Aug 02 2010

Beautiful, Buzzing Natural History from Rob Sheppard

Category: Multimedia & Video, PhotographersEthan G. Salwen @ 9:02 am

“In terms of a still image, the bees just looked like a brown splotch on a brown background — not interesting at all — but the video that I captured was truly amazing.” This is what Rob Sheppard told me about an image-making experience he had a few months back while exploring the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. He shared this as an example the value of using HD-DSLR video to better share nature.

At the time we talked, I had to trust Sheppard that his video captures were amazing. Now, thanks to his new “Buzz” video, we can all enjoy Sheppard’s great hi-def video of digger bees in action. Amazing, indeed — especially the fantastic close-ups!

This is wonderful natural history storytelling, well conceived, excellently executed. It fits in perfectly with Sheppard’s expanding goals as an image maker. As he said: “I want to focus more on creating natural history pieces.”

Sheppard, the editor-at-large of Outdoor Photographer, told me that technology is only a means to an end. He explained that the reason he is so excited about HD-DSLR technology is that it will help him with his greatest passion: exploring, sharing and helping conserve the natural environment.

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Jul 27 2010

It’s Making Movies, Stupid!

Category: Creative Process, Multimedia & Video, Technology InsightsEthan G. Salwen @ 6:17 pm

“After 11 years of shooting motion and over 30 years of shooting still images, my mind seamlessly makes the switch a hundred times a day between thinking and seeing in ‘moments in time’ or ‘time in motion’”, Gail Mooney shared yesterday in “True Convergence with the DSLR Cameras,” a great blog post from her “Journeys of a Hybrid.” Mooney speaks of how photographers new to video tend to get consumed by the technical challenges and “forget that they need to think and shoot differently when shooting video.”

This is something that I have been struggling with in my very initial steps into video and multimedia. I notice that I either shoot all stills or all motion. My mind is not only not switch seamlessly, it’s hardly switching at all. And when I am in video mode, I hardly know what I’m doing. And why should I? While I’ve been making still images for 20 years, I’ve only played around with multimedia a tiny bit over the past year. How would I know how to make a movie?

To make a movie. That’s the real challenge of photographers “moving into motion”: embracing video capture, as well as audio capture, as well as the editing these element together, or even “just” editing still images and sound into multimedia pieces. This “move making” factor might seem incredibly obvious, but I think few of us really realize this.

Maybe you realize this. But if you do, do you really realize this?

I ask because I recently finished up a 4,000-word article sharing photographers’ insights on embracing video and multimedia and, as good as the article is — I’ll share it with you when I have the PDF — I think I fail to communicate this obvious-subtle idea: Moving into motion is all about making movies, and making movies is hard.

Because of all the TV programs and movies we consume, we have a sense of how movies work, which is great. But, just as casual photographers Continue reading “It’s Making Movies, Stupid!”

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May 05 2010

Seeing Beyond the Still

Category: Multimedia & Video, The IndustryEthan G. Salwen @ 12:56 pm

The most recent issue of the “The Digital Journalist” (May 2010), which focuses on video, opens with this video by Vince Laforet.

On the vimeo.com page where the movie is hosted, Laforet explains that part of his motivation in creating “Chapter 1: The Cabbie” was to show off “the many strengths of this new breed of HD DSLR cameras, such as the Canon 7D, which we shot this film with.”

There is no doubt that Laforet has succeeded. The production quality of “Cabbie” is simply outstanding, and it will provide inspiration for any photographer exploring the possibilities of video. Laforet explains that “The camera’s low light capabilities and light weight allow you to do things you’d never think to try with traditional cameras.” Continue reading “Seeing Beyond the Still”

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