Sunday March 9, Outpost: Pacific Northwest

Since my last posting one job fell through but two others filled its place. One is a recreation show where we create scenes based on actual events. I have a small but seasoned crew of talented professionals working with me: Gaffer, Electrician, Swing, First a.c., and DIT. We're rolling with a 3 ton, a few HMI's, Lekos, Kinos (fat men), PAR cans, and tungsten fresnels. Cameras for A and B unit are Sony F55's with Fuji Cabrio 19-90mm lenses. Last week I got to light a beautiful, spacious church, as well as a high school football field at night (matching metal halide stadium lights with a gel-pack on my 1.2K HMI's).

Right now, I'm writing from my hotel room in the Salt Lake City. I'm literally jumping off a plane from one production and going back into production on the other. This show, which has me on the road, is for the Outdoor Channel and is about people who've survived horrific events in the great outdoors. It's the first time I've worked with this client and I'm learning a completely different style of shooting. Over the last year I've been getting used to working with crews, and having assistants. This show is stripped down where I'm traveling with a host and a producer. I light, shoot, do audio, and media manage all at once. It's a bit overwhelming, especially when I need to hike steep, treacherous mountain trails to get to location (with a camera over my shoulder and a backpack full of lenses, batteries, and various tools on my back). That last minute trip to REI for some decent hiking boots was a smart investment after all.

It's worth it, what photographer/DP wouldn't want the opportunity to shoot wonderful vistas in Colorado, British Columbia, Alaska, and more. The Producer/Director has a lifetime of experience under his belt and I'm learning a lot from him (even at my age), and the host is an inspiring survivor himself who's had a career as a photographer with AP, so he lends a hand with gear and even helps me light! On this shoot I'm using a Canon C100 and 5D MKIII. I'm looking forward to receiving the monitor I've been waiting for (Odyssey 7Q) so I have something to accurately represent an image from these cameras.

Oh, and there were a few days in San Francisco shooting 3D on Treasure Island with 4 Red Epics and a night in Palm desert shooting fire at 90fps in 5K.

That's all for now, I need to get a few hours sleep before heading back into the mountains in the morning.