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I have to say that Monday was just one of those days. It was one of those days where I couldn’t believe that I actually have the job that I do….
Monday was spent back over at MIT shooting B roll for our on going movie series featuring professors from the Research Lab of Electronics.
Most of the day we were shooting with Steadicam Pilot. For those unfamiliar with the Steadicam system, it is basically a platform that uses gimbals and springs to mitigate camera shake from a traditionally hand held camera position…. See Wikipedia for a better explanation.
The technique is pretty stylized, and shouldn’t be used all the time, but for certain shots, it is unparalleled and very cool.
Read the rest of this entry »
I got an eMail asking about how we mounted the cameras for the gratuitous “about” film we made, so here are some of the “behind the scenes” photos…
Basically what we did was pretty simple, and consists of mounting a bunch of grip gear in a creative way.
The first thing you need is a solid platform to mount things from. In our case, when we bought the Toyota Tacoma, we installed a front bumper made by ARB. This bumper has a tubular top, which makes it very easy to attach pipe clamps as well as super clamps.
Well it took over 6 weeks, but we finally got back our busted Pocket Wizard back from the manufacturer. (posted about it back in Dec)
The weird thing is that Pocket Wizard didn’t repair the unit, they just replaced it. Why it took 6 weeks to put a new one in a box and send it along is beyond me. Just happy to have it back…
Thanks Jim (Calumet Cambridge) for taking care of it for us!
Our good friend Gary Hedrick of Elefhantworks (who has also been working with the studio as our in-house designer) played a show the other night at the Middle East in Cambridge, MA. Richard and I went in to cover the show, and I thought I would talk briefly about the “down and dirty” lighting with SB-900 Nikon flash in tandam with the Nikon SU-800 Commander.
This is a trick I was exposed to when I taught down at the DINFOS workshop from my colleague Joe McNally and has been discussed at length by both Joe, and also David Hobby of Strobist. Both of these guys have posted many many great articles about how they approach this technique with far better skill than I, so I wont get too into the process other than to point out how easy it was to use the system. I must admit, if I am working on a commercial job and need portability, there is no question that I would much rather be working with my Profoto’s for many reasons. But for this instance of wanting to work casually in a bar setting late at night with minimal gear, the Nikon Creative Light System fit the bill.
(I must also give credit where credit is due and admit that even after Joe explained how to work the 900 and Commander together, I totally spaced and had to call up my friend and fellow photographer Tom Sperduto and have him remind me of just how simple it is to use. Thanks Tom….)
You can learn more about using the Nikon system here at Joe’s blog, and also here at David’s blog.
Anyway… With the SU-800 on top of the camera, I was able to set the SB-900 on its side resting on an amp up on stage. This allowed me to walk wherever I wanted and shoot freely. Great set Gary!
SB-900 loosley placed on stage
images courtesy of Nikon USA
Continuing our commitment to use the highest quality equipment in our work, we had placed an order for Nikon’s newest flagship Digital SLR as soon as it was announced, and last week the new Nikon D3X finally arrived. Read the rest of this entry »
PART I
PART II
Since we started this blog, we have found that the absolute, singular most popular page viewd on this blog is the page about my gear. So that got us thinking…. We have also been influenced by our fellow colluges and friends like Joe McNally and others who have done similar things. And since the blog world is all about giving whatever you can, we decided to give it our own spin.
That said, Rabbit and I finally took the time last week to sit down and film our first in a series of Informational videos. We are calling these videos our “Info Sessions.” Read the rest of this entry »
Here is a quick time lapse Richard shot of us loading the truck after shooting a day in the pool with the Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers. This was shot outside the pool at the Mass Maritime Academy.
Of course we had Richard that day, but as Chris was busy making furniture that day, we tried out a new assistant called Bear Cieri. He worked out great, and would recommend him to any other commercial photographer. Bear is also a great news photographer. You can check out his work on his site. Thanks Bear for going above and beyond that day in the pool!
Music by our friends Kicked in the Head.
He's gonna kill me for the photo... but there's Bear working a couple days later for us...
Richard has been kicking ass this year, and we have some upcoming underwater work scheduled this winter, so we decided to send “The Rabbit” off to scuba school.
The local dive center that we love is called North Atlantic Scuba, and they are located in Marshfield, Ma. We have been very happy with the professional level of service at North Atlantic, as well as very pleased with the quality of their instructors.
