Steven Dempsey on Photography

In the Company of Cats

2011-12-18T10:37:00.001-08:00

No matter what I'm doing in my life, I always try to integrate something creative into the mix. I am currently working at an animal hospital and recently someone suggested that I take some pictures of the resident cats to spice up the walls and replace what had been there for years. The idea was appealing but taking photographs of animals in a conventional way was not entirely exciting. There was no deadline for the project so I just let the idea percolate in my brain for a while. There are plenty of pet photographers out there and, while they satisfy a need for many people, I am happy to look elsewhere for my inspiration.

I read an article in a British magazine called Black and White about a photographer who had a fascination with the circus. It wasn't the performance itself that drew him in, rather, it was the mystery of what went on behind the curtain. I have to admit that I have that same sense of wonder about circus life. The resulting images were very penetrating. In single stills, the photographer was able to paint a life of hardship and, in some cases, complete isolation. The only break in that kind of solitary existence was when the ringmaster announced the the next amazing feat to a wide-eyed audience. Even operating in a team environment was an introspective experience for all those hard working individuals.

Something really connected with me in those photographs. There was a strong emotional element and the choice of black and white made each photograph timeless. Monochrome tends to do that. Not only does it remove most references to reality as we know it, it also intensifies and sometimes creates anew a mood and atmosphere usually only sensed but rarely seen.

So I began to think in black and white for my animal hospital project. I wanted to approach each photograph as I would a human portrait. My priority was to draw out the personality of the subject.

So how does one do that with a cat? Luckily the hospital cats roam loose and I get to spend a lot of time with them. It is said that cats' personalities are more numerous and varied than most other species. I actually made that up but, by saying that, I am drawing from my own experience. My life thus far has been shared with many a feline. I've had cats for as long as I can remember and, although I once visited with an allergist who told me my biggest concern should be cat dander, I have long enjoyed their company.

Each cat at the hospital has a unique trait. Every day, each one announces its presence. Take Toby, for instance, our overweight Main Coon-like cat who appears to be as dumb as a bag of hammers but is really qute ingenious. He wears an invisible fence collar that prevents him from breaking into the food on display at the front of the hospital. When he is in close proximity of said kibbles, the collar gives him a gentle buzz signaling the illegal activity. Toby is able to sense when the battery is depleted and helps himself. He is also aware of the device's range and has been found tearing into a bag that is just inches outside the buzz zone. His mission in life, it seems, is to taunt the only cat in the hospital who is not a resident, Saucy.

Toby - genius or clown? The jury is out.

Saucy came to us more than six months ago because the septogenarian owner found her too hard to handle. She closely resembles an angry Garfield in appearance, which seems to be her perpetual demeanor. She is a cool cat in my books but needs her own space. She is not a lap cat and screams like a banshee when lifted. First impressions are everything when trying to adopt an animal and unfortunately Saucy fails right there. As a result she sits in her cage or sometimes sleeps beneath the counter of the front desk.

Saucy - She can look really innocent when she wants to...

Among the many interesting things about Saucy is her unwillingness or inability to fraternize with any of her feline brethren. Hissing and spitting and low moans get directed at any other passing cat like a laser gun. Having said that, she does come to accept other cats after some time but she and the aforementioned Toby have never seen eye to eye. Toby will sit and stare at Saucy when she is locked up in her cage and, despite her very audible protests, Toby doesn't flinch. He simply sits there and stares at her. When these two collide, it sounds like the dungeon doors have been pried open and all hell has broken loose.

I could go on and on about the other actors in this hospital drama but I think the point is made that each has their own unique existence and it was with that in mind that I approached photographing them.

Cats are solitary creatures although they occasionally like to share a bed or space with each other. I wanted to show that sense of indepence in each shot. In some cases, I was able to capture it directly and at other times it took days.

Karl with a K - he spends most of his waking life sleeping

Rico C Suave - This cool cat thinks he is the boss and actually
has his own Facebook page

Still influenced by the circus photos I had seen in that magazine, I captured each cat in black and white and then added some grunge in post production to enhance that feeling of timelessness and mood. It was important for me not to show any of the hospital surroundings in each frame, the emphasis had to be completely on the subject.

On projects such as this where I am given complete creative reign, I'm working inside a bubble. Only when I had a small body of pictures did I share them. I was pleased that the reaction was quite positive.

Code named "Fiona", this kitten stayed at the hospital only for a few

days while preparing to be adopted.

Of course, it is an animal hospital, not a cat clinic so it became obvious that we also needed some dog photographs as well. We have no resident dogs but the doctor's dog Earl, an endearing King Charles Cavalier, gladly obliged, as did DD, a dog belonging to one of the techs.

One of the doctors' dogs, Earl.

DD is one of the sweetest dogs ever known to man

There are more animals yet to be photographed and, when the existing ones are printed and framed and adorning the halls and exam rooms, the project may be an ongoing one.

Stay tuned...

Sometimes it's Not All About the Shot

2011-12-10T10:15:00.001-08:00

I was excited to hear about an upcoming lunar eclipse that would be visible from where I live. The problem with living in the Northwest, however, is that the weather is quite unpredictable. While that might be fine for a photographer who goes out shooting landscapes and relies on sheer luck, sometimes it would be nice to have a more predictable climate. Of course I don't really mean that because nothing beats the drama in this corner of the world. I'll take a cloudy day over blues skies any time.

But for an event such as an eclipse, I wanted the skies to be clear. Maybe a peppering of clouds here and there to add interest...so long as the moon was not obscured.

The weather lady on TV told me to expect clear skies with some chance of clouds. Okay, this was encouraging. I had read that the best place to see the eclipse in this neck of the woods was Cannon Beach in Oregon. While this is one of my favorite places in the world, I wasn't about to travel over 300 miles to see the moon glow red.

So my dilemma was to figure out the best place to see the eclipse locally. I considered going to my favorite stomping ground in the Snoqualmie Valley but it was too risky to be in an area so prone to fog at this time of the year.

One Web site suggested finding high ground for optimal viewing. Linda suggested Issaquah Highlands, which is about the most elevated neighborhood in the area and only about 10 minutes away. It was settled.

When I'm considering shooting an event like this, there is much more than just the moon to think about. If I get some nice closeups, it's going to look like just about every other shot by every other photographer with decent gear and a long lens. The secret is the context in which you put it.

A moon by itself does not give any kind of perspective. It just kinda floats out in a big black void and says nothing new to the viewer. Put it into context like above a city or mountain or even juxtaposed against the silhouette of a tree and now it starts to get interesting.

So as much as Issaquah Highlands gave me the vantage point I needed, it didn't provide me much else in the way of visual interest. There is nothing more than a large wasteland of grass and construction and also some lights off in the distance. I didn't have much of a choice at this stage because traveling any kind of distance was out of the question.

I left the house at 4:00 on Saturday morning. It was still dark and below freezing. My car was frozen over and I had to pry the door open. I went back inside and filled a basin with water. Once I dumped it on the car windows I got back in and started the engine. In those few seconds, the windshield froze solid again so this time I just waited until the heater kicked in.

I planned to hang out at a little turnout across from one of the big parking lots. That way, I'd be away from everything and everybody and still have access to my warm car when I needed it. I would also be able to keep my lenses within arm's reach.

I got out of the car and looked up. The eclipse had already begun, just revealing a slight shadow over the top of the bright moon. I set up my tripod and affixed my 100-400mm lens to the camera and took a couple of test shots.

Soon another car pulled up beside me, all spotlights and noisy. I was a little miffed that someone was invading the little space I had carved out for myself. They stopped the car and turned off the lights. I didn't see any sign of activity so I assumed they were staying in their car because of the chill.

By now the moon was resembling the Apple logo and there was a slight red glow beginning to appear. The doors of the enemy car opened and out popped a middle-aged couple with a Jack Russell dog wearing a little coat. They stayed a distance from me but I decided to speak first. "Good morning!" I said with enthusiasm. "Good morning" replied the man, "You shooting video or stills?". I explained that I was shooting stills and he proceeded to tell me that he used to shoot with film back in the day. He had never made the transition to digital. We talked about the best strategy for capturing both the shadow and highlights of the moon simultaneously. He used the phrase "middle gray" quite a bit but I tried not to engage too much about the technical side of what I was doing. After a few moments, he went back to talking with his wife and worrying about how cold his dog was.

One of the nice things about getting up early and witnessing a phenomen like this is that it slows everything down. You can't make an eclipse go any faster than the length of time it takes. There's no fast-forward button. It is mesmerizing to watch and I found myself in an almost hypnotic state. I clicked the shutter every few minutes. What I was seeing in the viewfinder was only a hint at the real thing. I told myself that this is one of those times you have to pay more attention to the world around you than the little framed area of the camera's viewfinder.

Once the Earth's shadow had completely engulfed the moon, the red glow intensified and all of a sudden I saw a shooting star. I've only ever seen about two or three shooting stars in my entire life. Usually I am looking in the opposite direction when someone shouts "Shooting star!!!" It seemed particularly magical this morning next to the total eclipse.

I got into my car and turned the heat on. My feet were numb from the cold and I had been standing in the same spot for over an hour now. I put on the seat warmer and selected some music to act as the soundtrack of the eclipse, now seen through the front windshield, a makeshift cinema screen. I settled upon music from the film "Solaris". It seemed quite fitting as it had a surreal feeling to it, much like the red moon above. Another shooting star appeared. How thrilling! This is auspicious, I thought.

After warming up I was outside again trying to take some wide shots for variety. As much as they tried, the photographs could only play second fiddle to the main event. I just had to accept that I couldn't make an uninteresting place interesting this time around.

I was mostly looking forward to the end of the eclipse when the moon would be larger near the horizon. Even just including the horizon itself would perk up the composition.

By now other cars had arrived and the blinding headlights from those going to and from work were shattering my sense of peace. Thick clouds were moving in rapidly and, before I had a chance to see the light return to the moon, it was swallowed up. I looked around me and there were now clouds everywhere. I got back in my car and waited a while. Someone knocked on my fogged up window. It was the man I spoke to earlier waving goodbye and telling me it was nice to meet me. The other motorists reversed out of my hiding place and soon I was alone again. I looked up into the sky one more time to see if I could catch a final glimpse of the eclipse but it was gone.

Although the photographs I captured were nothing to write home about, the experience had been well worth the trouble. I was glad I had averted my eyes from the camera to the sky and was completely present to the bigger picture.

Every now and again I have to remind myself that it's not always all about the shot.

Photography & an iPad

2011-12-05T09:25:00.001-08:00

When the iPad first surfaced, I was mildly curious about it. Mostly it looked like Apple had taken the iPhone design and made it bigger. I wasn't sure what all the fuss was about back in those infant days of digital tablets.

I've been an Apple fan since the mid-eighties. The first real computer I ever laid my eyes on was an Apple. Back then, computers were a novelty, usually only associated with science fiction or in government archival rooms with large machines and spinning tape reels. I have only briefly owned my own Mac but because of work over the years, I have been largely a PC owner.

I'm what's called a power user. Basically that means that I end up utilizing every gadget on my computer whether it be hardware or software. The same can be said of my smartphone usage. I have an Android phone and I have an app for just about every aspect of my daily living.

But back to Apple... The only reason I own a Droid is because my phone carrier is Verizon and, at the time, AT&T had exclusive distribution of the iPhone. It was too expensive and complicated to switch over so I got the next best thing; a Motorola Droid.

So recently the opportunity presented itself to buy an iPad because my wife Linda was going to Mexico for a vacation with her family and she didn't want to bring a computer. She still wanted to stay in touch via Facebook and email so we looked at each other and said, let's get an iPad!

By now I had more than a year's experience with my Droid and I was fully versed on the advantages of ultra-portable technology. I had my entire portfolio of photographs and some of my video work on my Droid. If I met someone and they wanted to see examples of my work, I had it right in my pocket.

I had been reading about all the great photography apps available for the iPad. In fact, I was beginning to get tired of hearing about them because, by comparison, very little was available for the Droid. Of course the size of the screen on the iPad made it actually practical to consider viewing a photography portfolio and even possibly editing some of my shots. I began to crave ownership of an iPad and when Linda suggested it, I squeaked out a fake and casual "sure".

Since her trip to Mexico, Linda has not used the iPad very much not only because it's still not a replacement for her beloved laptop but mainly because I have been hogging it every day. It has now become my main source of information. I can consolidate all the photography sites I love reading into one reader app. I also have another app to stay in touch with local and world events. In fact, the iPad makes it so easy to stay in touch with the news, I feel like I am now more well informed than I have ever been in my life. Hell, I even gave my parents in Ireland a walking tour of our new house using another app: Skype.

The iPad has also greatly impacted my photography. While I used to shoot exclusively in the RAW format on my camera, I am now shooting both RAW and JPEG. This way, when I get home, I import all the JPEGs onto my iPad and use it like an old-style light box.

I've learned to slow down a little with this tablet. Even writing this blog is taking much more time than it would usually because I'm finger-pecking the iPad's onscreen keypad, kinda like those journalists or authors from the old days with a cigarette hanging out of the side of their mouths and a big typewriter to capture their inspiration. I find my words are a little more considered at this pace.

And this slow pace has transferred to the process of photography for me. Once I import my photographs, I let them simmer a little. It is said that you cannot make your best choices right after a shoot and I think that's true. Oftentimes I find little gems after the fact in photographs I had initially discarded. On my computer I have little patience. I want to process everything quickly and move on. The light box idea on the iPad, however, makes the whole process more enjoyable for me. Now I'm not as quick to delete a photograph. Even if it's not a good shot, I find myself analyzing it more and figuring out how I could have made it better at the moment of capture.

The other day I decided to go visit a few of my favorite haunts to shoot. There was a thick fog that morning and it seemed ideal for getting some moody shots. In general, I find that going out to shoot with no plan can be fun and exciting but it can also lead to disappointment, particularly when I am visiting old familiar places. What I have found to be more lucrative is to set some kind of challenge or goal for myself.

I decided that today my challenge was going to be shooting only in black and white. For me, shooting monochrome makes me look at things in a completely different way. What makes a successful black and white shot is a combination of factors; contrast, texture and a simple uncluttered composition. There are other things too but these are my main criteria. A successful black and white picture, for the most part, cannot be had by simply pushing the black and white conversion button in your program of choice... there's much more too it than that.

Black and white lends itself to abstraction. While color photography can easily capture reality as we mostly see it, black and white captures the mood of a scene. In fact, sometimes a black and white photograph can acquire a life of its own in a monochrome world. Take, for instance the photograph below. I call it "Ghost Train" because the black and white rendering of this scene added an air of eeriness that was not apparent while I was actually there. However, because of my familiarity with this kind of transformation, I anticipated this mood before I clicked the shutter.

