while the batteries are charging...

"Video" shot with a Canon 1D Mark II

2008-02-21T09:27:00.001-06:00

There's not a second of video in this "video." Rather 1,736 still images edited together at 10 images/second.

I'd love to hear what you think of it. I've never attempted a piece like this, but am pleased with how it turned out.

I found it refreshing and energizing to break away from my regular style of video and try something new. I had more fun editing this video than any other I've ever shot.

Skiplane Fly-In

2008-02-01T13:54:00.000-06:00

IFR to VFR to IFR - that's a wrap-up of this year's skiplane fly-in.

There was great snow, but too much of it. Not on the ground, but coming down. It let up for a short period allowing one skiplane to fly in. I overheard a bystander laugh and remark to his buddy, "Well for the first time, it's appropriately named... Skiplane Fly-in, not Skiplanes Fly-in. There's just one of 'em."

Enjoy the video.

On a technical side, this was the first video I've shot in a long time making use of a tripod. There are definite pros and cons.

It helps tremendously with panning shots (i.e. an airplane taking off, landing or flying) and for telephoto shots. It also gave my arm a break while interviewing. But as I expected, I saw great moments and missed them due to the clunkiness of a tripod.

I've always strived for steady shots, but have not appreciated the cost* of using a tripod. (* not dollars, but moments)

I'll likely start using a tripod for more interviews and some telephoto b-roll, but leave it behind for a majority of the candid action. I like traveling light. I like being mobile when I'm shooting—light on my feet, so to speak.

A professor friend of mine teaches a great philosophy on the matter. "I don't care if you use a tripod or not—just get a steady shot."

2007: all the rest

2008-01-20T12:29:00.000-06:00

I realized a few days ago that there are a lot of videos I produced in 2007 that never made it to blogland. So, before they get buried any deeper in the archive, here they are...

First Timers Explore AirVenture

EAA Volunteers: Gathering of Mustangs & Legends

Meeting a Legend: Gathering of Mustangs & Legends

Good Ol' Days

A Memorable Evening Unfolds

A Pilot Like Any Other

Innovation @ AirVenture

30 Years in the North 40

Women Soar

KidVenture

Space Week @ EAA

2007-12-14T15:42:00.000-06:00

Tonight will be the first time I'll get to see one of my videos on a screen larger than 20". EAA is hosting a Wright Brothers Banquet and will be showing this video before the keynote speaker takes the stage. The keynote is Brian Binnie, who is one of the astronauts/pilots who flew SpaceShip to space.

Enjoy!

Friday

2007-10-12T14:53:00.000-05:00

Friday
another work day
email, projects to edit
eight hours till weekend

Invitation
phone call from a friend
want to go flying today?
i’ll call you back soon

Debate
Flying = exciting
but I have too much to do
I don’t know—fly? work?

Colleague
Life’s short you should go
projects can wait. fly the sky
friend, “carpe diem”

Answer
three hours of work lost
small price to pay for such an
opportunity

Skies
headset prop takeoff
fall scenery from above
a view to behold

Gratitude
thanks Owen, Kelly
for the reminder to live
life’s too short to not

Gathering of Mustangs & Legends

2007-10-11T15:04:00.000-05:00

Here is a photo gallery of "The Final Roundup."

Enjoy!

Airplanes that are older than my grandpa

2007-09-28T19:13:00.000-05:00

A couple hundred people and antique planes gathered at Brodhead, Wisconsin earlier this month for the Midwest Antique Airplane Club’s annual Grassroots Fly-In.

Some of these planes were used for flight training when my grandfather was being trained before WWII — and they’re still flying!

Live Life

2007-09-27T10:40:00.000-05:00

I'm currently in Columbus, OH covering the Gathering of Mustangs & Legends.

I spent most of the day yesterday in the “hot zone” at Rickenbacker Airport (LCK) as volunteers welcomed and parked arriving P-51’s.

