OK, I admit this was a spur of the moment thing. I mounted the S9100 and started talking. Audio is not it’s strong point so we’ll chalk this up as a visual thought process. I’ll go a better one this week and get it up. At least the scenery is purty and the PS lesson at the end has no wind :-)
All 1500 of you, thanks for dropping by and listening to my ranting about finishing. I hope you found at least one nugget that helps you the next time you’re shooting. I mentioned a number of videos on my site, referred to them to give more in depth “recipe” for some of the things I was doing. I thought I would just create a list here for you rather then make you peck through the 160 listed on the Video Library Page.
Now the Silver Efex Pro vid is for #1, not #2. The only thing I did at the webinar you won’t see though is use the preset Full Spectrum Harsh & Smooth. And available to everyone is the special below. If you got something out of the webinar, please let the great folks at Nik know since they brought it to you. Now…go out and shoot damn it! :-)
I am a still photographer, it’s my goal to capture that definitive moment that says a 1000 words in a single click. On the other hand, I am an amazingly fortunate photographer seeing natural events few others can ever experience. I’ve had a whole lot of emails, a whole lot, asking why I’ve worked with the San Joaquin Kit Fox for 24yrs. The answer is pretty simple, I haven’t got their whole story on film yet and, well, watch the video, it says it better then I can.
01.01.2013 Pages are in the process of being updated. In the meantime you can watch our videos on our YouTube Channel as well as all Videos are available on iTunes as Podcasts!
A little technical background. The daylight video is a den site with 3 adults and 3 pups (about 8 weeks old). The video was captured by the Coolpix S9100 (shooting 1080p) attached to the hot shoe of the D3x with the 200-400VR2 (handheld). All the stills of the pups were at 1/20. The night video was shot with the D3x attached to the 600VR shot at ISO 9000 (definitely not handheld). The video you are seeing here is just a small clip from the night and is kinda the first of its kind thanks to the amazing D3s. There are 4 adults and 4 pups at this site though you will only see 3 and 3. The lighting is the ever lovely sodium vapor. But without it, I couldn’t share this very simple joy of mother nature with you!
H5 – WWII Bombers over Arizona Landscape from H5 Productions on Vimeo.
During our first Air2Air Workshop at AZ Wing CAF, a film crew was there shooting as well. This is a part of their production and it’s pretty darn cool! If you look really quickly and really fast, you’ll see a golf cart on the runway. That’s us during panning practice. Oops…we got in the film :-)
With proper handholding (ignoring the ales) and with a great subject, the D7000 nails video capture really easily, really well. It’s gotta make you think about taking the plunge when you get these kinds of results!
Many have this perception that what I do is very glamorous. My postings on Twitter & FB of “The Office” helps this along I’m sure but what I do isn’t glamorous. It’s incredibly fun (by how I measure fun), really enlightening, a ton of hard work and I’m incredibly fortunate I can do it. My posting from yesterday brought in a bunch of email with some good questions, let me see if I can answer them. “Who’s paying you to do this work, how did you find them?” This was the most common question and the answer will surprise it seems a number of folks. No one is paying me to be here, it’s all, all out of my pocket. To this date, I’ve never had an assignment. These projects are ones that Sharon & I feel are important so we get involved in the hopes we can make a difference. In the case of the Riparian Brush Rabbit, it’s a long term project with some of our best friends so when they call and say our photography can make a difference, I drop everything and get my butt on scene. “How do you hear about such projects?” I keep in touch with some key biologists with critters I care about. They are great about letting me know what’s happening. How do you find these folks? It’s all outlined in Captured.
01.01.2013 Pages are in the process of being updated. In the meantime you can watch our videos on our YouTube Channel as well as all Videos are available on iTunes as Podcasts!
“What gear do you take on these projects, how do you know what to bring?” This is a very good question and the answer is pretty simple, I bring it all. When it comes to the basic camera gear, I bring what’s listed in my MP-1 and since that’s all I own, it all comes with me. Along with that is lighting gear, blind, chair and in this case, chest waiters and dry bag. That’s in the truck, when I go out in the field I leave nearly all of that in the truck. As you’ll see in the video, the D3x/200-400VR2 are in the dry bag, 14-24, 24-70 & 70-200, SB-900 are in the sling bag. The photographic goal for today was document the work being done on this emergency rescue of the RBR during the flood. The goal wasn’t to create the most amazing wildlife photograph ever and in fact, a lot of the work I do, that’s not the goal. Dealing with the politics of endangered species and its management requires more often the basic photographs you get by simply being there then any other technique.
Now about the video. This is a really crude, not edited, quick posting just to give you a little idea about my day. At one point you’ll see the rig I’m using when I shoot my shadow. No one has mics, it wasn’t meant to be a video shoot, the thought just occurred to me when I was thinking about the questions asked of me that video might answer the question the best. I put the S9100 a top of the D3x and walked with it, shooting handheld the whole way. No, I never went in for a drink. What you’ll see is our walking from mound#1 to mound#2 where the RBR had been placed when they were rescued back on the 1st. We canoed to the first mound and then as you’ll see, walked over to the next mound to do some survey work on the way. We canoed back to the vehicles after working on mound#2. At the end, you’ll see why this is not an outing to get “the” shot as I took a couple clicks of a rescued bunny watching us leave the mound. All the water you see is covering roads and meadows and three weeks ago wasn’t present and probably will be around until June/July. As for the video, I’m not sure if it’s my internet connection or I goofed something up in the rendering but if the video looks goofy, my apologies but you’ll get the idea of how I spent my day. I share all of this with you because…I want you to have the same kind of day which means you get YOUR camera involved in preserving our wild heritage.