A Short Take on Footage

Months ago I said my next post would be about footage.  Life took over since then.  My oldest daughter got engaged and later called off the marriage.  I've put in extra time shooting, editing, and uploading footage.  I have also been putting in extra time at my work at home job.  With all this, along with normal living, my blog has been neglected.  Now I'm back with a short post for you.

I did some research to see which topics need to be addressed first.  I was pleasantly surprised when I went on YouTube to check out what's out there in terms of home video.  Basically, the same issues exist now as they did years ago when we all walked around with those camcorders on our shoulders.  These issues have improved considerable but are still there.

1.  Scenes and videos are too long.  Sure, the topic takes as long as it takes but cut out the extras.  For example, a bride getting ready. Many will show her washing her face, putting on moisturizer, doing her hair, plucking her eyebrows, applying blush, brushing on mascara and eyeshadow, lining her lips, putting on lipstick, blotting said lipstick, stepping into her dress, having it zipped, someone placing every pin in her veil, and finally the bride smiling into the camera.  Reduce this to a couple of strokes with the hair brush or one curl from the curling iron, bride applying mascara, stepping into her dress, finishing touches on the veil, and finally with the bride smiling into the camera. 

I know you're excited about the event.  You're right there feeling the vibe.  You want to capture every moment.  Do this if you must.  Just please do some judicious editing before you show the footage to people.  You don't want them falling asleep before they see the rest of your wonderful footage.  I think after you edit every moment of hours of footage you will shoot with the essential point in mind next time. 

2.  Too much zooming, panning, and tilting.  People zoom in then out and back again.  They'll pan right, then left, then back right.  The same with tilting, up, down, up.  STOP, just stop. 

Follow these rules whether you're zooming, panning, or tilting. 
     a.  Move in ONE direction and stop.  Period.  If you're shooting a wide view of the Salt Lake Temple and want to zoom in on the Angel Moroni, zoom in as close as you'd like and STOP.  Don't zoom back out.  Don't pan or tilt unless you're sure of what you'll see.  Same rule for panning and tilting.  If you are shooting a vista choose a starting point and pan in one direction and STOP.  Do not pan back the way you came in the same shot.  Want to show how tall that building is?  Tilt upward and STOP. 
     b.  People tend to start in the middle and pan, zoom, or tilt; then they'll go back in the opposite direction past the middle and onto to the other side.  Don't do that. 
     c.  Practice your moves.  Take a dry run or two before you shoot.  Pan the scene to decide where to begin and end.  Practice zooming so you'll know when to stop.  Stop at a good composition, not when you run out of zoom. 
     d.  Pan, zoom, and tilt at an appropriate and steady speed.  Most people move to quickly. 
     e.  Use pan, zoom, and tilt to enhance your footage.  These techniques are like spices, a little goes a long way.  Too much can ruin your efforts. 
     f.  This may be a blind thing but don't shoot while you're looking for your subject.  Pan, zoom, tilt, find, then shoot. 

3.  Use a tripod whenever possible.  For the most part you will be shooting action in front of you; the track meet, the parade, a sunset.  That is the action we want to see.  Stabilize you camera by placing it on a tripod or another stable surface.  Because I have to be very close to the video display I can rest the monitor part of the video camera on the bridge of my nose  when I can't use a tripod. 

4.  Know when to move and when to stay put.  These two examples are the best way I know to explain this. 

     Church video.  Somebody set a video camera on a tripod in the balcony.  They zoomed out so part of the congregation could be seen from the back.  The piano, organ, and pulpit could also be seen.  The entire service was recorded from this vantage point.  Someone should have been assigned to pan the choir members during a song, to zoom in on the soloist, get some medium shots of the pianist, pan the minister moving into the pulpit to preach, and some medium shots of him preaching the sermon.  The audio was good because the church used microphones.  Granted this is difficult with one camera but I believe the show would have been more interesting.

     YouTube Video.  Someone also set the camera on a tripod and left it there.  This person used a medium shot.  The scene consisted of a little girl standing at a table with play dough and cookie cutters.  The camera showed her mushing the play dough into the shapes and unmolding them.  After she unmolded each shape she would hold it up so the viewer could see.  The little girl talked about what she was doing the whole time.  The audio was good because the camera was close enough to capture it.  This video worked because the action was framed with no distracting extras. 

My motto is, "Go where the action is." 

4.  Audio.  I'll direct you elsewhere for that.  Your camera's built in microphone may be fine for close work or when other microphones are used.  I know you can buy extra microphones to enhance audio quality.  I usually remove the audio tract for my stock footage so I don't know much about making your audio better.

Next blog, I don't know.  I don't know when I will write and post my next blog.  Neither do I know what the subject matter will be.  If you have suggestions please comment. 

