Caught between two camps. The self-inflicted war between my photography and my videography.

Not angry, Just a bad case of RPOF (resting pissed off face). 

There's something disturbing about being stuck in the middle between two disciplines. From one side I feel the comforting tug of having done something for decades, with all the security that implies; and from another side is the lure of something different and new, along with the enjoyment of mastering new information, new techniques and new hand/head skills.

I started the year out by shooting five video projects for three companies and I'm currently in the pre-production phase of another big video project for February. Things are going well and I've made only a few, non-fatal, missteps. In the realm of photography the year is off to a slower start with only a handful of portraits, along with some still photographs taken during video projects to round out a campaign.

There's a lot to love about video. The process can be much more complex. From scriptwriting to editing there are just so many details to keep straight. The projects take more time to finish but this also means more time to bill. And each facet can be a profit center for a creative content business; from the rental of my gear to the charges for auditioning music for music beds.

Photography has its own, different attractions. It's so much easier to do the pre-production. And the post production. The projects don't last as long, which plays to my attention span. Most still photography projects are shot, post processed and billed in the space of 48 hours. A nice, steady cash flow stream.

But juggling both is hard work. Harder work than just knuckling down and choosing one over the other.

I spent a quality hour and a half at our local U.S. Customs office. I was getting my form 4457 stamped. But I was waiting behind a man who was hellbent on arguing with customs about something I could not quite understand. He was angry, they were angry and by default, I was angry. I've never had to do this before. I usually just drag along a couple of camera bodies and three or four lenses when I head out of town. When we worked out of country in the 1980's and 1990's it was a time when major companies had in-house travel departments or contracts with big travel agencies and things like visas and forms were handled by brokers and third party suppliers who had accrued some expertise in working through the system. Not so now. Everyone is on their own and scrambling to get their receipts uploaded to Concur.com. Now you get your own form 4457 filled out. Part of the production.

This push and pull between photography and the moving arts isn't some new religion I picked up on my way home from Costco.com one day. I've tumbled in and out of it for a long time. It all started when I was the creative director in an ad agency. I would come up with a creative concept and write a script for a television commercial and it was expected that I'd be at the shoot to make sure the production matched the concept, and that the talent read the words in the same way I intended them.

In those days most of the commercials I worked on were filmed on 35mm film which would be timed and transferred to two inch tape which would be edited and color graded and transferred to our distribution (tape) media. It was mostly analog back then so you started big so as not to lose too much quality on the way down the stream.

Somewhere in the late eighties or early nineties I got bit hard enough by my fascination with the process to buy a Bolex Rex 5, 16mm film camera along with an Angenieux 12-120mm lens. I used it mostly to shoot black and white Tri-X movie film. We shot several commercials with that camera before I lent it to a young film maker, from whom it was stolen.

By then I was interested in Super8, which was going through a nice resurgence. We used it for anything we could. My favorite project was for a company called Tech Works. We shot a beautiful talent, (Lou Ann Lofton) in an office, being demonstrably bored waiting for her computer (which had too little memory -- remember, the client made memory) to finish rendering something. Lots of dramatic black and white clips, close ups of clocks ticking away in slow motion, beautiful girl drinking coffee with a look of angsty disgust, a mean boss who kept looking at his watch....

I shot the entire first half of the project in black and white Super 8 with the Nikon R10 and then, after the (fictive) installation of ample memory, we shot the last half in glorious color, using a Sony Betacam. You know, like the Wizard of Oz movie; we're in Kansas so it's black and white. We're now in Oz so it's all in color.... The film was a big hit at one of the annual Apple Developer Conventions they used to hold.

My next plunge down the rabbit hole came when Canon introduced the XL-1 video camera. Interchangeable (big, white) lenses. Incredible zoom ranges. And the then current rage amongst enthusiasts: Hi-8 videotape.  Had to have one. My favorite project with that camera was my Coffee film which I did in conjunction with then "nobody", Rene Zellweger.  I had her walking down a steep hill downtown in five inch heels, in a tiny black dress, along with heart shaped sunglasses and a flowing leopard print scarf. She navigated along the sidewalk, down the steep grade, toward camera, all the while carefully balancing a white coffee cup on a saucer. And every once in a while she would stop and sip coffee while amused passersby stopped to gawk.

