An adventure into the world of video

I've been doing quite a bit of filming for Transition Bike Company in the past couple months and learning the ins and outs of cinematography. Today I completed my favorite movie thus far after a fantastic day of shooting with my buddy Cam Burnes. This was my first opportunity to really have a chance to scope some nice angles while filming like I would when shooting photographs. Cam rode really well and had a relaxed attitude which made the whole adventure really fun.

Cam checks out the first couple of shots

beautiful singletrack

For the gear-heads out there, I carried an ArcTeryx backpack that held my Nikon d-SLR bundle with a D300 and 3 lenses and 2 flashes, my Panasonic HPX-170 camcorder with a large matte box and 4x4" polarizer, a Bogen/Manfrotto tripod with a fluid pan head, and food and water, etc, all totalling about 90 lbs. The film shoot took 12 hours from the time we left the truck till the time we returned to it, and I've been editing for the past 4 days. So, in total, it took about a solid week.

This movie means alot to me as a photographer, an explorer, and as a visual communicator. This is the very essence of mountain biking. I hope you enjoy viewing it as much as I did making it. Special thanks to RJD2 for the soundtrack! The vid is best played with the volume up quite a bit, and for full screen please click the box on the upper right portion of the video once it starts to play.

Tis the Season for Senior Portraits!

Now offering senior portrait packages at most any location in Whatcom County starting at $250. Inquire by email bw@bradwaltonphoto.com to setup yours today!

A week ago I shot a photo that I've been wanting for over a year. Something was always just 'not right' about the scene so we never really scoped it that hard, but I knew there was something there that would be good. I woke up feeling good about it but as I approached the mountain I noticed a haze in the sky.

"Today's not the day," I thought, and I immediately reconsidered lugging the 20+ lbs of photo gear on top of my riding gear. I've been riding with the big pack quite a bit recently so it doesn't seem that bad anymore. I figured might as well just in case so I just threw on the pack and up we went.

After about 2 hours of riding up the mountain, I noticed that I could see the San Juan islands and a bit of fog lingering over the bay. I figured I'd go ahead and give it a shot just to see what we had to work with. I helped some friends to clear the line and here's the shot I got of Joel. I'm excited to know that the photo will work and anxious to see what it looks like when shot against a nice sunset later this fall. --brad

Hello World

If you're reading this, you're either subscribed to this blog and just got an update after half a year of no blogging, or you just stumbled in on the right day. It seems as though life for a photographer is either studying photo technique while scraping together belongings to sell on ebay to pay rent, or working overtime on a daily basis on someone else's dime with no time for life outside of said "work". Well the double-edged sword in my case is more of a "have cake and eat too", since I have been working full time for Transition Bike Company for the past 5 months, where I get to ride bikes and take pictures of my friends riding bikes.

It started off pretty straightforward and I jumped into the deep end, photographing the full quiver of bikes for the company in a studio and outdoor setting. Sounds easy enough, but try juggling that with (surprise!) a bunch of other 'media' tasks like learning the ends and outs of HD filming for videos for each of these bikes coupled with days of intense video editing, event coverage for our sponsored athletes, writing press releases and company blog entries, updating the company website with new content and products, and I think there's even more. What? Don't feel sorry for me? Well it is work, I think, I mean it really is work. I spend alot of time there and I get money in return, so yeah, it's work.

The new job has kept me so busy in fact that I have lost time for personal website maintenence and updates. Now that the gig at Transition is finally getting settled and I have some 'free' time courtesy of a broken wrist, I present to you an update to bradwaltonphoto.com. When I started this website, I had no idea what my 'specialty' was in photography. "Umm, I can do it all". Well, no one can 'do it all' very well. I have recently deleted the galleries of things that I don't have time for/ interest in/ suck at, and put up some new content. If you have any 'free' time yourself, you should check out a couple new galleries, such as Landscape 2 and Mountain Bike 3. I also want to spend more time with photographing people and products, so if you're a person with a product, or one or the other, drop me a line at bw@bradwaltonphoto.com. The season is in for senior portraits right now and I've been doing a few already in some interesting locations.
Okay, well, get back to work or get on the site. My time is up for today. I'll leave you with a little nugget from yesterday's film session. Enjoy life! --brad

my co-worker- Transition US Dealer Sales Manager, Cam Burnes

The Time Machine

Looking over my short-lived blog history, I noticed a blog that for some reason was saved but never published, so here ya go.



