010-09-24T20:49:00.000-07:002010-09-27T11:32:46.278-07:00

It's been over two weeks since I supplied my random rants and thoughts to this online journal. What kept me busy was a feeble attempt to fix the audio from the last comedy we shot. The audio was really, really bad because we didn't have an audio person and the producers kept the pressure up to shoot faster and faster. Of course something slipped. So because we didn't spend the time to get it

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-65685342776507393262010-09-07T08:10:00.000-07:002010-09-09T11:01:24.608-07:00

I spent Labor Day weekend filming a short comedic piece for Go Gadget Comedy. This time we had Shaun in a VERY special pair of pajamas. These pictures are just random screen captures from the raw footage. More importantly, I had a chance to try out my new daylight balanced fluorescent lights. At first I bought a pair of 9 bulb softboxes from the thelashop.com. They were completely pathetic. f/4

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-74044039156908509342010-08-25T12:26:00.001-07:002010-08-25T12:53:24.123-07:00

I spent last Sunday evening with Clarence and Laurel Scovie in Balboa Park behind the San Diego Air and Space Museum. It was a last minute decision to go since this was actually set up between Clarence and Laurel. I-5 was right behind us and further off in the distance was downtown San Diego and the bay with sunset quickly approaching.Clarence started off with some pictures of Laurel sitting

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-74662941868046296322010-08-20T19:51:00.001-07:002010-08-20T20:24:59.450-07:00

I'm working on a project and I have a quick question...which purple color scheme do you think I should go with; The lighter one surrounded by black on the left, or the slightly darker purples surrounded by white on the right? Even if you're color blind you probably already failed the first question. Why? Well our eyes see lightness relative to the surrounding ambient. The purple boxes are exactly

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-78986401632309302632010-08-12T06:53:00.000-07:002010-08-12T20:39:11.558-07:00

Last Sunday was spent herdin' cats at a Penthouse near downtown San Diego. My friend Duygu thought it would be fun to have a girls glamour day where she could do some art direction. Well...things didn't turn out as planned, but that's nothing unusual for a shoot. I just kept telling Duygu, "this is normal, relax." We roll with the punches.It all started at 7am when Clarence called me to say that

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-72894161062565199392010-08-06T09:46:00.001-07:002010-08-06T09:53:51.169-07:00

Just a quick post before the weekend. I spent my lunch hour this week in the machine shop. After picking up a beauty dish I needed a way to mount it to my speedlight. Of course, no one really sells such a contraption, so I had to custom make one (joy!). The brass post was custom lathed. The top and bottom curved washers were milled and the mounting bracket was also custom milled. The speedlight

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-49903444191115763942010-07-26T07:06:00.000-07:002010-07-26T07:59:48.376-07:00

Sunday was race day. Most people think of a day at the races with horses and the vertically challenged who ride them. I think of races with human horsepower...bicycles. As a retired bike racer I know what it feels like to have lungs burning and still have to keep going that last quarter-mile to the finish. Cycling is a tough sport and when it's good it's just enough to satisfy the S&M fetish most

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-67785810034319924872010-07-21T19:48:00.000-07:002010-07-21T20:47:41.114-07:00

I was slightly wrong with the previous post, but for good reason. The DSC documentation is misleading for a mentally impaired monkey boy, such as myself. Going back over the documentation, the IRE levels they recommend didn't make sense. I mean what color space are we talking about here? I hate it when numbers don't make sense when I place so much trust in them everyday. When DSC says RGB does

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-75747483728540929082010-07-11T20:31:00.000-07:002010-07-12T07:33:15.086-07:00

Ben Cain over at NegativeSpaces.com sent me a raw picture of a Chroma Du Monde calibration target made for the Red camera. I know what you're thinking about the photo below...big flippin' deal - that has to be a submission for a french high end contemporary art competition, right?. Nope, this target is used to calibrate and align cameras to one standard so you can mix and match cameras and have

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-44001067338972355202010-07-06T06:32:00.000-07:002010-07-06T07:10:27.423-07:00

