Here is the view of the runway a few hours before the show.  This is the only shot I was able to get off as the set-up time was very, very hectic.  This was a shoot documenting this Ugg fashion show.  I didn't know that Ugg made more than boots.  Well, they do.  We used four 5D Mark IIs to cover this show.  One was mounted to a special remote controlled car that ran on dolly tracks following along with the models.  Altogether, this was a very interesting show.

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Recently, I worked with an indie documentary on their film about the immigration issue.  We shot primarily at the church below as one of the participants in the film is taking sanctuary there.           I was shooting with the Canon 5D Mark II with the Steadicam Merlin pictured above.  The Merlin is quite an interesting piece of technology.  You’re able to use a camera as small as the 5D or as big as the Panasonic HVX200.  And it all packs down into a case no bigger than a laptop.  There is a downside to all these great attributes; the sticker...

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Here are the stills of a narrative short entitled Hard to Come by that I just shot on the RED.  We worked mainly in Orange County and Long Beach and only in practical locations.  Here the actors interact while the crew is working around them.     This is our lead actor Garrett M. Brown.  He learned everyone’s name on set.  Even the guy who visited for just a few hours on the last day.  He is a great talent and a relentlessly positive force on set.  It was a pleasure.     Taking a meter reading as my gaffer Henry Dhuy looks on.     Director/Producer...

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Here’s just one image from a 30-second spot I did in July.  The shoot was of a toy with a movie tie-in.  It occurred at the company’s set which was an old one.  I have to post this picture of the dolly because it is the oldest one I have ever seen on set.  It had more in common with an anti-aircraft weapon from the 40’s.  This thing was built to last.  We attached the Slider and a Canon 5D Mark II.  It was an interesting shoot all around.

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This is an interesting film about priests at an abbey in Orange County.  For this project we used the RED camera with Zeiss primes.  Shooting with the RED is a little like shooting with film.  You can’t tell from the monitor if your exposure is exactly right.  Therefore, you need to use a light meter to set the exposure.  The Fathers at the abbey dress in the traditional habit of the Norbertine order.  All white.  At times I wasn’t sure if I went too far with back-lighting their very white clothing.  I actually enjoyed this anxiety because while shooting video you usually know...

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For this shoot the director decided he wanted to shoot with the Canon 7D and 5D Mark II. He is a successful fashion photographer so he felt most comfortable shooting with a still camera body instead of a video camera.  I like the image they create, but ergonomically speaking, these just aren’t video cameras.  Exposure is hard to gauge.  We used an eyepiece/loupe that attached to the screen on the back of the camera.  This was great, but I don’t always want to operate with my face pressed to the back of the camera.  Overall, I think they are amazing cameras.  To be able to produce...

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Here is Pirate’s Cove in Newport Beach.  Beautiful, right?  This location posed a great challenge for our production.  Actually, the tide did.  This picture was taken at 9:45 AM on our scout day.  At the far right you can see a woman and a staircase.  At 6:00 AM (which is when the park opened and when we arrived) she would be standing in water up to her knees.  We had two factors working against us: the talent was only on set from 9 AM to noon and the tide would not be receding until after 9 AM.  So the problem was, how do we get all the gear for our jib onto the beach such that it might...

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Here is our aircraft for the day.  The Robinson R44.  It is a small helicopter, but it gave us a pretty smooth ride.  The shoot was for a documentary I’m working on about the creator of a musical instrument.  The mission was to fly to Laurel Canyon and photograph the subject while he played his instrument on a hillside above the canyon.  We did this, then we flew downtown and had some fun weaving among the skyscrapers.  THE COMPLETED PROJECT CAN BE VIEWED HERE.     We shot this on the Sony EX-3.  It’s a great camera and certainly the camera of the moment for HDV shoots....

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This is our view coming into San Francisco from the Bay Bridge.  We had zero time off in the city on this short, little show, so I had to grab pictures where I could.  This series of pictures is a departure from past posts.  I forgot to take any pictures while we were shooting, so I have images of the “where” not the “how.”     Here is one of the guys we interviewed.  He was driving a 1976 Vespa with 250CCs of raging power.  I was just recently very tempted to get one of the vintage Vespas that are tooling around Los Angeles.  I realized that I wouldn’t...

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Here is our set-up with the ruin of the mission as the background.  Off to the left, you can see a little man under an umbrella.  That is my tele-prompter technician for the day.  His rig was impressive.  All on wheels, umbrella, chair; he was the most comfortable person on set.  This is Jim from Greenberg Teleprompting and he delivered on everything he promised.  We were initially worried that our talent would not be able to read the print when it was sunny.  However, Jim brought a very bright monitor, which was easily read in bright sun or cloudy weather.     Mission...

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