About 100 mustangs and 50 veterans who flew them in WWII are scheduled to come for the event. The mustangs are impressive, but I’m most looking forward to hearing some of the legends who flew them share their stories.

I read this morning in USA Today that about 1,000 WWII veterans are passing away every day. This gathering is called the Final Roundup for that reason.

Stories like this are the hardest to cover. Can my videos and photos do justice to this reunion? Is it possible to capture the uniqueness of this weekend? These moments won’t happen again.

Though I feel I’ve been commissioned with a task that is impossible, I will try to capture the heart of this unique reunion with every tool in my multimedia tool belt.

I must tell you upfront though that no form of media can substitute life. The most powerful forms of media can only give you a perception of experience, but not experience.

The highest mark one of my projects can get is when someone says, “I felt like I was there.” However, if I succeed at my work, it is still just a feeling.

I encourage you to not be content with pseudo-experiences. Live life. Almost all of us know someone in our lives or community who served in WWII. This will not be the case in 10 years. Take them out for a cup of coffee and listen. Just listen.

In a few years, you might not have the opportunity to experience what you can experience today.

Mandolins and Medals

2007-09-12T18:42:00.000-05:00

In this post you get two for the price of one.

The first is a video about the people who happened to be in Hangar B at AirVenture when I strolled through on a Sunday afternoon. It’s a light-hearted and fun piece.

Next is a photo gallery of eight Medal of Honor recipients who visited EAA last week. I had the pleasure of shaking hands with most of them. As I was editing the photos, I looked up each of their stories. If you get a chance, read through some of them here. Reading their feats of heroism is both humbling and inspirational.

Camping under the wing of a plane

2007-08-30T11:00:00.000-05:00

After flying 2500 miles across the nation on a three-day journey, three EAAers from Washington were greeted by yours truly and welcomed to Oshkosh.

Watch as they set up camp under the wing of their plane and tell about their journey.

WWII Reenactment Camp

2007-08-23T16:29:00.001-05:00

I wish there was a way to capture the smell of this encampment. When I first arrived, I saw an older gentleman stop and take a deep breath. He then turned to me and said “It still smells the same.” He had served in the European theatre during WWII.

I enjoyed playing around with some Final Cut Pro filters in making this video. What else can I do to make footage look era-appropriate for future videos (besides lugging around an iconoscope to shoot with? )

These re-enactors are amazing. Everything—I mean everything—in the camp was war-time dated (except my camera). Most of these re-enactors slept in the tents for a week never getting out of character.

Enjoy!

"Is that a real piece of the moon?"

2007-08-17T16:11:00.001-05:00

Sure is...

Emergency Aircraft Repair

2007-08-15T17:21:00.000-05:00

"What better thing can you do than to help your fellow man?" - Cy Galley

From the marsh to the skies

2007-08-07T21:32:00.000-05:00

To oversimplify things...reading Mindy McAdam’s book, buying a video camera and being nice to my previous editor paid off. I am now a multimedia journalist for the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association).

My second week on the job was the superbowl of airshows - AirVenture. In seven days I collected twelve hours of footage, thousands of photos and hours of audio. After a couple weeks of editing I hope to end up with 15 videos and 5 soundslides.

Here are the first three videos and the first two soundslides. I’ll update more as I edit them.

Texas Videologue

2007-04-08T01:13:00.000-05:00

I used my vacation last week to TX as an opportunity to get to know my camera a little better. We are becoming good friends.

Final Cut Pro and I are also becoming good friends, but my relationship with Flash is still in the beginning stages. Our first date was more complex than I was hoping for, but I don’t get scared away that easy. We’ve already agreed on a second date and think I will soon have another dear friend.

This videologue is comprised of 7 short videos from my week and was done 100% for fun. Enjoy.

Making History

2007-04-07T13:23:00.000-05:00

Today the Marshfield News-Herald published its first video frame grab...

Imagining Reality

2007-04-05T20:09:00.000-05:00

A good friend lent me a book to read called, “Imagining Reality.”

