Shooting without a storyline adds difficulty

So I was sent up to Lyons with the task of shooting a video about RockyGrass. An annual bluegrass festival and workshop held on the grounds of a small complex along the banks of St. Vrain Creek.

While it was fairly easy shooting video of all the folks making, learning and playing the various instruments of bluegrass, I was completely unsure of what my storyline was. It was a transition period from the Planet Bluegrass Academy to the RockyGrass Music Festival. So that could have been one storyline, but it wasn't very interesting really. We had already sent a still photog the day before and there was another photog shooting again before I had arrived. That kind of drove me away from focusing too much on the academy participants. Then there's the campground of people attending one or both of the different aspects of the event. The only catch was that there were few people around sardine-like tents and vehicles to train my lens on.

There I went, roaming around shooting this and that with no concept in mind. The other issue with shooting music with a single camera is trying to figure out a way to shoot multiple angles of a situation but keeping the music and movements in sync. Lots and lots of details are needed to "Band-aid" all those camera movements while the tape is still rolling. After shooting nearly an hour of footage and talking with a few people, I happened upon Bryan Conley. He was practicing a couple songs in the middle of a small grove of trees away from most other players and obtrusive sounds. Looking at my remaining tape time and knowing I didn't have a storyline yet, I decided he was going to have to become the audio backbone for the production. Not as good of a piece as I would like it to be, but considering it's after midnight and I've been stressing out my MacBook Pro's processor for a few hours, it'll work and I'll learn from it.

Radom frames from the last couple days

Just a few daily shots. Click a photo to get the low-down over on Flickr. I'm off to shoot a video this afternoon that I'll post later. Should be fun and something different for a change. So check back...

Strong Second Half

So it's moving into the second half of the MLB season as well as my baseball team's season. The days are getting hotter. The air much drier. And my skin much darker. At least the exposed portions. The farmer's tan is coming along nicely, really.

I had the task of shooting Boulder's Connie Mack team play in the state tournament for the second straight day. Yesterday I didn't make a frame that was worth much other than the file photo pile. Today I decided to try and look for something else. The catch was that it was a true baseball game –ending with a 2-1 loss for the Panthers– and there was not much to really shoot. Only two or three plays and then the standard fare of pitchers and batters.

While I was baking I happened to see a fun frame or two near the end of the game. Nothing real storytelling for the game, but different from most of the other photos from the afternoon.

There's not many weeks left in my tenure at the Camera. I'm hoping to finish strong and not get complacent amid the gravitational pull of negativity growing in the newsroom. The bad news in the industry is rampant, but I don't want to finish like that. So much like a baseball season, I'm going to view the past week or so as the All-Star Break and gear up for a run at the pennant. I'm a few games back, much like our Bison in the NABA 28s. Here's to the coming weeks. It's time to rally.

Don't try this at home

I was sorting through some DV tapes at the office, trying to get organized a bit, and found some footage I shot while driving to Denver for an assignment.

It was several months ago from when I was still familiarizing myself with the HV-20. While I was driving I decided to get stupid and shoot some footage to practice editing. Let's just say, it wasn't much to edit with. Good to know I've come a ways since then. As well as learned to pay attention to driving rather than using a camera while speeding down US 36 to the Mile High City.

Post-publishing editing

Don't you love waking up the morning after shooting something right on deadline, only to find a photo that you should have used instead of the one that appears on the front page of every subscriber's July 5th newspaper?

Just rushed too fast through the editing process. I should have known that there was a reason the FTP transfer didn't work the first time. It was a sign to re-edit and find this one.

Oh well, I'll just pack my things and go jump off a high dive and cure my ills.

A hunting I will go, a hunting I will go....

Been a feature hunting machine the last several days at work. Nothing super fantastic, but I've been trying to stay away from the fish in a barrel. Starting to worry that I'm going to be going to the well too often and it will run dry one day. It might help if the newsroom had enough people to actually plan even one day in advance. But we all know with the current environment in the biz this is how things are going to be indefinitely.

And on with the show!!

This one was for a story, I just had to get to the location of the survey in a matter of minutes. Thankfully I've been around Boulder a time or two.