HO-LY COW.

September 2nd. That is the date of (until now) the most recent entry in my blog. Heck even Tom has me beat by 4 posts!

So much has been going on, I don't even know where to begin.

I started shooting video for BridgeWay Community Church in early September



I also helped Olivia Kay with her kickstarter project.



Of course I've still been shooting for 12 Stars



And I Shot my first wedding (Jacklyn and Jarad McLeland)

And that was all in September.

I rang in October with my second wedding - Chris and Nicole Shotwell (you know, the weekend after the McLeland wedding)

My schedule with 12 stars picked up even more - Now I'm working "most" time - about 60% of what a full-timer would do. We're still a ROWE so, no hour counting here and that has helped a lot - allowing me to move my schedule around at will.



I've been working a lot with Emmanuel. Mostly just messing around, but he has gotten me leads on further paid work with some local DJ's and Dancers.




I've also done a few other odd-jobs here and there, finished the last few days with Syncope and signed on to Gaff another project coming up in about 10 days. These last two weeks Rocky and Zach have been on vacation, so I've been manning the office myself while still shooting and editing (and boy is that a rough job on your own).

Well, that about catches me up with what's been going on since September. I'll try not to take so long before the next post!

Red River Gorge pt 1

Mojo giving Brandon a catch

Man has it been a while. I didn't even remember how to order food at Miguel's!

I tagged along with Tom, Mojo, and Brandon as they hit up Pendergast and then Military wall last Saturday and Sunday.

Lessons of the weekend:

1. Bring more batteries - lots more
2. Bring more light - lots more
3. Bring your static line

Now the best part is that we are going back again the weekend of the 9th and I don't like to make the same mistakes twice.

So now for your viewing delightment, here are the remainder of Saturday's winning photos. I'll post Sunday's tomorrow (as I haven't gone through them completely yet).

The "Faces of Mojo" Project lives on, someday I may post about it.

Hey Tom, It's your Birthday! Everybody wish Tom a Happy
Belated Birthday when you see him next.

Brandon was kind enough to bust out probably the most
killer image of the day, and Tom was kind enough to be my VAL

From "I'll just do the Iron Cross," to "Oh why did I just
do the Iron Cross?!"

Follow the light Mojo, follow the light

The underclings were good, too bad there
wasn't crap to oppose them with

Mojo takes home the award for the most
Zen-like photo of the trip

These guys were making short work of this
5.8 route, so I made Brandon go back a few
moves and use his heels like a man.

Navy SEAL dog will kill you. Also, "OMG GUYS! Have
you heard of this thing called MUD?! It's SOOOO AWESOME!"

I'll post day 2 pictures tomorrow.

And for the lighting geeks out there, the lit photos used one Canon 430EXII strobe on either full or 1/2 power without much of any modification. Triggered with Impact PowerSync16 radio slaves.

Not quite "as I go..."

Okay, so it wasn't possible to blog-as-I-go during Syncope (no wifi or cell service for 85% of the time + 12-20hr days...).

So instead I'm just going to post some more of the photos I took (mostly with my phone) from the shoot. Some might get explanation.

In the abandoned hospital, its important to to maintain a safe working environment!

Hannibal Smith would be proud

ready-ing the RED + Steadicam for the Tunnels

Stalactites being formed in the tunnels, you might say it was a little wet down there

We lit most of the tunnel with 100W practicals and a 2k at the end (behind camera in this shot)

L to R Gaffer,  Director (in cell) and DP talk about lighting the isolation cell

They decided to shoot a 2K through the main window and a
400W HMI into each of the sides (peppered with small ventilation holes

Clearing all the crew for the dock scenes. Talent is laying in the bow of the boat,
Director, DP and Sound in the stern and the 1st AC is in the water, holding the boat in place (behind the other three).

Not only Best Boy, but also the Dolly Grip I had the pleasure of rigging my own handle from
2 cartellini clamps, 4 gobo heads and 3 c-arms. Later, in the "motel room" I just used the cartellini clamps andpushed from a crouch.

Day for night. Talent had to leave the building through a visible door so we blocked off the sun with a 12-by solid and re-lit through the windows.

And the next shot was supposed to be daylight again,
so in one of my favorite moves, we shot Day-for-Night-for-Day.

So, there you go, the last half of the Syncope shoot all wrapped up in a few photos.... Just kidding, there was way more but I was just too busy to snap the pics.

Syncope is scheduled to premiere in October in Chicago before it hits the festival circuit. I'll post updates with date/time/location if you are interested. In theory there should be a trailer out sometime in late August/early September, I'll post that when I get the chance as well.

Lighting Test

I was at Robert's the other day and picked up a few new things - notably a Canon 430EXII speedlight and an Interfit Strobies 15"x15" Foldable Softbox.

A few pros, A few cons.

Pros:

• The Canon 430EXII, despite what Andy says, is a pretty easy flash to work with and I think is even easier to use than my Nikon SB600 was. 
• The Interfit Strobie softbox was about 1/3 the cost of a Lastolite kit of the same size/features

Cons:

• The Canon 430EXII doesn't have a PC sync option - but I've already figured out a workaround for that
• The Interfit Strobie softbox doesn't have an internal baffle, but there are small loops for one, so that should be easy to add if I want

So here are some comparison shots between a few different light modifiers. The light used was the Canon 430EXII set at 1/4 power with the 14mm wide angle diffuser in place. The light source (flash) was kept at the same distance from the objects and roughly the same height. The camera was set at ISO 100, f/8, 1/125 for each shot.

Bare (with wide angle diffuser)

Shoot-Through Umbrella (32")

Lumiquest ProMax Mini Softbox (5x7")

Interfit Strobie 15x15" softbox

Outcome? The Interfit Strobie Softbox did quite well - least amount of light loss and nice soft, yet directional shadows. I think I'll keep it, even if it is a bit difficult to fold back up.