I have been looking for a product for several years that would allow me to do timer-free, hands-free self-portrait work for product and personal use. Basically this entails some type of hands-free shutter trigger actuated by motion within a given path. Wildlife photographers have used such gizmos for years to capture rare animals/birds or difficult to capture scenes from a distance, using anything from microphone/vibration actuation to complex cross-patterned laser interruption. The first product that I was able to find in a Google search was the Shutterbeam. I emailed them twice and they never replied. Next I found the PhotoTrap, but it's size and weight prevented any type of remote access for me while on my bike. I kept researching, and waiting, until finally I found it.

Enter the Time Machine. Bryan Mumford of Mumford Micro Systems is one smart cookie. This guy invented the exact device I have always wanted, about the same year I was born. Hailing straight outta the 80's is a device that I can only describe the looks of as being like a first-generation Nintendo Gameboy only made by Atari 10 years prior. Looks can be deceiving, and that is a serious understatement with the Time Machine.

You could write a book about this device, and Bryan did. I will never use the endless feature set of this device, but the one thing I wanted, it does, and it does it so well in fact that every time I use it I can't even believe it. I inquired to Bryan about his Time Machine and he was quick to reply to my emails (within minutes) and was even able to make me custom cords to adapt to my Pocket Wizard remotes.

I could go on and on, but here's what I'm doing with the Time Machine:

I ordered my Time Machine with the Infrared Beam attachment. A small box contains an electronic eye that detects light from an infrared beam. The beam originates from a small diode that either A) attaches to a cord and points directly into the eye of the box, or B) plugs directly into the box and uses a reflector to direct the beam back into the eye. I opt for option B, and this allows up to an (untested) range of...get this...60 feet! I have tested it up to 20 feet and it works flawlessly. The infrared beam attachment plugs into the Time Machine.


The Time Machine weighs half a pound, is powered by one 9-volt battery, and is smaller than my D700 camera body. With the infrared beam plugged into the accessory inlet in the Time Machine, I plug a transmitting Pocket Wizard into the shutter jack outlet. I put a receiving Pocket Wizard on my camera using a pre-trigger cable and bam, anything that breaks the infrared beam triggers the shutter of the camera. By doing this, I can completely isolate the Time Machine and infrared beam from my camera, only dependent on the range of a Pocket Wizard (1600 feet I think). This is insane! I can now hide the Time Machine within my scene undetectable by the end photograph.


Taking it one step further the Time Machine is programmable for 10 different modes of operation. I only use the Shoot mode, and within this mode there are several settings to set triggering options. There is a delay I can set up to 1/1000 of a second. I can set it to trigger continuously up to 8 frames per second (depending on the camera specification) the entire time the beam is broken. I can set the shutter to BULB mode and use the beam to trigger a flash, or multiple flashes, or intermitent flashes when used in conjunction with Pocket Wizard Multimax's set in Speedcycler mode. The list goes on and on, and every option is compatible with nearly every other option, creating near-infinite possibilities.


On the camera end of things, I have another Pocket Wizard remote on top of the camera to activate my flashes. It sounds complex, but is amazingly simple on the user end of things. I have my pack setup to carry everything in a manner that allows for near instant setup on location. I spend about as much time setting up the Time Machine and infrared beam as I spend setting up my flashes. Tear-down back into the bag is super fast. Generally I spend about an hour per shot, although I already have plans for some more complex setups soon to come. The Time Machine, heck, I even love the name.