Click photo for larger view

The more experience I have in this genre, the more predictable the results although, having said that, part of the appeal of shooting this way is the magic that sometimes appears when I later develop the photograph.

Click photo for larger view

As I was shooting, another train arrived in the little station of Snoqualmie. The local government has preserved this area to feel like something from the early twentieth century. The stationmaster was dressed up in uniform as he greeted the driver. I knew how I wanted this photograph to look. I wanted a sense of nostalgia so I carefully composed the frame, making sure not to include anything modern, like cars or logos, etc. I am pleased with how it turned out.

Click photo for larger view

Old metal and rust photograph well in black and white so I headed back to the "ghost train" to snag some closeups of the dilapidation. I added texture to enhance the grittiness and vintage appearance.

Click photo for larger view

It's such a different experience out walking and imagining the world without color. Everything is reduced to basic shapes and compositions are not as readily available as when you have color to pick up the slack.

I walked past a white garage and the simplicity of the square door, adjacent gnarly fence and bare tree caught my eye. The black and white rendering of the image gave it a feeling of loneliness and quiet. It made me wonder what lay behind the door...

Click photo for larger view

The detail on the gnarly fence was a natural choice for monochrome. You almost can't go wrong with distressed and worn wood.

Click photo for larger view

By now, my hands were freezing but I wasn't yet ready to put my camera away. Near the train station there is a huge tree trunk on display with some old logging machinery. At one point, you could freely walk about and touch all of these wonders but vandalism in the form of graffiti forced the powers that be to erect a metal rail all the way around. It was diffult to get a decent shot without the bars getting in the way so I opted to shoot what looked like a wagon wheel instead. I'm actually not sure what it is but it had all the ingredients for an interesting black and white shot; texture and form.

Click photo for larger view

Almost done, I noticed some unintentional yard art across the street. A beat up bath tub and some old metal urns? I was in mono heaven!

Click photo for larger view

I had now circled back to my car and, although I could have continued for hours, I had promised Linda that I would spend time today decorating for Christmas and we had planned to purchase a tree so it was time to go. I didn't feel like I missed any opportunities. The shoot felt like a success. I thought I had at least one or two interesting shots.

When I got home I imported everything onto my iPad. Sure enough, there were a couple of interesting shots and a lot of not so interesting shots. But, true to my new, slower method of selecting worthy candidates, I let them sit on my iPad light box and got on with the rest of my day.

When I returned later, I saw everything with a fresh eye and new selections became apparent to me. I wondered just how many other photos I may have overlooked during previous shoots. Perhaps I should revisit my older catalog to take a look.

I should also mention that all the photographs in the blog were processed entirely on the iPad mostly using Snapseed, a wonderful app from Nik Software. Who would have thought a gigantic iPhone could do so much?

This new process facilitated by my iPad has added a breath of fresh air to my photography and has opened my eyes to a new level of "seeing".

Stay tuned for more adventures...

The Cure for the Accidental Masterpiece

2011-08-04T19:22:00.000-07:00

So how can we take great photographs? Surely the most important part of the answer is get a great camera.

Not exactly but there is a recipe for success. This recipe has many ingredients and requires a slow simmer to reach its bare essence. You will not find words like quick and instant in this particular cookbook.

When I was young, most peoples' attention span was more than the current average of about 4.6 seconds so that meant it was okay to work at something and not see immediate results. These days, however, everything is instant. We have instant coffee, instant rice, instant downloads, instant messages, etc. etc. Steven Wright once joked that if you put instant coffee in a microwave, would you go back in time? Our hunger for speed is insatiable...why wait for anything or work hard at it when you can take the easy road?

In our quest to find instant gratification in everything we do, we lose the basic principle that we must work long term at something to see real and substantive results. This is not to say that there is no substance in our lives, it's just that temptation is everywhere and wanting something now has become a general and accepted attitude.

It's time to change the paradigm from being a passenger to becoming a driver.

Reaching the next level of photography requires that we fundamentally change the way we see and think. We must turn the auto switch off in our minds and become active participants. We must scrutinize the world around us and know our cameras well enough to accurately capture what we see.

But great photography is easy, why should I learn all that technical stuff? Just look at what Ashton Kutcher can do in that Nikon commercial on TV. Every shot he takes is a masterpiece!

So if I hand someone that doesn't know anything about photography a fancy camera, are they going to shoot masterpiece after masterpiece? Most definitely not. If they take one thousand shots at a wedding, chances are, they are going to come away with a couple of masterpieces but they will be accidental, not deliberate. Why this is important is because we want the good results to be repeatable. If we are shooting in full auto mode and hoping for the best, we will never be able to recreate the brilliance of that one shot we love because we haven't a clue how to get it again. Even if we were in a similar situation and tried to recapture it, the camera is making decisions for us and the photograph will nearly always look different than expected. (Even more important is the ability to see a great photograph in your mind and that's something I'll cover in another article).

Now before you decide to give up because all of this is overwhelming, I will say that there is joy in just picking up a point and shoot camera and capturing a moment. If that's what photography means to you, then great. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that and I happily encourage you to superglue the dial to auto mode.

If, however, you want photography to be a transcending experience, we must work hard to achieve that goal. Make no mistake, it is a long road but the rewards are abundant. To become a true photographer takes joy to levels we never thought existed. The added bonus is that it allows us to see beauty we have never seen and, I'd venture to say, find a deeper purpose in our own lives.

Whidbey Island

2011-08-01T08:08:00.000-07:00

My family and I headed off to Whidbey Island yesterday to meet some friends we had only previously known through Facebook. As luck would have it, they were staying on Whidbey Island, one of my favorite places to visit and photograph. The day was really about meeting them, not photographing but, of course, I can't go anywhere without my camera and I wanted to at least get some photos of our friends and at best get one other photograph for my portfolio.

Today was going to be a black and white day for me so I wanted to completely ignore color. It's interesting to do this because it forces you to see things differently. The focus is not on how colors play off each other as much as it is about finding shapes and textures. Beyond that, one of the biggest draws to black and white for me is the mood it evokes. All the noise that color brings is quietened down in black and white. It's like it strips a picture of everything except its bare essence.

We left Sammamish and traveled to Whidbey via Anacortes. There are two methods to reach the island; either by ferry or across Deception Pass Bridge. We opted for the latter because it's a favorite area of ours and we just wanted to be on the road. We decided to take the ferry home.

We met up with our friends and decided to go to a restaurant in Coupeville on the wharf called Kim's. The atmosphere of the place is great from the approach to the actual eating experience.

In any coastal area, you are going to see a lot of corrosion and this makes for some great textures and patterns, ideal for black and white shooting. As we were walking towards the restaurant, I couldn't resist the temptations all around. Dilapidated buildings were everywhere and everything had a worn feeling, like nature was slowly reclaiming every man made thing. I took out my camera and began to capture some of it.

Usually when I am shooting black and white, I set the camera to a monochrome preset so that I can see in the LCD roughly what's going to work. Even though the camera's conversion to black and white probably won't resemble the finished processed photograph, it gives me a strong idea about what subjects are good candidates for mono. I always shoot RAW so the camera is capturing full color information anyway should I decide to abandon the idea of black and white in post processing. Also, in order to have full control over how my toning is done, having all the color information is critical.

I like to create a sense of timelessness in my photography so I'm always looking for ways to block a shot that will be devoid of logos or things that can specifically be identified as "modern". Things like this can really distract from the story I'm trying to create in the picture.

The photograph below of everyone heading towards the restaurant has an atmosphere that transcends the modern clothing the subjects are wearing. It feels like I can't quite put a date on it and all the leading lines make for an interesting composition.

In the next shot, the texture on the side of the building and the slight drama in the sky created a great mood. Although this subject made for an excellent black and white subject, the mood I was looking for became apparent when I leaked a little color back in so this was the one exception of the day. There's a feeling of anticipation, like maybe a storm is about to happen. It's like the calm that precedes such an event.

Earlier, while going through the town of Coupeville, I noticed this house so we returned to get a shot. It reminded me of something you might see in a movie like the Amityville Horror. It had a great mood to it (notice a common theme in the way I think?). There was a vintage tractor out front but I liked this composition the best. Creepy houses on hills beckon me :)

We left our friends at Coupeville and headed for Clinton to catch the ferry to Mukilteo. On the way we stopped at a farmer's market called Whidbeys Greenbank Farm. Lots of barn structures, fences and old houses, perfect for black and white. There were lots of gulls on the roofs of barns and I waited for a little action before I clicked the shutter. With black and white in mind, I kept the composition simple and uncluttered.

These barrels also made for a nice black and white shot. Subjects like these give no indication of time and play into what appeals to me about black and white. When I process the photographs, I also add a layer of texture over them to give them a slightly aged look and a subtle tint.

Finally we got on the ferry and again, there were lots of textures to be seen. The bold structures and decay grabbed my attention.

All in all, an interesting day of friends and photography.

Tara

2011-07-31T07:49:00.001-07:00

Tara
Originally uploaded by Steven Dempsey

For this photograph of Tara, I chose a large window with evening sun. The light is not direct but certainly strong enough to give a nice softness to the side of Tara's face. Streams of sunlight were hitting a wall at camera right and caused a little rim light around her jaw which worked really nice.

I had her put a shawl on so that I could make the shot feel like it could have been taken 50 years ago or yesterday. One thing I try to avoid is clothing that is too modern or has logos. Unless, of course, it is more of a fashion shoot.

I used Siver Efex Pro to convert to black and white and then I worked with the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop to bring out the texture and dimension in the shawl and eyes. Finally I applied some textured layers and used masks and transparency to get the look I was after.

Tara 2

2011-07-31T06:43:00.001-07:00

Tara 2
Originally uploaded by Steven Dempsey

I'm lucky to have a such a beautiful model at my disposal. My daughter Tara is always game for my whims.

The shower curtain was drawn by a big picture window in my bathroom and a wonderful diffused light was just bouncing all over the walls. I stood Tara right next to the curtain and got this wonderful, gentle mood. The low contrast adds to the delicacy of the colors and just makes for a wonderful shot lit only by Mother Nature's softbox.

Waiting for the Ferry

2011-07-31T06:39:00.001-07:00

Waiting for the Ferry
Originally uploaded by Steven Dempsey

I was waiting to get on the Bainbridge ferry and noticed this woman standing by a pretty large window. The light was diffused and all of the folds of her clothes were ideal for a monotone shot. The fact that she remained anonymous because of the hat made it even better for me. I wanted the shot to be about the interaction of light, not her.

One Morning in Carnation

2011-07-31T06:36:00.001-07:00

One Morning in Carnation
Originally uploaded by Steven Dempsey

This photograph has gone through multiple iterations and, with each black and white rendering, the mood has changed. I like this one the most because I am generally drawn to mystery and darkness.

How to Capture Kickass Fireworks Photographs

2011-07-05T20:08:00.000-07:00

There are as many methods for capturing fireworks as there are fireworks displays but they are all a variation on a theme. Over time I have perfected at least my own style of shooting fireworks and the most important thing is that it is predictable and I'm not just hoping for the best when I get home and look at my shots. So here is my method and it applies to DSLRs specifically. (You are going to have much less control using a point and shoot):

1. Keep a low ISO. I like to keep it at 100

2. Keep your aperture at about f11 (depending on the intensity of the fireworks, you might want to go anywhere from f8 to f16 but f11 worked well for me)

3. Use a shutter release cable

4. Use bulb mode. The real secret is using this mode. I use a Canon camera but I think it's called bulb mode on Nikons as well. If not, go past 30 seconds in your shutter speed and it should go there. You can research what the equivalent is for your camera.

5. Use a tripod (dur!)

6. Unless you are trying to shoot a lot of your surroundings, use a lens that will shoot within a 100-200mm range. For the example shots in the blog, I used 105mm. This way, you can get more detail and that's what makes them interesting and unique in my mind.

7. Critically focus on something distant before it gets dark. It's important to stake out your place and be completely set up before the sun goes down. Once you are in focus, lock it. Remember, if you are at f11, there is some margin for error because your depth of field will be fairly wide (although you lose a little of that when you are zoomed in).

8. Shoot Camera RAW (not necessary but nice).

When the fireworks begin, hold down the button on your shutter release cable. As long as you have your finger on the button, the shutter remains open, meaning it will capture everything that's going on for that duration. Try not to keep it held down too long because it will get really cluttered with multiple fireworks.

Try to anticipate a single group of fireworks from beginning of one group until the beginning of the next. That will give you time to capture the explosion and the trails which gives a nice tapered finish. Check your focus once in a while to ensure sharpness. Out of focus fireworks, even slightly, are totally useless.

After a few shots, I begin to get into the rhythm of how long I should keep the shutter open...it would depend on the type of cluster...less time for smaller clusters and more time for larger ones or if I expect a bunch of them to go off in different places in the sky I would keep the shutter open longer.

Of course, you have to keep glancing at your LCD to check your composition and see the effects of longer versus shorter shutter speeds. Some of my shots were 15 seconds, others were about 5 seconds or less.

If you are slightly over or underexposed, you can recover the shot in Camera RAW very well but I have to say, I don't really need to do that. The shots you see here are pretty much right out of the camera aside from a contrast boost or crop.

Hope this demystifies the process for at least some of you.

Imaginary Worlds and a Paddle (A black and white story)

2009-12-05T10:12:00.001-08:00

My Flickr photostream can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30858857@N06/

Discovering black and white photography was like finding some lost treasure. I got started with a camera relatively late in my life but it was a significant milepost on a path I had begun many years before.

For as long as I can remember music has been a large part of my life. Unlike anyone else I knew, I actually “saw” music. When I heard certain aural textures, images would be triggered in my mind. Particularly if I listened to music with multiple layers, be it Mozart or Simple Minds, I could see vast landscapes when I closed my eyes. The music was the soundtrack to these epic visions.

Creatively, I’ve always been drawn to worlds into which I could escape. When I finally decided to play an instrument, I chose a keyboard with samples of orchestral instruments. I liked the big strings sounds because, when I held down the keys, I could slip into my musical landscape.

Escaping into that world became an addiction in my life. As an artist, I was never satisfied with anything that didn't fire my imagination. For instance, if a particular type of music didn’t sweep me away from where I sat, I wasn’t interested.

To be without some kind of creative outlet, is my idea of insanity and torture. My life is driven by creativity, it’s as vital as food and water.

After over a decade of playing in and out of various bands, I moved on. Oil paints and canvas replaced the ivories and another passion began.

