February 2010 – Journeys of a Hybrid

February 22, 2010February 22, 2010

Standing on a 10 Foot Frozen Wave

Yesterday I stood on top of a 10 foot frozen wave looking out over the vast icy seascape of Lake Superior. I was shooting footage of this endless field of frozen waves as the setting sun turned them every shade of blue, purple and orange. It was quiet – incredibly quiet – no car or airplane noise, no voices, and no sound of splashing water, not even the sound of a bird. The audiometers on my camera barely registered a blip and yet there was audio. Even dead silence has a sound.

I’ve been on the Upper Peninsula in the far northern reaches of Michigan, shooting footage for a family biography that I’m working on. I had recorded interviews with my mother’s siblings this past summer while attending a family reunion and I had been planning on returning to capture some winter footage to illustrate the stories they told during the interviews. My mother, her siblings and her parents grew up in northern Michigan during the Depression, farming, lumbering, and fishing – pretty much doing whatever they could to survive. Times were hard and living in such a remote, harsh climate didn’t make it any easier. Everyone did what he or she had to do.

While I’ve been in the UP, I’ve met a lot of people who are doing all types of things to survive during this lousy economy. Most I’ve met have several part time jobs. A couple of times I stopped to eat at a restaurant, there would be one woman tending the bar, waiting on tables and cooking the food. Because of it’s geographic location and its sparse population, the Upper Peninsula is kind of like a frontier and the people who live here, have the spirit to go with it.

As I stood on the top of this frozen wave in absolute silence I contemplated resiliency of the human spirit in the context of my own world. Certainly my business has changed – due to technology and the lousy economy. Because of technology, I am able to do more things than I could ten years ago. Because of the poor economy, I’ve had to do more things. Most other photographers I have talked to this past year have diversified their businesses – some shooting weddings, some shooting video and some working in other retail markets. I suppose we’re all just doing what we can to get through these changing times.

So I looked out over the endless view of frozen waves and into the orange glow of the setting sun. For an instant I became fearful of where I was when I looked behind me and saw a deep crevice that I could easily fall into if I lost my footing. But then I looked ahead to the orange glow on the horizon and I felt hope and with that a sense of security because I knew where I came from and I have the heart and spirit to survive.

February 15, 2010February 15, 2010

Booking a Round the World Airline Ticket

I am embarking on a personal project with my daughter this summer. Our goal is to create a feature length documentary on “people who are making a difference”. Ordinary people who are doing extraordinary things. Ultimately we will end up with 7 stories on 7 continents – each story standing on its own as a 10 minute web video and becoming a part of the whole – a feature length film. I’ve set up a website just for the project: Opening Our Eyes. But I’ll probably talk about parts of this project on this blog as I proceed with the logistics – certainly the photographic/video filming logistics.

I spent the better part of last week on the phone with the airlines creating our round the world itinerary and ticket which wasn’t all that easy given the fact that there were two of us traveling and we were using airline miles – 160,000 miles each to be exact. As a side note – the fact that I had so many miles piled up is one small thing that prompted this trip, and when Erin became a part of this – Tom gave her his miles so she could come. That should tell you something about Tom – that he would do that for his wife and daughter.

Our initial plan was to depart from the US in mid-June, heading first to Namibia to visit a friend and then on to Uganda for our first story. Our first hurdle was that the Star Alliance airline partner that went from the US to Africa was South African Air and there were no award seats into or out of Johannesburg for the entire month of June – Johannesburg is hosting the World Cup and everything is sold out. I was told that we couldn’t connect through Europe on another carrier like Lufthansa because that would mean going back thru Europe after leaving Uganda and the rules didn’t allow this. I’m broken hearted that we can’t get to Namibia because it means that another opportunity is lost in connecting with my friend while she is living there – but it wasn’t meant to be.

The airline agent could get us to Entebbe, Uganda but in order to make that work, we had to move up our departure date to May 25th giving me a slight panic attack knowing how much I still needed to do before leaving for this journey – vaccinations, visas, lodging arrangements, not to mention getting my gear ready for filming. I’ll talk about my gear in another blog, but essentially since I want to shoot both stills and video – I’m opting to use a hybrid DSLR system because I need to pack light and can only bring one camera format. If it doesn’t fit on our backs – it’s not coming. But I digress.

Our next challenge in ticketing was going from Uganda to our next destination on the European continent. I was aiming for Warsaw or Moscow but we settled on flying from Entebbe, Uganda to Istanbul, Turkey. We’ll figure out how to go to Warsaw and Moscow on our own – that will be a piece of cake. Incidentally, there are a lot of rules on these round the world award tickets – you must keep going in the same direction (can’t backtrack) and you’re only allowed so many segments – I got answers anywhere from 12 to 16. And you can’t go back to a continent more than once – that came in handy going to Istanbul when the airline agent and I had a lively debate as to which continent Istanbul was on. I think the agent liked my creative way of solving the problem and gave me a little leeway.

