We’ve made it to Los Angeles - and all is going absolutely great. I started the day on a music video set this morning (the dressing room upstairs was set up in a production studio where S&M movies are shot - complete with Y shaped beds suspended from the ceiling with chains - definitely felt like “LA”) and later in the afternoon I was helping out a friend with some time lapse photography for an Audi commercial being shot in downtown Los Angeles.
I’ve been meeting some really cool people out here - many of them just as fascinated as I am with new gear and things that “have never been done before.” The shot to the left is a digital infrared shot with a 5D MKII and the new 24mm T/S from Canon from this afternoon.
On a personal note, my daughter Eliana Lanai Laforet (aka “LaLa”) was born seven weeks ago and is absolutely amazing. We’re almost done unpacking and we’re really liking the vibe in Manhattan Beach - I hear it’s rained 15 out of the last 19 days back in New York City!
Anyway - I do plan to start posting again here now that things are settled down a bit - but I suggest you subscribe to this blog from this point on - as you’ll be automatically notified when something new is posted.
The long and short of it is that between the move, the new baby and work - I’m finding less and less time to post regularly. The other issue is that I’m finding that many of the new jobs / productions I work on don’t really allow me to post for weeks or months until they’re completed - just something that goes with the territory and is expected of course. By the time I’m cleared to share photos/clips/info, I more often than not find myself working on something altogether new and forget to write about what I did weeks ago. I’ll try to get better at this. For example, today’s production mounted an Arriflex 50mm Anamorphic lens to a 5D MKII - it was a pretty amazing sight! I’d love to share some pix of the rig or even some of the footage with you of course - but can’t for obvious reasons (the commercial has to come out first!) So stay tuned - or more to the point: subscribed.
Note: The Canon 5D MKII that took the first image was converted to IR by www.irdigital.net
Following yesterday’s post - I found it interesting that when I clicked on an image on Gawker.com - it led back to the Life.com / Getty Images site. The words “For personal non-commercial use only” were clearly put on the bottom of the linked image. Although I do not know if Gawker paid to use this image - I highly doubt it. If they had I’m sure that the disclaimer would not be there. hmmm…
As I mentiond - Life.com encourages the use of their images on blogs, e-mail, and social networking sites “for free.” As you can see Gawker runs ads on their pages… so clearly they are a COMMERCIAL publication as they derive revenue from those ads. They should be paying to use this image.
While the usage rights are very clearly spelled out in their terms of service - I think this goes to show how dangerous printing those words “free” can be… (more…)
Well it looks like I finally made one of my dreams come true. After months of being pulled to the west coast for various projects - I’ve decided to become bi-coastal and to move my family to Los Angeles. This summer we will officially have a base in Manhattan, as well as Manhattan Beach!
My wife and I have decided that raising babies on the sand is more enticing than being cooped up in the dead of winter. Please understand one thing: my love affair with New York City and the way it photographs from above is far from over - we will be maintaining a “pied a terre” as well as an office space here in the city and I wouldn’t be surprised to find myself working here more than I do now!
I’m very excited to continue branching out into the film/video/commercial world and finding new ways to implement the new DSLR technologies and digital cinema cameras in upcoming projects. This expansion will give me a much greater chance of working with pioneers in that industry - I’ve certainly racked up my fair share of frequent flyer miles flying out west this year.
Now you can probably understand why I’ve been relatively quiet since posting the Jamie O’Brien project - we’ve been busy working out all of the details of this move - not to mention that we’re expecting our second child within the next few weeks! I have a lot of ideas and posts that I’ve been holding back amidst all of these changes along with my crazy travel schedule - I hope to be able to share more with you in the next few days.
As crazy as these times may be - I think that taking a chance with change keeps the creative fluids flowing! It makes me feel like I’m 34 - not 64… the last big change I made was leaving my staff job at The New York Times a little over 3 years ago - and what a ride it’s been!