Staring at a blank canvas in my New York apartment and contemplating the world I was going to create was thrilling. The colors of the paints on my palette almost exploded with life. When I was done painting, the canvas spoke to me, like I had just given birth to something. In my best moments, I felt like I could step into the canvas and walk around.

I remember one morning when I woke up and noticed how the dawn light was affecting a particular blue on my freshly painted canvas. It was like a jewel and I just stared at it for what felt like hours until the quality of the light diminished and the day went about its business.

Some people don’t believe in magic but I am not one of them.

I eventually stumbled upon videography as my next means of expression. It was inevitable for me to graduate from static images to motion.

Video facilitated storytelling like no other. I was now able to create images and match them with music of my choice. It was like I had yanked my imaginary world out of its hiding place. Now it was something tangible.

I created short vignettes that swept me away from my daily grind. I posted them on the Web and received emails from city dwellers who were calmed by my work. It helped them keep their feet on the ground in a world that sometimes steals away what is most important.

To move people the way that other artists have moved me is the greatest compliment.

As time went by, I exhausted everything I wanted to say in the medium of video.

One day, a friend asked me to review a new digital SLR camera that was capable of shooting high definition video. I wasn’t all that interested but said yes anyway. He told me there was no hurry and would send me all the equipment.

When everything arrived by mail, I was mildly intrigued by what it would be like to shoot video with a still camera. The attraction of this particular camera was the quality of the lenses and the control over depth of field (or the blur in front of and behind the main subject). I took a couple of test shots and shrugged my shoulders. Sure, it looked good but it was awkward to shoot video with a camera designed for stills.

I vowed to write a review and get the equipment back to my friend but he reminded me he wasn’t in a hurry. For a person like me, not in a hurry means I simply won’t deal with it until I really have to.

As the weeks went by, my interest in shooting stills grew. I spent time snapping away and was wowed by the quality of the pictures. I shot some more. I began changing some of the “looks” on the camera to see what would happen.

There was a broken paddle in my backyard by the lake. I set the camera to monochrome and took a picture. This picture changed the direction of my creative life.

I looked at the paddle on the ground and then I looked at what I had captured but they were not the same. The one at my feet was clearly just an interesting object yet the one in the photograph existed on a completely different plane. While it was recognizable as a paddle, it was also removed from reality. The shot had a sense of timelessness that color simply couldn’t convey. It felt like I had my oils and canvas again and had painted a place that looked familiar yet had an otherworldly vibration.

Later that night, when I studied the photograph in more detail, I realized that deep inside this two dimensional picture was my wonderful creative world. The one with the musical landscapes.

So it was with this revelation that I began my journey into the realm of black and white. While I still shoot color photographs, my vision has now transcended to monochrome. Although I had already honed my eye to see things that others didn’t when shooting video, it has been fine-tuned ever further with this new way of seeing.

To me, black and white photography is art. When I take black and white photographs, I am not merely taking snapshots, I am painting a canvas. I am simplifying the complexity around me to produce an image that has the bare essence of beauty and balance.

For now, this is my passion and I truly love life because of it. I wake up with a reason to live every day knowing there is so much of the world to explore.

Being a photographer is a gift of the highest order because it not only encourages me to see the magnificent beauty around me, but I can also capture it and make it my own.

Canon 5D Mark II

2009-05-03T12:50:00.000-07:00

I spent the last couple of months testing out the video functionality of the new Canon 5D Mark II and you can read my exclusive review on ExposureRoom. You can also see my photos on Flickr.

Planning a New Life on the Road

2009-05-03T10:17:00.001-07:00

My wife and I have a shared passion, we love travelling. She drives and I shoot out the window, how perfect is that? Seriously though, when we plan a trip together, there is nothing that can top the excitement we feel.

We have three teenage children who will be going off to college in the next few years so we are now planning the next chapter of our lives together without them. Although we have enjoyed living in our large house on Pine Lake, when the kids are gone it will be time to move on.

When times were a little less lean, Linda and I bought a 3 ¼ acre plot of land in Tetonia, Idaho which is right at the foot of the Tetons. We imagined it as a place where we would retire. It’s a lovely little piece of the world but is covered in snow for about 6 months out of the year. That’s all well and good when you are in your 20’s but I’m no spring chicken anymore and holing up for that long is not all that appealing. Of course, it's not like being isolated in the wilderness but it's my desire to have easy access to civilization at all times. When all is said and done, though, I would like to be more mobile.

With this in mind, the idea of actually taking time to travel around the country morphed into a reality. We just looked at each other and decided that we should seriously consider “full-timing” (as it’s known) in an RV. Even as I write this, I find it hard to get away from my own distorted notion of how this sounds to a lot of people. I think it’s more readily accepted here in the States than where I come from in Ireland. For the Irish, traveling is akin to living in a run-down trailer park except it’s on wheels. The only time I ever saw RVs in Ireland when I was a kid was in slum areas where mothers were wandering about with an appendage of 10 or more dirty-faced kids.

Having said all that, however, I have come around to the idea that this is very much a lifestyle here in these great United States and there is a vast amount of nature to explore. Travelling represents freedom to me and I have an endless appetite for discovering new places to boot.

Linda and I are not as organized as we would like to be because we really need to start downsizing right now, even though our dream is still at least 6 years away. It’s a little overwhelming to say the least to consider leaving nearly all of our earthly possessions behind to pursue this new life.

Linda has begun a blog of our current travels and thoughts on our new life. We decided we needed to start documenting this, if only to keep the dream alive and share it with others.

You can find the blog here: http://www.mytripjournal.com/LindaFT

Steven Dempsey Wins Grand Prize in "Climate Matters" Film Competition

2008-10-21T08:56:00.001-07:00

From the Andrew C. Revkin at the New York Times:
Winners have been chosen in an online video contest aimed at inspiring the next president, Congress and the public to take meaningful action on human-caused climate change. The goal, in essence, was to solicit fresh messages on global warming that might punch through the “something, someday, somewhere” aura that sociologists say makes this a particularly tough issue to build a movement around. The contest was organized by the climate coalition called 1Sky.org and Brighter Planet, a company offering ways to invest in nonpolluting energy projects through “carbon offsets.”

For more information and to see the winning entry, click here.

Finding a Voice

2008-10-18T06:47:00.000-07:00

Many of you who follow my work may have noticed something different about my most recent films. The addition of narration has changed the message or, actually created one, for the viewer.

Doing this has given me a new energy when I approach these short pieces. It taps into another part of my creativity and really gets me excited. It also comes with inherent risks. I think it takes a lot of courage to just wear your heart in front of thousands of people. I don’t really regard myself as a poet per se but I’m trying to find a happy medium where I can say what’s in my heart and communicate that message in an interesting way. I’m attempting to stay away from flowery verbiage and staying within a voice you might hear in a regular conversation. I don’t know how successful I’m being but it’s a work in progress, like everything else I do.

I have had mixed responses to the addition of voice. Some really like it and others cringe when they hear my narration (both what I am actually saying and the sound of my voice). Because these films are not for commercial use, I feel like they are just pure expression for me. What I’m saying is honest and how I really feel. I may lose a few followers along the way but it’s a consequence I’m willing to accept.

It would be naïve of me not to acknowledge the influence I have so I want to use this platform to get people thinking about the truly important things in life, at least how I see them. They are not political in any way, just ideas about the quality of life and the exploration of spirituality.

As I pursue the spoken word deeper, the message will only become more refined until it is exactly what I want it to be. For me, it's all about the pursuit of happiness.

Letus Ultimate Test Footage

2008-08-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a combination of shots, some with natural light, some with a reflector with the setting sun acting as a strong light source. It's a mish mosh of wide, medium and closeups to demonstrate how the Ultimate can handle all of these situations.

Camera is Canon XHA1

The Quicktime file has rendered everything brighter than the original so keep that in mind when you are looking at the not so deep blacks.

I used a combination of the following Nikon lenses:
24mm f2.8
35mm f1.4
50mm f1.8
55mm f2.8 macro
100mm f2.8
200mm f4.0

The first sky shot (clouds) was shot at f11 and the second blue sky rotating into the tree is shot at f8.

http://www.pinelakefilms.com/ultimate.html

Postcards from the Road

2008-05-01T10:31:00.000-07:00

I went on a road trip recently with my wife Linda. I accumulated a bunch of disparate footage that I didn't quite know what to do with. I decided to put together a montage representing the places we stayed and what we saw out the car window during our long journey home from New Mexico to Washington.

I'll expound on this later but in the meantime, you can view the film here: http://www.pinelakefilms.com/postcards.html

This is the longest piece I have uploaded so kick back and immerse yourself in this beautiful and epic world :)

Las Vegas

2008-04-22T14:38:00.000-07:00

Linda decided to take the trip of a lifetime recently. Her mom flew up from Texas to Washington and they hit the road, Thelma and Louise style, to New Mexico. The plan was to drive there and then Linda's mom would meet up with some friends while Linda met me in Albuquerque for a road trip back to Seattle.

We planned to go from Albuquerque to Las Vegas to san Francisco to Crescent City and then home. We do great road trips together and this was no exception. I shot footage along the way, naturally, so I will be putting together some short films over the next few weeks.

Here's the first...about the most grip and rip thing I've ever done...all handheld except for the first shot. credit must go to Phil Bloom for inspiring the post production zoom in the timelapse. It adds extra interest rather than the usual static shot.

Enjoy: http://www.pinelakefilms.com/vegas.html

Simple Fluorescent Lighting Test

2008-04-16T06:29:00.000-07:00

I'm sick and tired of working around mixed lighting so I'm gradually moving over to daylight-balanced fluorescents instead. Can't afford Kino Flo's right now (but will definitely recommend them for my paying gigs) but, in the meantime, I'm playing around with worklights and rigging them together similar to Kino banks. This is just a simple test using two worklights for a total of 4 fluorescent tubes @ 40w each. I also used a Pro Lite 250w with a snoot for a hair light.

Also, the good thing about flos is that they stay cool, they are way more efficient in power consumption, lasting for years and, most importantly to me, they give off way more throw than incandescent light. For instance, for the flos I used in this test, the total wattage is 160w (40x4) and that is a rough incandescent equivalent of 640w...add another fixture and you've got yourself the equivalent of 960w...

I love the look of fluorescent light and it easily mixes with light coming from any open window.

Shot with a Canon XHA1, no adapter used.

http://www.pinelakefilms.com/flo.html

There is no sound on this test, just quick and dirty.

A Sneak Peak at the "Ultimate" 35mm Adapter from Letus

2008-04-11T11:36:00.001-07:00

Hien Le from Letus with the Ultimate at NAB

I travelled to Portland yesterday to meet up with fellow DVXUser Ryan Walters and also arranged to meet with Letus engineering genius Hien Le. He brought along a prototype of the next generation Letus which he calls the "Ultimate". Preliminary results indicate to me that this is going to be the adapter that kills all other adapters. While I didn't have a chance to really analyze the picture while I was there, I played my test footage on a 50" plasma when I got home and the footage is absolutely breathtaking. I had to actually adjust my brain to understand that I was not looking at footage I shot with my native lens in terms of clarity and resolution....to my eyes there is no difference in what the adapter can capture and that of the native lens of my camera in terms of perceived resolution. I was able to read small labels on distant trash cans in the street and see details on branches and leaves...no softness and absolute consistant sharpness from edge to edge. Ryan's resolution chart looked edge to edge sharp to me although I'm sure he will share his own conclusions. Early tests also indicate that the Ultimate has the same ultra-low lightloss as the Extreme at about 1/2 a stop.

This new unit graduates from the vibrating model and enters the world of spinning ground glass which means no pattern appears when the iris is stopped down. The adapter is capable of shutter speeds as high as 1/1000 and beyond while still maintaining a pristine pattern-free picture. This is a huge boon for those of us feeling the limitations of vibrating adapters. The form factor and weight is near identical to the Letus Extreme, with the same easy setup.

Other features include the ability to adjust the back focus with a focussing ring. No more will you need to worry about infinity on the attached lenses being slightly soft. The adjustment makes the stopping point of the attached Nikon or Canon focus ring tack sharp. This also means that accurate measurements can now be taken from the film plane. The film plane itself is clearly indicated with a small drop down bar to easily hook a measuring tape for dead-on repeatable results.

The spinner speed is variable and can be controlled by the user via an LED readout with up and down buttons for faster or slower velocity. This allows you to fine tune the visibility of the glass depending on your shutter speed. Having the abilty to slow the spinner down also saves battery life.

I am a stickler for good bokeh and have harrassed Hien again and again to get it in line with real filmic bokeh devoid of the diffusion look associated with the Extreme adapter. This has been addressed with a new and much improved high quality ground glass. Distant specular highlights displayed a uniform oval pattern when the lens was wide open and the usual blade patterns when the iris was closed down. Very clean and cinematic to my eyes.

The adapter itself is virtually silent. Gone is the "rumble" of the vibrating GG. I wasn't even conscious of the sound while playing back my test footage.

Additional features:
- Flashing yellow light to indicate low battery life
- Built-in flash memory to retain the last spinner speed used
- CCD offset compensation
- Direct power feed from cameras allowing this type of connection

I am not at liberty to post the test footage yet as the adapter still needs to go through a few more revs before it's ready for prime time but, from what I have seen so far, no other adapter will be able to touch this one.

I strongly believe that you get what you pay for and Hien has gone to great pains to create this unit with the best materials and highest quality optics available. This adapter is aimed at professional-level users at $4500, not necessarily competing with lower end units... but shell out that kind of cash and what you are getting is the best of every adapter out there rolled into one.

I do not know the specific release date yet and everything I posted above is everything I know right now. I'm sure you all will have questions but be patient. As more information becomes available, it will be posted.

Watch this space for more news.

ExposureRoom

2008-04-08T20:12:00.000-07:00

What would you say to a single place where you could have all the benefits of your favorite online forums and the opportunity to meet like-minded people and actually work together? If you are like me, you'd jump at the chance.

For years I have freqented many film-related forums and gotten valuable feedback about my work but the relationships I have struck up with fellow users have been few and far between.

Most forums have a specific theme, albeit loose. Some are set up for artists to share their work with others for encouragement and criticism while others have a more technical bent. Nothing beats face time with people. Adding an extra dimension to the two that exist in cyberspace is nothing short of a quantum jump. Experience in the field accelerates the learning process like no other.

The people behind ExposureRoom have a simple idea; use an online forum as a meeting place and build it into a virtual Rolodex for future projects. Break away from the shackles of niche forums and actually create something real together. Need a composer for your film? Need a cinematographer, an actor, editor, gaffer, script writer? You get the idea. ExposureRoom is setting out to be a one-stop shop for all your film needs. Through an intricate network, you can directly contact the crew members who worked on the film you are watching on ExposureRoom.

