Nikon Snap Bridge for 'Extreme Selfies'

My Nikon D5600 has snapbridge which is blue tooth and wifi connetivty to my phone for downloading images and controlling the camera remotley.  Pretty cool.  Here's some initial tests I did with it.  The sun was setting and my windows face west - so I was able to get some really nice golden hour glow to blow out the background.

How to get buttery smooth slow motion B roll

I've been working on my little film projects and I think I've finally nailed down the right settings to get some nice silky smooth slow motion b-roll!.   Here's the secret sauce - although I'm sure it's not that much of a secret.  I'm just glad to share my findings:

1. shoot your footage in 60fps
2. import into your editor but make sure the timeline is set to 24fps
3. trim your clips
4. select them and change the video speed by using the value 40%

That's it - 40% seems to be that nice sweet spot to slow down the footage as much as possible before it starts 'jittering' which I believe is the editor adding frames.

Bonus Tip for the cinematic black bars:

In Davinci simply head up to 'timeline' and near the bottom is output blanking - choose 2.39.  There's other options too if you want 4:3 etc. 

Here's a little montage of myself and some fellow photographer friends stomping around in the snow trying to get some nice images near the lakeshore.

Cotton Candy Clouds

I just can't get over the skies tonight. Had to share this asap. I was driving home from work and around town this evening and had to capture the magic in the skies. I was very taken by the colour at the marina.

I'll keep trying to express what photography does for me.  One day I might actually nail it.  This moment - it lasted maybe 5 minutes.  From the time I drove from my daughter's dance studio to the bridge and got out of my car, I had about 5 minutes to get these 2 images.  The railway was my primary focus. I wanted a different perspective on the city's skyline, hoping it was an angle that hasn't been done yet.  When the sun started dipping below the buildings I looked over my shoulder to see the wondrous pinks and soft blues over the Sleeping Giant.  I walked to the other side of the bridge, checked my shutter/iso/fstop to make sure they were good, took a breath to take it in then snapped the image.  The second image of the Giant was truly effortless.   I stood there a moment longer to take in the serenity and snapped a mental image as well.  The mental image is key as when I returned home later that evening to process the images, I give myself creative license to adjust and manipulate the image to how I best remembered the moment and how it made me feel.

Current River Damn! FOMO caused me to rise from my winter slumber and get out with my camera

FOMO - the Fear of Missing Out.  That's what I was feeling first thing in the morning.  Knowing a possible sunrise was in the forecast I laid in be for a torturous 10 mins before throwing the covers off and getting my ass out the door.  I knew I'd regret it if I slept in.  FOMO can be a good motivator. 

Photo presentation music by Mirasol (my good friend Davey Lahteenmaa)

Old Fort William - A Photographer's Wonderland

Family day weekend had me out with my daughters at Old Fort William.  It is a historical park where one is transported back to the fur trade era that once thrived in this area.  It is truly a gem.

We lucked out with some really nice warm and sunny winter weather.  The light was amazing and I had my fill of photography.  We explored the park and I was snapping photos like kid eating candies in a candy store.  The staff all playing their parts dressed in those oh so cozy Hudson Bay Blanket style long coats permitted me to take their photographs.  I think they turned out very well.

Discovering the Movie Making Magic

I'm a former graduate of the Film program offered here in Thunder Bay. It was a great time in my life. It was over 20 years ago now. I didn't pursue it though as a means of employment. I think I was too young and didn't have enough 'life' experience to really do anything with it and lacked direction (see what i did there?). I've always kept a passing interest in it. Those that pursued it - I hope they still find joy in it.

It's got to be at least twenty years later now and I'm rediscovering the 'art' of it and it's something I've been trying to re-connect with through my photography and youtube channel. As it turns out I've sort of gone full circle in my technical career having now been happily employed at the local TV and Radio station where I'm exposed to a news production on a daily basis. I don't work on the sets themselves but help manage some of the systems that help put that product to air.

I also work with some pretty amazing people - one in which is still an avid film enthusiast who has written an award winning screenplay.  I've had the opportunity now to work with him for a third time being in front of the camera.  That's right!  ACTING!

This last short film had a full scene of dialogue for me.  It was a very surreal experience.  We did a few takes of this scene from a couple of different angles.  Each time "action" was called I could feel myself slip into a different existence or dimension where everything around me darkened.  I could feel my whole being focus on the lines, the actions, the deliberate pauses in dialogue.  It was transcendental - as if I was the character living in a different life.








I could almost feel as if I was watching myself.  As if I was having an out of body experience.  I'm somewhat familiar with this feeling when I play guitar in my band in front of 100's sometimes 1000's of people.   One really gets into the performance and the focus and synergy take over and it's like you're on another plane of existence.  I didn't realize this form of creative exhibitionism took other forms.

I was able to take some behind the scenes photographs of the night's film making.

Ryan and Jenny	Ryan And Jenny	Me! Acting!
Ryan framing the shot	Ryan framing the shot	Script
Jenny	Jenny	Chris, Myself, Jenny and Ryan

Winter Landscape Photography - Frozen Harbours - Thunder Bay

Blair, Brandy and I headed down to the waterfront area on the south side of town this morning.  Hopeful for some sunrise colours we wandered around the board walk scoping out 'comps'. 

The steel statue of an eagle is most majestic and I think might be the best piece of art work in the city. 

Photogs:
Adam Sabaz - @thunderbaylandscapes
Blair Wright - @bmwphotoca/
Brandy Kenna - @incompassphotraphy/

Music:
Systems and Delphi - Davey Lahteenmaa

Running On Fumes

I am exhausted!  But I've had the most fulfilling day shooting.  I really start to wonder if it'd be possible to do this all the time and make a living at it.  My good friend Blair and I made plans this year to photograph the Ice Racing that takes place out at Chippewa.  He let me test out his 200mm for this and I spent the afternoon giggling with joy as we wandered up and down the bank overlooking the race track.  It was a perfect afternoon - overcast with lots of blue and grey in the skies which really helped with the lighting of all the snow.   For my first time out shooting fast cars I am just pleased with my efforts!  Here's some of the best shots I got.  I took over 900!  Culling them wasn't as bad as i thought.