My flight back to the States was cancelled today so I’ve got a rare bit of time to slow down and think of things. There’s been a lot that I’ve wanted to post on in the past few weeks and I simply haven’t had time - so here goes… consider these a random collection of thoughts that come in no particular order (lots of gear/tech tips towards the bottom of this post:)

1. Too Much High Tech? - I’ve had some pretty interesting discussions over the past few weeks with a variety of people following my post on a recent HDDLSR shoot. My good friend Joe McNally called me flat out “crazy” when he saw the gear we had at the Gulf Photo Expo this past week - which is a pretty fantastic compliment coming from him - given that he too has gone to the top of the Empire State Building (Joe and I are BOTH crazy for the record)  - and has shot images hanging from a helicopter as well.  My type of guy really - someone I’ve looked up to since I was in my teens…   So when he calls you “crazy” - you know you’ve hit the jackpot.   And to be honest:  it is crazy.

Some of you may have seen Robert Rodriguez out with his Franken-Rig out there this past week - needless to say we’re all gravitating towards these cameras because they do something absolutely exceptional.  Nobody would do this otherwise.  I’ve never lost sight of the fact that one of the main strengths of this camera is that it’s light and small.  I love going out with a bare body and shooting video as much as the next person.  BUT - once you start to move towards producing “professional” looking video with these cameras - you’ll find you need good camera support to stabilize this camera that given the size of its sensor and lack of image stabilization - EMPHASIZES every single movement (intended or not.)   So while I too have doubts some time as to whether or not I’ve gone off the deep end… when I see the final results the introspection ends.

That being said - I & this blog have been perhaps a bit too focused on technology to date.  Expect that to change… I’ll keep the gear heads happy - but focus more on other things to - time permitting!

For now please look at a quick video I put together with 13 fantastic students at GPP last week - most of the students were still photographers who had never shot video before - and while I gave them as much guidance as I could in terms of gear and movement - each of these shots had a student operating the camera in a 3-Day shooting workshop (followed by 2 days of editing/grading.)

GPP 2010 Student Workshop Video from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.

Nine more thoughts / gear tips / pleas below… i.e. click on “more”

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