It's like a Match.com for the world of creativity. Find a mate and build a relationship - only this time we are talking about working relationships and real projects.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. How about the ability to view streaming HD clips? Upload to a single Web site, grab the supplied embedded code and, within minutes, post your film on your Web site or wherever you choose. No more creating multiple renders. No more missed Little League games (okay, I may be going overboard). With ExposureRoom, you upload a master quality file one time and the site does the rest. In no time there are three versions (small, medium, large) of your file available to play on even the most ancient of computers.

I do not work for ExpsosureRoom but I have helped to shape it on some level and it is fast becoming my favorite destination on the Web. It will be officially launched at the beginning of May and I urge anyone reading this to check it out.

I will write more as the site develops. Go for a visit, I promise it will be worth your time.

http://exposureroom.com

Continuum

2008-04-08T19:16:00.001-07:00

I love machinery and any time I get a chance to shoot old factories or the like, I jump. The things I seem to gravitate to again and again are lighthouses and wind turbines. Not sure why. Maybe its the behemoth nature of these structures. The wind turbines, for instance, are massive and you don't really get a sense of their size until you are standing next to them. There's something solitary about their motion and, in some ways, it kind of reminds me of a post nuclear scene in all its barrenness.

This short film is more abstract in nature than others I have done but it captures the true feeling I had while looking through the viewfinder.

The music I chose had an underlying scratchy record sound that goes perfectly with the turning propellers.

I chose the name continuum because of the continuous movement and anonymity of their placement.

Thanks, again, goes to Fred White from De Cristo Productions for taking the time to bring me to this location and allowing me to shoot with his XHA1.

http://www.pinelakefilms.com/continuum.html

San Francisco

2008-03-31T11:41:00.000-07:00

I was hired by Fred White from De Cristo Productions for a video shoot. When we were done, through his generosity of time and resources, Fred took me around San Francisco to see the sights. I used his camera to shoot some amazing footage... special thanks to him and his family for taking care of me above and beyond while I was there.

I'm looking forward to visiting here again. It has the best of Seattle/New York/California all rolled into one.

Enjoy: http://www.pinelakefilms.com/sanfrancisco.html

A New Way of Thinking

2008-03-19T20:25:00.000-07:00

I've been looking around for some documentary style or even reality TV style work recently and my demo reel has fallen short with the powers that be. This is mainly attributed to the fact that most of my reel has a very cinematic feel to it and a lot of it is landscape and wildlife-based...not what documentarians are necessarily interested in. They want camera operators who are able to follow action and reveal personalities in the subjects of their stories.

This requires a whole different mindset for me because I am used to seeing things cinematically which translates as experiencing things visually at a much slower pace. With corporate and documentary work, the pace is picked up quite a bit and one needs to be on point at all times. There are many times when you need to sacrifice exposure in the background of a shot, for instance, to get a proper exposure on a hastily framed subject. If I was shooting nature footage, I would take the time to ensure the contrast stayed within the camera's range. I also never use the zoom in an actual edit when doing my nature films or more cinematic stuff but it is frequently used in corporate and documentary edits so I have to painfully press the button knowing it will appear in the final edit :)

All of this is new to me but I love the freedom of this style of shooting. Basically I'm just happy shooting, no matter what it is. Even in relatively mundane shoots, I still strive to create something beautiful. That's the challenge and that's what keeps it constantly interesting.

You can see my documentary reel here: http://www.pinelakefilms.com/doc_reel.html

All of these projects are either complete or in progress. You can catch the HD version on my Vimeo page: http://www.vimeo.com/pinelakeflms/videos

After the Rain

2008-03-04T08:00:00.000-08:00

I've always been fascinated by black and white photography and films. There's also a side to me that is attracted to abstraction ala David Lynch (particularly Eraserhead).

The other day, it was dull and dreary in Seattle, having just rained. I decided to take out my Nikon 55mm macro lens and slap it onto my Letus Extreme and start shooting the intimate world of raindrops.

I used the IndiSlider and moved it very slowly, millimeter by millimeter to try to create a vastness in this macro world. The music was deliberately chosen to create a slightly unsettling feeling.

http://www.pinelakefilms.com/aftertherain.html

Being Considerate

2008-03-04T07:51:00.000-08:00

Today I have decided that I want to complain. I have few real gripes but one has raised its head quite a bit recently.

Ever since taking this whole cinematography/videography thing on full time, I have had many emails and phone calls from people really excited to get me on board for their projects. I've even interrupted family celebrations to take calls and listen to great film ideas from directors. I have always been happy to listen to potential new opportunities and get excited by the ones I particularly connect with. At one point towards the end of December, it looked like I would have a pretty full year of projects. By March of this year, only one person followed up and only one project actually came to fruition.

How hard can it be for someone who has taken up someone else's time to take a moment to explain the status of a project? I think it is very inconsiderate to do otherwise.

Part of the problem, as I see it, is that a director or producer has a great idea and then gets a company or individual with the means to finance interested but not committed. The director/producer then begins calling talent to find out who would be interested. That may sound fine to people on the outside but, to me, the more appropriate thing to do would be to develop the script/concept more. Work up a budget and then go back to the financers to find out if it can be done. They may come back and say "If you get a big name associated with this, we can do it" or they may simply feel it is a worthwhile investment. Once there is a signoff, that is the time to begin calling talent.

Alternatively, when a call is first made to the talent, the director/producer should be honest about the budget and status of the project and try to extend a reasonable offer at that time. If it doesn't work out, a simple email or phone call thanking the person for their time and allowing them to make other plans would be appropriate.

It sometimes gets to the stage where I become skeptical about any projects coming my way because my first inclination is to assume it won't happen.

Funny enough, I spoke to a real estate friend of mine recently and she said it's exactly the same in that industry. Maybe it's universal.

I think all of this is just about being considerate to others. The very fact that I am writing this blog entry is sad...

End of rant.

Vimeo - A Video Community

2008-02-25T04:48:00.000-08:00

I've recently stumbled upon a great video community called Vimeo. This site, similar to YouTube and the like, allows the user to upload and view HD content and the quality of the standard definition files is very high.

I have published a number of my films on this site and it's a handy way to have high quality files at 720p available to viewers without dealing with bandwidth issues on my site.

You can see my page here: http://www.vimeo.com/pinelakeflms

A fresh look to the home page

2008-02-17T12:15:00.001-08:00

I like to keep things as fresh as possible and allow people to instantly see some of the things I'm working on so now when I create a new film, I'll post it on the home page so it's easy to find. I like the look of this new design although it's not much of a departure from what I had before.

Allowing Comments

2008-02-10T09:42:00.000-08:00

I have decided to allow users to leave comments if they wish. I initially decided not to because I was getting inundated with posts from unsavory sources, if you know what I mean. I'll see if this works for a while.

Vienna Teng Video Shoot - Part One

2008-02-08T07:45:00.001-08:00

I got a call out of the blue in November from a director I'd known only from a film forum I frequent (dvxuser.com) asking me if I would be interested in shooting a music video. Frankly, I have gotten many calls like this and they have all fallen through so I'm at the point now where I don't take anything seriously until solid plans are nailed down.

Director Tim Hyten assured me that when he and producer Mark Johnson (collectively known as Fat Monster Films) say they are going to do something, that's exactly what's going to happen. Sure enough, within a few weeks, we were talking details and dates were being circled on our calendars.

The concept of the video was developed for another artist at first but after we saw the initial footage, we quickly realized that the visual impact of the image was much stronger than the accompanying song. The Fat Monsters made a mental note to explore options to find a more sophisticated sound to match the epic pictures we were capturing.

Although the original video was slated to be shot in Death Valley, California, Tim had seen footage I shot a while back at Cape Disappointment in Washington and found the location perfect for what he had in mind so he and Mark ditched the Death Valley idea and flew to Washington instead.

Tim and Mark joked about the name "Cape Disappointment", a name that seemed to imply imminent failure but we were undeterred. It took us about 3 1/2 hours to get to the tiny port town of Ilwaco where we hooked up with actor and filmmaker Norm Sanders and his makeup artist Stephanie June Johnson.

After driving around in circles for half an hour, our three cars made their way through the entrance of Cape Disappointment State Park.

My sense of direction is the worst of anyone I know. I think my equilibrium is askew because, if there is a right turn to be made in unfamiliar territory, I will make a left. Even when I go against my best judgement, it still seems to be the wrong direction. My family and I had been to Cape Disappointment before and we had camped near Benson Beach, right on the Pacific ocean, complete with wild surf, cliffs and lighthouses. Today, with the crew, I couldn't for the life of me find the bloody beach. We drove up, we drove down, we drove left, we drove right and then did it all over again. We finally stumbled upon it completely by accident. Whew!

A road block denied us direct access to the beach so we had to drag our gear almost a quarter of a mile. As my gear began to weigh me down, I thought, this is so much better than an office job...that kind of thing keeps me going more often than not.

The "hurry up and wait" mantra was alive and well during this shoot. I arrived on the beach first and unpacked and set up the camera gear and then found myself alone, staring out at the sea for almost an hour while makeup was applied back at the makeshift dressing room in the back of a rented truck. I love the sea, particularly the Pacific in this neck of the woods so I quite enjoyed the delay.

The video has two separate components; a story and a performance. The story involves the epic journey of a character called "the Harbinger", a Gulliver-like individual, at least in looks and demeanor, and his self-discovery, rendered in a more literal way than metaphorical. The performance part, at this point, was either going to be plain jane concert footage or something more dramatic with a piano at Death Valley... as yet undetermined. For today's shoot, we were concentrating on the Harbinger's journey.

Norm Sanders was perfect for the role with his big build and square jaws, he is wonderfully photogenic. The Fat Monster boys had rented a costume which consisted of knickerbocker style pants, knee length boots, a white puffy shirt (thank you Seinfeld) and a torn up tweed jacket. Norm definitely looked like Gulliver....I was expecting Lilliputians to jump out from behind the rocks.

Although it was very cold and windy on the beach (it was mid-December), Norm was a great sport and jumped to every whimsical idea Tim had. Tim, for his part, is a brilliant director. His vision is laser sharp and his ability to translate what's in his head to something coherent is quite amazing. I love working with him. We are a good team together. Meanwhile, Mark ensured everything was running smoothly and found solutions to whatever problem arose.

I was using a Panasonic HVX200 with a Letus Extreme 35mm adapter for the shoot. I was not familiar with the HVX but found it effortless to use and we also extensively employed the camera's variable frame rate capability, capturing exquisite slow motion.

When we wrapped that evening, we headed back to Ilwaco and found a fish restaurant where we tried all sorts of "interesting" delicacies. We split up in our three cars. Norm, Mark and Stephanie were staying at a hotel and Tim and I were heading back to my house.

While on the road to a town called Raymond, I realized I was completely out of gas. Raymond was about 18 miles away and we were about the same distance now from Ilwaco. There were no street lights and I began to visualize horrific scenarios from "Friday the 13th" all the way to "Deliverance"! For some reason, travelling at 80mph made me feel like I could get to Raymond faster and, thus, use less gas. From a purely scientific perspective, this of course, doesn't make sense. Tim informed me that we could get better mileage if we slowed down. I reluctantly reduced speed but my adrenaline rush was still way over the speed limit. I tried to be calm in front of Tim, joking while I could and reeling myself in when I thought I was revealing my white-knuckle fear. The gods were smiling down on us that night because we made it to the gas station while defying the laws of physics.

When we got home, we reviewed the footage. I cannot completely relax on a shoot until I have seen at least the first day's footage. If it turned out well, then I am relieved and can proceed as before. If there are problems, they need to be discussed and addressed. Problems are magnified where our location is unique and difficult to get back to. Fortunately, the footage turned out way better than I anticipated. I was relieved. I had a beer. I went to bed.

Behind-the-scenes photos courtesy of Mark Johnson and his iPhone:

The makeshift dressing room in the back of a U-haul

He's dead Jim

How could one complain at such a spectacular location?

We used a crane to get some "money shots"

Chasing the light at Cape Disappointment

Vienna Teng Music Video

2008-01-17T05:06:00.000-08:00

I teamed up with Mark Johnson and Tim Hyten of Fat Monster Films to shoot a music video for Vienna Teng. The first half was already shot at Cape Disappointment and we will be shooting the performance segment in the next few weeks. All shot with an HVX200 and Letus Extreme combo.

This is the announcement from the Fat Monster Films Blog:

Rounder Records, one of the biggest independent record labels in the United States has reached agreement with Fat Monster Films to produce a music video for artist Vienna Teng. Vienna's first major national exposure was on the David Letterman show in January 2003; she has since made appearances on the CBS Saturday Early Show, National Public Radio's Weekend Edition, CNN's NewsNight with Aaron Brown, and The Wayne Brady Show, and opened in concert for Joan Baez, Shawn Colvin, Joan Osborne, Sarah Harmer, and Marc Cohn. Her first album, Waking Hour, peaked at #5 on the Amazon.com bestseller list; her second album, Warm Strangers, reached as high as #2. In 2006 Vienna signed with Zoë/Rounder. Vienna is currently finishing an extensive tour promoting her new album Dreaming Through The noise.

Yesterday (Saturday) Tim and I met Vienna backstage at The Independent in San Francisco where she was scheduled to perform two concerts. Vienna was extremely gracious and enthusiastic about the project and she gave us free rein of her dressing room where we liberated a couple bottles of Stella Artois while waiting for her to complete her sound check. We worked out details for the music video concept and stayed to watch most of her first set (which was incredible).

This will be Vienna's first music video and the song chosen for the project is Gravity from her first album called Waking Hour. Steven Dempsey will be Director of Photography for the shoot and we expect to complete shooting and post by spring 2008.

Snow Motion with the IndiSlider

2008-01-17T04:58:00.000-08:00

While on DVXUser recently, I came across a post by a user who mentioned a tool called the IndiSlider by Indifocus. I took a look on their site and couldn't really figure out what this thing was. I took a look at the some footage the guy shot and was very impressed. It appeared to me like he had set up dolly tracking in all of the city streets where he had shot and it gave a lovely movement to the piece. When I investigated further, I began to understand exactly what the IndiSlider is.

Basically, it's like a sleigh - a long piece of metal - that goes between a tripod head and legs. Once assembled, the head can smoothly slide left and right. It comes to two lengths, a 24 inch and 36 inch version. I chose the latter, wanted the maximum impact.

It's a little heavy and it takes about 15 minutes to assemble. Luckily, I had an older Bogen tripod and legs which meant I didn't have to keep changing back and forth with my main tripod. Once I had it set up, I just left it on the tripod. You wouldn't be traveling too far on foot with this setup and a camera unless you are weight training. It's definitely worth the trouble because it really ups the quality and potential of the shots one can get. Although this tool is not perfect, with a little practice and patience, one can get great results.