(P.S.: Not one person mention a single thing about traffic! Or you’ll burst my little bubble… Manhattan Beach is a little over 10 minutes away from LAX - so this is definitely thought out… I can hear the laughter from afar… )
Here is a first look at the Jamie O’Brien project. This is a reel of some of the best shots from the 3 week project. I would like to point out that this first look does not reflect our ultimate goal of producing a more in depth documentary that includes interviews with Jamie and other influential members of the surfing community. One of the reasons that it’s taken me this long to get this short cut up on the blog is that we’ve been working on the two cuts simultaneously. My goal all along has been to NOT make yet “another surf film” as those have already been made and made very well by some incredibly talented filmmakers - and shot over a much longer period of time where budgets and time allow the filmmakers to wait for the perfect conditions / swell. During the 3 weeks in Hawaii - we probably saw 5 days of sun, and 2-3 days of decent (but relatively small) waves. I was well aware of some of these challenges (weather is always a huge factor when shooting in the winter months in Hawaii) and made a point from the beginning to draw upon my experience as a photojournalist to work towards producing a different type of film. I hope to be able to share that with you at some point in the upcoming months.
For now I hope you’ll enjoy this first look. I look forward to getting back to writing more regularly on this blog now that this cut is done. A huge thanks goes out to all of the crew members, the sponsors who provided financial and gear support (many of them prototypes) and of course to Jamie.
Monday February 02nd 2009, 2:26 pm
Filed under: Articles
So I’ve gotten 5 e-mails from friends in the past 2 days asking me if I as “OK.” Yes the blog has been very very quiet - it’s been almost a month - believe me I know. The reason: well I’ve been busy working on the post-production of the Jamie O’Brien piece - trying to work on two different edits simultaneously. For those of you involved in video/film - I’m sure you can relate on how much time post takes w/ the moving image relative to the still image. I’ve also been busy returning a lot of loaner gear (some of it just made it back last week in fact) and billing, not to mention covering Obama’s inauguration for TIME magazine, and bidding on jobs including one that involved 19 cast & crew.
Oh and my wife is also very pregnant (29 weeks to be exact) - so a lot of my free time that I would put towards the blog is being transfered to spending some much needed time my 4-year-old son and wife.
My favorite new thing is falling asleep in my son’s bunk bed as we read books each night - which means I no longer run off to the computer every night to write blog posts…
So please be patient with me - I’m sorry for the silence - and thanks for the concern. There’s actually nothing at all to be concerned about!
(Due to the length and size of this piece I am putting it up at 720p.)
Please note that Tiffen and Formatt BOTH make screw on filters and 4 X 5.65 filters for the matteboxes. I use a variety of filters from both companies - I use 1-6 stop Neutral Density filters as well as a few 10 stop screw on filters. (The RED One camera became part of our production a few days before we left and we had to scramble to find the appropriate filters in time - luckily both Tiffen and Formatt helped save the day in last minute fashion.)
Both companies also make graduated NDs and Hot Mirror filters that cut out infra red light when using the RED One camera. The 4 stop and 6 stop are the NDs we’re using most often. I personally like the 10 stop to use my 1.2 lenses wide open in sunlight. Also - if you want to stay very light and mobile - I recommend you use the screw on filters - I travel with a set of 72mm and 77mm filters for my Canon lenses - but you could also buy a step-down adapter to screw on your 77mm filters onto your 72mm if you’re looking to economize. I tell every friend buying a 5D MKII to: 1. buy ND filters right away and 2. an good video head (see the Gitzo G2180 below) 3. an extra battery for the 5D MKII 4. and look into audio (see previous posts for the Rode mic and other options.)
We’ve also been using a variety of Manfrotto Tripods and video heads that we mention in this Behind The Scenes on this project that have allowed us to pull of some very nice pans of Jamie surfing. I can’t overstate how important it is for you to get a good tripod set to shoot nice pans - and you’ll need the heavy duty stuff to shoot with the heavier RED and long Canon glass. If you want a simple setup to start off with a 5D MKII and shorter lenses - we’ve found the Gitzo carbon fiber tripods and the Gitzo G2180 Fluid head to perform quite remarkably (but don’t overload it or any fluid head with weight - unlike still photography you can’t really get away with overloading a head with video as your pans and tilts will suffer.) Another really nice option are these self-standing monopods by Manfrotto that I recommend you use with a quick release plate.
Check out the RedRock Micro DSLR Rig and long lens support that I’ve mentioned in the past as well as the Wicked Circuits EF Lens adapter for the RED One Camera.
I will be posting a DETAILED list of all of the gear described within this and the first behind the scenes clip in a few days after we put up the 3rd installment of the Behind the Scenes up (it’s a long list and I want to add links so it’ll take me a better part of a day to do and we’ve only got a few days of shooting left on this project.)
(UPDATE - The video is now up at 1080p - see “Full HD” link on top of the window.)
