To give and to receive! This is so beautifully done, such gifts of life you shared, truly inspirational. And visually well done, really highlights the beauty in land, people, the entire mission. 🙌
There was a team of oxen in the film. Something most of us never experience in our technological society is animal powered work. Were there draft horses about too?
Those ox drawn carts were really interesting! I saw about three or four of them over the week. I didn't see any working horses, but there were plenty of them wandering around.
Wow! This film was quite an experience! It was awesome to watch it after following along via your writing; just makes it that much more visceral. I really got a sense of not only how pretty the land is, but of how HARD the work looked!
Technical/ need questions incoming: what did you film that on? Is it the same camera you use for all your landscape photography and what you used for the stills of your Honduras trip? Or did you have multiple rigs? Was there a lot of work in post as far as color and exposure? Because all the shots looked so...perfect! (I feel like whenever I shoot video on my SLR, the sky is blown out or the ground is dark...)
I'm beginning to realize that the film of my trips end up being a bit different than the stories I tell. There have been many situations like scaling a rocky ledge in the Canyon of Five Falls, or thunderstorms in the night on the Foothills Trail, or when I was working in Honduras, where I could not film, but end up writing a lot about that part. It gives the film a bit of a different feel. Honduras was different in that I had other people to film working. I think that went very well.
I make all of my films with a GoPro Hero 10 Black. My DSLR could film, but it would be more complicated and I would have to learn how. I'm also a little hesitant to mix the video files with the RAW photo files on the same memory card. Any deliberate, high quality photo I make is with the DSLR. The GoPro only has the fixed ultra wide angle lens and doesn't have a comparable sensor size to the main camera. BUT! The GoPro has unbelievable in-camera image stabilization that I couldn't get filming with the DSLR, it can go underwater, and its incredibly easy to set down and start recording. So, any photos in my portfolio are from the DSLR. When I include those in a post, they have the watermark at the bottom. But, a lot of the shots I include in the posts (usually the ones with me in them) to illustrate the story are still images I grabbed from the GoPro footage. These aren't as high quality and don't have the watermark.
There is a lot of work in post. I use DaVinci Resolve, a professional grade video editing software available for free online. I really just have a rudimentary level of understanding of this program, but its enough to get by. The color and exposure are GoPro settings, as I don't yet know how to adjust this in DaVinci. GoPro's tend to overexpose a little, so dropping the exposure -0.5 keeps the skies from blowing out. And, I use the GoPro's standard color saturation setting, which is pretty vivid. When I put it all together I am trimming the clips, maybe zooming in somewhere, putting some in slow motion, and adding some transitions. Then there's finding and adding music and titles, etc. It sounds like a lot, and it is, but its fun. I just wish I had more time for it!
Ooh...thanks for the breakdown! I didn't know gopros looked so good. Like I knew the quality was fine, but I was used to the fisheye-like lens of older go pro models I guess.
I've heard of DaVinci, but I never tried it. It all does sound like so much work though!
It took me a whole friggin week to remember that I left this in my inbox to watch on a day when I wasn't super busy. That day never came until this weekend lol. I think I'm going to watch it on my big screen tonight. 😊
Okay, update. I didn't wait til tonight. I just watched it. Sooooo much of the landscape and town scenes reminded me of traveling through Jamaica. That bridge! I've driven over one just like that...it's kind of crazy how those bridges are just normal everyday driving in these countries, hey?
Question: Did anyone in your group crack jokes about you standing around filming while they did all the heavy concrete shoveling? 😁
And I love that you included so many puppers!!! Mongrel dogs are the best ♥
You do amazing videography and editing, Erik. I wish I'd had you in my back pocket for 15 years in Jamaica. Your footage is AMAZING.
Also, on that one morning time lapse of the sky, it's eerie how the trees never moved at all while the clouds were flying past.
Thanks, Kristi, you're making me blush! ☺️. I generally love dogs and here and in the Dominican there were so many! They're fun to photograph.
So, here's the thing about filming and photographing on a trip like this. I consider it a privilege and that means I have to out work everyone. All of them. Period. I never mentioned a word about it, but I made sure that I FAR exceeded everyone else's efforts. Then, during the rest breaks that I did take, is when I would pull out the cameras. I keep intending on writing some posts on strength and conditioning training for photography! 😆
You did such a fabulous job. Watching this was like watching a short film…the transitions, even the journey to the airport was awesome.
I always wished I’d had a camera man following me around in my travels because 90% of it is just memory not captured anywhere. I love video that takes viewers on a journey rather than just showing us your latest burger or infinity pool.
To give and to receive! This is so beautifully done, such gifts of life you shared, truly inspirational. And visually well done, really highlights the beauty in land, people, the entire mission. 🙌
That really means a lot! Thank you CJ!
There was a team of oxen in the film. Something most of us never experience in our technological society is animal powered work. Were there draft horses about too?
