Video Making is *&%^&^ Expensive

I decided to take a break from researching lighting kit options and work on my blog.  I've been extensively researching LED lighting kits (new the buzzword in the video lighting world) for my video work these past couple days. As I read the forums on DV info.net, I see that many--mostly males from what I'm seeing--get a real high discussing and buying gear.  For me, gear talk and research not much fun and almost feel like a waste of time, but I'm on a budget and need lights so I do it as a have to.

My budget for an "inexpensive, bare bone" lighting kit was $1000 originally. Now, of course, it's looking like it's pushing $2000. For those of you who are not familiar with video and film making this might sound like a lot, but within the filmmaking community I am fully sensing that $100 is like a buck and $1000 is like ten bucks.

Anyway, the outfit that I'm thinking about patronizing is CoolLights and thier stuff is quite popular among filmmakers. I think I will get the LED 600 flood + LED 600 spot + LED 256 spot + softbox kit + batteries. Believe it or not, batteries consists of 20% of the expense. And, this is just a mere beginning of all the things I need to make a decent video.

TaDa, ma logo!

Above: Ma Logo!!

I am pleased to announce my logo!!

I LOVE my logo. I think it represents what I'm doing in a simple yet sophistecated way. I also think it represents my personality and the work I aspire to create.  This will be on my card and on my website as well. 

My friend's son Kyle Poff is the designer.  It looks simple, but it took about a month plus many many back and forth eamils to get it done. If you are in need for a chic logo, I recommend you see Kyle's work in the link. 

Stay warm everyone-

  

File Organization

Harley Glam: f/4, ISO: 160,  24-105 @ 47 mm

Three Indian Bowls: f/5, ISO: 160,  24-105 @ 84 mm

Not a hugely interesting day.  I missed a rare opportunity to learn about photogaphing stage lighting at Tech Theatre dept. due to forgetfulness.

Yesterday, I had set my mind to organize the thousands of photo files that were dumped into my hard drive today. My picture files were accumulating at a fast rate (maybe 30-100/day), but not in an orderly fashion and it was beginning to create problems such as:

• eating up hard-drive space
• taking forever to locate a file and find a picture
• confusions created by saving duplicate photos in various formats and sizes

I deleted 1300 pictures today, but have still not figured out a system to make work flow efficient. This is something that is different from video. In digital video editing, the hierarchy of the folders is more of a concern than work flow. I am beginnig to understand why photographers use Adobe Lightroom. I see myself using Lightroom in the future, but I'm sick of reading yet another how-to book, and I don't have any money, and Lightroom won't solve all my storage problems, so I'm gonna pass for now.

These pictues are those I didn't get a chance to post  found burried in the jumble of files. I'm getting pretty good at taking bowl pictures. Again, if you're interested, the bowls are for sale for $30.

Street Shots

Newspaper Guy: Shutter Speed:1/1250 sec, f/4, ISO 250

Charitable Coffee: 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 250

Had a very busy day. I'm making a promo video for my first client (!) United Church of Christ.  So, I videoed the service. Stay tuned for the final product March 1st! The concept for this video is  from large to details.

I was driving back home from Five Guys Burgers and Fries  when I saw this guy on 50th and Quaker selling papers in front of Mc D's. The orange pancho caught my eye, of course, and the snow was pretty dramatic. So I went home got my camera and went back to the location. I aksed if I could take a picture and he was cool, so I set my camera to shutter speed priority to catch the snowflakes and fired away.  I'm still trying to figure out why the sign didn't get tack sharp. I aksed if he was going to see "The Game" and he said he would leave right before the game starts.

The coffee was given to me by a stranger in a pickup. He motioned me to his vehicle and handed it out.
Maybe I looked like a street person? Or he thought I was working too hard in the snow? I don't know, but in retrospect I think it was a left over because it was not really hot and it was not really filled. Anyway, I drank some and Norman finihsed it.

UPDATE!


My friend and great photographer  Bill Mueller pointed out why the sign wasn't tack sharp.  You can 
find his work here. http://www.texasfinearts.com/index.html 


Here's what Bill wrote: "I don't expect that you shot through your window. If you notice some of the snowflakes in the foreground are the sharpest. I would say you probably had it on autofocus (right?) and that the autofocus picked up on the snowflakes in the foreground placing your subject slightly out of the range of the depth of field at f4. when it is misty, rainy, snowing, etc., you will find more consistant results with manual focus expecially in low light with a shallow depth of field."


I did have my lens on auto focus. Thank you Bill.

Model Shoot Part 3

f/11, iso 100,  24-105 @ 80 mm

f/11 iso250 24-105 @ 60mm

f/5, iso 100,  24-105 @ 92 mm 

Probably my last postings of Brooke and Cassie for now.  We're going to give it another shot in a couple weeks.
Basically, I'm pleased with how it all came out. All the backgrounds seem a little blue after adjusting white balance, and I think that's because I didn't use any supplimentary light sources. It's my first model shoot, so I'll give myself some slack.
The baked goods are popovers also known as Yorkshire pudding. Norman made those that morning.
They were sooo good. Let me know if you need the recepie. We used the one in Joy of Cooking.

By the way, I've been getting a lot of hits on my blog for my portrait/ fashion series. Norman took me out for dinner at Las Brisas to celebrate my increase in blog readership!

Portrait Shoot

I intended the Sunday shoot to be a fashion shoot, but I got some beautiful portraits of my models Brooke and Cassie.
Are they beautiful or what? Not only are they beautiful, but they were amazing to work with.

I intended to post several more pictures today, but I'm having trouble cranking out photos from photoshop.  I am especially pleased with this photo, I hope you think it looks as good as I do.
If you don't, I would like to hear how it could have been better.
Again, more to come!

First Ever Fashion Shoot!

On Sunday, my beautiful models Brooke and Cassie Allison came by for our photoshoot. I told them to bring what they like to wear, and each of them brought half thier wardrobe. The pile o clothes above is about a third of what they brought!  You can also see that I included pics of my low-tech bedroom studio. The window on the left is a bay window which is nice. The seamless backdrop was 53 inches and proved to be WAY too narrow for fashion portraits. 

The rainbow stockings are one of the several looks we tried. Stay tuned for more photos!