1. Standard Foam Hat (Love that it looks like a Bearskin, this is what comes with the H4n)
Me & Nicky have fallen in love with our new H4n Handy Recorder, not only is he rather useful at adding good quality audio to the Canon 5D, but he’s sooo cute with his little hats on! So funny in fact, that we’ve already decided to make a little story about him walking across New Zealand in the same vain as this wonderful little film about a Wall-E toy:
I’m half tempted to take all the hats with us for costume changes, but we should probably pick just one, but which?
2. Afro hair(I pulled this one off my old Sony mic)
3. Genetically modified monster!(This is the official optional wind breaker for this mic so might actually work best, but it’s a bit of a monster..)
Now all we need to do is hack into his LCD screen so we can display some facial expressions on there, anybody know how to do this without totally busting it..?
Well this is the big decision I’ve had to make recently and to be honest I’m still quite shocked & amazed the Canon EOS 5D Mark II above is where it all ended?! I’m an amateur film maker and very amateur photographer, what the hell am I doing with a huge DSLR? Some of you probably already know the reason, I didn’t at the time, but below is a summary of how I found out.
Where this all started was me wanting to take my hiking photography up a notch, basically buy a little compact that takes a better picture than my phone! Being a style slag I fell in love with the Leica X1. Easy decision I thought, big sensor, little body, doesn’t weigh much, looks a bit like a M9, i.e. drop dead gorgeous. Job done, I put my deposit down and pre-ordered it months ago.
Then while I was waiting for the Leica production line to get round to making my camera I came across something called a 35mm adapter. This is the review by Tom Guilmette that I first came across and does a good job of explaining what it is:
$400 and I can make my Sony HDR SR12 do stuff like that, I want one! Shallow depth of field is something I’ve always jealously admired in other peoples work, but up until recently I didn’t even know enough about it to know what you needed to achieve it.. Ok I had my mission, find the best 35mm adapter to take to New Zealand, this is going to be awesome! After much research I couldn’t really find anything that beat the JAG35 Pro on weight, price and size.
But..
I started to freak out that carrying 2 cameras (video & still), a fairy large adapter, plus another lens on the end, not to mention all the chargers, plugs and cables for them all was getting out of hand.. There’s got to be a better way eh?
Back on google I came across this film by Sebastian Lopez, shot on a Canon 7D:
Whoa, that blew my pants right off! Ok now I’m getting somewhere, this wasn’t what I was looking for, but I don’t care. In fact how can I use a camcorder anymore after seeing footage taken with this new breed on DSLR? Ah yes, probably got something to do with the price, size and the weight.. Ah what the hell!
Anyhow it’s getting late, to cut a long story short – I cancelled my X1 order, then chose the 5D over the 7D because of bigger sensor blahdy blah, general consensus by reviewers yadda yah and the third party Magic Lantern Firmware, that’s not yet available on the 7D (didn’t want to risk it not being available before NZ).
The lens
This decision pained me. There’s a lot of different opinions flying around and it’s hard to find consensus. Please don’t tell me I bought the wrong one, my brain hurts from thinking about it.. I only wanted to carry one lens so I thought I’d get a wide angle with a bit of zoom, I picked the Canon EF 24-70mm f2.8L USM. All I can say is that it’s the best lens I’ve ever used (although that’s not saying much), and it definitely looks bigger in real life than on the internets! I love looking down that massive piece of glass at the front though, feels like I’m talking to Hal 9000 ;)
I’m really looking forward to using this camera (I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited), hopefully this blog will soon be full of all the beautiful images I’ve been able to capture with it :)
This was the first thing I knew I wanted to get for the New Zealand trip and the first thing I bought. I’ve happily and successfully used one of those 6 inch plastic ‘camera supports’ for many years. But to be honest the amount of times there isn’t a convenient rock to put it on, or the grass is too long (without ripping up half a meadow..) means that it rarely gets pulled out.
That’s a real shame, because when I get back home and edit the footage the tripod shots are always my favourite. Partly because they’re steady and maybe a bit more thought has gone into the composition, but mainly because when there’s only two people walking together it can get a bit samey looking at one person all the time. It’s a joint experience and it’s a good idea to get a few shots of you both together from time to time!