Those ox drawn carts were really interesting! I saw about three or four of them over the week. I didn't see any working horses, but there were plenty of them wandering around.
Wow! This film was quite an experience! It was awesome to watch it after following along via your writing; just makes it that much more visceral. I really got a sense of not only how pretty the land is, but of how HARD the work looked!
Technical/ need questions incoming: what did you film that on? Is it the same camera you use for all your landscape photography and what you used for the stills of your Honduras trip? Or did you have multiple rigs? Was there a lot of work in post as far as color and exposure? Because all the shots looked so...perfect! (I feel like whenever I shoot video on my SLR, the sky is blown out or the ground is dark...)
I'm beginning to realize that the film of my trips end up being a bit different than the stories I tell. There have been many situations like scaling a rocky ledge in the Canyon of Five Falls, or thunderstorms in the night on the Foothills Trail, or when I was working in Honduras, where I could not film, but end up writing a lot about that part. It gives the film a bit of a different feel. Honduras was different in that I had other people to film working. I think that went very well.
I make all of my films with a GoPro Hero 10 Black. My DSLR could film, but it would be more complicated and I would have to learn how. I'm also a little hesitant to mix the video files with the RAW photo files on the same memory card. Any deliberate, high quality photo I make is with the DSLR. The GoPro only has the fixed ultra wide angle lens and doesn't have a comparable sensor size to the main camera. BUT! The GoPro has unbelievable in-camera image stabilization that I couldn't get filming with the DSLR, it can go underwater, and its incredibly easy to set down and start recording. So, any photos in my portfolio are from the DSLR. When I include those in a post, they have the watermark at the bottom. But, a lot of the shots I include in the posts (usually the ones with me in them) to illustrate the story are still images I grabbed from the GoPro footage. These aren't as high quality and don't have the watermark.
There is a lot of work in post. I use DaVinci Resolve, a professional grade video editing software available for free online. I really just have a rudimentary level of understanding of this program, but its enough to get by. The color and exposure are GoPro settings, as I don't yet know how to adjust this in DaVinci. GoPro's tend to overexpose a little, so dropping the exposure -0.5 keeps the skies from blowing out. And, I use the GoPro's standard color saturation setting, which is pretty vivid. When I put it all together I am trimming the clips, maybe zooming in somewhere, putting some in slow motion, and adding some transitions. Then there's finding and adding music and titles, etc. It sounds like a lot, and it is, but its fun. I just wish I had more time for it!
Ooh...thanks for the breakdown! I didn't know gopros looked so good. Like I knew the quality was fine, but I was used to the fisheye-like lens of older go pro models I guess.
I've heard of DaVinci, but I never tried it. It all does sound like so much work though!
The fish eye effect is still there. It's more noticeable with up close shots or using it for photos.
Gotcha. I didn't see it much in your film!
It took me a whole friggin week to remember that I left this in my inbox to watch on a day when I wasn't super busy. That day never came until this weekend lol. I think I'm going to watch it on my big screen tonight. 😊
Okay, update. I didn't wait til tonight. I just watched it. Sooooo much of the landscape and town scenes reminded me of traveling through Jamaica. That bridge! I've driven over one just like that...it's kind of crazy how those bridges are just normal everyday driving in these countries, hey?
Question: Did anyone in your group crack jokes about you standing around filming while they did all the heavy concrete shoveling? 😁
And I love that you included so many puppers!!! Mongrel dogs are the best ♥
You do amazing videography and editing, Erik. I wish I'd had you in my back pocket for 15 years in Jamaica. Your footage is AMAZING.
Also, on that one morning time lapse of the sky, it's eerie how the trees never moved at all while the clouds were flying past.
Thanks, Kristi, you're making me blush! ☺️. I generally love dogs and here and in the Dominican there were so many! They're fun to photograph.
So, here's the thing about filming and photographing on a trip like this. I consider it a privilege and that means I have to out work everyone. All of them. Period. I never mentioned a word about it, but I made sure that I FAR exceeded everyone else's efforts. Then, during the rest breaks that I did take, is when I would pull out the cameras. I keep intending on writing some posts on strength and conditioning training for photography! 😆
You did such a fabulous job. Watching this was like watching a short film…the transitions, even the journey to the airport was awesome.
I always wished I’d had a camera man following me around in my travels because 90% of it is just memory not captured anywhere. I love video that takes viewers on a journey rather than just showing us your latest burger or infinity pool.
Haha! Yeah! And it's amazing (and a bit unnerving) to me how much I forget without having the video to remind me!
Btw, a GoPro is super easy to use and you could always outsource the editing!
Except now I’m sitting on my butt at home lol. But yes…here’s to future endeavors! I’d love to strap a GoPro onto my dog.
Ooo! That would be fun! Or just film your dog at a high frame rate and play it back in buttery slow motion!