When you need stock photographs or footage please take a look at my portfolios.  I would appreciate it very much. 

Thank You Digital

Back in the day I used to cringe when somebody brought out a photo album.  I knew what was in store and was never proven wrong.  These albums contained a collection of mostly horrific snapshots that never should have been seen by anyone.  I've come to the conclusion people kept these monstrosities because by golly they'd payed for them.  Back then they would have bought the film and flash, took the film to the processor, and waited for their pictures, either one hour or a few days.  It's no wonder people keep most of them.

You know the pictures I mean, we've all seen them.  Lets use some familiar photo ops as examples. 

Family with Christmas Tree in Background.  First shot; flash didn't go off.  Second shot; toddler is on the floor kicking and red faced.  Third shot; Dad is in the process of picking up said toddler, so the shot is blurry.  Fourth shot, flash glares off Grandpa's glasses and/or the mirror in the shot.  Fifth shot; someone has his/her eyes closed.  Sixth shot: finally a keeper!

On Vacation.  Here we are in front of Cinderella's Castle, The Grand Canyon, Hollywood sign, etc.  First shot; photographer's finger is in front of the lens.  Second shot; random person walks directly in front of the camera, ruining the picture.  Third shot; somebody wasn't ready.  Fourth shot; somebody blinked, sneezed, was looking away.  Fifth shot: a keeper! 

School Performance.  First shot, second shot.....all shots; you can't see the stage very well but the heads of the people in front of you are very well illuminated.  There is one and only one cure for this in still photography.  Get up and move close to the stage and take your pictures.  A powerful flash will light up 20-30 feet in front of it.  Chances are you are sitting farther back than that.

Small Children and Pets.  Shot one, and most others;  because the tall adult is towering over the child or pet the subject looks smashed and squat.  The photographer should get on the same level as the person or animal being photographed.  Sit on the floor where the action is or put the child in a chair or have someone hold the pet.  Your pictures will look much better.

Light Source Behind Subject.  Shot one, and probably all others, subject is dark while background is light.  Moving your subject is the best remedy.  If that isn't possible use the flash, even if you're outside.  The extra light from the flash will help illuminate your subject.

Digital cameras have gone a long way in improving peoples photography and photo albums.  Now the photographer can see what the shot will look like before it's snapped.  If a picture is bad, no great loss, just delete it and retake.   I looked through some Facebook friends photo albums for this post and was pleasantly surprised.  Most pictures were good.  I have to chalk that up to the digital age.  First they decided to keep only the good ones.  Second they were selective in which pictures to upload.  Thank goodness uploading takes a little time.

I'll talk about Video in my next blog.

Happy Shooting.

The Sunbeam Girl

I called my mother the other night to find out why she decided to get me a camera for Christmas that year.  Her logic is as convoluted as my husband, Edwin, used to say mine is.  So this is how it all began.

"You liked to look at things,"  She said.  "you liked to look at catalogs, TV, the Sunbeam Girl, everything."  Did I look at things differently?  It appears I didn't look a different kinds of things than other kids.  This is all the explanation I could get out of her.  She says that camera is around the house somewhere.  I wonder, because we moved when I was ten and I'm pretty sure I had a different camera then. 

Now if I had a little girl who, "liked to look at things I would have gotten her some picture books or a ViewMaster with extra slides.  I never would have made the leap to a camera.  But I'm glad she did.

Now I must explain about the Sunbeam Girl.  The Sunbeam girl was an icon for the Sunbeam Bread Company.  She was depicted on the bread wrapper eating a slice of buttered toast.  In Pine Bluff, Arkansas, the courthouse sits at one end of Main Street and a huge billboard of the Sunbeam Girl sits at the other end.  The girl used to sit on an operational swing.  She swang from one end of this gigantic billboard to the other constantly, day or night, rain, or shine.

I used to have my parents stop so I could get out of the car and watch the Sunbeam Girl swing.  I bet they avoided Man Street as much as possible so they didn't have to stop.

The original billboard stayed up until sometime in the 1970.  I'm guessing they took it down about the time of the Energy Crisis.  The replacement billboard simply had a picture of the girl on a swing.  I think they tried another billboard with a operational swing but it didn't stay up very long.  To me, this picture looks as if the swing would work but this is the current billboard and she doesn't swing. 

If you like white bread but not soft white like Wonder, then you would like Sunbeam bread.  It has a courser crumb than Wonder.   I't more like homemade.

