Here’s something fresh from co-worker Jason arthurs and I.

At the time, much we being said on cable news and blogs about Barack and Michelle Obama’s fist bump or dap. Rob caught a dap on tape between Obama and Gov. Michael Easley as they took the stage.

After the event, Rob cut a quick video and uploaded it to the newsobserver.com. youtube. The video quickly found it’s way onto Politico.

At about the same time, columnist and book critic J. Peder Zane wrote a script for the above video which was picked up by Gawker. They had these words of encouragment for Zane:

Oh, hey, look: A newspaper writer actually made a good, funny internet video! And his name isn’t David Pogue!

Now he is off to more vids. Here’s Zane and Jason Arthur’s latest offering:

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.

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.

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 taking pot shots with a 400mm from the back of the room. My primary responsibility was working the video cam and babysitting a live stream.

There have been more than a few situations when I’ve been called upon to do both stills and video. On deadline work, there’s no doubt that you have to make some compromises. Both products tend to suffer a bit.

Doing both is something akin to three-demesional visual gymnastics. The process will definitely raise your blood pressure a few notches. If given ample time the task is not only possible, it can feel downright empowering.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Gov. Mike Easley tour the Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center at N.C. State prior to Gov. Easley’s endorsement of Sen. Clinton for the democratic presidential nominee. (Staff photo by Travis Long)

On another note: Check out some of Shawn’s crazy cell phone photos from the primary.

From left, myself, Corey Lowenstein and Shawn Rocco covering Sen. Obama’s NC primary election night party in Raleigh.

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 to cover both Barack and Hillary at the same event.

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 as out takes and q&a. One of my favorite segments was when Ira glass produced a live audio mix synced to an animated short story..

The whole production was incredibly candid with all the humanizing imperfections and glitches you might expect from a live event. It was the first time I’d heard a theater audience applaud.

It gave great insight into the process behind TAM’s production and story selection and it was interesting to hear Glass explain the way in which a story that works well for the radio format can become much more difficult to tell when the visual layer is added.

This new season will experiment with new forms of storytelling including shows with no narration and animation.

I’m looking forward to the second season and would love to see more live events for subsequent seasons.