Ice Hockey at Seven Peaks Ice Arena

Hi all.  Yesterday I invited myself to a hockey game that my daughter's-boyfriend's-friend plays in. It is a C-league team called the Mudds.  As you can probably tell I am trying to learn about shooting video and want to try and get better at it.  I decided to once again shoot with the 5D Mark III, Magic Lantern Raw (of course) and the Canon 70-200 F2.8 L II lens.  I gotta say, this lens never ceases to amaze.  The stabilization that the lens has makes it really great for video.

So here is what I learned.  Following a puck and keeping everything in focus is hard to do... and I thought football was hard!  I started out really getting up-close and personal with the zoom, mostly keeping everything at F2.8 and ISO 100.  I ended up, near the end of the game, shooting at F8 and ISO 1600 and keeping the zoom to a minimum.  Oh, I also ended up mounting a GoPro Hero 3 above the goal to catch the action.  I shot it at 1080P, 48fps, Spot metering: Off, Protune On.  This is because when I merge the footage of GoPro and the Canon it looks much better to have matching frame rates.  I know that people will tell you that Adobe Premiere can handle different frame rates, and it can, it just ends up skipping frames.  For me, this ends up looking jerky and not good.  The 48fps makes it so I can slow the action down for those really cool instant replay action shots.

I also asked the people running the place if I might be able to fly the quadcopter above a game.  They said "maybe... let me get back to you", so at least it wan't an outright "no".  I think I would have to have FPV googles to pull it off though.  It would be fairly hard to follow the action without seeing what the camera is seeing.

Here is the video.



I also took some stills.  Stills are what this camera is really meant to be able to do.  And it truly does!

 Gooooooooaaaaaaaalllll

Pads, who needs pads. 

 You talking to me?

Nice save

Sundance ski resort... a little piece of heaven

Hi all.  One of the most amazing places here in Utah is Sundance ski resort.  It is about 15 minutes up Provo Canyon. My family try to make it at least a few times a year to see the sites and take in the fall colors. While the leaves haven't changed yet, I could definitely see signs of colors coming.  (photos of last year below)

While they don't have any cool amusement types of rides like Park City, they do have amazing scenery, food, drinks, biking, hiking, and just about anything outdoors that you could want.  They also do weddings, company parties, family get-togethers and everything in between.  They also keep the ski lift running to take people up on top of the mountains!  Some of the hikes that they recommend also start at the top of the mountain.  Even if you are just looking for a little refreshment while traveling in the area, Sundance is great place to stop in for a treat.

I gotta say, I have been kicked out of a lot of places trying to shoot some aerial shots with the quadcopter. Some really stupid places that had no real reason other than just "no".  I was approached by a security guard at Sundance and I thought for sure that this was going to be just another "no" type of place... To my utter surprise, he actually pointed me to a open area that I could use and film to my hearts desire.  He not only said "YES", but helped me out!  Awesome place, awesome staff.  Thank you for your hospitality Sundance!

click for high res version

A little football anyone??? Lone Peak vs. Bountiful and the dynamic camera combo

Bountiful High School vs Lone Peak High School

Hello blogger readers.  Today I did some testing of the Canon 5D Mark III with Magic Lantern software installed shooting a high school football game.  I am going to be shooting a professional lacrosse game in a couple weeks and I wanted to test out the 70-200 F2.8 IS II mixed with high action and fast moving sports.  We all know that this lens and this body are amazing at sports photography... but what about video?  Can this dynamic combo really hold it's own when shooting video?  Well, I think it can, but can I.  Well, after looking at the footage, I need to get a lot better at controlling the focus and don't let people stand in front of me during big plays.  Other than that, I am amazed what this combination can do.  I'll keep trying to learn and get better to be worthy of this camera.

Congrats to the Lone Peak football team, they won 32-14!

As always, watch at 1080p... it's the gear icon, just below the video.

Here are some photos from the game...

Timelapse of clouds... what you don't see with the naked eye

Hi all. I spent some time yesterday taking some up close and personal video of the amazing clouds that are going on here in the Wasatch Front. Luckily, I still had A's lens... the amazing 70-200, mixed with the 3x Zoom factor that Magic Lantern allows for in RAW mode. It turns this lens into a 600mm lens at F2.8. I let it run for quite a while to capture all of the movement and beautiful billowing that is amazing to watch... especially when you then speed it up in post. You could do individual frames like a nighttime timelapse but it is so much easier to change the video frame rate to a slow speed (5fps) and just let the camera capture each fully raw frame. Take a look and tell me what you think.

Wild Buffalo on Antelope Island...how close is too close?

Hey everyone.  Take a look at wild buffalo on Antelope Island up-close-and-personal that I shot on Saturday.  It was an amazing day.  As I pulled across the causeway, the water was as still as a millpond.  No wind at all.  But then 3 minutes later, the wind picked up to about 40 Mph.  Needless to say, I didn't get any aerial shots but I did get some amazing shots of the wildlife. There is one shot where the buffalo walked across the road about 15 feet in front of me.  Didn't need a telephoto lens for that shot!  Enjoy




If you want to see more, check out my Youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/dbrentwatson?feature=watch for reviews, and amazing video.

AVP womens volleyball... fun, sun, sand, what more could you ask for?

As promised, here is the video compilation of yesterday's tournament up in Liberty Park, in Salt Lake City.  AVP knows how to put in all together.  Up close and personal with the fans, it was quite a day of beach volleyball.  Enjoy Kerri Walsh Jennings in full HD quality.  Music by yours truly.  ESPN and CBS Sports Channel were both doing full coverage.  It was also very cool that they let everyone in with great cameras, (including myself).  I saw several people with full amazing camera rigs.  One guy even had a slider on a tripod.  I hope everyone got some great shots!  Here are mine put together in a nice package.



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Thanks to A Palmer for the beautiful 70-200 F2.8 II lens that he let me borrow.

AVP womens volleyball semi-finals in SLC

So I saw the news last night about how some local women got to take on Kerri Walsh Jennings.  For those of you who don't know Kerri, she was half of the Misty May and Kerri Walsh Jennings duo from the summer Olympics.  Together they have won gold in 3 Olympics.  So today, I stopped by Liberty Park in SLC to check out a few matches.  Amazing play.

So here are a few shots from the games that were played.

Some beautiful RAW video to follow!

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