Last weekend we decided to semi-randomly film a comedy short with Shaun and Marc (a.k.a. Dave and Shane) from "Go Gadget Comedy." These two guys have great comedic timing and they had half the story written before showing up. The other half was improvised in "Whose Line is it Anyway?" style. All production and prop procurement occurred in an 8 hour period of a not-so-lazy, but fun Sunday.This

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-15074217564658475512010-07-02T19:34:00.001-07:002010-07-06T10:12:30.369-07:00

I played hookie from work Tuesday to hang out with Clarence and a couple models at the Mermaid Salon. He lined up Shealyn Sharleen and Kelly Lee, as well as Renata Damone (not shown below). It was good to get out shooting again and exercise my shutter finger so I don't forget how it works. The setup was fairly straight forward as shown below. Two umbrellas, one soft box, and one reflector for

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-46692778927655806632010-06-24T17:25:00.000-07:002010-06-26T11:59:44.191-07:00

Just finished the shoulder mount for my 5D today. It needs a counter weight and a way to mount the lav receivers, but it's fully functional. Simple pic is below. Now that I have the mounts that you see on the shoulder brace in CAM I can easily mount "stuff" to the rails. My follow focus gears arrived today, so now I'm just waiting for the cartridge bearings so I can upgrade the follow focus. Whew

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-45797159235460020152010-06-23T21:28:00.000-07:002010-06-27T13:34:48.536-07:00

I just found a video on Vimeo called "The Third & The Seventh." It was a favorite of David Myrick who did "Alice & The White Hair," also worth a gander. Even though these films share a love of ampersands, they are quite the opposites. Both are worthy of a full screen display, especially The Third & The Seventh. Without further delay...

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-12985955366425728832010-06-14T07:38:00.000-07:002010-06-14T08:01:39.791-07:00

Today's blog entry was supposed to be about our Strobist model shoot from last Saturday...however the only people to show up were Captura, Lumpy, and myself. The model backed out and the rest of the Strobists seemed to be lame ducks. So we ended up having a Strobist barbecue and spent the afternoon playing with Lumpy's new beauty dish.Since I wasn't processing pictures Sunday it gave me an

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-2413619167033615652010-06-09T20:41:00.000-07:002010-06-09T21:46:54.746-07:00

I really don't have much going on photographically until this weekend, so I thought I would throw out these little tidbits from New York City. Below is a picture of Rockefeller Plaza on Friday morning. NBC hosts the Today Show from here. To the left is studio 1A where they have their set, to the right is Dean & Deluca - the coffee shop familiar to regular watchers of the show. "30 Rock" is

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-3539990807566822952010-05-31T13:22:00.000-07:002010-06-04T19:44:58.069-07:00

A few weeks ago Tamara, whom I met in Oreste's UCSD class, asked me to shoot senior portraits of her friend Joshi. Joshi is about to graduate from high school next week, so congratulations are in order. We had one freak weather cancellation and my trip to NYC delayed things another week, but Saturday the stars aligned. I go cycling past the grasslands shown in the background so I asked around and

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-73046527750867021862010-05-26T12:24:00.000-07:002010-05-27T07:21:03.453-07:00

Spent last week in New York City walking around Manhattan and taking a few photos. I thought I would be inspired by the Brooklyn Bridge and Times Square, but surprisingly not so. Times Square is like Vegas in my opinion; you see it and go "wow." Then every time you go back you notice how much more crowded and noisy it is until you start to take 8th or 6th to avoid the mad house of gawking

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-59189414697741916602010-05-16T19:00:00.000-07:002010-05-16T20:11:33.913-07:00

I spent yesterday at Kwon's Black Belt Academy down in Chula Vista helping my friend photograph students and the masters (instructors are called "masters"). Grand Master Kwon was in attendance at a belt promotion ceremony for his Pilsung students (Korean martial arts). Photographs for the students went pretty quick. We basically set one lighting setup and ran 'em through. Then it was time for the

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-88667687736070570462010-05-08T14:33:00.000-07:002010-05-10T13:29:47.331-07:00

Now that I'm doing more filming with the 5D than still pictures the fragile H.264 codec has really become something I have to pay attention to. The luxury of shooting stills in RAW is something I found critical very soon after buying the 40D. The video codec on the 5D, however, is kind of like shooting in JPEG. You get what you get and there's not much leeway in changing that after the fact.

