I have for the past month of so been working with Rob Johns @FirstFew2econds and Rick Cordell on video’s learning how to make them and how to present in them. I have for sometime wanted to have an online presence as a photographer and around the area of street photography, so we have been experimenting with making films with our DLSR cameras. Oh boy have we make some real mistakes and learnt some lessons in our endeavours. Do not let anyone tell you that making videos is easy it is not. It takes time and patience, it requires planning and preplanning. It requires you to learn new skills even if you have been a photographer for a long time, there is still a lot to learn. Like the importance of good sound recording. Because, if you have a great piece of footage and rubbish sound you still have a garbage film. Photography is easy, in this regards, as there is no smell or sound to images.

We are still in the stage of experimenting and learning, we expect this to take us till December, with one day a week trying out new ideas and experimenting with different approaches to making films. At some point soon, we will post some videos, when we are happy with the results.

I have developed a list of items, that I feel I need and one is a Zoom lens for Video Sony makes a 28mm -135mm f4 power zoom lens (FE PZ 28-135mm F4 G OSS) that would work really well on the a7RMKII camera for video. Video lens need to not breath in other words not shift focus when zooming, they also need to have a power zoom function as it is near impossible to zoom while filming no matter how steady one is. Sony’s lens does this which is why I now need to have one in my camera bag.

For sound, I have decided that I need to have one UWP-D11 Belt-pack UWP-D wireless microphone package and the XLR-K2M Adapter Kit and Microphone for interviews, as they would be improved by using radio lavalier microphones.

I can say that it is interesting trying to make short films, being a printer in them is also giving me lots to learn, how to wait and be on camera is different for film to stills. I am also using the idea that if I do not know how it feels to be filmed then I can’t direct people so I am putting myself in front of the camera to learn what it feels like.

More later on our adventures in video.

Michael, Sept 2016