We also did a short film with that camera for my director friend, Bruce. Very dark. Very dramatic.  We did a couple of weeks of 10 hour days and got our money's worth out of the camera. Assisted by a very battered Sony ECM-55 lavaliere microphone (along with a very eclectic assortment of other, even older, microphones).

For about a year I taught a class about cinematic lighting on a Saturday, every six weeks, for The Austin FilmWorks. Director, Steve Mims ran the school in between film projects. He liked the way I lit projects for our mutual friend, Bruce, and we had a good run. But that was back in the 1990's and I was so busy with our high technology corporate clients that I went into photography only blinders mode for years at a time. The last project that Steve and I worked on was a music video called, The Hottest Thing in Town, for country legend, Billy Joe Shaver. On that project we actually built lighting instruments that hung over a pool table to provide even, motivated light for the pool game that was central to the narrative. We  modeled the lights after the big rectangular light boxes with beer logos that normally light the tables - the difference was that ours had two different 500 watt Totalights inside with their power cords running to separate dimmers...

That's the first big project where I really practiced with moving lights as well as moving cameras. The video went on to win a Country Music TV award in the year we produced it. Our camera operator was using an Arriflex super 16mm camera along with the new Zeiss 10-100 f2.0. Juicy stuff at the time...

But all through this string of motion stuff the photography seemed like the best shot at earning a good living, and the draw toward a well practiced discipline was strong. Lately I've been feeling the gravity from the motion side of things. I presumed I might just ramp up the number of projects we would go after this year but now I think I have a new intention. I want to go all in on video and continue offering photography to existing and referral clients who are interested. It's a sudden and big change for me but it feels right. Mostly because I love the control of sometimes getting to also write the scripts.

All the gear is so good now. Doesn't really matter which field. Lights are lights and cameras are multi-lingual now. When I talked to a nice lady named, Angela, at Customs today she pulled each one of the cameras I had listed on form 4457 out of the case to confirm their serial numbers. At some point she said, "I'm kinda surprised at all the different cameras you have. Do you really feel you need them all?" I laughed and asked her if there was some sort of limit. She smiled and said, "We don't care as long as you bring em back in legally." I was already thinking about the specific things I'd be using all four cameras for....

At any rate, that's what I'm thinking about today. Out running errands before everyone else gets out of work and hits the road... KT

A quick question about a book. Video production for still photographers. Is anybody interested?

I'm discussing doing a new book with a publisher. I think there is a real hole in the market for books on video production for photographers; people who want to incorporate video into their practice. Or people who just want to get up to speed with main stream video production.  As you can probably guess, the book market is dicey and while I believe pretty strongly in the need for a well researched, well written, 128 page volume (180-220 photographs illustration concept+25K-30K words) that covers the basics (from "what all the controls mean" to "how do I get good, clean audio") I thought I should do some market research, and what better place to do so than among my VSL reading family?

The question I am interested in getting answers to is this: Once the book is available for pre-sale on Amazon.com do you think that over the course of three to six months that I can get 300 pre-orders for such a book? The selling price would be under $30 (U.S.).

No obligation but would you help me with my market research by letting me know if you would be interested in such a book in the comments section?

Much appreciated. Kirk

Pre-production on a video outside the country. What's required?

Ben and I started out the year with a number of video projects. They've been well received. Unfortunately, I can't post them here as some are for an international company's in-house use while our longer, narrative project is still wending its way through approvals and final tweaks. A nice result of our success with the first flurry of work this year is that I've been booked to do the same sort of videography in early February, in Canada. While I have flown into, and worked, in many different countries over the years I have never traveled to Canada on business. So I started doing my basic research.

Various people have told me that I'll need a work visa or some other documentation to work there. According to the Canadian Customs website one does not need a temporary work visa for film or advertising projects that last fewer than 7 days. This is nice but I will proceed with my usual travel strategy of getting a letter, on company letterhead, from the U.S. company that is hiring me and will be paying me, outlining the project and the assertion that my unique skills are necessary for the project.