Take a look at this example I shot after a recent snowstorm. All footage was shot with the Canon XHA1 and Letus Extreme 35mm adapter:

View it here: http://www.pinelakefilms.com/snowmotion.html

Carlsbad Caverns - New Mexico

2008-01-17T04:57:00.000-08:00

My family and I went to New Mexico over the Christmas holidays and one place I really wanted to see was Carlsbad Caverns. Ansel Adams took a series of shots there many years ago and they haunted me. I knew I had to shoot this place for myself.

I really wasn't sure what to expect. From the photos I had seen, it looked like the caves were pretty well lit. These days I find it hard to take my Letus adapter off the camera because there is something magical about the footage I capture when it's on. I just can't seem to get that same magic using the native lens. Everything looks too much like "video" when shoot without the Letus.

When I walked into the caves, it was way darker than I expected and I knew it was too late to take the adapter off. I chose to use a super slow shutter speed (1/6th) to gather enough light for the images but also to capture a more ghost-like atmosphere. Frankly, I really like the way the footage turned out...it adds a layer of mystery and conveys a lot of what I felt while there.

My son and I hung back from the girls while I filmed and he shot some stills. The flashes that you see are from his camera.

The music is layered from three separate tracks and mixed using Sony Soundforge.

View it here: http://www.pinelakefims.com/carlsbad.html

New Year's Eve in Seattle

2008-01-17T04:51:00.001-08:00

A friend of my daughter's came to town on New Year's eve so we took him sightseeing in Seattle. The weather was unusually cooperative so I decided to document our trip. I strapped on my Letus Extreme 35mm adapter to my Canon XHA1. Instead of lugging my tripod around, I used my Bogen 562b monopod.

I love the flexibility of the monopod because it's very light and portable and, when absolute steady shots are not critical, it's ideal. The resulting footage is somewhere between handheld and tripod-mounted.

I didn't use an external monitor for any of these shots, I just relied on what I saw in the LCD...true grip and rip. With practice it is possible to pull accurate focus without a monitor although, for a paying gig, I would be way more maticulous.

Here's the short: http://www.pinelakefilms.com/newyearseve.html

Digital Therapy - Free Ain't What It Used To Be

2007-12-02T08:38:00.000-08:00

Over the years, I have spent countless hours sharing the knowledge I have gained working with my camera and studying film. The people on the receiving end are not the only beneficiaries, however, because I love being a teacher and inspiring others. Every week I receive many emails from people asking advice on presets for their Canon HDV cameras, advice on gear, how to get a certain look, where do I get my music from, what's my workflow...well, you get the idea. Thus far, I have been able to find the time to answer most of these emails but it is now becoming more burdensome because, not only has the number of emails increased, but I am now trying to make a go at a career outside of corporate America.

Why am I babbling on about all of this? Someone approached me recently and asked if I would be willing to work with him over the phone on a consultancy basis. What that means is that he has defined specific time with me and the "session" can either be structured with a very specific agenda or unstructured where it's more like a spontaneous Q&A-style conversation. Either way, it has proven to be very successful and it's a win-win situation because I feel good about actually getting paid for this time and am able to devote all my focus on the time allotted and the "client" gets my undivided attention and can probe deeper into a question in a conversational style if the answer is not completely clear.

Ideally, I would love to expand the number of people I work with and fill my calendar like a counselor would. Call it Digital Therapy.

If this interests you, I am open to a free 10 minute assessment of what your needs are and, after that, will charge an hourly fee for my services. Basically, you buy an hour's worth of consulting from me via check or Paypal and, when that credit runs out, we can either end our relationship or you can buy extra credit and continue.

For more information, please email consultant@pinelakefilms.com

Cinematographer for Hire

2007-11-12T16:03:00.000-08:00

Last Monday I got laid off from a job as a graphic designer I've had for nearly eight years. That stretch of time is almost unheard of these days because so many people are freelancing or just job hopping. I like stability. I like a certain degree of predictability in my life. My "real" job provided me with that and now it's gone. I used to joke to people when they asked me what I did that I was a filmmaker but had a full time job as a graphic designer as a hobby. I still see myself as primarily a visual artist always capturing life whether it be in human eyes or distant hilltops.

I'm so glad to be out of the corporate graphic design business. I found it to be an absolute hinderance to my creativity. Now I am looking toward a future with my camera. I am confident about my skills but clueless as to how to get going on a serious path with this. I don't have the luxury of starting from the bottom, my bills are just not going to stand for that.

For now I am taking small projects. I just got done with a project commissioned by LetusDirect to demonstrate the capabilities of a new 35mm adapter called the Letus Extreme: Click Here

I am also going to Southern California at the beginning of December to shoot a music video that has an epic movie feel to the story and visuals. Can't wait for that.

In the meantime, I just finished creating a reel of the best of my footage. Pass this link along to anyone who might be in need of a videographer/cinematographer or whatever: Click to view my reel (available in high definition upon request)

Yellowstone

2007-09-14T11:06:00.000-07:00

I just got back from one of my most favorite places in the world - Yellowstone.

I cannot adequately explain why this place means so much to me. Maybe it's the close proximity to wildlife afforded its visitors, maybe it's the lush colors of Hayden Valley or the otherworldliness of the hot springs and geysers or maybe it's simply the magic and mystery of what will be around the next corner when driving the "loop". Whatever it is, it's something alien to my everyday existence.

Yellowstone is known as the American Serengeti and I can see why. In five days my family and I shared the landscape with countless bison, two packs of wolves, a lone coyote wading through Yellowstone River lit by the first rays of sunlight at Hayden Valley, two bull elk with full racks resting under a tree by a river, many young elk with mothers, bald eagles, and the highlight of the trip for me, a grizzly mother with her cub. Not exactly the kind of sighting list I would write up here on Pine Lake.

My parents came from Dublin to accompany us on this amazing trip. We travelled about 3000 miles covering Seattle to Yellowstone to Grand Teton National Park to Jackson HOle, over the Teton Pass into Idaho and hanging out in Tetonia, a small town of only a few hundred people where we bought some land with the intention of building and retiring early. I'm looking forward to waking up and sitting out on the porch while the sun rises behind the four main peaks of the Grand Teton mountains.

So what has all of this got to do with films? I shot about six hours of footage. What made the footage unique for me is that about 95% of it was shot using my Letus 35mm adapter. Quyen, the maker, has come so far with this unit that it now competes with the native lens of the XHA1. I even took a risk shooting big wide shots, a no-no up until recently because 35mm adapters really suffered when it came to big wide shots with lots of detail. I think the adapter did a fine job. It's not quite as sharp as the native Canon lens but that's fine with me. It is resolving the detail but without the video sharpness that I really don't like. I like detail but not sharpness and I have a hard time explaining what I mean when I talk about resolution. It's not about sharpness, people, it's about what detail the camera can resolve. The Letus is capable of resolving all of the detail I need which is kind of amazing when you consider this would be unheard of not too long ago. I haven't tried matching footage shot with the Canon and the Nikons yet but I believe it wouldn't be that difficult. I just need to turn down the in-camera sharpness when shooting with the Canon lens.

Anyway, I am going to be documenting my parents' visit as it was an important one for the whole family. I'm also going to be compiling the best of my shots and submitting to variousl online stock footage houses.

Canon XHA1 and Steadicam Merlin - the Perfect Match

2007-07-13T09:52:00.000-07:00

I just replaced my Glidecam setup with a Merlin and all I can say is wow.

The attention to detail in everything from the packaging right down to the precision engineering of this device is inspiring. This is a company who cares about their customers and wants to enable them as best they can.

While I struggled to balance the Glidecam to the point where it was basically impractical for me to use it, the Merlin, once it's set up, is good to go everytime bar a few minor adjustments.

The design is beautiful. The DVD is packed with useful information and techniques. The carrying case is exquisite.

The fact that one of the main techniques is to control the Merlin with two hands (both taking some of the weight of the Merlin and camera) means less fatigue. The one-handed method (regarding absorbing weight) of the Glidecam made it very difficult to operate with pain in both my wrist and back.

The Merlin is much lighter than the Glidecam, making it more desireable to use more frequently. It folds down into a tiny size that is lighter and smaller than my monopod!

It took me about 15 minutes tops to balance the XHA1 perfectly. It's very important that you read the manual along with watching the video for a complete understanding. The user's cookbook settings on the Tiffen site were right on and made the whole thing very easy.

The only reason that I can see why anyone would have trouble balancing the XHA1 is that they don't completely understand the concept of balance with these kinds of stabilizing devices. All I can say is read and re-read the manual, watch the DVD a bunch of times and you will eventually get it. In particular, make sure you measure the arc size accurately. You can see by the diagram in the manual exactly where you should be measuring from and to.

I'm off on a camping trip with my wife for the weekend so I'll try to get some shots and post later.

All in all I am thrilled with my purchase. Again, I'm blown away with the quality and ease of use. I'd recommend this unit to anyone.

Canon XHA1 - a review

2007-03-13T09:55:00.000-07:00

After shooting with an XLH1 for about nine months, I decided to sell it and buy an XHA1 instead. I can’t say I loved the attention I got when I went out with the XLH1. I spent a lot of time smiling and waving at people as they exclaimed “Wow, that’s a serious camera you’ve got there…” Also, the less “official” I look, the easier it is to shoot in a much broader variety of places. On top of all of that, the weight of the camera and the necessity of disassembling it when flying was all just a little too much. Selling it allowed me to get a camera much more akin to my beloved DVX100 and put some money back in the bank to boot.

When my camera arrived, the first thing I noticed was that it was small. It’s much smaller than I expected, in fact. I think it was partly due to my familiarity with the XLH1. In my mind, I was still expecting it to be in that size range. Now what I was looking at as I took it out of the box was more like a toy by comparison.

The next thing that surprised me was the weight of the camera. It was a little heavier than I expected and it also felt very solid. This pleased me greatly because it is pretty robust and that’s critical for me given I am out in the field quite a bit.

It felt well balanced although maybe a tad front heavy. I was able to quickly get up and running with all the controls because they were similarly placed to the XLH1. I was disappointed that I could not enable or disable the OIS from a button but had to go into a menu to change it. I switch the OIS on and off quite a bit so that was a significant loss. Also, I was not completely happy about having to search through the menu again to change the gain from 0 to -3 (which I do frequently). On the XLH1, that was also easy to change independent of the menu.

The instant focusing ability of the A1 is nothing short of spectacular. I never much used auto focus on the XLH1 but I am using it quite a bit on the A1. Mostly I set focus to manual and press the focus button for quick checks.

Having color bars so easily available is really nice. It’s one of those things that is very subtle but ends up being a great convenience.

The LCD, like the XLH1 is much brighter than what is being recorded to tape and can be deceiving. I always use zebra stripes as an exposure aid but sometimes can still be fooled by the LCD display, leaving me with underexposed and noisy footage. This is just something I need to watch out for. I haven’t tried playing with the brightness of the LCD although the brightness is an advantage on sunny days.

One thing that I find really annoying is when I have the camera slung over my shoulder using the strap. The white balance switch keeps getting moved and 75% of the time I have to switch it back to where it was.

The battery compartment, although a little odd compared to what I’m used to, doesn’t bother me at all. My 970’s fit in there and slip out without a problem.

Having an iris ring is such a thrill after the little thumbwheel of the XLH1 and it is surprisingly responsive and totally useable even when recording if I want to make a subtle adjustment. I got used to the position and feel of the focus, zoom and iris ring straight away so the whole design feels very intuitive to me.

The position preset focus/zoom switches occupy a huge amount of prime real estate on the camera and it seems such a novelty function to me. I’m a little confused as to why Canon didn’t use this space for at least an OIS button instead, something I would use a hundred times more.

Without going into every physical attribute of the camera let me just say that I find the entire design very logical. Even hunting around for something I hadn’t yet used on the camera while recording, I was able to put my finger right on what I needed.

Even though Canon basically said that the XHA1 and the XLH1 would record the same quality picture, I was a little nervous that there would be something different. I spent some time working on getting the picture from the H1 just perfect to where I loved the colors, etc. I was relieved and thrilled to see that the picture quality matched and I was still able to produce quality footage in a smaller and lighter package. The noise level is significantly lower than what I experienced on my DVX. In fact, the noise the XHA1 produces is much more like fine film grain than the dancing digital dots I’ve seen on some HVX and DVX footage in low light.

All in all I would say that this is the best camera I have ever used. It is absolutely ideal for my shooting style which is usually out in the elements shooting nature footage. The form factor is right as is the weight and positioning of all of the controls. As mentioned earlier, I would like an OIS switch and the sensitivity of the white balance switch is a minor annoyance.

Canon has done a spectacular job squeezing such a great HD image onto a miniDV tape. I have noticed some occasional macroblocking in high motion scenes but it’s really very minor and not something I am worried about at all. It’s the kind of thing that is only visible through close inspection of still frames, not while watching the footage, even on a 50” plasma.

Do I miss my XLH1? Hell no.

Narration or Lack Thereof

2007-02-14T11:12:00.000-08:00

I've had a few people ask me why most of my films do not have narration. I suppose people are accustomed to this kind of presentation being paired with the spoken word. Here is an excerpt from my correspondance with one individual:

I don't approach my filmmaking in a typical documentary or travelogue fashion. My films are much more impressionistic than literal and I prefer my work to encourage people to pay more attention to what surrounds them. I do not believe they need to be hand held through the images for the film to make sense. When I observe a wonderful sunset, there is no voice telling me what to look at or how to look at it, the experience is uniquely my own.

I use music to approximate the feelings I have had while shooting. This is necessary for me because something is clearly lost when transferred to a two dimensional plane. I do not think at all about manipulating my audience, rather, the music I choose solely dictates the order in which my images appear.

I want to express nature in terms of how I experience it from within. For me, these films do not need narrative, it's not the point of what I do. I imagine them to be like motion paintings and to use more strokes than is necessary would simply ruin the canvas.

Pine Lake Films DVD Released

2007-02-12T07:00:00.000-08:00

After months of bad weather, life, etc. getting in the way, I finally managed to release my DVD. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. There are nine short films covering three years of shooting on my Panasonic DVX100A. The disk also includes some beautiful photography by my wife Linda.

While the videography gives a good sense of the context of the subjects and how they move about their worlds, the photographs allow time to ponder the intricate details we sometimes take for granted.

What makes these films different from the mass of nature films already out there is the way I have approached them. Most nature filmmakers shoot in a documentary style that is typical of the genre. I, on the other hand, have always been passionate about narrative movies. I wanted to take a somewhat different direction by getting away from the documentary feel and creating more of a feature film experience.