In the end after many hours on the phone – we created an itinerary: NY > Entebbe, Uganda > Entebbe connecting in Cairo to Istanbul, Turkey > Istanbul connecting thru Frankfurt, Germany to Delhi, India (somehow that was ok) > Delhi to Bangkok, Thailand > Bangkok to Melbourne, Australia > Sydney connecting thru LAX to NY. The agent told me to call back the following day because all the carriers needed to make confirmations. She also told me our reservations would only be held for 48 hrs till they needed to be ticketed.

The next day, I called the airline and was told that there was a leg missing on Erin’s itinerary – Istanbul to Delhi – she corrected it and told me everything looked in order but to check back that afternoon. I did and found out that we were still waiting on Thai Air to confirm our flights from Delhi to Bangkok and then on to Australia. The agent said, “don’t worry – Thai Air is slow – call back tomorrow”. Being the worrier I am, I knew that “tomorrow” was the day the tickets needed to be purchased or our reservations would be dropped, so if there was a problem I needed at least to know about a plan B. So I asked what other airlines flew that route – Delhi>Bangkok>Melbourne. I was told that Singapore Air flew that route but connected through Singapore.

The next morning – the day the tickets needed to be purchased – I called the airlines and was told that all my Thai Air flights had been canceled but Erin’s had been confirmed. I didn’t freak out – instead I suggested that the agent route us using Singapore Air – which he did. He put a rush on the confirmation process and told me to call back that evening.

To cut to the end of the story – I literally purchased the tickets right down to the deadline hour. I didn’t get everything I wanted – but I did get what I needed. We’ll be leaving May 25th and returning August 3rd. We’ll have to purchase separate tickets to get us to and from our destination in South America sometime in August and we are still trying to nail down those story ideas and dates.

People ask me why I didn’t use a travel agent. I have been handling my travel logistics for over 30 years and my answer is – I’m the one who will be doing the flying and I want to have control over that. Even if it looks doable on paper to have a one-hour connection in Frankfurt when flying from NY to Lagos, Nigeria – even for an optimist like me – I know better than to tempt fate like that.

All total – flying 7 different airlines, 12 flight segments and traveling across 5 continents I managed to get us 2 tickets for $263.44 each – that’s for the taxes. Now I need to look into vaccinations and visas. Yesterday I discovered that my passport, which is still good for another 4 years, has only two pages left in it for visas – and India requires that you have two empty pages for their visa. Another thing to add to my “to do” list.

February 11, 2010February 11, 2010

Cultural Context and Photography

I became a photographer because of my passion for people and the cultures of the world. Photography has given me access to all sorts of people from various cultures and backgrounds. My camera is my tool – my means to my end. And that is to tell peoples’ stories through my images – whether they be still or moving.

I was going through some images this week that I had shot in Easter Island a few years ago. Easter Island had always been a destination high on my list of “must sees” and it lived up to my every expectation. It was remote and wild with a constant wind that energized me. A place in the world that somehow felt untouched, unlike so many other destinations in the world that have suffered from the negative effects of the onslaught of visitors due to their own intrigue or beauty. In Easter Island the culture still felt real.

The first few days my partner and I spent driving around the island, which isn’t hard to do because of the virtue of its size. In the main town, I noticed that most of the people I saw out and about were men. Men with exotic looks riding through town bareback on horses with their long black hair blowing in the wind. It was quite a provocative sight speaking both as a photographer and as a woman.

After attending a dance performance one evening I made arrangements to photograph one of the dancers – out in the natural environs of the island. I wanted to capture the spirit and the feeling of the people and the land. Tom, my partner and I met up with our subject who was in typical “western” attire and not made up. He asked us if we would transport his “weapons” in our vehicle as he couldn’t manage that on his scooter, and we obliged.

He followed behind us on his scooter to the location that we had previously scouted and then he proceeded to strip down to nothing. Here we were in this incredible wild environment between an extinct volcano and the sea with a native man totally naked standing in the road – applying his makeup, using the side mirror of our car. I instinctively knew that even though these were not the images that I had planned in my head – these were images that told the story of his culture in a unique context.

We went on to photograph a wonderful array of environmental portraits and at the end of the day we took a “crew” photo of our little group. And then he got back on his modern day scooter, in all his tribal glory and I took a few parting shots. It’s days like this that is why I became a photographer.

February 8, 2010February 8, 2010

Fear, Blame and Responsibility

The title of this entry alone will probably stop most people from reading on, but for those of you who’ve continued, be prepared for some cold harsh comments.

I had a lousy weekend – one of those weekends where everything went wrong – first the power steering went on my car while I was driving, then my printer broke – I got a message saying something like it was past it’s life – and then I fell halfway down the basement steps and landed hard on my elbow. My elbow is still throbbing but as long as I can move my arm, I think I’ll opt out of a trip to the emergency room because I can’t afford the medical bills – I’m already strapped by paying an annual premium of $18,000 with a $7500 deductible on each occurrence. What’s wrong with that scenario? But I’ll rant about that another time.

