As soon as I finished shooting the baby spiders in my garage, I knew I was going to have to bring out the camera for some more close-up nature stuff. That same night, as I was going out to my car, I saw a huge spider building a web on the corner of my house.
It was a little more difficult to get this footage, since I had to work around his schedule to get him building the web, and then wait for him to catch something and eat it. It took a few different nights of going out with the lights and sitting patiently, but it was worth it. Again, full screen in HD is the way to watch this.
I already have a few more videos like this in the works. I was just out in my garden today with a macro lens filming butterflies. Not quite as intense and creepy as the spiders, but I’m comfortable enough with my masculinity to film butterflies. But, just to be clear, there will be more spiders. I just noticed tonight that the big guy from this video has a tiny neighbor. One of those little babies has moved out of the garage and into the bushes, setting up a little web. We’ll be checking in on him soon.
On August 22nd I had the pleasure of shooting another Round 1 Fight Night with my wife. I always enjoy the shows that Shihan Jeff DeVore puts on, but this one was by far my favorite. Not only was it my first time seeing a cage fight, it was my first time seeing live MMA fighting. And being ringside made it ten times better. Being ringside also ups your chances of being hit with blood. Alida and I both got a little shower during one of the bouts. Take a look.
His blood was on our faces!
You can't see it very well, it's a tiny dot near my nose
Alida was thrilled!
That was a ton of fun, and Alida and I were laughing pretty hard when we realized what had just happened. By the way, to see some of the photos from that night, along with her other amazing work, check out Alida Duff Sullivan Photography on Facebook!
So a couple of days after the fight I posted a teaser of the video I was making, and got some really great feedback. Shihan DeVore had tons of people asking when they’d be able to see the entire thing. Well I finally have it finished, so sit back and enjoy Round 1 Fight Night’s Summer Cage Wars!
Spiders creep me out, but they also fascinate me. I worked as a janitor at the Marina Towers in Chicago for a summer during college college. One of my duties was to go up to the 36th floor roof and kill all of the spiders that had made webs on the wrought iron bars. While I was up there knocking down webs and squishing huge spiders, I also saw some really cool stuff.
One day I saw a web flailing wildly in the wind, so the spider went around and released every other line in the web. It cut his wind resistance in half, and then he went back to the center and chilled. I left him alive.
Even though they do give me the willies, I can’t help watching them. So when I went into my garage and saw that a new family had moved in, I postponed my initial reaction, which was to drown them in Raid. Instead, I grabbed the camera and got a closer look at the babies. For full effect, I highly suggest viewing full screen in HD.
After taking my first swing at shooting video on the 5D Mark II, I was eager to try more. It wasn’t hard to choose the next round.
A while back, I bought Alida a Lensbaby. If you’ve never seen one, it’s a weird, stubby little lens that moves around like an accordion. The in-and-out motion controls focus, and the side-to-side motion controls the “sweet spot” of that focus. The challenging part is, the lens doesn’t just stay put after you find that sweet spot. It will bounce back to its original position if you let go, so you need to use three fingers to hold it in position, and then use your pointer finger to snap the photo.
Here’s my first attempt at shooting video with the Lensbaby. I already have a few ideas for utilizing this look in future projects.
My wonderful wife, Alida, has had Canon’s 5D Mark II for a while now. I was extremely excited about it, since it shoots in full HD, yet for some reason never really took the time to go out and test it.
Yesterday we were out in a soybean field because Alida needed some photos. While she was shooting, I saw a little wooly worm helping himself to a leaf.
Me kissing the wooly worm
Alida already had a nice macro lens equipped on the camera, so we decided to film the wooly worm. It was really challenging! At first, we both tried it hand-held, and that proved to be way too difficult. Not only were our hands too shaky, but the depth of field was so shallow, the slightest movement took the shot out of focus. So we grabbed a tripod and started filming. By the time we got the tripod set up, he had stopped eating, but we did get some really neat footage of him moving around. I love watching the feet.
Saturday night was Round 1 Fight Night’s Summer Cage Wars! It was an intense mixture of kickboxing, Muay Thai, and MMA fights, and Alida and I were sitting cage-side to do the photos and video! I love shooting these events, and can’t say enough about how awesome Shihan Jeff DeVore is.
I will be working on the video very soon, and will post it as soon as it’s done. Until then, I have a little teaser. During one of the fights Alida and I were both splattered with some blood from a fighter. We took photos of each other with the blood on our faces. I don’t have those right now, so I’ll have to post those when I post the finished video. What I do have ready now is a clip from the fighter that bled on us. Enjoy!
Aside from that, here’s what else is going on:
Found out we didn’t place in the LLCU video contest. Bummer, but I had fun making it, and if I made a few people laugh, that’s cool with me.
The iris ring on my new XHA1 is faulty, and I have to send it in for repairs. At least it’s under warranty, so it wont cost anything.
I’m finishing up the dog video for the contest I alluded to in a previous post. I’ll be sharing more on that later.
During the engagement shoot I could tell that Maggie and Andrew were a fun couple. That makes it really easy on the photographer/videographer when the subjects are up for trying fun poses and locations. We were in luck when it came time to shoot the wedding. The entire wedding party was outgoing, photogenic, and not camera shy at all.
Another awesome part about this wedding was the groom. Instead of a tux, he wore his Navy uniform. You don’t see that all the time, and it was pretty sweet.
Here’s a look at the day, from prep to recep…tion.
For a look at some of the shots my beautiful wife took, check out her blog!
I really like the idea of shooting video for engagements. It’s less formal than the wedding day, and definitely less hectic. You can take your time, go to as many locations as the couple wants, and really capture something great. This couple was lots of fun. You can tell by the way they’re looking at eachother that they can’t possibly wait any longer for the wedding to come. I’m glad I was able to capture that for them.
Today is the first day of my vacation, and I hope to do a ton of writing and editing. I have a lot to work on, and my goal on top of all of that is to have a new post every day.
My first vacation post is a short clip I recorded on Saturday. Alida and I, along with our friend and assistant Rob, shot a wedding in Monticello. While we were waiting for the ceremony to start the organist was playing some filler music. Being a piano player myself, I really enjoy the chance to film somebody’s hands on the keys, so I did just that.
Update: If you looked at this before 10pm Monday, the YouTube messed up the sound. Here is the re-uploaded version:
I look forward to the Decatur Celebration this year, because I always end up being able to film somebody famous tickling the ivories. In the past I’ve been lucky enough to film the Marshall Tucker Band, War, and Dennis DeYoung (the voice of Styx). Click the band names to check those videos out.
I’ve been wanting to shoot in HD for a while, but haven’t really taken the time to sit down and do it. I’m still experimenting with all of the different settings on both the camera and the computer. There’s so much information out there, and it’s hard to absorb all at once.
Today Alida had an engagement photo shoot with a really fun couple, and I tagged along to film. While we roamed around I saw a really cool lamp post with the bulb busted out, and the sun setting behind it. I got a nice rack focus and used that as my tester for quality.
Here’s the video. Turn on HD mode and enlarge for the full effect:
The song is “Bohemian Sunset” by Jazzanova, in case you were wondering.
Anyway, that’s what I’m up to. Stay tuned for more HD tests, and for the “Behind the Scenes” engagement shoot from tonight.
Hugh Sullivan Productions 