My shooting style is naturally cinematic so I wanted to bring that big production feel to nature. My actors are both animate and inanimate. Animals and landscapes. When I shoot, I frame the shot like I am shooting a big budget film. Every camera move and everything in the frame is meticulously calculated. I work tirelessly to ensure that my soundtracks have an equal impact. Editing brings a unity to the disparate imagery and, however abstract, a story is told. The result is much larger than the short time these films occupy. As much as I love independent films and filmmakers, I want my films to be break out of that mold.

My work, with few exceptions, is free of narration. This is a deliberate attempt to keep the images free of opinion and influence. I prefer viewers to see my work as they would an abstract painting, each taking away something different. I want my images to move people. There is nothing more gratifying.

I am truly proud of this work. It is a significant step for me to mold all of this footage into coherent vignettes. I would be happy to just keep shooting and never think about what happens beyond that but I have come to the realization that it is time to share this work with others.

I hope you enjoy the films as much as I have enjoyed creating them.

If you would like, you can order the "Water's Edge" DVD by going to this page.

HD Stock Footage Now Available for Sale

2006-10-13T15:18:00.000-07:00

I just signed up with a company called Revolution Stock Media and am beginning to sell some of my HD footage. What's there right now is mainly shots I took while in Yellowstone Park recently.

I am going to be selling a lot more of my footage which will include not only HDV shots but much of what I have done in SD with the DVX100.

Stay tuned.

DVD is Finally Coming...

2006-09-22T09:05:00.000-07:00

Because my M.O. is to jump from one project to the next and want to constantly move forward, I tend to be more enamored with new things rather than trying to organize what I have already created. My focus has been more on creating new films and experimenting with HD of late and I realized that I really had a treasure trove of films that I want to share with others.

Creating a DVD has been on the cards for at least a year but it has been pretty hectic for me. Now I am in a better position to knuckle down and make this happen.

My intention is to gather the best of my nature films onto one disk. I'm expecting the runtime to be somewhere in the 45 minute realm. For those interested in the more technical aspects of shooting, I will be creating a unique disk for www.DVXUser.com that will include a 10 minute DVX Film School doc where I will talk about and demonstrate some of the techniques I use to achieve high quality, filmic footage.

I'm hoping to release the DVD in November but will post updates here as I get closer to the time. In the meantime, you can sign up to be notified directly when the disk is available by going here: http://www.pinelakefilms.com/dvdform.html

A Final Piece to the Film Look Puzzle

2006-08-01T23:11:00.000-07:00

There are many people who seem to be in search of the film look these days. For fun, Google the phrase and you will find thousands of results. Everything from elaborate post production processes to using 35mm adapters is well covered on the Web.

I confess I am one of those people who have craved the look of 35mm film. There is something magical about it that is not present in your common or garden video footage. The video look is too real for me, too soap opera, too much.

Over the years, I have used software products to emulate the film look and my two favorites have been DVFilm Maker and Magic Bullet. Despite the convoluted process, I persevered and my results were quite impressive to those who saw my work. Being a perfectionist, I was never satisfied. There were two things missing for me; detail and shallow depth of field.

By detail I mean what most of us see on a major motion picture DVD. Even though the picture has been reduced to fit your regular TV screen, there is just more detail retained from the 35mm original than any regular digital video camera can ever capture.

The other problem is trying to emulate shallow depth of field. For those of you who don’t know what this means, it’s the area in which a lens maintains focus while the rest of the shot is blurred….There are many technical explanations on the Web so I won’t go into that here. Regular video cameras can only achieve a suggestion of this look by zooming in and then focusing. You can forget about achieving any kind of shallow focus at the wide end of the lens, everything will be in focus and there’s nothing you can do to be selective. Again, there are many technical reasons why this is so and our good friend Mr. Google will help you gain that kind of insight.

So with the advent of affordable HD cameras, I purchased the Canon XLH1 HDV camera and that took care of the detail. Now I needed to achieve a shallow depth of field without resorting to teleconverter lenses or being limited to the somewhat flat feel of being completely zoomed in.

Enter the 35mm adapter…
Instead of me trying to describe what this kind of adapter is, let’s consult Wikipedia:

A shallow DOF (a.k.a. 35mm) adapter looks to take the place of the camera’s CCD and use a larger focusing plate (in many cases, 35 millimeters) to capture an image. Since this image is focused onto a translucent screen, the camcorder is able to focus on it and record it. The lens attached to the adapter now takes the job of the camcorder’s focusing and aperture mechanisms, as the camcorder’s only responsibility at this point is to record what is being projected onto the focusing screen (called backfocus).

So, in a nutshell what that means is a regular photography lens (Nikon or Canon) is used to project a picture onto a tiny screen and is captured by the video camera’s lens. It’s essentially looking at a teeny movie screen and shooting off of that. The advantage is that you now have all the benefits of a photography lens, including shallow depth of field. Was that any clearer? Maybe not 

After much research, I settled upon an adapter known as the LetusXL35. You can read about it at the Web site: http://www.letus35.com

So now my film look is complete and I am very happy with the results. Below is footage from a recent test I did with my daughter’s help. I used my Canon XLH1 and the Letus35XL and lenses were Nikons; 28mm f2.8 and 50mm f1.8

The file is a relatively low bitrate (10mbs) WMV but retains most of the quality of the original. What the low compression has introduced is a little noise that is not present in the original.

Mac users can use the following player: http://www.flip4mac.com/wmv.htm You can also use VLC Media player although I've heard that it stutters.

Windows users can use Windows Media Player, Media Player Classic or VLC Media Player (the latter 2 are free and can be found on the Web)

The file is about 134mb. Enjoy: http://www.pinelakefilms.com/XLH1/DisjectaLetus.wmv

Film Review - The Exorcism of Emily Rose

2006-06-20T10:07:00.002-07:00

It’s rare when I get excited enough to write about a film I have seen, particularly one that would seem to fall into a typical horror genre.

Having seen actor Tom Wilkinson's powerful and understated performance in Todd Field’s “In the Bedroom”, I knew this film was going to be substantial beyond cheap jump scares. Wilkinson not only gives another quietly brilliant performance but is also in the company of a fine cast. Laura Linney's wonderfully organic portrayal of a defense lawyer is refreshing and real.

The story centers around a lawyer (Linney) who takes on a negligent homicide case involving a priest (Wilkinson) who performed an exorcism on a young girl. The film is a clever combination of courtroom drama and horror via flashbacks to Emily’s possession and subsequent exorcism.

Director Scott Derrickson wisely chose to underplay the special effects, relying heavily on a breathtaking performance from Jennifer Carpenter who plays Emily Rose. Derrickson was so impressed with Carpenter’s physical gymnastics, it made him rethink the whole direction of the film regarding his approach to special effects.

What makes this movie shine above others in this genre is its depth of emotion and an uncanny feeling of just being there. Because of the director's avoidance of over-the-top effects, the viewer is drawn into the story in a “what if?” way. Unlike a film like "The Exorcist," I didn’t have to work hard to suspend my disbelief.

In my mind, this is a rare and perfect film. It has a magic combination of top notch acting, a great story, believability, stunning cinematography and exquisite lighting. I would say it is the scariest film I've seen in recent memory, mainly because the horror element is underplayed, not in your face. I felt the hair on the back of my neck bristle a couple of times.

As a filmmaker, I appreciate the amount of work spent preparing each shot. The color palette was well thought out and the framing of every shot is something to which I can only aspire.

The music is interwoven through the film so beautifully, it’s hardly there but you will find a rich aural texture that can easily stand up by itself. The editing is superb and seamless.

Highly recommended.

Planning A Grand Experience

2006-06-16T10:36:00.000-07:00

I have a very exciting trip coming up in July. A friend of mine, Barlow Elton, on the XLCinema forum invited me to his home in Salt Lake City for a weekend shoot at Bryce Canyon and Zion national parks. For those of you not familiar with this area, the terrain is full of geological wonders and the whole atmosphere is otherworldly. It is a huge departure from the environment in which I usually shoot.

Composer Glenn Scott Lacey has been working with me on some recent films (see "Snoqualmie" and "Olympic National Park") and he became very excited by the possibility of doing something in Utah. In fact, he was so excited about developing a soundtrack for the short film, he decided to come along on the trip too. I sent him notes on some ideas I had for the style of music I envisioned and he immediately went into creative mode thinking he would do some field recordings of the ambience of the canyons and incorporate those into his final piece.

Glenn is a “can do” kind of person. No matter how demanding I am regarding musical ideas, he takes it and runs with it and adds his unique talents to produce something quite beautiful.

So Barlow and I will be shooting and Glenn will be recording audio. I decided that we would concentrate on Bryce Canyon for this trip and not take on another location. Zion can wait for future trip. We plan on spending at least one night at a cabin in the park so we can be ready to go when the sun rises.

This will truly be a unique experience for me and I am determined to create my masterpiece. I am considering submitting the final piece to Discovery HD Theater for inclusion in their “Short Subject” series.

Stay tuned.

Perpetual Motion

2006-06-15T10:05:00.000-07:00

I sometimes ponder the notion that nothing is ever completely still. There are things that are obvious to our eyes like rushing water, cars passing, people walking, etc. But when I shoot scenes that appear to be static, I later notice the tiniest movement in a blade of grass or a single leaf twirling on a branch pushed only by the inertia of a gentle breeze. Matter is constantly on the move. The moon and sun cover tens of thousands of miles on their daily journey but to our eyes they appear still.

I put together some scenes from two recent trips to Snoqualmie and the Montlake Fill here in Seattle and when I reviewed the footage noticed the subtle and sometimes not so subtle movement in every frame.

Philippe Lhommet is the composer and he’s fast becoming one of my favorites for these short subjects. He understands both the complexity and simplicity of perpetual motion. The music itself creates a sense of movement even when it is not apparent in the scene. The structure of his music is evocative of machinery constantly on the go.

My belief is that no matter how disparate imagery is, it is all connected somehow. Even though I am jumping all over the place in themes in this piece, it is all unified by my experience of being there. The common denominator is the storyteller. It appears seamless to my eyes and is an expression of the memories I have of the two days I spent shooting.

In general, when I look through the viewfinder, I strive to make interesting what would otherwise be lost on the casual viewer.

So this piece represents all of the above. I hope you enjoy it. As usual, both SD and HD versions are available for download by clicking here

Big Yellow Moon

2006-06-12T13:17:00.000-07:00

I was out shooting with Linda up by Snoqualmie Falls on Saturday and on the way home caught a glimpse of the rising moon. It was big and yellow and I had to slam on the brakes and get a couple of shots. Light was fading fast and I missed the magic hour so it was a challenge to really capture this scene in its essence. I think it turned out pretty well but I would have preferred to shoot it a little earlier so I could have exposed the moon and the landscape more evenly.

I’ll be incorporating these shots into a film at some stage so I’m just posting the stills for now.

The Cottonwood Tree

2006-06-08T23:02:00.000-07:00

Here is a work in progress. This is the time of the year when cottonwood trees lose their cotton and it's a pretty cool sight, it looks like it's snowing. There's a cottonwood in our yard and it was shedding its skin the other day and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to shoot.

I will probably include this in a more ambitious piece in the future because I really didn't have enough footage to work with even for this short edit. Anyway, it's pretty spectacular so I wanted to share it.

This is a fairly low bitrate 24p WMV so the blocking in the water IS NOT IN THE ORIGINAL. Sorry for shouting but I don't want the focus to be on something that's a result of post process compression and not the camera's ability.

There are a couple of shots in there that I took in the middle of the night of the moon. I cranked the gain up for those shots so they are riddled with noise but that's intentional. The next time I do something like that I think I'll experiment with NR1 and NR2 to see their effects...

Click here to view

Journey Into Spring

2006-06-06T10:31:00.000-07:00

When I bought the Canon XLH1 camera I was eager to go to a few of my favorite spots to capture the beauty of nature in high definition. I was not disappointed. Although this piece is disparate in its imagery, it highlights the strengths of shooting high definition and demonstrates how suited it is towards my style of photographing.

Shooting high definition has opened new doors for me. When working with the Panasonic DVX100, I avoided long, wide landscape shots whenever possible because of the low resolution of mini dv. Detail on the horizon would lack definition and I did everything humanly possible to squeeze every bit of resolution out of the small frame size by using various uprezzing techniques. It still left me wanting and I never dreamed HD would become affordable so quickly.

Now, when I go exploring, my options are no longer limited. The camera can render the most delicate distant imagery and, given that the final destination for my films is currently large screen plasmas or LCDs, the image competes easily with any 35mm film transfer shown on the same medium. This is thrilling to me.

The more I work with the XLH1, the more I love it. I can easily reproduce the color and feel of the DVX100 (something I was initially worried about) and the 24p cadence is completely film-like to my eyes.

So take a look at the low res version available here and, if you like it, download the high definition version (link is below the low res version). I promise you the large file size and time taken to download it is well worth it.

For those who like technical details, the high definition version is a true 24p file, extracted from the original 24f footage.

Cloud Timelapse

2006-06-04T23:46:00.001-07:00

Yes, timelapse shots are completely overdone. I agree. However, that's not going to stop me doing them because, to me, the world is always a fascinating place to study and no two timelapse shots are the same because of the randomness of Mother Nature.

The Canon XLH1 does not come equiped with an intervalometer, which allows the shooter to capture footage frame by frame or every one or two seconds. What's great about an intervalometer is that you save lots of tape because what's being captured is very efficient. However, one of the side effects of this is that you get a stuttered result because only film cameras can effectively shoot one frame for every time increment you specify. When it is played back at 24fps, the motion is completely smooth.

Despite using up a lot of tape and taking a long time to capture the footage, I prefer shooting in real time and speeding up the footage in post. Here's a quick example of what I mean. This piece was shot over the course of 30 minutes and sped up in Premiere Pro to a duration of 20 seconds. I think the speed increase was something whacky like 6500%. The clouds in this short sequence surprised me with their animated interplay.

Click here to view the timelapse.

Lighting test with the XLH1

2006-06-04T23:10:00.000-07:00

I was watching "21 Grams", a great film by the way, and was inspired to do some lighting tests and added a little Magic Bullet Bleach Bypass. I think it looks pretty good.

500w softbox for keylight, 250w Lowel pro light for fill and another 250w Lowel for a backlight (need to better position that one) for the first closeup.

This is classic 3 point lighting although the backlight I used was not very effective because it's not really doing anything in this shot. Normally, it would be creating a rim of light around the back of the subject, helping to separate subject and background even more. Testing will continue.

