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