Pool dive number one
North Atlantic Scuba teaches from the SSI curriculum, which is a very good program. The first step is called the Open Water Diver course which consisted of class time, 2 pool sessions, and 2 open water dives. Read the rest of this entry »
We were shooting more catalogue work today on white seamless at Work N Gear, and as we were shooting larger groups of product, I decided to just mount the camera up in the air on a boom and fire the camera remotely.
I blogged a bit about this in the past when we shot that MTB rider in Wampatuck State park, but as it is a pretty cool thing to do, I thought I would bring it up again.
So heres what you need: 4 Poket Wizard Transcievers and a Pocket Wizard remote camera cord.
Connect a Wizard to the hotshoe on the camera, put that on channel 1. Connect a Wizard to your strobe (also on channel 1.) Connect a Wizard to the remote port on your camera via the Pocket Wizard cable, set that Wizard to channel 2. Finally, set a fourth Wizard also to channel 2. This 4th Wizard will be held in your hand and used to trigger the cascade. Read the rest of this entry »
Thought you would like to check out the “behind the scenes” view from our Graphis shoot featuring Mike Weymouth.
Great thanks to Richard for shooting and helping to cut the film together! This short was shot on our new Sony Handy Cam HDR-SR12, and cut on the MacPro using Final Cut Pro.
For more info on how we created the images, read the post “Portrait of a Mentor.”
New Sony
We added a new video camera to the bag this week and its pretty cool!
On Richards recommendation, we picked up the new Sony Handy Cam HDR-SR12. The camera shoots 1920×1080, shoots to a Memory Stick Pro Duo card or the 120gig internal hard drive.
Pros: We have done some preliminary testing, and have found the color to be very nice. Its very small and light, and can be mounted anywhere. For example, we have mounted it under the truck, as well as on the hood with a suction cup mount. Although not perfect, the footage fits nicely with the other HD camera when used for web films.
Cons: Depth of field is not as good as the larger HD cams. Footage (obviously) not as good as the larger HD cams. Transcoding the footage is a pain in the ass. The process is slow, and the files are large. The battery the unit comes with is terrible, but we purchased a larger battery that lasts quite a while.
Richard is working on a short shot entirely on this camera, so check back to see the quality.
With respect to my last post…. I did get on the phone this AM and called Mamiya USA to find out about using the Pocket Wizard to both trigger the camera remotely as well as fire the strobe.
As it turns out, the trick is this: You will need at least one Transceiver Plus II, as well as a Transmitter Plus II and Receiver Plus II. First, set the Transiever to channel 1 and put it on the hotshoe on the camera. Next connect the camera via the remote cord from the female mini plug to the remote port on the camera body.
Next, set the Transmitter to channel 1. (This will fire the camera.)
Lastly, connect the Reciever to the pack via the sync cable making sure the Reciever is on channel 2.
As the Mamiya tech explained it, the signal will go from the Transmitter via channel 1, to the Transciever, down the remote cable to fire the camera. When the camera goes off, the hot shoe will pick up the signal, in turn being sent out via the Transiever (automatically sending on channel2) to the Receiver (set to channel 2) on the pack, where it will fire the strobe.
I knew it could be done. I just wasnt keen enough to figure it out.
Now we know!!!!
BTW, for what its worth, the techs over at Mamiya were fantastic!!! Every time I call, they take all the time in the world explaining whatever I want to know. Kudos to Pocket Wizard and Mamiya!
For those of you who know me, you know that I am a HUGE gear geek. I love to try out, and use new stuff. Last week, when we rented the Eazy-Jib for the video shoot at MIT, Boston Camera gave us a Mag-Liner cart to haul around all the gear.
Rental cart from Boston Camera
When I lived in L.A. and worked as a camera assistant in the movie biz, I owned a Mag-Liner, but sold it when I moved back east. I guess I had forgotten just how cool and useful of a tool it is.
Large work surface
Folds nice
Large bottom shelf
So, in customary fashion, the day after the shoot, I went ahead and purchased a new one. (Should be here any day now!)
The exciting part is that things have progressed a long way since I was out in L.A. in the mid 90’s. Now, there is a very cool company called FilmTools in CA that is selling totally pimped out carts. They take the chassis from Mag-Liner, and convert it to a much more sturdy, heavy duty rolling work surface. The cart folds up nicely, and fits easily in the back of the pick-up.
We ordered ours with lots of cool accessories so we can hang tripods, mount monitors, and hang cables.
Stay tuned for some location shots of the cart in action!
