I recently learned that I have been named as one of the Best Aerial Cinematographers in Simi Valley, CA by Giggster. Here is the Original Giggster Article:
Category: General Thoughts
Laguna Seca Race Weekend
The Monterey Peninsula is one of the most beautiful places in California and home to the Weathertech Laguna Seca race track, which is a great place to watch a race. If you enjoy taking pictures of race cars, access at this stunning track is perfect. You can walk all around and in some places get fairly close, unfettered views of the action. And the famous Corkscrew is just a stunning place to experience auto racing.
The GTD class was won by Alvaro Parente and Katherine Legge bringing her closer to a potential Championship this season. And the legendary Bobby Rahal, the R in Team RLL, saw his team win their second consecutive Championship race in the number 25 BMW driven by Connor De Phillippi and Alexander Sims.
Independence Day 2017
How unique and fantastic our American celebration of Independence is! Each year we get together with friends and family, picnic, barbecue, drink beer, listen to music and… of course watch and blow off fireworks.
Happy Independence 2017 America!
Smoke Free
After more than 10 years of living life as a reformed smoker, I wanted to look into what made it such a draw for me. I wanted to explore what made me love it so that in the face of a true health risk I would continue to do it. Smoke Free is a double entendre shot entirely at 240 frames per second, and includes portraits of the people I interviewed.
I just love how relaxing and hypnotic it is…
Using the iPhone as a camera
It’s a terrible camera. The lens is tiny, the resolution stinks, you have no creative control over shutter speed, sensitivity, aperture, and it’s ergonomically a nightmare, not to mention, sometimes it’s a really bad phone too. But it’s always there. I’ve always got it handy when I see something I would really like to photograph and don’t have my DSLR on hand. As a result, I have a lot of photos taken with my iPhone that I wished I had a better camera for. But having taken so many photos with it, I’ve discovered something about the iCamera, or maybe I’ve discovered something about myself, because I’ve started to like the images I can create with it. Continue reading “Using the iPhone as a camera”
Remembering John Pedone
[dc]H[/dc]is self proclamation “I’m kind of famous at Burning Man”, I’ve learned was accurate as news of his untimely death spread like wildfire through that community. I knew John Pedone as a colleague and fellow technician in the film lighting industry, and for a short time a decade ago, as a room mate. I only recently became aware of his impact on the legendary annual gathering of artists and misfits in the desert, as he proudly showed me photos of the camp he co-founded there years ago. His status at Burning Man became apparent to me posthumously as I began hearing about his motorcycle accident from some of the unlikeliest sources–all attendees at one time or another at the desert festival. That he was well-known amongst a large group of creatives in southern California doesn’t surprise me as he was one of the liveliest people I have known: well-traveled, adventurous, artistic, friendly and energetic. He created colorful light shows for raves and live performances, insanely huge structures for Burning Man, jumped from airplanes and scaled rock walls.
John and I worked together on more than a few projects over the past decade, the last, and probably coolest one being a 360° video for a new album by Gun’s ‘N Roses guitarist, Slash.
John lived life at full speed and last Friday he was remembered by a gathering of friends and family who came to say goodbye in a way that I’m certain he would have truly appreciated.
RIP John Pedone 1971 – 2012
What I learned at Alexa School
[dc]T[/dc]hanks to my affiliation with IATSE Local 600, Cinematographers Guild, I had an opportunity recently to attend a class given by ARRI to learn more about their new Alexa camera series and though I have shot with one once already, I did learn some new and interesting facts about what is quickly becoming one of my favorite camera systems.
DSLR.Bot and Venice HDR Images
[dc]I[/dc]n the on-going battle between Nikon and Canon owners as to which camera is better, one feature that I, a devoted Canon owner, have lamented is Nikon’s ability to bracket to 5 images as opposed to Canon’s 3, which becomes a real drawback when making High Dynamic Range (HDR) images. But now there is a new iPhone/iPad app that allows me to extend the number of images captured for HDR to as many as 20, and I have only begun to experiment with it. Continue reading “DSLR.Bot and Venice HDR Images”