The second speed bump that many savvy travelers mention is that one can experience difficulties not with taking cool cameras and video gear into Canada but, rather, in the process of bringing the gear back through U.S. Customs. Since the U.S. dollar is strong, right now, against the Canadian dollar the U.S. customs people are making sure people are not bringing in camera gear purchased in Canada without paying taxes/tariffs.

The solution is very simple. One needs only to take their gear to a local U.S. Customs office and request a form #4457. Fill out the form with the models and serial numbers of the gear you will be taking out of the country. An agent will inspect the gear and confirm the serial numbers, stamp your form and wish you a bon voyage. You can show this form on your way back into the country as proof that the gear in question is already owned by you and not subject to taxes.

It's always a luxury to produce photography and video in your own town, or within 100 miles of home, because you can bring along anything you can jam into the car, or strap to the roof. When Ben and I worked on our previous projects we had a full complement of lights, along with plentiful light stands and modifiers, a Tenba case full of microphones of various types, two big tripods, sound absorbing blankets and much more crammed into the studio CRV. We also carried along multiple camera types in case we had the urge to shoot something in a different format or a different way.

Sadly, when doing streamlined travel, I'm forced to narrow down the gear list to the basics; the essentials. Otherwise I'll never make it from the front door of the airport to the car rental shuttles....

I've already selected my three cameras and my lenses but winnowing down the lights and microphones will take more discipline that I have today.

We had great success with three different cameras on the last video/photo shoot. I loved the RX10iii for a second angle camera, and for lots and lots of tele-compressed b-roll stuff. Ben wielded that camera with great alacrity. I found the a6300 to be a perfect "A" camera for me = when used with an outboard monitor to give me a headphone output. Our A7Rii was the perfect still camera and would be the perfect back-up in video for the a6300 (sounds counter intuitive but both cameras are at their best when shooting in 4K and the A7Rii makes the nicest files when used in the APS-C mode and 4K. This puts both cameras on very even footing, for video.

I'll tote along four lenses: The dynamic duo of the 24-70mm f4.0 and the 70-200mm f4.0 G lens. These two are perfect for the stills I'll need to take and can be pressed into service, if needed, for video. I'll also bring the 18-105mm f4.0 PZ G lens as it will work with either camera in the APS-C mode. Finally, I'll take along a 50mm f1.8 (probably the Zeiss Contax) for those times when I want a faster aperture along with the more limited depth of field.

If I were to pare down even more I'd just grab the RX10iii and the RX10ii and stuff them in my bag. In 4K they are very close in performance to the bigger cameras. The only downside is the limited depth of field control. Still, used wide open at a longer focal length, the model two can do a convincing job of dropping backgrounds out; provided they are far enough away....

The kludgy stuff to pack and transport are heavy, bulky things like light stands, tripods and the like. I'm contemplating getting in touch with a rental facility for the stands and tripods but I'll see just how efficiently I can pack first. The primary rule of photo logistics is to make sure every case has wheels.

With good gear, a shot list and good subjects to interview we should be able to do some really fun visual/audio content. I guess I should also pack a coat and some gloves.....

It's Sunday evening here in the world of objective facts. I'm packing for a preliminary scouting and "lite" photography at the design rehearsal of, "The Great Society."

It's been an odd and disjointed weekend. I spent Friday afternoon getting to know my RX10iii more intimately. To that end I created a small, hand holdable rig with a shoulder mount, a microphone mixer/interface, a Sennheiser MK600 microphone and, of course, the camera - fitted with a variable neutral density filter. My goal was to use the political demonstrations on Congress Ave. as practice event in becoming more fluid with my handheld and spontaneous use of the RX10iii's video capabilities. 

Right off the bat I'd have to say that the bigger silhouette of the rig, et al, will take a bit of getting used to. Twenty minutes into my walking journey to downtown I was ready to jettison the shoulder rig and try my luck handheld. I'm glad I didn't because the shoulder rig proved to be a very good and very inexpensive way of holding the camera much steadier than I had been able to in my hands alone. 

I was also intent on shooting in the 4K mode all day so I could see for myself if the various active modes available for 1080p were some how equal to the improvement in quality of the more detailed files in the larger format. My observation is that, in 1080p, the active stabilization is very good but the addition of the shoulder mount, along with the regular 3 axis image stabilization that comes in the 4K setting, is pretty much equally good. 