Generally speaking, I really try to avoid using Magic Bullet for Editors as much as possible because the look has been overdone. Diffusion is something I think has made a lot of unique footage look generic because the effect is so severe. With this Bleach Bypass setting, it gave the shots a cold atmosphere and heightened the feeling of isolation I was after.

Any effect can be overdone but you can also be creative with it and really help push the look of an image. As always, it comes down to your own personal taste. Subtlety wins for me everytime.

Water in Motion

2006-06-02T13:43:00.000-07:00

It rained here in Seattle for what seemed like an eternity which was frustrating for me because I had plans to go out and shoot at various locations. I decided to document the falling rain which has a beauty unto itself.

The film is under 2 minutes long and available as a streaming Quicktime file and also a native HD resolution version for broadband users only. Click this link.

All shots were photographed using a shutter speed of 1/250, which I find helps to capture rain and snow in single drops rather than blurry lines.

For those of you that are of a technical mindset, you will notice some artifacts in the HD version, particularly where there is a lot of movement in water ripples. This is not in the original footage but is a result of multiple compression passes to reach final output. The current workflow for the Canon XLH1 is in its infancy and is quite convoluted. Premiere Pro and Cineform exhibit many bugs in the process but Premiere will have full native support sometime in June of this year so these issues should be resolved.

Despite the fact that there are many naysayers about HDV's inability to render motion accurately, I have found the Canon to be extremely robust in this area.

Comparing "Soft" Filters

2006-05-29T12:52:00.000-07:00

Here's a comparison between Tiffen's much used Promist (the strength in this comparison is 1/4) and Schneider's Classic Soft filters (1/2 strength).

These filters can help contribute to a more filmic look, taking some of the sharp edge off the original video. Of course you can create something similar in post production but there is something inherently organic about usng filters on the lens that, in my opinion, cannot be duplicated digitally.

These stills are from footage taken with my Canon XLH1...

No filter:

Tiffen Promist 1/4:

Schneider Classic Soft 1/2:

As you can see, the Promist is more noticeable but the Classic Soft is much more subtle and still creates a pleasing softness to skin lines.

Should I Use Filters On My Camera?

2006-05-25T09:14:00.000-07:00

I get asked this question a lot. Basically, it comes down to the major question of what you are going to be shooting. You could get all types of advice on filtration for optimal landscape shots but if that's not your focus then it's useless information. Some common filters include:

UV FILTER:
Buy one now and keep it on your lens if you don't already have one. Essentially, this is just a clear glass filter that protects your lens from the harmful UV rays from the sun but it also acts as a protection against scratches, etc. on your actual lens.

ND FILTERS:

Either .3 or .6 or .9 (1,2,3 stops respectively). If you are interested in achieving maximum shallow depth of field within the capabilities of the camera, NDs (Neutral Density) are a good choice. They will force you to open the iris more, allowing you to creatively focus on your subject when shooting medium to closeup shots. They will also help you keep the aperture at a sweet spot in terms of sharpness if you are shooting a bright light source. Closing the iris down tends to soften the picture and NDs help to alleviate that problem.

GRADUATED ND FILTERS:

Video is notorious for not having broad latitude. It will not smoothly transition from bright to dark and can "clip" very quickly, losing much detail in the process. This gives your shots a signature video look. If you are like me, this is not a good thing at all. If you are shooting vistas, a graduated ND filter is a great addition to your tool kit. These filters allow you to bring the contrast ratio between land and sky more into the range of what the camera can see. It will also allow you to capture pretty dramatic skies with plenty of cloud detail.

PROMIST/CLASSIC SOFT FILTERS:

These filters have the same effect as soft focus. Remember the women that Captain Kirk falls in love with on the original Star Trek? The DP would simulate that misty-eyed love struck moment by giving both Kirk and his love interest (particularly the latter) an exaggerated soft focus. These filters can also be used to hide skin blemishes and take the overall video harsh sharpness out of the picture. Summary: they soften the picture in a pretty way.

COLOR/SPECIAL EFFECTS FILTERS:
I personally stay away from these because I'm paranoid about getting a great shot and realizing that the effect ruins it because the effect is too much. I usually can achieve the same overall effect in post. There are many good uses for these kinds of filters but I would keep their use to a minimum. The novelty wears off very quickly for the viewer.

The exception to this is if you are shooting black and white. Many of these color filters (yellow, in particular) help to enhance contrast in your shots and make the black and white rendering much richer. There's plenty of info on the Web about creative black and white photography.

CIRCULAR POLARIZER:

Generally used to enhance the blue of a sky and make the clouds pop but it is also used to minimize reflections on windows and in water. In fact, a good quality polarizer can be very effective at removing unwanted reflections say if you are shooting through a car window, etc.

There are many more but that's all I can think of off the top of my head. Figure out what you are going to shoot and then determine what filters would work for you in your particular situation. 72mm circular filters that screw right on the front of the lens are much cheaper than 4x4 filters that fit in a mattebox but I don't recommend stacking a lot of filters directly on the lens.

Take a look at Tiffen's and Schneider's sites, they give good descriptions and some examples of how these filters work.

Helpful Hints For A Successful Shoot

2006-05-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

Say this over and over in your mind before you shoot:

Focus, aperture, shutter, frame rate (more important if you are shooting different rates), sound level, battery level.

Check every one of these for every shot. Remember, you've got a lot going on trying to frame your subject, deal with failing or variable light, deal with failing or variable actors :).

And the one most important thing...is the camera recording? There are many stories out there where the DP thought he was recording and the camera was still on pause. This gets back to keeping an eye on the chaos around you while shooting. If you take a few seconds to roll and then let the action begin after you've taken that necessary breath, it's one less thing to worry about when watching your actors/subject.

If you are in an environment where there is a lot of dust or other particles flying about, check your lens for specks. This is a killer and sometimes not even visible on a field monitor but can usually be seen when looking at the lens directly. This is especially important when shooting HD.

Always protect your lens with a UV filter or similar. It's no problem to replace a cracked filter but it's going to cost a whole lot more to replace a cracked or scratched lens.

Be sure your tripod is locked in position. Weigh it down with sandbags if you feel like you are on unsteady ground. A slight shift while shooting is going to ruin the shot. Also, make sure your camera is completely locked down on the tripod...obvious but carelessness can happen.

If you are running out of tape, load a new one the first opportunity you get. Sometimes you will need more tape than you think and if you run out, you could lose a great performance.

Be sure to take the time to record ambient sound without dialog. No matter what you are shooting, this sound will come in very handy when you are trying to mix or when a loud bang or obnoxious bird came screeching by during a somber moment. Sure, you can reshoot but this might be the best take of the day. Even with a good set of headphones, you can never be definitive about the sound you have recorded in your actual scene until you are sitting down reviewing your footage in a quiet environment.

More Thoughts On Using The Canon XLH1

2006-05-23T11:46:00.000-07:00

I've been using the XLH1 for a number of weeks now and I've learned a lot about the camera by taking it out and shooting under various conditions. Having shot in standard definition (SD) up to this point, I'm finding new challenges shooting HD. None are overwhelming but if care is not taken while shooting, the results can be like night and day.

IT'S TIME TO REALLY FOCUS ON WHAT'S IMPORTANT
First on the agenda and one of the most critical things in shooting HD is to pay special attention to focusing. While most prosumer HD cameras have a wide depth of field when shooting at the short end of the lens, care must still be taken to ensure the subject you are focusing on is sharp. Otherwise you will have a shot that looks less than the resolution the camera is capable of.

An example of a challenging shot I have encountered goes like this. The main subject (a person) is standing about 10 feet away from a fence. I am quite far away and have zoomed in about half of the lens focal length. In my viewfinder, it looks like both the fence and the subject are in focus but the aperture is wide open and I know the depth of field is shallower than the viewfinder would have me believe. When I first shot this kind of scene, I blindly ran tape trusting because it's HD, everything would be in focus. Wrong! The fence looked great but my subject was soft. Since then I have instinctively made a slight adjustment in the focus to compensate for this situation and my subject has popped against the background.

Now granted, all of this could have been averted had I used an HD monitor in the field but the truth of the matter is that it's only practical for me to do that about 20% of the times I shoot. The other times are much more spontaneous so I have to remain mobile. Running around with the XLH1, a tripod and a monitor is completely impractical for me particularly as I usually shoot solo.

There are many ways to achieve focus and I use most of them but the above is just an example of one method, albeit not scientific and completely reliable, that I use.

FEELING A LITTLE SHAKY
Don't, I repeat, do not use the optical image stablizer (OIS) when the camera is mounted on something steady (bag or tripod). OIS introduces undesireable motion stuttering. Only use this when you have to.

IT LOOKED GREAT IN THE VIEWFINDER
The XLH1 does not have a flip out LCD monitor like other HDV cameras and you are either going to love this or hate it. Okay, well you could just accept it and deal with it also. I'm kind of the latter. I used the LCD extensively on my DVX so I have to adjust to a new way of shooting with the Canon. Actually, it's amazing how fast I have adapted and I really don't have any issues. The Electronic Viewfinder (EVF) actually doubles as an LCD monitor also. Canon has come up with a novel way of combining the two. You flip up the front half of the EVF and you suddenly have an LCD monitor. I use it when I am either panning or tilting shots where it's not always best to keep my eye stuck in the eye cup.

The brightness in the EVF is very misleading. Canon has made it overly bright and, if one relies solely on what is seen in the EVF without assessing the actual exposure numbers, then the results will be underexposed by approximately 2 stops. Yes, it's that dramatic. I lowered the brightness level as much as it would go but it is still too bright and gives a distorted sense of what is being recorded. The way to deal with this, aside from using an exposure meter is to use the zebra stripes. Zebra stripes appear as diagonal lines in areas that are overexposed or have exceeded the limit of where detail can be captured. For instance, if you are shooting a landscape on a grey day, the contrast between sky and land is going to be extreme. If you properly expose for the land and foreground, your sky will be completely white and all cloud detail will be gone. In this situation, the zebra stripes will be bouncing all over your sky telling you it's overexposed. I use this as a guide for correct exposure but mostly I just adjust the exposure to highlight a particular thing in the frame. Sometimes I have to blow out areas in order to capture my subject correctly but this is deliberate. If you are shooting a very bright source and shut down the aperture to where it is as small as it can get, you can compensate by choosing a faster shutter speed. This will stop down the lens even more.

Also, be aware that when you close the aperture down too far, you begin to lose resolution and everything gets soft. This is not good if you are looking to get the sharpest picture out of your HD camera. Creative use of shutter speed and aperture settings will keep you in the sweet spot of sharpness.

I DON'T REMEMBER CHANGING THAT
Man, are the shutter adjustment buttons easy to knock when shooting. I've had several instances where I inadvertently changed the shutter speed and it gave me unexpected results. Always check the info in your viewfinder before you shoot your magic moment. Make sure your shutter speed is where you want it to be otherwise, if it's too slow, you will get motion trails and if it's too fast, you will get a stuttering effect. These motion idiosyncrasies are not an issue if your subject is static.

WOW, CHECK OUT THESE COOL MOTION EFFECTS!
There is maybe a 1/4 or 1/2 second delay in what you see in the EVF versus the live event. This is not a huge deal but if you are critically timing something it can be an issue. If you hook up a monitor to the camera, this delay is not present. There is also significant motion trailing in the EVF display that is not going to tape so don't be alarmed if you see this.

WHAT'S THAT RUMBLING?
Do yourself a favor and purchase a windscreen. The one that ships with the camera is inadequate and, although there is electronic dampening available in the camera, I don't trust this. I purchased the EQ-XL1 Equalizer Windscreen and I am completely happy with it. It preserves the sound and really helps to reduce wind rumbling.

NOT THE WHOLE STORY
I cannot believe that Canon did not include overscan on such an expensive camera but c'est la vie. Underscan is usually what you see on a regular TV. It works out to be about 90% of the recorded image but now, with the advent of HDTVs, some display more than 90%. Also, if you are posting your work on the Web, the full 100% image will appear. Why am I rambling on about this? Because what you see in the EVF is only about 90% of the image (maybe even less) so you need to be aware of not getting mic booms or little Johnny picking his nose in the areas that you cannot see. Again, you can hook up a monitor with underscan capabilities and this problem goes away but if you cannot use a monitor always check by moving the camera up and down and left to right. That will give you a sense of any possible obstacles to your great framing.

MY FAST PANS LOOK LIKE CRAP. THIS CAMERA SUCKS
If you are going to be recording in 24F mode, be very careful to avoid fast pans and tilts. You will get a stuttering motion that is very undesirable. This is a product of using 24 fps recording. The same problem is encountered by motion picture cameras. There are formulas on the Web about how fast you can go but I just know instinctively at this stage not to whip the camera around from north to south.

Also, I don't care what anyone else says because I have seen this for myself, 24p video stutters more than telecined film. I have watched hundreds of films and I can see the motion is a little smoother than on a 24p video camera. The point is that it is all the more critical to avoid fast movement unless it is de-emphasized with a relatively slow moving object or person in the foreground to take the audience�s focus off the fast, stuttering part of your scene.

I SAID "CUT!!" DAMMIT
Okay, this has screwed me a lot. With the DVX, I had aural cues to tell me when I was recording and when I was on pause. One beep for recording, two beeps to stop. I don't have that cue with the Canon and I find that one must be very deliberate in pressing the ON/OFF record button. I don't know how many shots I have of my feet when I thought I had paused recording and it continued to record. Even with tally lights on, you can�t always see them on a bright day. Always check that the camera is indeed paused when done with your shot.

15 SECONDS OF FAME
For those of you who are shooting non-narrative stuff and want to capture some pretty images of places you visit, keep the following in mind. Always try to have a basic edit in your head and roll enough tape for each scene to give you enough footage to work with. If you notice that you got a great shot when everything is captured and you only got 8 seconds of it, it may not be long enough for you to include in your final edit. I usually roll for about 15 to 20 seconds if I'm shooting nature vistas, for instance. I find this gives me plenty of time to play with. It's better to go long than short when recording, in my experience anyway.

BREATHING SPACE
Don't stick a tape in and begin recording your footage right away. It's not adviseable to do this without giving the tape a little slack. Also, most NLEs need a few seconds to back up before they begin capturing footage so get in the habit of flicking on the color bars and record about 20 seconds first.

NOT SO TIGHT
The tightening ring for the EVF is, like my other ENG camera (Sony DSR-250) not very effective. I find it keeps coming loose and I am loathe to tighten it too much. Anyone with a solution?

TAKE CARE OF YOUR BABY
If you are going to be shooting outside a lot, invest in a good rain slicker for the camera. Also, it goes without saying, you should also have a robust carrying case, preferably with room for accessories. The latter is incredibly important so don't go buying Glidecams and cranes and leave nothing in your budget for the absolute essentials.

