This month I’ve spent most of my days live-streaming a first-degree murder trial to newsobserver.com. On June 9th, producer Rob Roberts live-streamed a Barack Obama speech during the lunch recess for the first ever double live stream on our site.
At the time, much we being said on cable news and blogs about Barack and Michelle [...]
Pixel to pixel: Left, Canon 1D Mark II, right, Canon XH A1.
Today I arrived at the Johnston County courthouse to cover a murder trial. The media was escorted up to a room overlooking the courtroom. The view of the witness stand was a good 60-foot throw from behind tinted glass. A small speaker with an [...]
This morning Shawn Rocco and I rose before dawn to photograph a high rise being adorned with a new top hat, a 60 foot 11,000 pound steel spire. The 33-story RBC Plaza is now the tallest building in Raleigh.
For this assignment I attempted my first time-lapse using my still camera mounted on a tripod [...]
Colleague Ted Richardson and I were assigned to make a video of the first day of the NC legislative session.
Yawn…
Sorry, I get sleepy just thinking about it. This was Ted’s first day in the new video rotation and I didn’t want him to get a bad taste in his mouth right out of the gate. [...]
When I was a kid I was fascinated by aircraft of all types. I loved air shows and spent hours building scale plastic model airplanes that I would suspend with fishing line from my bedroom ceiling. I’m sure I lost more than a few brain cells from that noxious plastic model glue.
Thursday I relived [...]
The answer is yes. In some circumstances you can do both, but chances are you’re bound to look (and feel) a little silly doing it.
photo by Roger Winstead
Truth be known, the very capable Shawn Rocco had my back on stills when this photo was taken during a recent Hillary Clinton event. I was just there [...]
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama urged their supporters to support the Democratic Party nominee regardless of who wins during separate speeches Friday evening at the annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Raleigh. (Staff video by Travis Long)
During the past few weeks I’ve covered no less than 14 campaign events here in NC. Friday was a rare opportunity [...]
Tonight I had the pleasure of viewing a This American Life live broadcast on the big screen. The one night event was broadcast from NYC in HD and Cinema Surround Sound via satellite to select movie theaters across the U.S. The approximately two-hour broadcast featured stories from season II of the Showtime series as well [...]
I’m Huge fan of director Errol Morris. The Thin Blue Line and Vernon Florida are among my favorite films of all time. You can imagine how excited I was to hear that Morris is releasing an investigative documentary on Abu Ghraib.
While his use of reenactments may make the faint of heart photojournalists shudder, his storytelling [...]
Pixel to pixel: Left, Canon 1D Mark II, right, Canon XH A1.
Today I arrived at the Johnston County courthouse to cover a murder trial. The media was escorted up to a room overlooking the courtroom. The view of the witness stand was a good 60-foot throw from behind tinted glass. A small speaker with an 1/4 inch headphone jack offered some seriously overcooked audio.
I was doing double duty, stills and video. One problem, I forgot to bring big glass…
Even with my 1D Mark II at 1000 ISO, my exposure was something like a 60th at 2.8 with my 70-200mm. I was under-lensed and underexposed by a mile and 4 stops.
It turns out the framegrabs from my XH A1 video camera gave my under-lensed still camera a run for its money. Above is a pixel to pixel comparison of the A1 and the Mark II (shooting RAW). Both images are lightly toned in CS3.
Of course my comparison isn’t very scientific. There are too may variables in this situation, but I think it proves that framegrabs are a viable option in a pinch. If nothing else, it proves that my still cameras are old.
On another note: The second of the two videos I posted today was a raw video clip. This was the first raw clip I’ve ever posted to newsobserver.com. I thought the testimony was compelling enough to stand on it’s own. Set me straight fast if I suddenly turn into Howard Owens.
WARNING: Content contains graphic descriptions of abuse. Jessy Paddock, 20, alleges severe abuse during a hearing on whether a jury in Lynn Paddock’s murder trial should be allowed to hear evidence relating to her character and crimes for which she is not facing trial. Lynn Paddock is charged with first-degree suffocation murder of her 4-year-old adopted son, Sean. (Staff video by Travis Long)
This morning Shawn Rocco and I rose before dawn to photograph a high rise being adorned with a new top hat, a 60 foot 11,000 pound steel spire. The 33-story RBC Plaza is now the tallest building in Raleigh.
For this assignment I attempted my first time-lapse using my still camera mounted on a tripod and a handy little intervalometer gadget called the Time Machine.
With its LCD display, giant buttons and beigeware aesthetics, the Time Machine appears as though it ripped through the time continuum straight from 1988. I won’t bore you with all its geeky functions, (check out the website for all the nitty gritty) but I can think of a half dozen quick little projects you could do with this thing.
I set up Time Machine to shoot 1 second intervals and and let it rip for 650 plus exposures and zoomed and changed lenses to add a little visual variety. I used Quicktime Pro to export a sequence of all the photos as an .mov file. I collected a few minutes of ambient sound at the base of the building which I combined with the .mov in Final Cut Pro. I toned the entire sequence with 3-way color correction in FCP rather than using a Photoshop action to add conistent contrast to the images more efficiently.
Total post production time? Let’s just say it took me longer to write this post.
Colleague Ted Richardson and I were assigned to make a video of the first day of the NC legislative session.
Yawn…
Sorry, I get sleepy just thinking about it. This was Ted’s first day in the new video rotation and I didn’t want him to get a bad taste in his mouth right out of the gate. We decided to keep the video short and sweet with quick cuts and some sped up clips. I focused on long sustained wide shots and Ted keyed in on details.
I called my wife and asked her to scour our iTunes playlist for a 30 second ASCAP song that was fun with lots of beats I could easlily edit to. She suggested “Possesive” by Y.A.C.H.T. and sent it to me via ftp. Check out this sweet little video profile by m ss ng p eces on Y.A.C.H.T. (aka Jona Bechtolt).
We used the fit to fill function in FCP to speed up clips and match them to the beat by setting in and out points on the sequence where we wanted the clips to sync up.
When I was a kid I was fascinated by aircraft of all types. I loved air shows and spent hours building scale plastic model airplanes that I would suspend with fishing line from my bedroom ceiling. I’m sure I lost more than a few brain cells from that noxious plastic model glue.
Thursday I relived a few of those memories while putting out this daily video about a traveling non-profit that lets ordinary citizens fly in WWII aircraft. Staff writer Josh Shaffer got to go on an aerobatic demonstration flight (lucky bastard).
The plane is equipped with three small cameras, one in the cockpit, one on the right wing and one on the tail that record to a deck mounted behind the pilot. The pilot can switch the cameras during flight from inside the 2-seat cockpit.
After the flight, pilot John Makinson handed over a VHS tape of the entire flight and radio communication. I didn’t even know they still made VHS tapes. Luckily there was an old VHS to mini DV dub deck collecting dust in our studio.