The afternoon was bright and sunny and the shade on the shadow side of the street was "Kodak" shade. It was a great situation in which to experiment a bit more with the video profiles. I selected PP5 which is a bit flatter than most and has a "cine" (softer curve) gamma. I also went into the profile menu and turned down the sharpening for that selection. The stuff I shot in full sun was right on the money. Good clean highlights, with no burn outs, and shadows nicely open and detailed. For where I am in the colorist's learning curve right now I would not want to go for the "full Monty" of PP7 (S-Log) right now because I'm not sure I could great it back to the real world. 

One big change I've made on the RX10iii is to change the preset on the center button of the four way controller on the back of the camera. I've changed it to MF/AF toggle. I can leave the camera set in AFS-C, put a target on my subject and wait until I am certain I have good focus, and then hit the button with my right thumb which switches the system into manual focus. I know when I've gone into MF because the focus peaking indicators appear on the screen. It's a quick and convenient way to lock focus and seems to be the cousin to the "push AF" back button process beloved by DSLR shooters. 

I spent three hours walking through downtown shooting, recording, trying different focusing ideas and, occasionally, stopping to interview and interesting person. We can talk about how good various video cameras are but here are a couple takeaways from my adventure: I shot some protesters with signs under some large shade trees and I could get decent exposure on them and still preserve detail in the sky. Very cool. The 4K video is very sharp and drops into a 4K timeline effortlessly in FCP X. The files are not too large and the program can read them directly, without the need to transcode them on ingestion. Were I to edit for a client I would convert them to ProRes 4:2:2 just to squeeze the nth degree of quality out of them.

The battery in the camera lasted me for well over an hour of run time which meant: no battery change necessary during my three hours on the downtown anti-Trump parade tour. 

I know it might seem strange to people who feel compelled to archive everything they shoot but after I came home and scrubbed through the footage, examined the files at 100% (in motion) and generally digested what moves and focus strategies worked, and which did not, I pulled the card out of the card reader attached to the computer, stuck it back in the camera and reformatted it. I didn't have any use for the footage and I'd made the discoveries I was working toward. 

Tonight I'm heading over to the theatre to sit through the design rehearsal of Zach's new play. Everyone will be in costume, the lighting set and the stage fully finished. It's a chance to see the blocking and the light cues and a chance to take images from a freer range of angles. It's like reconnaissance for Tuesday's dress rehearsal with the added benefit of also being able to cover some of the images we'll need for marketing. 

Which cameras will I take? Oh, just the two RX10's. The two and the three. Another test to see just how well they do under contrasty stage lighting (again). I have some ideas based on the video profiles. We'll see how it all works out. 

I had a cold most of last week. Shook too many hands the week before. But I finally made it to swim practice yesterday in time for a burly distance set. Didn't cough to much between the 400 yard freestyle repeats but the nap on the couch in the mid-afternoon was most welcome. 

A crazy week coming up. Let's get going.

Some quick thoughts on two cameras I'm pretty sure I won't be reviewing.

Will with the original Fuji 100.

This week both Fuji and Leica introduced cameras that sound sexy and cool and interesting. But the target they were aiming at when they went into development three or four years ago has evaporated; moved on. Would I like to have one or both of these cameras, along with a group of appropriate lenses? Sure, who wouldn't? But would I pay the asking price for either of them because they represent something so new and different that I feel like I have to have them? Not a chance. 

Let's start with Leica's offering: The M10 is a continuation of the rangefinder camera style that debuted in 1954 with the M3. For about $6500 you get a basic rangefinder camera with a 24 megapixel sensor, the option to add an EVF after the fact, and battery life for 210 photographs. Your basic 50mm lens will cost you another $2200. For $8700 you can go out and shoot kinda like Henri Cartier Bresson. While the lenses are probably the best one can get you are paying an awful premium to achieve that last 1.052% of potential image quality. (I say "potential" because you'll need to make sure your rangefinder is correctly calibrated and that your basic handling skills are enough to put the camera and lens in a position to excel). It's basically a camera designed to be handheld with lenses, the real value, can only be realized with the system locked down on a tripod. 

