The last "week in review" post was over a month ago — at the end of January! There are two very good reasons for this… one, February was an insanely busy month. And two, most of what I was doing I couldn't talk about! Some of it I still can't (do you have any idea how hard it is for me to go to a really cool city, shoot some crazy cool photos, and NOT be able to post on Instagram?!), but I figured if I didn't at least get this written with what I *can* say, I'll fall so far behind as to never write again.
So here we go… the projects of the last month+.
DxO ONE Video
I was contracted to create another video for the DxO ONE, this time to cover two significant new features that came with the latest software and firmware update. This one got to incorporate a few live action shots, making it a lot of fun (and more challenging) to produce — especially on the compressed schedule. Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen, especially my friends Harlee Case & friends, and Sean Nipper & family, as well as a special thanks to Three Penny Mercantile in Ashland for the use of their store after-hours!
I added a new tool to my arsenal for this shoot; the DJI Osmo camera. This is a pretty incredible piece of gear… it's a small 4K camera on a 3-axis gimbal on a hand-held stick. It's the same gimbal that's in DJI's insanely stable drones, allowing you to shoot smooth hand-held motion shots. Nearly every live action clip you see in the video above was shot with it; the girls in the store (minus the locked-shot of the back of the camera), both cycling shots, and the snow shot. While the quality of the video at full 4K isn't anywhere close to what I'm used to off the LUMIX GH4, when scaling down to 1080p, with a bit of professional color grading, it definitely works.
lynda.com Videos
The course I was shooting in January is completely edited and in review. It's going to be released very soon, so I'm looking forward to that! In the meantime, a few more DIY videos were released since I last posted. That means not all of them are free anymore (sorry about that), but here's the current free one, "Constructing a massive but inexpensive soft box", and the others are listed below.
Other videos released since I last posted include "Making your own diffusion panels for hot-light work" and "Creating your own shadow casters". Check 'em all out!
I've just signed an agreement on the next lynda.com video course as well. This will be another big one, and as usual we aren't supposed to talk about them before they're released. We'll be shooting in June though, which isn't all that far away!
The Secret Project
Here's where we get to the project that took up most of February but can't be shared yet. Arghghg!! Soon soon soon…
Recording/Broadcast Studio Upgrades
It happened again… I was running into so many problems using Wirecast (sorry guys) for my live broadcast solution that I dug back into the research, talked to a friend who sets up live internet broadcasts for people like the President (seriously), and ultimately decided that a hardware solution was the right way to go. So much for an economical broadcast room! I'm still installing this and expect to have it in place early this week. One of the unexpected issues with the hardware is that it's NOISY, which means I now have a hole in my ceiling running cables through to get the loud hardware out of the recording room. Fun!
In the meantime though, I did record a couple of new videos, including a video newsletter for my http://PhotoApps.Expert site!
WPPI
Finally, last week I was at WPPI with my assistant/studio-manager-to-be Tyana. As always it was a great week of education, meeting old and new friends, and getting some clever ideas on how to amp up the business.
We also recorded a round-table episode of TWiP while there, with podcasting legend Scott Bourne as a surprise guest! That episode is now released; you can listen to it here.
The week/month ahead…
Things are slowing down a bit which is quite welcome after the first couple of months of 2016. I can focus now on the PhotoApps.Expert site and the broadcast setup for a while, which I'm really looking forward to.