It is a history of documentary filmmaking and has been very enlightening to read. I see many parallels to our current times. I plan to share more of my thoughts at a later point, but enjoy this excerpt for now...

“A modern battlefield really shows little or nothing, and the real scenes are diametrically opposed to the usual ‘posed battle’ scenes with which our public has been regaled so much. In real life a man who has been hit by a bullet does not throw up his hands and rifle and then fall in a theatrical fashion and roll a few times over. When he lies in the trenches and is hit, he barely lurches a few inches forward or quietly turns over on his side. The real picture is not as dramatic as the fake picture, but I believe the realization of the grimness of the genuine will grip the beholder far more than the fake, just as you can see far better animal pictures that were taken in the zoo or in animal parks than mine taken in the wilderness, but the public appreciated the difference...” - Captain F.E. Kleinschmidt, August 1914

Here is my latest from “the wilderness”...

Snow Plowing @ Night

2007-03-11T16:49:00.000-05:00

Cabin fever...

2007-03-01T02:41:00.000-06:00

Round 2 @ 2 a.m.

2007-01-15T02:04:00.000-06:00

I finished this one at 2 a.m. That's a one-hour improvement over my last one!

If I wasn't dozing off right now, I'd post about my experience with video #2. Maybe my morning coffee tomorrow will inspire me.

Until then, enjoy...

QuickTime mov / 1:24 / 5 MB / Get QuickTime

Video: Crossing Guard

2007-01-12T03:00:00.000-06:00

Today I worked on my first real project with the V1U.

In honor of it being crossing guard week in Wisconsin, I did a quick feature on a wonderful woman named Ann Utter. She has been a crossing guard at the same intersection for 36 years.

I was in the field recording for about 25 minutes, captured video for another 1.5 hours (after timecode issues), spent 3 hours editing the video, took a 2 hour break to go photograph a wrestling match, then hacked out another 5 hours exporting, compressing, encoding and uploading.

I am sure I will soon be more efficient. Today was my first time using several of the programs, so much of my time was spent searching menu items. I am proud to report my raw footage to finished product ratio was 17:1.

I wish I had a seasoned mentor looking over my shoulder as I was trying to figure all this out. However, I am grateful for the many great people who have shared their knowledge and experience via forums, listservs and blogs.

Here are the videos...
Click on the photo below to view the .mov file I exported from FCP using a method PF Bentley describes here.

I then made a flash video using the methods described by Mindy McAdams on her blog a couple months back.

Here is my flash version of the video. The transitions in the video reproduced the poorest. Does anyone know why that is? Is there a way to fix that?

I also would like for the videos to NOT auto start. Both the .mov and flash file automatically start playing when you load the page. Is there a simple way of changing this?

Other good news - I ordered a video head today for my tripod so my videos will be less ‘blair-witchy.”

My brain hurts...I’m going to bed.

first day with my Sony V1U

2007-01-09T23:01:00.000-06:00

It arrived yesterday evening, so today was my first day to take it for a spin.

Consider this video a quick drive around the block after turning 16 and getting my driver’s license. It’s nothing impressive, but I made it home safely.

When I turned 16, I immediately got behind the wheel even though I didn't have anywhere to go. The thrill of driving was all I cared about. Today I had nothing to shoot, but that didn’t stop me. Therefore, you now have a video with minimal content and no storyline.

This is also my first attempt at editing with iMovie.

I’d like to see what this camera is capable of, but I discovered today that I need to better understand video formats, features and all-around video lingo.

I’ve been reading forums and reviews for months, but now that I have a camera in hand everything seems much more complicated. It’s like reading a spanish dictionary for months before walking the streets of Mexico City. The Spanish dictionary is valuable, but in itself very limited.

So, I am going to take things slow and try not to be frustrated that my videos aren’t compressing properly. Video was much simpler when I tinkered with it in college.

