Video Log

Let the color’s continue… Funny how things never turn out exactly like you thought they would. Such is the live of a visual storyteller. Sometimes they turn out better! There are several colors left in my head to capture and share. Green came and went with the Spring weather. Summer is here and ripe with colors, white being one of my favorites. Initially I wanted to film the kite surfers against a white sky but just today decided to add some foreground elements to the shot. Boy am I glad I did. Anyway, just another in the line of colors and motion that I’ve been playing with.

On my way to NAB in Vegas, I had the bright idea of shooting the sunrise over the a “carpet of orange” at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve SNR in Lancaster… Well, despite the warnings from their official site that peak has passed about two weeks earlier, I decided to give it a go, nonetheless. It seemed like a good plan, you know, like I did when I shot the sunrise about 20 years earlier when I was a photo student at Ventura College. That was a magical time, the poppies were in full bloom, the light was beautiful and a hot air balloon came up from the other side of the hill. Wow, what a shot! No problem, this time I’ll shoot it on video and make it even better… Boy, I couldn’t have been more wrong. What did I learn from this shoot… No need to invest that kind of time and energy if NOTHING is going to happen. I was lucky to get what I did.

The weather lately around So Cal, you’d think the Earth was that much closer to the Sun… So Dang Hot! So what do I do, I make my way down to the beach, no, not to swim, surf or tan, but shoot Video. I’ve been giving this project a lot of thought lately… mainly my approach to using the video like I would a still image. However, audio has driven my choices more so than the color. It seems I can find a decent color to shoot anywhere but finding good audio to stream with the video is important to me… my goal is to keep the integrity of the captured natural sound with that video clip. My biggest challenge lately has been to shoot away from a well-traveled highway with no traffic sounds. No problem with this clip.

One thing I figured out is that I have to shoot away from busy streets… the traffic noises are just killing me. Another thing I’ve learned is that audio is EVERYTHING! My intent was to shoot a tree in the same area (parking lot of my alma matter: Meiners Oaks Elementary) but it was one or two days past peak. Not to be deterred, I just turned my camera to this trio of trees who were also alive in color.

OK, so tonight’s Pink Moment sunset wasn’t that great. Such a shame too, this afternoon was BEAUTIFUL! Nonetheless, managed to push some tape through the camera… Oh wait… it’s a tapeless camera! Anyway, it’s practice and I like to shoot.

This was also shot that morning in Sacramento at the end of our visit. My real intention that morning was to shoot the sunrise but got caught up in the light, mist and wildlife there that morning. By the time the Sun came up, I already had several clips worth using – including this one. Like I said in an earlier post, part of my intent with this color series is to capture natural audio along with the color. The more out of whack, the better. To me, the color in this shot is secondary to the amazing audio of the geese flying overhead. What do all these colors mean, I don’t know. I am enjoying shooting them though and have taken this on as a personal project. Like the geese, I’m letting the project take me where it will without a real end in sight. However, if you get enjoyment out of this series, then I have succeeded above and beyond just recording. Besides my mentor David LaBelle has said in more than one occasion, being an artist is one thing but not to share is selfish.

Once I got to Gray, I knew that I wanted to keep the natural audio with whatever clip I recorded. Even though the sound in Black was there at capture, it’s expected… Gray is a bit different. Now, after you watch it, I can imagine what you are thinking… I pick the time to tape based on audio, not true. This music in the background of gray was, well, just there. It was a total coincidence - happy accident. I decided to work with it. Also, it was about then I decided that audio was important to me for these color clips and deciding which clip to cut/edit would have something to do with the audio. Enjoy. –Greg

My second posted color, black.

One of the things that I’ve enjoyed about shooting/editing video is that I’ve felt creative for the first time since I first picked up a camera nearly 30 years ago. Not to say that my shooting career wasn’t filled with creativity, it’s just that using this type of camera has been an opportunity for me to express myself in creative ways, like I did when I first discovered photography. Do you remember your first time being creative or learning a new tool? This whole process has been new to me and to be honest, I feel like a kid in a candy store. Anyways, one of my personal projects has been to shoot color. Blue is the first color that I edited together. I’ve shot/edited several since, just this was my first. I hope that this is an ongoing project; as I see them, I’ll shoot them. If they are worthy of publishing, then I’ll pass them along. Enjoy. –Greg