The Most Boring Blog Post Ever! (Or Getting Organized)

Many years ago, I began building this site using the tools I had access to, iWeb and iPhoto. As it grew, I migrated to RapidWeaver and Blogger. (This was long before I knew about the power of WordPress).

As a cinematographer, I have little experience and time to devote to the craft of web design & coding, which has resulted in a site filled with great content, but perhaps not ease of navigation. With the readership of my blog exploding over the last 6 months, I felt it was time to take one step towards making this site easier to navigate. At least until I can find a significant amount of time to do a complete website overhaul and move to WordPress ...

What you will find below is an organized listing of every blog post I have made. (Which I will continue to update). If you are new to my site, I highly recommend checking out what you may have missed. To make navigation even more accessible, this blog post will always be accessible via the side bar to the right. --->>>

Three Reasons Why "Fixing It In Post" Will Ruin Your Career

How often have you been on set and heard the words, "We'll fix it in post"? Here I share why those words make me cringe internally. As you will surmise while reading this article, I am a huge proponent of creating compelling imagery in camera- not in post. Even if I am shooting with a RAW camera, I can create stronger visuals if I get the image to around 80-90% of where I want it, rather than relying on post color correction. Relying on post to "fix it,"  or waiting until post to create your imagery, is the quickest way to shorten your career. Here are three reasons why you should avoid this common pitfall.

The Great ND Test Of 2013 (Or is it really Neutral?)

The Control Frame for the ND Test

Neutral density (ND) filters are supposed to be devoid of color shift. Ideally they only affect the amount of light entering the lens, not the color balance. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to produce an ND filter that is truly neutral. This is why I set out to test four sets of filters. I wanted to see how neutral they really are. For this test I used ND filters from Schneider, Formatt, TruND, and the internal ND filters of the Canon C100. The results may surprise you, just like they did for me. Continue reading to see how these filters stack up, as well as to get access to the downloadable frames.

How Personal Work Can Further Your Career

My bread and butter comes from the commercial world. And I love what I do! I get the opportunity to travel, meet new people, and learn about a myriad of industries. However, as lucky as I am to be doing what I love for my profession, there have been times in my career where I have felt uninspired, or under-challenged by the work that I am doing. To get through these dry spells, I turn to personal work. And each time I do personal work, I find it pushes me and opens up new opportunities for my career. Here is how you can use personal work to further what you do.

1080p is better than 4k. (Or Why I Chose The Canon C100)

After many years of owning a wide range of camera systems, including a Red One and an Epic, I decided to sell it all and rent. So for the past three years I have been exclusively renting cameras on a per project basis, that is until recently when I made the plunge and bought the Canon C100. Little did I know how many eyebrows and questions it would raise when I posted a picture on Facebook. Here is why I chose a 1080p, 4:2:0 camera over a 4k RAW camera.