A Week of Tests

This past week I was doing a ton of prepping to get ready to shoot the Do What You Love series for the Gap (which totally starts this coming Monday btw). So while I was cleaning up my desktop, I noticed a ton of test footage scattered all over it, and figured it would be good to share it here since I have been getting a little build up of "what are using" questions. And also because I did not raid Cole's iPhone for the usual phonetographer post this week, and I have to stop myself from writing about my parents for a couple days.

**Since this is so product heavy-- let me get this out of the way up front: The full disclosure part. Unfortunately NOBODY gave me any of these camera things, or paid me to talk about their camera things, and nobody from camera land got in touch and has influenced me in anyway to say wonderful things about any of these products or services. Truthfully I haven't used any of this stuff long enough to get really critical yet.

Also LB was a big huge help in getting me shoot ready, and so he is totally up in this blog today.

Some people have asked if I ditched the Nikon or not. The answer is no. I kept the D300 and all of my Nikon gear. I kind of put it out there that I wanted to sell it on twitter, and got some DM's about it, and I immediately started to sweat. I know it's dumb but I shot Cole's series on that camera, and it was the first big married people purchase we made. So I can't do it. I had to keep it. Which meant I had to wait a lot longer to be able to finally make the switch to Canon. I have been renting the 7D for months, which was awesome to have it for jobs, but sucked because it takes money away from jobs, but I didn't have a choice at the time. I used The Lens Depot for all the rentals: body, lens, cards, all of it, and they are amazing. Can't be beat. They have everything, killer customer service, I love them. LOVE. I highly recommend services like these. If you don't use The Lens Depot, use somebody-- for a pretty low cost you can ring out a high priced camera body, and test out some lenses you're on the fence about purchasing. Really get a feel for it, and by the time the week is up you will know if you have found a match, and can make a smart informed purchase. I feel like lenses are like wands in Harry Potter, their are just some lenses made for you. Everything clicks and you are in shooting paradise.

So the cats out of the bag, I did finally get the 7D, and below is a test I shot using the Canon EOS 7D mounted with the 24mm 1.4 I normally would not use the 24mm to do portraits like these, but in this case I had not shot with it yet, and wanted to get some time in with it. I do like a wide lens so I can be closer to the subject, but in this setup I would normally use a 50mm or 85mm.

Also...

I have not used lights since I shot Cole's series. The first few weeks of that series I was using reflectors, bouncing the sun onto Cole from the windows, and an off camera flash into an umbrella. I finally had the treat of some strobe lights from my friend Jason, who had a vintage set of studio lights that I borrowed. So since then, lights have been on my list of things I needed to purchase, and it is time for me to really figure out how to use them well. So here are the first cluster of shots I did at the house using a Speedotron 2 light set-up, and the 7D. I forgot how much I love shooting with light. I have a very long way to go before I truly understand how to manipulate the light how I want it, but I am excited to have a 2 light set-up to get things started in the learning dept. I'll keep saving that money and adding to this kit over time. I'll still have to rent if I get into a bigger job situation, but for now it is going to serve me well.

One of my biggest problems I have shooting video is that I have earthquake hands. It always looks like I am shooting B-roll for Saving Private Ryan, when I should be at my smoothest. Shake ruins moments. It just does. And I am shaky. That nervous childhood :) So even though it isn't practical to use a steadicam 100% of the time on everything... I knew I needed to smooth out some of the big scenes. So I made the commitment, and got the Merlin Steadicam, which is a small steadicam rig made for lightweight cameras. It takes hours/days to really fine tune these things and get them trimmed out so they are perfectly balanced. So this test below is terrible... it was simply the first time I put the camera on the unit, so I could see just how bad I was off. I had the 7D mounted with the always fabulous Tokina 11-16mm 2.8 all sitting on top of the Merlin Steadicam. To be really honest I mostly wanted to show you this specific test because Cole makes me laugh so much.


Music by: Noah & The Whale- "Five Years Time"

The Merlin takes tons of time to perfect and get right, and I am excited to get this thing dialed in and really looking good. The more I used it the more epic things got. I was really surprised at the difference in just a week. It really got squirrelly however at the beach with that offshore wind hitting it. A real fight to keep things from getting rocky. They sell an arm and a vest for this rig, but I really wanted to avoid all of that and have been really pleased with the results of keeping it in my hands. Plus it is a great workout :)

And finally,

like a total ding dong, I waited too long till the very end of swimming pool season, and I got Cole that Kodak Playsport camera. They are affordable, small, and well... they go underwater, and I needed to be able to shoot underwater for a job coming up. I didn't want to spend a ton of money on underwater housing for my 7D, and so I thought I would give this a try and see how it looked. I was really impressed. It is the same camera we have been using for the Two and a Half Minutes with Tessa series. I wish I had this thing all summer long. It shoots 1080P and in the right light conditions it makes stunning images. Of course you don't have a ton of control over this thing. It is a real point and shoot on the go camera, but I think it's great. Some drawbacks have been trouble seeing the screen in sunny conditions, and I feel like it doesn't shoot wide enough. So below is the quick water test I did with the camera.


Music by: Mark Mothersbaugh - "Ping Island/ Lightning Strike Rescue Op"

That's it for now. You should start seeing some of this stuff in action more around here. I have a pretty busy fall lined up. I'm really excited to start sharing the Do What You Love series next week. I started out with 4 profiles on women who have been inspiring to me in my daily life, and so it has been really awesome to get to spend time and shoot this stuff so far. Later down the road I will be doing some traveling and meeting up with some new faces that I have found to feature. This has been a life changer for me. This project. Of course getting to work with the Gap is awesome, but carrying out this idea has really put things into perspective for me. When you're around so many positive people the world looks different, not that talky preachy sunshine inspiration, just people that are so busy doing what they love, they don't have time to get dark about all the little things. The little things piling up is what stops hearts.

Have a great weekend everyone.

All the Love in the Universe ~ Me

P.S. Yes that is the movie Labyrinth on the TV in the Merlin test video. It is the first movie Tessa has ever watched. She usually gets bored with TV after 10 or 15 minutes, but was completely sucked into this. We decided to try a movie night, and let the kids eat in the living room. The lure of Bowie, she couldn't even eat her dinner, she was so drawn into this fantasy. She absolutely loved this movie. which of course made me happy. There might be a little D&D in her yet :)

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