What really bothered me most this weekend – even with all the crap above – were some comments made in response to an entry I wrote as a contributor on the blog of my trade association. My entry was about “The Business of Video Production” and it was the last post of the week in a series of posts about video. The person writing the comments was clearly upset that his photographic trade association had been blogging about video. He was angry that so called “experts” who had themselves just recently gotten into video by buying a DSLR were claiming to be “god’s gift to video production” and encouraging members to move into video which he was sure was a terrible business move. I took offense with his words. I have been involved in video production for over 11 years and not new to the game as he implied and I don’t shoot with a DSLR but a “real” video camera and even if I did – the tool in itself doesn’t define my skills as a motion shooter. But what bothered me was the fact that he took his time to complain about a blog entry that I wrote, in my own free time with the good intentions of “sharing” my knowledge with my peers. No good deed goes unpunished.

After thinking about it, I realized that I had written something that he didn’t want to hear. He wanted to hear that the photography business will go back to the way it used to be. He was angry and he took it out on me. He needed someone to point the finger at – to blame for the poor economy and its effect on the photo business. This morning Seth Godin wrote a blog entitled “Frightened, clueless or uniformed” where he writes “In the face of significant change and opportunity, people are often one of the three.” And this was a perfect example where this person was all three.

My first reaction was to question why I should devote my time to writing and sharing with others through social media only to be criticized for it. But I’m not one to retreat and let the whiners of the world win. I was raised by a father who was a city smart kid growing up on Chicago’s West Side and a mother who grew up in the remote reaches of the Upper Peninsula in Michigan. They didn’t tolerate whiners and complainers and people who wouldn’t take responsibility for themselves. They taught me that if I wanted something, it was up to me to make it happen and if I didn’t – I had no one to blame but myself. More importantly they taught me to believe that I could achieve anything I put my mind to. And that is how I try to live my life – in pursuit of my dreams.

So my suggestion to people who don’t happen to like what I’m suggesting or writing about – make some suggestions yourself. Contribute – share – do something positive for yourself and others. Come up with solutions – find opportunities – keep your mind open to possibilities. Stop kicking the dog. Stop being angry that things aren’t the way they used to be and start looking at how things are better because of technology – and start using it to make a positive change in your life.

Life’s too short to spend it complaining.

February 4, 2010March 30, 2010

Telling Stories in Multimedia and Video

Rather than paraphrase here what I have already written, I will simply direct you to an article that I wrote for Adbase that just went online http://tiny.cc/h5kWV

Several tips on how to tell the “story” through the medium of motion to how to size images to achieve that timeless Ken Burns effect.

Bottom line – it’s all about the story.

February 1, 2010March 30, 2010

The DSLR as a Business Model

Sounds silly doesn’t it – “The DSLR as a Business Model”? That’s because it is silly to think that a camera can define or be a business model. But that’s what so many still photographers are doing – thinking that because they buy a DSLR capable of shooting video, they have gotten got into the business of video production.

Let’s start with the fact that in video production, the shoot and the camera is just one part of the process. There’s also sound, script writing, editing and output that one must know how to do or collaborate with people who know how. And if you position yourself as “just” a camera operator, you will quickly find out that not only you will have no ownership and control over the full process – but you will be missing out on making income on other facets of the video production process. For this reason, I position myself as a producer/director.

Even if you want to position yourself as a shooter, you shouldn’t be defining yourself by your tool – but by your vision. If you do define yourself by a camera that is very affordable and that lowers the bar on the entry level into video production – you’ll be competing with everyone else at that bottom level. Not to mention that shooting video is much different than shooting still images. I think and shoot differently when I’m shooting video – keeping my eye on the big picture and how I will get into and out of a shot.

Lastly, there are a lot of things I like about the DSLR’s, namely the extraordinary visual and the fact that I can shoot both mediums with one camera. But there are some shortcomings of these cameras that will keep you out of certain markets in the video arena.

Here are a few disadvantages these hybrid cameras have:

Audio – The built-in mic is not acceptable and the camera doesn’t have a professional XLR input. There is also no way to monitor audio with headphones. Best way to achieve good audio with these cameras is to capture it with a separate digital recorder like the Samson H4 Zoom.

Stability – With video you are shooting time in motion – not moments in time – so it’s critical to hold the camera steady. This is no easy feat when you have no brace points. Because you are shooting with the mirror up – you aren’t looking through the viewfinder and thus bracing your eye against the camera body. There are attachments that go over the LCD monitor and provide an eyepiece like the Zacuto Ez-finder.

Rolling Shutter or Jello Effect – The effect occurs when you quickly pan the camera and causes vertical lines to distort. So don’t do fast pans and eliminate anyone walking into and out of the frame quickly.

Editing – DSLR cameras record in AVCHD format using the H.264 codec. This usually means more time spent converting or rendering the files when you bring them into your editing system.

Frames Rates – 30P vs 24P – Converting your frame rate from 30P to 24P to achieve that film-like look – can be somewhat problematic with audio drifting and getting out of sync. Some cameras now have variable frame rates to choose from.

Bottom line – think beyond the camera if you’re thinking about getting into video production. Define yourself by your vision – not your tool.