NLE editing with Premiere Pro CS5 of Yuma Sand Dunes

Yuma sand dunes by Lee White

Being an advertising and editorial photographer and videographer in Los Angeles I have spent decades going on location.  My advertising and editorial photography assignments have taken me around the world but some of the most fun have been local assignments that I can drive to within a day.  This is specially true with what has happened with air travel lately.  Not only do I get to take extra equipment, but I get to visit additional locations along the route.  I get to stretch my shooting eye along with my legs at these photo stops.

Recently, I drove to Tucson Arizona from Los Angeles so had the chance to drive through the sand dunes near Yuma on I-8.  I got there around 3:30 in the afternoon when it was a balmy 105 degrees.  There were mild gusts of wind that blew the extra fine sand swirling around my feet.   If you watch the video the video closely you will see it flowing over the surface in some of the shots.

Amazingly enough even through it was a Sunday afternoon the dunes were mostly undisturbed.  One set of footprints went up the top the major dune but other that that the civilians had not trod over everything since the last thunderstorm wiped away their traces.  I wish I could say that about the two people that later walked within feet of my tripod and me continuing on directly into where I was filming.  Since both had cameras and were taking pictures I wonder were the courtesy of asking if I was done shooting went but…

Can you tell I edited this on Premiere Pro?  Of course, not.  Unlike cameras with particular compression formats or lenses with certain characteristics that might be visible in the final video, there is nothing to tell the viewer what software was used to edit the video.  A long time Final Cut Pro user I am checking out other NLEs.  The attached video was done in a few hours on a friend’s Premiere Pro system.

I had the chance to spend a day training on Premiere Pro in a class by Weynand training at DV Expo in Pasadena, now called Rev Up Transmedia.  I found Premiere Pro to be very similar to FCP7.  There are some useful features like being able to edit many formats without the need to transcode and the speech to text.  There are a are some differences in shortcut keys, color correction, rendering and I’m sure more once I have had a chance to work with Premiere Pro in my own editing suite I’ll find more.

Lee White working with Panasonic HMC 40 on Manfrotto tripod and fluid head

Once again, I’m wearing the most comfortable hat I have ever had, the Redrock Micro cap.

Secrets of Video for Photographers in Portland Oregon

Newspace Center of Photography was the perfect setting for my Friday evening Secrets of Video for Photographers seminar.  We set up in the newly constructed main gallery surrounded by photography by local photographers.  There were an interesting variety of photographers from advertising, editorial, commercial, corporate, architectural, wedding and portraiture that attended my presentations. Today’s photographers realize the need to get into video from the many requests they get from clients.

Saturday’s workshop was a combination of studio owners and some employees from Pro Photo Supply.  The photographers were either getting into shooting video or sharpening their video skills by being introduced to new video techniques/products and their uses.  The Pro Photo Supply employees both helped out with support and educated themselves on how to better advise customers on the products available to make shooting video easier.

Lee White talking about video to photographers in Portland, OR by ©Daven Mathies

Windy Day at Point Lobos

Manfrotto 536 MPRO sticks and the new 504HD fluid head saved the day in strong wind gusts.  Just after being on an advisory panel at Brooks, Institute of Photography presenting my vision of the future of photography, I headed up to Carmel for a meeting with the Weston Family.  Carmel is also the home of the famous Point Lobos State Natural Reserve and some of the most beautiful scenery along the Pacific Coast.

As soon as I got out of the car at Point Lobos, I knew something was up. The wind was coming in strong gusts, buffeting me.  I planned to shoot with the lightweight compact Panasonic HMC 40 using the advanced AVCHD codec to capture the fine detail in the sculpted  rock and twisted Monterey pines.   As I looked up the first of many flights of stairs that would take me over the hills through the woods, I knew I wanted rock solid shots and silky smooth pans and tilts.  The upside of a camcorder like the Panasonic HMC 40 is it is small, lightweight and easy to carry yet carries a big punch in image quality.  But, its light weight can make it difficult to hold it steady in strong winds.  My solution was choosing the Manfrotto 536 MPRO tripod and 504HD fluid head.

Manfrotto 536 MPRO Tripod and 504HD Head

The Manfrotto  536 MPRO sticks might seem like overkill for such a lightweight camera, but in fact, it was just what was needed to add stability.  I was not going to spend my day climbing the hundreds of stairs of Point Lobos and end up with shaky shots.  Lightweight camera plus substantial sticks equals steady shots.  If I had been using a heavy shoulder mount camera that placed a lot of weight on the tripod, forcing it down, I might have been able to use a lighter weight set of sticks. However,  with only the sticks to ground the camera, I was happy to have the sturdy carbon composite legs.  The MPRO 536 held the HMC 40 in place even in the heaviest gusts of wind.  Another nice attribute of the MPRO 536 is that I could extend the legs making it easy to get higher than eye level shots and, of course, it can flatten out to almost ground level.

As for the 504HD fluid head, again, one might start out thinking why such a strong head for a handheld camera?  Same as with the sturdier 536 legs, the ball bearings and wide range of adjustments for tension in panning and tilting added to silky smooth moves with the 504HD.  It reminded me of thick creamy chocolate milk as I made my pan / tilts.  I was able to follow the waves working their way up the mini fiords of Point Lobos while splashing against the rock walls.  My pans were kept smooth even when I was hit by an unexpected wind gust as I stood exposed on the rocky shoreline.

Lee White Shooting Monterey Coast

Lee White Shooting Along Monterey Coast

The samples of the video from my shoot will be posted soon.