So I knew I wanted to get a ‘proper’ tripod, and I knew I wanted to get the lightest one I could find, so with a bit of googling I eventually ended up on the Gitzo website. Turns out the make a range of tripods called Mountaineer, like the sound of that :) They were the first ever carbon fibre tripods and they look like they were built by a F1 team mechanic. Lightest one they make is the Gitzo Mountaineer GT0531, £299 from Cliftom Cameras, weighs in at 0.72kg! it’s a bit short for a ‘proper’ tripod, but to be honest by the time there’s a head and camera on top, even a 6 foot chap like myself hardly has to bend down at all.
Tripod & Head, just over 1kg:
I have zero experience of tripods so don’t have anything to compare it too. But I did spend my formative years training as an industrial designer, so I can tell you this is bloody well made. I mean there’s hardly anything too it, but what there is oozes quality. Quarter twist a leg lock and and out it pops, quick flick of the wrist and then it’s locked hard, none of that straining to get a tight fit. It was a no-brainer decision for me to get this tripod and now that I’ve had it a couple of weeks I can safely say that I think I made the right decision.
For the head I was less convinced, I could of gone down several different routes, but in the end I was won over by the Gitzo brand, so just stuck with them. I was umm-ing and ahh-ing whether I should get a ball head or a fluid head (for filming). In the end I thought the un-even terrain I’d be setting up on would make the ball head more practical rather than fannying around with leg lengths. I decided on the Gitzo GH1780QR Centre Ball Head, £175 from Clifton Cameras. It’s pretty light – 300g, has spirit levels to help me get a straight shoot and a panoramic base which is smooth and light enough for me to use while filming.
With the head it’s about 2 foot (60cm) long collapsed, and I can almost rap my fingers around the diameter. By the way, that boot is a Zamberlan Ultra Lite GT, couldn’t recommend it enough, can’t quite understand why a tiny little shop in Camden is the only store in the whole of London that stocks them?!
Many apologies to my regular Made in England readers, I’ve been bloody useless at bloggin’ recently :( Ok, so here’s my excuse..
I’ve been doing some heavy research into camera equipment to take to New Zealand (if you’re not aware, me and Nicky will be walking it’s entire length towards the end of the year). Why? I get almost as much pleasure from documenting my trips (blog, photos & video) than actually walking the trails! So with this trip likely to be the most varied and stunningly beautiful to date, I wanted to take it to the next level, not the ultralight level, the uncompromised quality level!
I don’t want to get into gear right now (got work to do), just wanted to post a couple of test shots and let you know the research is over, I’m back in the blogosphere, and will try to hit my target of pushing out at least one post a day from now on :)
Check out the depth of field on this video, hmmm tasty!
It constantly amazes me how far reaching my blog is, merely hours after asking if anyone had a Kickstarter invite on the blog, Lisa Yao came through with one :) Then a couple of days later the founder & Art Director of Kickstarter Charles Adler, dropped me line saying “DO IT. I absolutely loved your CDT project”.
Well I’ve done it, my project – Film about walking 1800 miles across New Zealand has just launched. We’re trying to raise $5000 and to be honest it feels a bit weird/cheeky raising money for something that I’m clearly going to enjoy doing.. But there is a lot of effort going into what I’m offering as ‘rewards’ i.e. maps & finished DVD, so I’m trying to stay optimistically hopeful that other people will want to get involved.
It isn’t all cash in hand of course, the cost of producing all the rewards and mailing everything out is going to take out a huge chunk. But I’ve got a few fun things in there like drawing peoples names along the way and styling my beard which should be a bit more profitable :)
Ideally I’d like to raise an extra $3500(you can go over your target) which would pay for a mountain guide to take me to the top of Mt. Cook/Aoraki. It’s definetly beyond what I have the experience to do on my own, but is the highest mountain in New Zealand, has the same name is me and would make a pretty spectacular addition to the film!
You don’t have to back my project, there’s plenty of other great one’s on there. I’m backing IN TRANSIT presents: 16mm, pictured above. A film by Jonathan Dueck, who’s been busy scratching & painting over old 16mm films. Also James Taylor who wants to make an ‘absurd game of logic’ – The Gentlemen of the South Sandwiche Islands.
Invites
If anyone wants one? I have five, none left sorry.
My brother’s twins are getting bigger and more interesting every time I go back home :) I forgot to do the six month post.. but here they are at 7 months!
