It was painful in real life, it’s only fitting that it be painful to watch and the second half of this video really is. You wish it was finished, over done, complete. . .welcome to my world!

Planes, airports, people, swollen feet, sore knees, bad food. . .man, it all sucks! This part of the journey was a bit of a melodrama in that we couldn’t manage to get the HVX out of customs in time for our flight. We didn’t check the tripods, since we had taken them as carry on everywhere and then were stopped at security 5 minutes before boarding and told to go back and check them in. While waiting for the guys to try and check the tripods and get them to the plane on time, our man Leandro, typing furiously on his terminal, eyes pinpoints of concentration had almost wrapped it up when. . .Darkness! The entire airport plunges into inky blackness. . .a few sparse screams of shock and fear pierce the immediate silence that follows, as well as my laugh, loud and deep, ringing out across the terminal. . .almost flirting with that fine line between true belly laughter and maniacal cackling. I was close to losing it and it felt gooooood!

Leandro’s voice, quiet and seeming to originate from a point in space hanging somewhere in front of us, says “I haven’t seen this ever in the 10 years I have worked here!”. Of course you haven’t Leandro, because Luis and I, the two cursed amigos’ haven’t come floating through this airport before with no time to spare, camera’s stuck in customs, cancelled flights and tripods that weren’t checked! No doubt Leandro won’t see it again until we are next in town!

But I digress, I doubt you’re here to hear my incessant moaning about how bad the travel was. “You’re doing an international shoot through Brazil and Mexico, so you had a bit of trouble, quit ya whining! Do you realise how lucky you are?!” Trouble is, once I get on a roll, it’s hard to stop the literary diarrhoea!

So what else is there to do when faced with all of this, but to plug in the headphones, crack out the camera and disconnect.

Shooting handheld with the 7D is cool, it’s fun and really spontaneous. I’ve missed that kind of shooting, as because of the rolling shutter I’m locked off on the tripod most of the time. And the rolling shutter sure is apparent, it’s all through this clip, I hate it. Yes, I can remove it, but to be honest. . .for this application, it’s hardly worth it. I’ve used a 5D MKII with some redrock rods attached to it and it takes out that tiny little judder that you get from a rig that’s too light. That little bit of extra weight really helps. I think I will look at getting some of these soon as it will dramatically increase the amount of ‘keepers’ when shooting handheld.

Again the IS on the 70-200 kicks butt in video mode, I love it to death. When you’re shooting handheld it really is phenomenal how much difference it makes. If you jump the camera around a bit, the IS can exacerbate the movements and you can end up with something that could make a person sick, it’s all in how you nurse it through the movement, learning the IS and how to caress it into doing what you want. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no sicko (well I am, but not when it comes to camera’s) but you really do need to be gentle with it, show it some r-e-s-p-e-c-t and it will love you! I should do a post showing the comparison in Video mode. . .I will. . .one day!

A bit of this stuff was shot at around 400 ISO, it’s still pretty clean at that point, I don’t start seeing much noise until around 800-1000 ISO. I know people carry on about how you can shoot at up to 1600, sure you can shoot at up to 1600, but man it looks pretty ugly. The noise seems to be big and chunky in the shadows, not the kind of stuff that Noise Removal software really likes. So I try to keep it below 1000 and with faster glass, that’s usually pretty achievable.

The music in this video is something I randomly found on my computer, listened to, latched onto and absolutely caned. It’s the first track off a mix CD a good friend of mine, who is an excellent DJ, put together. I found it perfect for this journey since it starts all mellow and lovely and takes you on a journey into the darker sides of minimal tech house. A soundtrack to  infuse the soul with metallic invulnerability. I don’t know the artist or the name of the track, maybe if Daniel stops by he can assist me here.

This is not a great example of videography, in fact I almost hesitated in uploading it and posting it, thinking, “No, maybe I should only be putting my best work on the site. . .” emulating the other blogging heroes that you see around the traps. . .In the end I figured, bugger it, this is what went down, sure the shots aren’t the best in the world, but they aren’t meant to be. . .this is my journey, not my masterpiece. . .If you find it as uncomfortable as I did, my work is done!

Click here to watch it on SmugMug in 1080P.

More soon. . .

So finally, here’s a couple of shots I knocked off from Australia to Rio. This video is the first in what will hopefully be a series of short video blogs. It’s all handheld handycam type stuff, I had the tripod with me, but I didn’t want to risk a run-in with security or overbearing airline staff all hopped up on oversalted mini-pretzels.

Shooting sure is a soothing way to pass the time. The only reason there’s not more footage is because I was so dog tired most of the time, I just couldn’t be shagged getting the camera out, but there just wasn’t that much interesting stuff to shoot anyway. It isn’t meant to be an amazing display of cinematography (if you were expecting it to be, I’m sorry! hahaha!), more than anything it is a side-product of boredom and my desire to document what it is that I see. Think of it as a home movie shot with an decent rig!

The Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS USM owned it in the plane. I would never have even dreamed of putting the old 75-300 on there in that dim light, it would have been completely useless!

The Sigma 30mm f1.4 was great too, most of the stuff I shot with that in the plane was wide open at maybe ISO 200-400. . .

The shot at the start with old mate scratching his eyes and the dude playing with the phone were both on the Canon 100-400 f4.5-5.6L. I really do like this lens and even though it taps out at 5.6 at 400mm, considering that’s the same as my old 75-300mm I don’t find it much of a hindrance. If anything it helps as I know what’s possible with a given amount of light. It’s boken is nowhere near as nice as the 70-200, but it’s still decent.

I’ve heard many people discount the usefulness of the IS in the canon lenses for video applications. Personally, I found it incredibly helpful and I am so glad that I got the IS model of the 70-200, as I almost didn’t. For handheld shooting I can get a much better shot with the IS on than without, and providing you nurse your pans and movements a little so as not to push it too much, you can get quite good results.

The music in this clip means a lot to me and there’s a very good reason I used it. . .It’s by a band called The Detroit Escalator Company and the Song is called ‘Gathering Light’. The whole album that this song is off (Black Buildings) is just amazing, I have loved it since the moment a great friend of mine Claudia, from the Dominican Republic, introduced me to it around 5 years ago.

It is my travelling music, it allows me to put my headphones in and completely disconnect. Moving through airports and fellow travellers as if I was a ghost, a vaporous entity, invisible, untouchable and completely at ease within the maelstrom of itineraries, people, planes, flights, service staff and screaming children. It’s just such a perfect juxtaposition that my entire perception of the journey is almost left in limbo. A complete obfuscation of the senses. . .

On journeys like this, the ability to be able to plug in and view everything with a vacantly detached curiosity is priceless beyond measure. I hope you find your travelling music. If you’ve got something to recommend, let me know. . .I need it!

More soon. . .