In a nutshell, I learned a lot today- mostly that I have a lot more to learn.

Fallen Marine

2007-01-05T23:19:00.000-06:00

Cpl. Joshua Schmitz
January 16, 1985 - December 26, 2006
This week I documented a very emotional funeral service for Cpl. Joshua Schmitz. He died the day after Christmas from injuries sustained during combat operations in Al Andar Province, Iraq.

Click the photo to view the slideshow.

Best of 2006

2006-12-30T14:32:00.000-06:00

(click on the photo to play slideshow)

It is always a painful process to edit down my favorite photos from the year, but it's fun to look back.

I also noticed through this process that I am a year behind in my archiving. I know what I’ll be doing on New Years day.

Since I’ll be shooting video soon, I’m going to have to be better at archiving. I will also have to develop an archiving structure that works for video. I’d be interested in hearing how others are doing it.

taking the plunge

2006-12-29T15:54:00.000-06:00

After countless nights of research and reading online forums, I’ve come to a conclusion. I’m gonna do it. I gonna jump into the deep end.

I’ve waded in the shallow end long enough watching the big kids do tricks off the high-dive only wishing I would one day have the nerve to take the plunge.

I’ve rearranged the funds, said a few prayers, sweet-talked my wife and placed the order this morning.

Drum roll please...the Sony V1U !!

Hopefully you’ll find it helpful to know how I came to this decision.

Of the cameras I was considering, here is how I eliminated each.

The Sony A1U was attractive only because of its price. The single CCD chip was the biggest turnoff. When I read that it is useless in low light (and didn’t have my beloved top handle), I quickly dismissed it.

I then seriously considered the Sony PD170. I still believe this is a solid camera and would meet all my current needs. The reason I didn’t go this route is because it will be extremely limited in the near future since it has no HDV capabilities (not to mention being able to resell it in a couple years). I figured if I am going to spend $3,000, I might as well spend $1,500 more and get a nice HDV camera.

I considered the FX7 briefly since it shares so many of the V1U’s features, but concluded it was way too expensive for a “consumer” camera.

So the winner is the V1U. I should receive it in about a week and will let you know the minute I get my hands on it.

As far as computers go, I also purchased the 20” iMac to handle the video workflow. My reliable G4 powerbook continues to kick strong, but I wanted a desktop to work with video production.

Gear isn’t everything, but it is important. I’ve been seeing great video for years now, but had no way to capture it.

Today, a new chapter has begun in my life as a visual journalist. It’s an expensive chapter—but crucial.

multimedia shooter

2006-12-28T17:34:00.000-06:00

http://www.multimediashooter.com

I discovered this new site over the holidays while visiting the fam in TX. I’m excited to see what comes of it. It has already become a daily stop for me.

I also have some exciting news to share with you soon...stay tuned...

Merry Christmas

2006-12-25T23:11:00.000-06:00

for your viewing pleasure

2006-12-17T23:41:00.000-06:00

Until I start producing videos, here are some audio slideshows I produced this year. Let me know which you like best because I’d like to update my portfolio with 3-4 of them. Enjoy!

Bristol: classroom therapy dog
Stratford football: state champs
Welcome home soldiers
Preparing for a nightmare
All Aboard: Central Wis. State Fair train
Engulfed in the experience
Arpin Kickball League
The Spirit of Marshfield
Jump on in: Hefko Pool
Aprendiendo ingles: Learning English
Detour from despair
Earth Day 2006
Clyde’s Canes
One night at McGuilicuddy’s
Bench press competition

PS - Soundlides is an awesome program. I used it to make each of these slideshows. The brains behind the program belong to Joe Weiss. He is a super cool guy and extremely helpful if you ever have a question. Well worth the $40.

to HD or not to HD? that is the question.

2006-12-16T19:19:00.000-06:00

Video is in a season of growing pains. There seems to be not enough of too many choices. Let me explain.

