Jenny & Nick Engagements

My sister-in-law is getting married. I tagged along on their announcement photo session to take a little video. It's more of a memento for them than anything. I threw it together quick (because I knew if I didn't then it wouldn't ever get done). There isn't a lot to it, but it is easy to throw a good looking video together when you're working with an attractive and fun couple.

We borrowed my brother-in-law's 1965 Mustang for the session. Best decision we made. I like this shot from inside the car. I propose a Bullit remake. Come to think of it, Bullit is actually pretty boring, but the car chase scene is great with Steve McQueen in his natural habitat: behind the wheel of a car.

Congratulations to the happy couple. Ain't love grand?




-D

Zion Half Marathon shoot

We were asked by Vacation Races to shoot the first annual Zion Half Marathon. We knew we'd need a lot of coverage over a wide area, so Dehn asked his cousin-in-law Jason to come help and my wife Alex came along to shuttle us along the route in order to maximize our efficiency.

There wasn't a bad angle to shoot at the entire day!

The race started bright and early while it was still dark outside, so our footage from the beginning was pretty rough. We worked out a plan wherein Alex would drop us off about a mile apart along the route, then swing back around after 20 minutes, pick us all up, and drop us all off again. Dehn also reached out to Cinechopper and they got some awesome aerial shots along the route.

About halfway through the race, Dehn saw a friend and slapped a GoPro on her head, activating all the controls from his phone while running alongside her.

Nicole Jensen, our impromptu 4th camerawoman!

After two and a half hours, the race was mostly wrapped up. It really surprised me how fast the morning flew by; we didn't have the luxury of much time in any given spot. Instead we had to always be on the move, because the runners were just flying past us and the best action was always at the head of the mass of runners.

4 hours is a respectable time when carrying camera gear, right?

It was a long but very rewarding day. Stay tuned for our edit coming soon!

Edit in progress

-T

Mumford & Sons Photo montage

On August 22, 2012 I got to photograph the Mumford & Sons concert at The Saltair near Salt Lake City, UT. I haven’t gotten around to editing the better photos, so in the meantime I threw all 1,200 or so images together in this video.

The images have not been edited other than cropping the portrait photos to landscape to preserve a consistent aspect ratio. I could have spent hours and hours editing the photographs. I didn’t. I imagine I could get a really polished look if I did all the color correcting and cropped the images to flow better. This isn’t perfect, but there are moments of it that really work. There is almost a beauty in seeing some of these photos really come together in the sequence despite there being almost zero manipulation. It is what it is.

Canon 5D Mark II
70-200mm f/2.8
1,127 photos
2 minutes

-D

Mumford & Sons trailer

Pulse Films just released the Gentlemen of the Road trailer for the Mumford & Sons live concert documentary DVD.  Several of the shots are mine from when I filmed with Fred&Nick in Monterey! Check it out:



-D

Mumford & Sons - Monterey

Yesterday, I got back from a trip to Monterey to film Mumford & Sons.

Mumford & Sons is my favorite band. They have an ongoing mini-documentary series called "Gentlemen of The Road." It's a great little piece of documentary filmmaking by Fred&Nick. It's greatness is compounded by how much I like the band. So when I saw a Facebook update from Pulse Films saying Fred&Nick were on the road with the boys as they started their summer tour in the U.S. I started blasting out emails.

I sent cold-contact emails to anyone who's address I could find online that may have some connection with either Pulse Films or Fred&Nick personally. I didn't know their full names though! You can't find them anywhere. It's always jut Fred&Nick.

Long story short, one of my emails finally landed in the inbox of the right person. They asked if I could make it to the Monterey show, when I said yes they sent me over the call sheet with instructions to pick up Fred&Nick at the San Francisco airport and yada yada yada.

I picked up the gear on my way to the airport... and the sum total value of the gear was worth more than the vehicle that carried it:

Mama Pajama... Picked up camera kit to help film Mumford & Sons in Monterey

Lens bag

This was a dream come true. A once in a lifetime opportunity. I spent the next two days going to soundchecks, staying in the hotel with the band, playing soccer backstage, eating lunch with the band, filming, going to after parties, and even being on stage during the show to get some footage. It was hard to keep the earth below my feet. 

Between you and me, as cool as all that was, the main thing I walked away from that experience with was a new perspective on filmmaking. Working closely with Fred&Nick was a privilege. What a couple of dudes. I learned a lot from them. Cheers!

Backstage with M&S

-D

Absent from the Rooftop

We were so sorry to miss the Rooftop Concert last night, but I got married and wanted the best videographer I knew to film our wedding video!

Las Vegas reception - 2012-05-04

Thanks a bunch to Dehn for filming all the festivities despite suffering a knee injury that week.

Las Vegas sunset

BONUS: Here's a picture from when I proposed (Dehn was there to film the event with hidden cameras)

2012-01-25

Parade Magazine video

In February, the very talented Justin Hackworth was asked to shoot the front cover of Parade Magazine's cover story of Stephanie Nielsen

-D