I shot with the Leica film rangefinders for decades but they were affordable and amply available used. Leica's new idea of pricing is aimed squarely at a lux market that most working photographers are not part of. If I bought an M10 and a trio of useful lenses I would still have a hard time using this system for the work I do most of the time. The longer and faster the lens you need the less optimal the system becomes. It's a camera for people who are either without the operating constraints of clients or for photographers who do a kind of art that is specific. My hat is off to the second species for finding a paying market for doing exactly what they love. 

It's funny. I write this blog as a peek into my life as a working photographer. I don't write from the presumption that my readers are doctors, lawyers and captains of industry (although I know that some are). With this being the case it seems a bit hypocritical of me to join the parade and promote cameras like this, knowing that the vast majority of my readers, and certainly the majority or working professionals, would have no interest in buying one of these cameras. It's almost like buying into mercantile conspiracy to push a market that has no logic of its own.

I have a fantasy that, when I stop paying for college tuition and expenses, sell my Austin home at an extreme profit and finally retire, that I will buy a camera like this along with one perfect lens and spend the rest of my life traveling the world taking glorious images that no one else could match. But doesn't that play right into the worm of feeling inadequate in my own skills/vision and hoping the "magic" equipment (or locations, etc.) will make me a better artist? That way lies madness......and lots of cameras bought and sold. 

At any rate, much as I like the design of the M3, as represented for the nth time in the M10. I'll take a pass on buying or reviewing this product because I could never justify the expense or the return. What was supremely useful in the film days has lost most of its relevance in the present.

Now the Fuji GFX is a slightly more alluring enticement of a camera. Behind all the advertising and marketing is the implicit message that this camera is, de facto, medium format and brings along with it all that conveys. The idea that you'll immediately see big differences in making depth of field razor thin. The suggested promise that the "massive" sensor will provide a much richer level of color and detail and so much more. But again, how true is any of this? 

While the price of the Fuji GFX is about as good as we've seen (in terms of affordablity) for a "medium format" camera I would suggest that it's just another rangefinder style, digital camera with a slightly bigger sensor (in geometric terms) but with only scant bit more resolution and perhaps color and tonality that's already being delivered by 35mm styled cameras like the Nikon D810, the Canon 5DSR and the (amazing) Sony A7Rii. 

I think Fuji will find a fair market amongst those who don't do math well or who really believe there is something magical about a Sony sensor that's just a little bigger than other Sony sensors from the same technology generation. The dimensions of the sensor are barely larger than the 24 x 36mm size of full frame sensors and the range of current lenses is....interesing in its banality.

Perhaps Fuji is reconstituting their introduction philosophy along the lines they pursued with the X-Pro_1. Create a visually covet-worthy camera with great specs and then spend the ensuing years iterating lower and lower priced versions that get better and better (performance wise) with time. So, maybe in a year and a half we'll see the GFX-10 and it will have the same sensor, minus a few features and sell for $4995. Then we'll see the GFX-20 and it will also be a nice, step down model but with an even more attractive price.

The reality is that both of these cameras will likely be good performers and there will be a (smallish) market for them. But equally, if the only difference for the Fuji is the incremental increase in sensor size, and the only difference from Leica is the promise of simple elegance and potential good imaging, I think most people will quickly understand the skewed value propositions presented and continue buying from their current brands of choice. And I think that would be a smart move. We're moving out of an era when we were happily obsessed with our hobby and into a more complex environment for arts producers. And environment that requires constant learning and re-figuring. Getting locked into the specification paradigm of a past nostalgia can be counter-productive. Both for the mind and the wallet. 

You get a lot less wear out of an expensive tuxedo that you do from a basic business suit. 

Circling back to the Leica for a second... I just flashed on why I loved the film ones so much and never warmed up to the digital Ms. It's because the mechanical bodies promised the ability to shoot anywhere at any time without ever having to worry about being sidelined by a dead battery. It's the switch from mechanical to electronic that sucked the magic out of Leica Ms for me. Never really got that before. Funny what you think about when the world changes... It was all about the self reliance of the camera. 

210 exposures? Anxiety in the middle of an event....