As the video industry shifts to HD, companies are beginning to market HD cameras at a modest price, but are having to cut some other features to keep them affordable. Like every other new piece of technology, I know the market will eventually even out for us mid-range budget folks. I just wish that season was already here.

Here are the cameras I am considering and a few thoughts about each...

(I am leaning toward Sony because of several reviews I've read, but I'm open to other brands if someone has a strong suggestion).

From least expensive to most...

Sony A1U ($2,000)
Pros: the price and it is HD
Cons: the single chip CMOS and the absence of a top handle (I used this a lot when shooting video in college).

Sony PD170 ($2,700)
Pros: top handle, 3-CCD and high recommendations from others
Cons: SD (not HD) - will soon be outdated and hard to resell

Sony FX7 ($3,200)
Pros: top handle, 3-CMOS and it is HD
Cons: horrible lens range (37.4mm is as wide as it goes), no XLR audio input and Sony defines it as a consumer camera

Sony V1U ($4,200)
Pros: I like it all (here’s a cool video that explains its CMOS clearvid sensors)
Cons: lens range, it’s fresh on the market, it’s pricey (same price as Z1U w/ current rebate)

Sony Z1U ($4,200)
Pros: everything
Cons: too rich for my wallet and it's big

There’s my current dilemma. I would like to invest in a camera within the next month, but there is not a clear winner.

At the moment, the PD170 is what I’m looking the closest at. For my uses, it’s not crucial that I shoot HD. I do like the 16:9 format over the 4:3 ratio, but I can live without it. My main reservation is that it pains me to spend more for a SD camera than what I could get an HD camera for. And it will be obsolete in a few years.

I could still go for the A1U. I am really turned off by the single chip and the lack of the top handle, but I know some others are doing good work with it. Scott Kesterson is using it to document being embedded with troops in Afghanistan.

Here’s the million dollar question... Should I go with the better camera features and ditch the HD or should I go with the HD and ditch the camera features I want? Or should I break the bank, eat rice and beans for the next year and go for the V1U?

I am also open to the idea of somebody donating a couple dozen benjamins to the greater cause.

If this person is you, please comment immediately to this blog before you change your mind.

remnant of a previous affair

2006-12-15T23:54:00.000-06:00

Brief bio:
1982 -- -- entered this world
1987 -- -- entered kindergarten
2004 -- -- entered into marriage with my gorgeous wife
2005 -- -- entered into the working world of photojournalism
200now -- entered my first blog on bradylane.blogspot.com

While attending ACU, I enrolled in a couple video production classes and discovered I enjoyed applying my eye to documenting moving images as well as still images.

I couldn’t afford both still equipment and video equipment, so I chose my first love — the still image. I did, however, thoroughly enjoy my brief affair with video. Yes, it was an affair. I didn’t want it to end, but upon graduation, the video equipment was not available and the student loan repayment began.

You know the rest of the story...bills...work...more bills...more work...and so on.

I’m grateful for my old profs who preached “convergence” and mentors along the way who have reminded me I am a person first, a journalist second and a photographer third.

All this has culminated to me asking this crucial question several times a day and applying it to every story I report on: “What is the best way to report this story?”

Each story is unique and requires a unique combination of media to best report it.

About a year ago, I was reminded of the affair I had in college (with video that is). I wasn’t ready for another full-fledged affair so I compromised and purchased a Sony minidisc audio recorder.

I quickly discovered how powerful photos can be when merged with ambient sounds. While I plan to continue producing these slideshows, they have only increased my desire again for video.

In the last month, I’ve come across several stories where I’ve thought to myself, “Video would be the best way to report on this story. I’ll have to settle with an audio slideshow.”

So for the sake of better visual journalism, I am entering into another affair with video. And, like any affair, I have already encountered some complications.

I’ll share those with you soon. In the meantime, thanks for visiting my blog. I look forward to collaborating with you throughout this endeavor of becoming a more complete visual journalist.

PS - Don’t tell my Canon 1D.