Daisy is still racing ahead in the growth again, got 2 teeth now and big chubby cheeks like me when I was a baby.
Oliver strangely looks a bit older because he never really put on his baby fat and is looking like a lean mean super baby model, definitely got his photogenic skills nailed at an early age.
Sorry I’ve not been bloggin’ much lately, been a bit preoccupied with popping the question to my missus. Did the deed yesterday, Nicky said yes! Rather than get a diamond ring, which to be honest I think is probably the least interesting thing you can spend a lot of money on, I got her a guitar instead!
Neither of us play guitar, so at first sight it seems quite a random choice.. But her maiden name is Gibson, same as the legendary guitar makers, so I thought I’d get her something to remind her of that when she becomes Mrs Cookie.
I wanted to get her a vintage Gibson (this sort of thing just gets better with age), preferably a 1977 model to match her birth year (and mine). After a lengthy bit of research I decided on the Les Paul Artisan model, it’s basically a Les Paul Custom with hearts & flower inlays on the headstock and fingerboard. Beautiful looking thing, thought Nicky would appreciate all the detailing, they didn’t come in many colours, but this walnut finish was my favourite.
The fact that it had quite a short production run (1976-1982) didn’t help any, I couldn’t find a single one for sale in the UK. Only the states seemed to have any Artisan’s that people were prepared to part with, some way too pricey, some played to shit, but when this one popped up it seemed a good price and in good nick, so I rather nervously wired my money across the pond and hoped for the best. Well Neals Guitars did us proud and it arrived safe and sound.
I think I made the right call, Nicky loves it and has no plans to trade it in for a diamond! More pics on my Flickr »
Just back from our wedding tour of the north, here’s some pictures of the Eleanor & Andy’s wedding cake that me & Nicky made!
What inspired me to ask Eleanor if I could make her cake was the Eugene & Louise bakery art show. I blogged about it a while ago and have been itching for a good excuse to have a go since. Working the Marzipan was a bit harder than I had expected, not quite the same as plasticine.. Definitely didn’t reach E&L’s standards, but I think El was pretty happy with it none the less :)
The best bit was making all the marzipan men for the top. So much fun in fact that ended up with so many that they couldn’t all fit on the cake. We had extra marzipan for all the kids to make their own, took them about 10 minutes to realise it wasn’t plasticine and start eating it!
I think me & Nicky had the most brightly coloured wedding attire at the wedding! Although with everyone else on our row we almost had the whole spectrum.
Had to post a pic of this amazing old bus ticket machine, I was bus conductor on the way to the church and had to stamp the specially made tickets with it.
I’m afraid we were too pissed to take any pics of the cake actually being eaten.. but I’ve got a vague recollection that it tasted extremely good.
No blog updates for a few days, going up to the lakes for a wedding. But after that me & Nicky plan to climb Scarfell Pike, Snowdon and Ben Nevis(in that order) before another wedding in Scotland the following weekend. So we’ll probably post a few pics of our progress to keep you going. If you’re not aware, those are the highest mountains in England, Wales and Scotland. The thing to do is try and climb them all in 24 hours, but we’re not doing that…
Above is the making of my first ever wedding cake, may well be my first ever cake for that matter… The cake was pretty easy, but the marzipan is proving to be more difficult than I had imagined to work with. I’ll not spoil the surprise by showing the finished cake, will post it after the wedding.
I‘ve a couple of weddings coming up on the next 2 weekends and I just realised that my suit looked a bit stupid on me after losing a few stone walking the CDT… Not to worry, I’m mates Simon & Tig (Social Suicide) make, in my opinion the most interesting suits around. Each one generally tries to do something that has never been done before and chock full of random features and functions that you wouldn’t usually expect from a suit such as their specially designed ‘Razzle’ pocket ;)
Ideally I would of like an orange suit, but I was quite taken by this bright yellow one. One of the wedding’s is my mate El, who I do all the branding for. I think it’ll be quite funny that I’ll be on brand at the wedding!
I got a bit carried away with poses this morning when I got Nicky to take the picture, rest on my Flickr, I really like the jumping shot, but too gay to actually post here.
Also you ladies, they’ve started a women’s line of suits (by Christy), not on the website, but I saw some down in their store.