I found the picture above on Google.  I couldn't find a full sized unedited version on my computer.   Here is a version I was working on for a local contest.  I ended up abandoning it because the isolation was sloppy.  I ended up using some other local scenes for the Office of Emergency Management Calendar.  Even though it was 200? it doesn't stand out in my mine as the 1992 Beautiful Tropical Flowers calendar does.  It was 2006 or 2007.  I'm pretty sure Edwin was still alive. 

Glaucoma

I noticed the sight in my left eye was getting worse.  This was about 2008.  I was both scared and reassured; after all I was already legally blind; Heavenly Father wouldn't let anything else happen to me--would he?  First I chalked it up to aging, people in their 40's needed glasses all the time, my eyes were simply changing due to aging.  But still I worried.  I made an appointment with the low vision clinic in Little Rock, Arkansas.  They ran a few tests an ruled out detaching retina.  But didn't want to make a definite diagnosis.  Though my pressures were high, I was told people with micro cornea usually have high inter ocular pressures.  I was also told I had some sort of cataract over part of my left eye.  It has a German name but I don't remember what it is.

I went on with life hoping for the best but afraid of the worst.  It got to the point I couldn't use my right eye to read.  By then I had moved to Atlanta and saw a doctor at Emory Eye Clinic.  He prescribed some glasses but my left eye continued to get worse.

I became concerned enough to find another low vision ophthalmologist.  Dr. David Sweeney at Insight Vision  did lots of tests and was very concerned about my pressures.  By this time I couldn't even count fingers using my left eye.  Luckily I could still detect hand movements with it.  Dr. Sweeney prescribed Travatan Z drops for me.   I had to ask, "Do I have glaucoma?"  He said I did.  My pressures were 45 in one eye and 46 in the other.  Pressures are supposed to be in the low to mid teens.

I went home and spent the rest of the day watching TV.  I didn't even answer the phone.  I did post a message about my diagnosis on Facebook. 

Yes, I'm going to get started about Facebook.  I posted something important and earth shattering for me.  And you know the response I got; almost zilch.  Two people responded on the day of the post.  The next day I posted something about "In case you weren't on Facebook yesterday.......".  I got eleven more responses after that.  I just don't get it.  If someone posts something funny or stupid they get responses out the wazoo.  People will take the time to write, "Lol," but not take the time to say something simple like, "I'm sorry to hear that."  I don't get on Facebook as much anymore, partly because of what happened, or should I say didn't happen.  But now if someone posts something like, "My child made the honor roll," "My son broke his leg," "My mom is in the hospital,", "My grandfather passed away," I will acknowledge it even if I only click the like button or say, "I'm sorry to hear that."  

The drops have helped tremendously.  My pressures went down to the mid twenties.  My eyes seem to work together better than they have in a long time.  Dr. Sweeney says my eye sight should stay the same if I take my drops.  I've heard from people with glaucoma that they eventually lost their sight or it got worse.  Time will tell.

I plan to shoot and upload as many images as possible for as long as I can.  These images will provide me with extra money now and in the future.

The Burning Question

You're probably wondering how and why did a legally blind person become a photographer.  Well, it has been almost a lifelong process.  I guess you can say my mother is the one responsible for getting me started.  I wonder if she had any idea what seed she was planting in me when she bought me a camera for Christmas so long ago.

The details of that Christmas are dim.  I don't remember if my sister had been born yet or how Old I was.  If I could remember which dorm I was in at the Arkansas School for the Blind I could narrow my age down to within a couple of years.  If I had to guess, I'd say I was between the ages of six and eight.   I do remember that Mom and I were excited about the camera.  Dad commented that he wished it was the kind you can see the pictures immediately instead of having to send the film away to be developed.  What pictures did I take with that camera?  What kind of camera was it?  What happened to it?  I don't know.  But I do remember Mom's and my excitement over the camera.

Several cameras were to follow that first one.  A few were Polaroids to satisfy Dad.  I always preferred the film that needed developing over the Polaroids.  The colors and details were sharper on the no-instant films.  My cameras ran the gamete from a 126 to a 110 and those Polaroids I mentioned.  I didn't know it then but the 110 was a downgrade from the 126.  Back then 110 cameras were all the rage because they were small enough to put in your pocket.  In fact, they were called pocket cameras.  Consumer Reports even rated these cameras on a feature they termed pocket-ability. 

Everybody I knew who had a camera had at 110.  This was true until I was introduced to the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  All these young men had 35mm single lens reflex cameras.  With these cameras the image in the viewfinder was actually what would eventually be on the photograph when it came back.  No need to adjust for the difference between the lens and viewfinder.  These cameras had so many settings.  I could imagine myself taking such great pictures with one of these cameras.  I wanted one; how I wanted one.   But it wasn't to be, not yet.  These cameras had one big fault I couldn't overcome.  Really two big faults but only one insurmountable obstacle, no auto focus back then.  The other drawback was price, but I could have always saved up for one.