Other critical things to invest in before the big stuff are batteries (as many as you can afford), a lens cleaning cloth, a head cleaning tape (use only when you have to) and lots of tapes (use a good quality tape like Panasonic's MQ series). Next you will need a good tripod. There are many options for tripods that are beyond the scope of this post.

Keep in mind that all of these things help to protect your investment. It's not so cool when your cam craps out on top of the coolest crane in the world because it got wet or your only battery ran out.

Always keep a flashlight, gaffer tape and screwdriver set in your bag. You never know when you need this stuff.

THE JUICE
Try to figure out a system that let's you differentiate between used batteries and freshly charged ones. Use some masking tape to write the date of charge so that you know they are ready to go. Take the tape off before you put it on the camera. That way, you'll know that the batteries without tape in your bag are dead and you won't loose critical seconds trying to figure out the good from the bad.

I'll post more as I progress on my journey.

In-Camera Black and White

2006-05-21T01:15:00.000-07:00

The Canon XLH1 is capable of shooting black and white footage as well as color. I prefer to shoot black and white in-camera as opposed to draining the color in post production. There's something much more organic about doing it this way. It makes me think more about light and shadow and really gets me in the mode for a whole different way of looking at something. Here's a few stills from some black and white footage I shot:

More Canon XLH1 Tests at Discovery Park in Seattle

2006-05-21T01:03:00.000-07:00

My daughter and I headed off to Discovery Park after work last week and got lost not only on the way there but couldn't even find our way out of the park after our shooting expedition. My sense of direction is woeful and I couldn't find my way home to save my life. Well, actually I did find my way home but it was pretty close to midnight. My daughter was not all that impressed with my navigational skills.

Anyway, here are some stills from the footage I got:

Test Driving the Canon XLH1

2006-05-21T00:53:00.000-07:00

I took the kids to the zoo today and brought the Canon along. Here are some stills from the footage (keep in mind that these images are heavily compressed jpegs):

Anatomy of an HD Camera Purchase Decision

2006-05-05T23:40:00.000-07:00

I wrote some words about what led me to decide on the new Canon XLH1 for future HD acquisition. You can read it here: http://www.pinelakefilms.com/XLH1.html

Taking the HD Plunge - Canon XL H1 Review

2006-04-27T16:55:00.000-07:00

I finally bought a Canon XL H1 HDV camera instead of my original desire to own the Panasonic HVX200, which is like an HD version of the DVX I used for most of the films on this site. This is a partial review because I have only been shooting for less than an hour.

First off, the XL H1 delivers on its promise. Tweaking the camera to emulate what I'm used to on the DVX from a look and color standpoint is really easy and I don't see any great advantage with the Panasonic over the Canon.

Secondly, focus is quite easy to master using the EVF. I didn't find any problem getting the focus spot on. It's critically important to adjust the back focus correctly. It was slighty off the first time I tried it but then I used my Marshall HD monitor to do it a second time and it was nailed.

Thirdly, the image stabilizer on the lens is simply stunning. The difference between raw handheld and kicking in the stabilizer is like night and day. Some of the handheld shots I did looked like I had a steadicam setup.

All functional buttons and controls are exactly where I would expect them to be and, after just a few minutes of familiarizing myself with were they were, it was natural for me to reach out and find what I was looking for instantly.

The almighty noise problem that was rampant in most of the HVX200 footage I saw (just my personal opinion) is not even a part of the image from the Canon. Nice, smooth and relatively noiseless imagery is what I have seen so far. I took a few shots in the low light of the evening yesterday and they were still relatively noiseless.

The camera balance takes some time to get used to but I don't forsee it being problematic. If you hold it the right way, you can achieve some semblance of balance.

I didn't receive my Cineform software yet so I have no way of capturing the footage at the moment but I am using the composite out directly to my computer LCD, which is an HD 21" Gateway monitor. What's great about it is I can switch to full screen video directly from the camera and then, with the push of a button, I can view my computer screen again.

The zoom rocker feels natural to me although the zoom is a little fast...I haven't really looked into options for tweaking anything beyond the settings for the overall look of the footage.

Overall, the footage is really awesome and there is a feeling of bigness from the frame when watching it. It feels much more like footage from a large film camera than a DV camera. I guess it's both the size and the detail of the image that gives that impression. There's a "heaviness" to the imagery size that I haven't had with the DVX.

I have no regrets about this purchase and I thought I'd miss my DVX because of the uniqueness of its image but the Canon is way capable of equaling and surpassing my expectations.

The 24p cadence is very filmic and identical in my eyes to the DVX and HVX. There is a very slight amount of stairstepping in some of the diagonals but I don't know yet if that's just my monitor or in the footage itself. I'm going to be setting up a 42" plasma in the next couple of days and I'll check it out again at that point.

If you are on the fence about buying one of these puppies, get off and whip out your credit card. You won't regret it.

More later when I've had more time to play with it. I'm off to walk a trail down by a large lake in my neighborhood later this afternoon and my already trusty XLH1 will accompany me.

Update, March 16 2006

2006-03-16T09:02:00.000-08:00

Okay, I haven't forgotten how to shoot. I'm taking a sabbatical from all of it right now. I will get back to shooting soon. I will be doing testing of some of the available 35mm adapters.

In the next month or so, I'm hoping to test Wayne Kinney's SG35 adapter and, hopefully, the new G35 when it's available.

Thank you all for your interest in the DVD, it's still going to happen, I just don't know when. As soon as I have more news, I will announce it here and send each of you an email.

Also, thank you for all of the emails you have sent. I try to answer every one of them but sometimes it becomes overwhelming. Please excuse me if I missed yours and feel free to resend.

That's all for now.

DVD Update

2006-01-18T09:40:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, I still do not have a release date for the DVD and, to be honest, it's not looking like it will be available for another few months.

Life has tapped me on the shoulder and instructed me to attend to other priorities. But fear not, it will be done and ready relatively soon. Watch this spot for news.

Thanks to all of you who have expressed interest in the DVD, the number is growing daily.

The Director's Cut

2005-10-25T21:46:00.000-07:00

Good editing is critical to the success of a film. By “success”, I don’t mean how much money it made at the box office. I’m talking about what makes the film work. No matter how talented the actors, how beautiful the soundtrack, how well composed the shots, it all falls flat if the timing of the cuts is not right.

In my work, editing is as important as any other part of the process, in fact, sometimes it’s the most important component of all. It is the storyteller, the stitcher of seams.

When I set out to create a nature film, I usually have a general theme in mind. Because of the abstract aspect of gathering nature footage, I have a lot of freedom over what the final film will become. Will I make it a glorious announcement of the wonders of nature or will I make it more subtle with an emphasis on the delicacies found in the wild? What kind of music will suggest either scenario?

There are certain scenes I shoot that inspire a particular style of music and I usually build an edit in my head based on that musical idea. There are other times when I find a piece of music and then I look at my footage and make the images conform. But really listening to the music and choosing the right timing for a cut perhaps based on a rhythmic shift or a tonal color change is absolutely essential.

There are many examples out there of people who have shot beautiful scenery and chosen sublime music but audio and visual seem at odds with each other because they are not communicating. There is no attention paid to the introduction of that violin here or the dynamic woodwind change there. What about that transition from day to evening to night? The perfect edit for me means a flawless marriage of sight and sound where both seem inseparable, like they were meant for each other.

Now for those whose passion does not lie in this sort of intricateness, they may scoff at what I am saying and think that expending this much time on a cut is a waste. I stand by my conviction, however, that the perfect poem lies within a film where the viewer’s attention is always in line with the director’s vision and this only happens when full attention is paid to the final edit.

Some Thoughts on Cinematography

2005-10-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

People sometimes ask me who my favorite cinematographers are and I find it to be a difficult question to answer. It’s like being asked what kinds of music do I like, the answer is dynamic, never static. My understanding and appreciation of the medium of film is always changing and growing the more I learn.

Cinematographers that I have been drawn to again and again are Conrad Hall, Roger Deakins, Janusz Kaminski and Bruno Delbonnel but there are countless others. They just seem (and, in Conrad’s case, seemed) to pump out consistently stunning images that never fail to move me in one way or another.

One of my favorite scenes of all time could be construed as a rather mundane one. It is near the beginning of the film “The Green Mile”. The scene is a long shot that is primarily grey and washed out. Through cinematographer David Tattersall’s brilliant eye, we are looking into the distance of a moor-like landscape in the rain. An elderly character stumbles into the frame wearing an orange windbreaker and it is stunning next to the monotone backdrop. Another moment appears in the movie "Amelie" when the camera begins behind the main character while she is skipping stones on the water, arcs over her in a 180 degree turn and eventually coming to rest as a stone skips by. Moments like these send shivers up my spine and I hold them in high regard. They are not special effects shots rather; they illustrate the beautiful ways in which we interact with the natural world.

It would be ludicrous for me to talk about every shot that has moved me because there are simply too many. Even to describe what I like about a good shot is difficult. It’s not necessarily about good framing or color or anything to do with what is technically right, it has to do with the soul of the frame, the life that is created from that shot. Sometimes it can be as simple as how someone or something is lit or the way the camera slowly closes in during an important moment. These shots are a dime a dozen so it takes a real master to bring a unique perspective and depth of feeling to the screen that can profoundly affect the viewer.

The gift I have been given is the ability to deeply appreciate the art of cinematography and photography. I cannot watch a movie without being behind the lens myself; I do not see films on the screen, only through my imaginary viewfinder.

Studying every frame of every film I watch has given me a much greater appreciation of how to capture my own footage. Because I am soaking up this information all the time, I can rely on my instinct to tell me what is well framed and what doesn’t work. It is no longer about the Rule of Thirds or anything technical. I took the time to learn what my camera can do and now I operate purely on feel. That’s what makes shooting so enjoyable for me. I can concentrate on being creative rather than being consumed with the technical side of things.

In the meantime, I realize that I have only scratched the surface. If it were possible to live forever, I would still not know everything there is to know about this great art form.

DVD Update and Other Carrying Ons

2005-10-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

Linda and I are working on the Pine Lake Films DVD. I’m going to be reworking some of the scores with Glenn Scott Lacey on the pre-existing films and we will create a new film that will be exclusive to the DVD.

I know someone who lives in the neighborhood and owns a helicopter. We talked casually last year about going up to film the lake. I’d love to do it but there is little chance of getting smooth footage without a lot of specialized equipment. The helicopter vibrates violently while airborne. I’m sure I’ll be able to get something out of it and, if not, it’ll be a lot of fun to see that kind of perspective on the lake.

With other stuff going on in my life right now, I feel like I’m missing the opportunity to capture the Northwest at its most magnificent moment. Fall is my favorite season; it just can not be beat for its color and arriving winter waterfowl as is evident in last year's film, Magical Fall. Linda and I are going to get outside and start capturing some of this beauty. We've already seen Buffleheads, Ringnecks, Cormorants, and others.

We are hoping for a pre-Christmas release for the DVD but that’s going to be tight. I think it will be more realistic to expect something in January or February of next year.

On another topic, for those of you familiar with my film Being Disjecta, there are some scenes still to be shot for the third act and I just need to quit procrastinating and get it finished. There is a sequence that I’ve been having trouble with and I just haven’t made the time to fix it and shoot the remaining scenes. I really want to finish this before the end of the year.

DVXUSER.com, my favorite haunt online, is having another competition. Having won the January contest with Being Disjecta and receiving the third place award in the recent ZombieFest 2005 with the film Shot in the Dark, I’m eager to enter another film. The theme this time is Sci-Fi. While it’s getting far away from my love of nature, there’s always a way to work it in. If nothing else, it’s always an interesting challenge to try something new and different. My main acting posse (my kids) seem enthusiastic about the idea…the good thing is that the deadline is January so it's possible that we will find the time to write and shoot something...we’ll see.

Working with composer Glenn Scott Lacey

2005-10-20T08:33:00.000-07:00

I just put the finishing touches to the film Snoqualmie. When I originally put it together, I was using library music but I recently worked with composer Glenn Scott Lacey to create something entirely different.

Having music written specifically for my films is a new experience and one that is highly rewarding. My method to date has been to shoot a film and then find some music that would work with the footage. I usually had a particular style in mind and there was some excitement involved in finding something that would be just perfect. I rarely had that opportunity although I have found some really beautiful music for most of my films. Conforming to something already written can be tough but, in some cases, it has actually made me go out and shoot other scenes I otherwise would not have because the music spoke to me and created imagery in my head.

I work with Linda to do voiceover narrative in some of my longer films and I also include her photography so I’m not exactly a soloist in the classic sense but a lot of my shorter films are solo and collaborating with someone like Glenn has brought a new element to the visual experience.

Finding someone who understands my work and can contribute to it without too much instruction is difficult. In fact, I was happy with my setup of having everything at my fingertips, music library, camera, editing software, etc. Why would I want or need to collaborate?

I shot a film called Shot in the Dark for a competition on DVXUSER.com and, a week before the deadline, I realized that I used so much library music that it would cost me an arm and a leg just to enter the competition and then even more money to pay for the rights to be on the subsequent competition DVD. Glenn had contacted me a month or two earlier about his desire to work with me and I immediately sent him an email asking if he would score my little 5 minute film in this absurdly short time.

He responded almost immediately and said that it was not only possible but he’d love to do it. He listened to the music I had in there already and, with some of those general ideas in mind, he created a beautiful and uniform score for the film which really helped take it to another level.

Hearing his score written for the film, my editing choices and my framing choices was almost a spiritual experience. For a moment, it gave me the opportunity to see and hear my work objectively, something I rarely experience. The simpatico of the music he contributed with my own vision for the film was breathtaking. Before, there were compromises where I had to prematurely fade the music or something in the music itself would not completely suit the scene because it was prerecorded and I had no control over it. Now, because Glenn has such a good eye and high appreciation for films, all of the subtleties of the shots were revealed. For me, it was like cleaning a grimy window and seeing through the clear glass.

After the film, which was an award winner by the way, Glenn and I worked on one of my other nature shorts; Snoqualmie. Again, I had used library music and, as Glenn said, it was beautiful wallpaper for the film but did not fully express the shots because it was not written with that in mind, of course. Again, Glenn came to the rescue by really “getting” what I do and what it is I am trying to say visually. His initial ideas were almost perfect and, through patience, grace and flexibility, he worked with me to fine tune the score and make the film shine more than I thought it could.

Glenn and I will be working together in the next few months to score some more films for the upcoming Pine Lake Films DVD which will feature the best of the nature films thus far and probably a new one, with a flyover of the lake where we live, exclusively for the disk.

Stay tuned…