My bag of tricks, with the Time Machine in the middle of the mix

delay on the beam trigger allows for shots to be taken a specified time after the beam is crossed, 0.625 seconds in this case

the main reason I wanted this device was for hands-free triggering

I've got alot of ideas utilizing the Time Machine, so look for upcoming blog posts that may just be something out of the ordinary.

Alleycat Race

I'm not much for racing, but let me tell ya about something fun: the alleycat. Grab a bike, some beers, and meet up with good friends for a point-to-point ride around town stopping for various missions en-route. Choose whatever path you wish, the alleycat is all about spontaneous planning as to the most efficient path connecting the points together. I tagged along journalist-style with the winning team. We didn't really win, but we're all winners.

the ride begins and ends at the Hub bike shop

Sam on the Hula stop at Glass Beach, shortly after this it started hailing, then raining

Kevin M at the sack race stop

Cam and Sam bum wrestling a balloon until it pops. Erin in the background (plugging her ears) is with Red Boots Design and it was her birthday, hence the party hats

Cam with a sweet jump shot at the Happy Valley school stop

Our crew somewhere along the route

Kevin H in the jungle gym

punch-your-own-ticket stop

Some girlies having a good time

CUPCAKES!!!

Feel the love!

Giving away free stuff afterwards

no caption needed

more free stuff, can't get enough!

mmmmm, bikes, beer, sun

reflection in a window at the giving away of a Traitor bike frame!

Looking forward to the next one! Maybe see ya there! --Brad

Mambo Italiano Cafe

Here's a few images from the Mambo Italiano Cafe photo shoot last week in Fairhaven, Bellingham, WA. Product photography is much better when you can eat it when you're done! Mambo has a new website going up soon so be on the lookout. If you haven't eaten there yet, go check it out! The food is fantastic. Special thanks to Jon Cooley for acting as art director on this project.

Calendar Image

Premier Graphics added one of my images to their Spring 2009 Calendar. This is a photo of the sunrise over a clearing storm at Mt. Baker, taken from Stewart Mtn in Bellingham.

Party Studio Shots

Here's a few homies from a recent 90's Rap Party that made it into the studio:

my fellow photographer John Meloy assisted with the setup


when Coors Light meets Target

gangsta

EBX getting extreme

white guys dancing

Product photos

New product photography in the studio. Here's the approach:

Helmet is hung from the ceiling with rope and black thread.
Swivel chair-mounted coffee table for reflection.
2 softboxes on the helmet to show off the contour.
One light on a black paper background.
One flash directly into helmet to light up the inner liner.

And the final result with two images combined:



This one is similar but the shoes are lightly fastened to a rock.

WWU Cycling shoot

Friday afternoon I did my first large group shot with Western Washington University's 2009 Cycling Team. My friend Aaron Warder assisted with the shoot and I was very happy with the result.

Western Washington University Cycling

After the shoot we hung out for the sunset and shot a few more since the lights were already setup.


Great shoot overall! --Brad

Products-in-action

Yesterday's plan of attack was to get some product-in-action photos of one of the bikes I am reviewing. The idea is to show off the capabilities or purpose of the design of the bike. I was hoping to get two shots, but once I arrived at the top of the mountain and predicted the sky to change within the hour, I rode around awhile before setting up for a nice sunset photo. About 20 minutes after the sun went down, the sky really lit up with vibrant reds.

The point of this photo is to show off the purpose of a single-speed hardtail mountain bike, which is that it's simplicity and minimalistic approach makes it the perfect choice on days when the trails are really gritty. This bike can be rinsed off with a hose and the only maintenence due is a little chain lube. Pretty nice on days like this.

Photos like this sometimes require alot of waiting around time for the light to get just right. I spent an hour. Since not many people feel like waiting around for an hour, I also managed a nice self-portrait of myself riding in this same scene which can be seen on the opening page of the Mountain Bike 2 gallery on the site. --Brad