Technology moved forward until they started making 35mm cameras with auto focus in the mid 1980's.  These cameras had auto focus and of course used the larger 35mm film.  I don't remember if these cameras put more control in the photographers' hands but I bought one for myself and was very excited to have it.  I used that camera exclusively for about seven years.

More technology came and auto focus became standard and affordable on single lens reflex cameras.  Mine came with a 50mm fixed focus lens.  I bought a book on 35mm photography and signed up for a color film developing course.   I learned a ton of valuable information from depth of field and white balance to how to develop color film and make prints.  Most important, I learned where I wanted to spend my time and it wasn't in the darkroom.  Color film must be developed in total darkness, no safe lights in this process.  The developing solutions can only be used once, and they are quite expensive.

Shortly after I bought my 35mm SLR I came across a book called Sell and Resell your Photos.  According to amazon.com it's by Rohn Engh.  I read this book and decided to see if I could sell some of my photographs.  What made me, a long time snap shooter, recently turned photography student, legally blind, nobody think I could sell my photographs is beyond me.

I naively went around Salk Lake City taking pictures of all the tourist attractions.  I shot both print film and slide film.   The book had said something about needing both prints and slides so I was going to be prepared. I enlarged the prints, put the slides in a projector carousel, skimmed the book again, called a local company,  (I don't remember which) and made an appointment to show and peddle my work.

I can only imagine what the man I met with was thinking.  Though he didn't buy anything, he had been nice.  I remember two things from this meeting.  The first is to shoot slides, preferable Kodachrome 25 or 64 and put the slides into acid free plastic slide pages.     I took his advice and ran with it.  I stocked up on Kodachrome 25 and put it in the freezer.  Because I was now shooting with such slow film I invested in a Slik tripod.

Next I bought a copy of that year's edition of Photographers Market.  I sent away for submission guidelines to various types of companies: calendar companies, magazines, stock photography agencies, greeting card companies, text book publishers, you name it.  I submitted photos to several companies with mixed results.  A calendar company in Hawaii wanted to use five of my photos in the 1992 edition of its Beautiful Tropical Flowers calendar.  A small stock photography agency in Florida accepted several of the images I had sent there.  I was on my way and so psyched.  The calendar company sent me a rather large check and a calendar.  This is when I learned they had featured the bird of paradise flower for October and the other pictures were scattered throughout as supporting photos for the featured shots in other months.  I showed  the calendar to everybody who would look.  I think I sold one photo through the stock agency in Florida before it closed.

I liked the idea of selling stock photography because I could shoot, submit, and if the photo was accepted I could potentially earn money for myself indefinitely.  I contacted a local stock agency in Salt Lake City called The Stock Solution.  I made an appointment with the owner Royce Bair.  The meeting went well and to my surprise he chose a few of my slides to add to his library.  Occasionally I would get a check from The Stock Solution for between $100 and $200 dollars.  Sometimes I'd get a copy of the project my image was used in.  Mr. Bair was forward thinking back in the 1990's.  He was already scanning slides into computers and doing amazing things with digital photography.  I just couldn't see where digital was going.   

Digital was gaining ground and I thought was I stuck.  At that time I didn't have a clear understanding of the equipment I'd need.  I thought I'd need the camera, a docking station to transfer the shots, lots of special ink for the printer and a scanner.  I don't know how my thinking got so warped but it did.  I was convenced I couldn't afford it.  I continued on with film for a while longer.  Then I did a foolish thing that I regret.

One day I was looking at the digital photos on The Stock Solution's website.  By that time The Stock Solution had hundreds of digital images online.  I browsed and searched but couldn't find any of my pictures.  I decided to get my feelings hurt.  I wrote Mr. Bair and asked him to remove my slides from his library.  I didn't give a reason or explanation.  Now those slides from my world travels are sitting in a box doing nobody any good.  I don't have the equipment to turn them into quality digital images myself and having it done is too costly. 

I took the plunge once I figured out all I needed was the digital camera.  I already had a computer and was very computer savvy.  My husband bought Adobe Photoshop Elements for me for Christmas.  I was off and running again.  This time in the new and exciting world of digital photography.  I learned which flaws were worth fixing and which photos not to bother to correct.  I learned how to remove an object from its surroundings and place it on a white background or another place altogether.  Because my traveling days were over, I started taking pictures of everyday things around me.

Eventually I bought a digital SLR camera, the best of both worlds. I still shoot stock photography but have expanded into videography as well. I am booked to shoot my first wedding the last of next month.

My stock photos and footage can be purchased at pond5. There you will find these and many more examples of my work.
Photo Ops abound.