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-32679945621735676242010-05-01T20:04:00.000-07:002010-05-08T16:10:49.083-07:00

This morning started off well enough. I get up, have some oatmeal, get ready for some serious geeking out in LA with the HDLSR crowd. Then Clarence calls me around 7:30 when we're supposed to leave. "I don't think I can make it. I'm not feeling that great." OK. After I describe the gear pr0n-fest about to go down today he changes his mind and decides to go. That puts us about an hour behind

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-6629425100826980732010-04-26T07:31:00.000-07:002010-04-26T07:57:08.063-07:00

Admittedly, I've been neglecting this blog for the last couple weeks while I feverishly finished up projects and travelled. Since I don't have any firm photo or film projects going on right now I'm delving into the technical side of things with at least some good results.Yesterday Clarence came by and we did some photo tests with his Pentax K-7. Pentax did some crazy stuff with their video mode.

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-77930191960556817582010-04-06T20:00:00.000-07:002010-04-06T20:43:14.610-07:00

Between the trials of headaches, sleeping, excreting wildly imaginative colors of mucus, and otherwise just feeling ill this last weekend I managed to finish up another short documentary. This one is plainly titled "What is a Bgirl?" The idea came up when I was having a late lunch with my former high school classmate Amy in the Koreatown section of Los Angeles late last summer. She runs a dance

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-87243596232585595962010-03-29T09:00:00.000-07:002010-03-29T20:10:53.413-07:00

Some of the major complaints I hear from "traditionalist" videographers is the form factor of the 5D mark II (or any DSLR really). They just can't wrap their heads around the lack of immediately available controls and no real world audio inputs. OK, so they have a point that the form factor is less than ideal but not totally unworkable. With the new 5D firmware upgrade that allows for manual

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-55001692255974857992010-03-24T11:18:00.000-07:002010-03-24T12:30:46.258-07:00

Last Saturday I spent the day interviewing a group of bgirls in Hollywood. No, you haven't experienced Internet induced time travel back to 1982. Break dancing, you ask?... Well these girls would be quick to correct you that the dance style is actually called "b-boying" and is very much alive. Photo Credit: Clarence Legaspi Lead instigator in this group is Amy "Catfox" Campion, who runs a dance

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-59654499818209068422010-03-18T22:47:00.001-07:002010-03-19T19:07:53.427-07:00

Last night I made another visit to a class taught to my colleague, Oreste, at the UCSD extension campus. This time he was teaching an intro to printing course, for which I'm not an expert. Being part of the digerati, I've kind of given up on printing photos except for my own fine art collection. However, working for a printing company I was bound to pick up more than a few pieces of useful

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-68705989210855861782010-03-13T19:37:00.000-08:002010-03-13T19:46:55.849-08:00

Just got back from a shoot with Renata Damone and Clarence Legaspi (aka Lumpy on flickr). I was there mainly to get some practice with the Steadicam Merlin for next weekend's shoot. Toward the end I gave in and took some quick pics and thought I would toss these up on my blog to share. No special purpose for the pictures, just fun.

Goes.2.Elevenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12230570421460101694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4138847585852709774.post-47170506957619369792010-03-13T11:42:00.000-08:002010-03-13T11:49:10.364-08:00

Last week I found a little insight from cinematographer and author Stu Maschwitz over at his Prolost blog. He was giving a interview and talking about the need for 24p for movies. At first I was like, uh huh, everybody says that. Then he actually gave a good reason why. Cinematography is about what you don't show, or more exactly what you choose to selectively show. 30p gives a very real

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