Creativity in surfing is the opportunity to express oneself on a wave. Surfing is nothing but the physical extension of one’s ability to explore that realm between land and sea. Being free to do it without the constraints of commercial endeavor or competitive goals creates true freedom of expression. Somewhere between the land and the sea Jamie tries the other side, switching his feet around on take off, choosing the opposite stance, then midway, switches back… as if to say I can do “whatever I like.” Jamie embodies the term “free surfer.”
We had a long behind the scenes clip queued up for you today (including the ND filter piece that I promised) but the newsman in me forces me to put this clip out now - for the non-surfing crowd out there: this footswitch by Jamie is something unique to his skill set, and something seldom captured.
The best thing about watching, let alone filming, Jamie - is the privilege of seeing someone do something so beautiful, so difficult, so effortlessly. The last time I saw something like this on such a regular basis was when I photographed Michael Jordan at the United Center in Chicago for his last 3 years on the court.
The best part is that I’ve actually had a chance to eat some poke with Jamie - a local delicacy. Whereas social time with Michael was nothing but a distant dream. After a very trying week - I can’t wait to sit back and spend the next week watching Jamie surf. Hope you all feel the same - this is but a small sampling.
This shot was made with a Canon 500mm f4 - on a RED One at 100 frames per second at 2K using the Wicked Circuits EF Lens Adapter. That’s the equivalent of a 1600mm on a 35mm camera. Big thanks to Mike Isler for the focus pull and spotting.
2008 Ended on a big uptick - we had a wonderful day, full of waves and sun. And we shot more footage today than in the past week combined it seems. We got up at 5:30 a.m. for the 3rd day straight today and my crew shot with me for over 14 hours today - so I’m giving them the night off and holding off on another post with video etc. Fireworks are popping outside and spirits are high. Time to take a little time off, unwind - and enjoy. I hope you all are doing the same. Happy new year everyone - I wish you all the very best for 2009!
To see this video at 1080p go to SmugMug by CLICKING HERE.
“Hurry Up and Wait” - these are words that I and every photographer / filmmaker / surfer - you name it - live by. It was a mad dash to get everything ready for this trip - people flew through winter storms, prototypes were assembled last minute and gear was shipped from all over the country. And then you get here. And no waves.
I knew that this might happen - and that’s why I gave myself close to 3 weeks to pull this off. Nonetheless - it hasn’t made the wait any easier. I can tell you that waiting for weather as a photographer is one of the few truly stressful parts of the job - but when you have a film crew with you - it just gets amplified exponentially as you’re no longer the only person waiting. This isn’t my first rodeo - and I’ve had to wait a long time before (in fact I had to wait over a week to make a single frame the last time I was here on the North Shore to cover the Pipeline Masters two years ago.) My 18 years of experience has taught me to simply let things unfold naturally. Certain things just can’t be helped along… Truth be told: I still can’t “relax” even in Hawaii when I’m “waiting” for an assignment to come together.
The fact that we’ve also faced some tough weather and a power outage hasn’t helped, but stress aside - we’ve been having a good time. We don’t have a single clip of Jamie surfing yet - but it looks like we might just get lucky as a swell is headed our way. For now I hope you enjoy a very quick cut of what we do have - mostly of us waiting. For the waves. And Jamie to explode off of them.
Next I’ll put up a behind the scenes piece/tutorial on how important Neutral Density Filters are with these digital cinema cameras and how they’re absolutely essential if you want to differentiate what you are shooting with your Canon lenses from what you see coming out of standard HD video cameras when shooting in daylight.
Here is the first installment of our behind the scenes footage. I will be detailing every piece of gear used as we go through this production - and tomorrow I will post the model numbers etc. of what we are using as I’m sure a few of you might be interested in those specifics. I was planning on doing that in this post - but it’s late and we’re a little behind given the 18-hour island-wide power failure, so stay tuned.
So I’ve gotten 5 e-mails from friends in the past 2 days asking me if I as “OK.” Yes the blog has been very very quiet - it’s been almost a month - believe me I know. The reason: well I’ve been busy working on the post-production of the Jamie O’Brien piece - trying to work on two different edits simultaneously. For those of you involved in video/film - I’m sure you can relate on how much time post takes w/ the moving image relative to the still image. I’ve also been busy returning a lot of loaner gear (some of it just made it back last week in fact) and billing, not to mention covering Obama’s inauguration for TIME magazine, and bidding on jobs including one that involved 19 cast & crew. 
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