Archive for June, 2010

Eastern Sierras – June 2010

Jun 30th

After Yosemite, we were two weeks behind on data backup and processing, so it was a real blessing when friend Tony Rowell offered to let us park the “Mobile Production Studio” in front of his house in Bishop for three weeks, and let us live and operate out of a beautiful 4-bedroom additional house he has on his property. This allowed us to catch up on a lot of business- and producing-related tasks, to get totally backed up on data protection and gear, and to operate out of a secure, comfortable base in a perfect staging location along legendary Highway 395. Thanks, Tony!

Here is a taste of our adventures over these past couple of weeks.

We chose correctly, because about an hour after that location-scouting video, we lucked out on some epic lenticular clouds near Alabama Hills

Then, like the next day, we saw another huge lenticular and raced out to film it. I often use my truck to block the wind.

Chris and Shawn Reeder in the moment.

As I said, in Bishop, we finally had a chance to get caught up on our gear and computer stuff:

Eric Kessler and I are designing a really cool new slider. More on this later.

After years of dreaming about filming this poignant place, I finally got down to business filming the monument at Manzanar

But I wasn't done yet. I am always looking for something special, so I shot it again a couple nights later.

But I STILL wasn't done. I filmed Manzanar for a third night, looking for something extraordinary. I will probably shoot it again several more times until I am satisfied.

Chris M and Nilo working on a camBLOCK astro move.

Next up, we filmed photographer Jeff Sullivan's beautiful daughter Nicole in a meadow full of wild Iris flowers. Cinevate sent this Atlas slider to test and it performed very well.

Haha, as you can see, these working conditions are horrendous!

Instant feedback. All of these meadow photos were shot by Nilo.

Nicole did an amazing job just being a free spirit, and the Red MX camera captured the images beautifully at 50 frames per second.

We happened to be in Bishop for a big rodeo event, so we grabbed the Red MX and had ourselves a good ole' time.

My new favorite sport: Steer Wrasslin'!

The Red camera allowed us to film this in slow-motion at 3K resolution.

After all that city slickin', it was time to get back to nature, with a two-night camping trip to Troy Meadows. As you can see, I need a bigger truck. ;^)

One of the most epic campsites I know in California.

Whenever I need extra luck on a shoot, I wear this incredibly bad ass t-shirt I picked up at a truck stop.

You thought that shirt was a joke, right? Not at all! This rainbow was the result, only the second time I have ever worn that shirt!

My camBLOCK 3-axis motion-control system bathing in the morning light after working all night.

Location scouting at the Ancient Bristlecone Forest

A single frame from an 880-frame timelapse we shot that night.

So here's a toast to you, Eastern Sierras. We had a blast!

Next up, we are leaving for the High Sierras in the morning!

Yosemite May-June 2010

Jun 12th

Posted by Tom Lowe in Southwest Light

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We had an awesome visit to Yosemite National Park in late May & early June, thanks to our gracious host Steve Bumgardner, aka “Yosemite Steve”: http://twitter.com/YosemiteSteve

The trip started with a real bang, literally, during the long drive from Palm Springs to Yosemite, when one of the tires on our 30-foot Toyhauler trailer blew out.

I actually drove like 20 miles on this thing without realizing it!

Thankfully, AAA sent someone out to fix it. After the tire blowout, my trailer brakes went out right when we crossed into Yosemite. I had to ride 1st and 2nd gears all the way into Yosemite Valley Next up, I had to maneuver the “Death Star” trailer through some crazy obstacles to get it parked at the Lower Pines campground in Yosemite Valley.

The Force was strong with me that day!

So after all of that nonsense, we finally got down to some filming!

Rainbows near El Cap. That's the Canon 70-200mm

Filming the photographers who flock to Tunnel View at Yosemite

Yosemite Steve tries his hand on the Red MX camera, with Chris M pulling iris

A pretty epic little waterfall scene we shot on Red

Chris M prepping gear at our camp

Steve supervises another waterfall shoot

Timelapsing the crowds at Tunnel View, with help from Edie Howe and Jeff Sullivan

When the weather got iffy, we went to Plan B: drinking lots of beer. Drew Walker, Tony Rowell, Steve Bumgardner's eyes and hat

Filming at Glacier Point with Chris M, Steve and Drew. We had an epic night up there, with 6 Canon cameras rocking various astro timelapses until 4AM

Memorial Day weekend madness. The unwashed masses had arrived!

Wimps! Girly men!

Red MX frame-grab of girl riding a bike through a meadow

One of the main goals of this early-summer trip was to film “Moonbows” on the waterfalls at Yosemite, which can mainly be done in May and June. We hooked up with well-known Flickr photographer and location expert Jeff Sullivan for several nights of attempting to capture these elusive moonbows. It was a lot of fun.

Moonbow, shot on Canon 70-200mm f/2.8

As cool as the moonbows were, probably the highlight of the Yosemite trip for me was the afternoon we spent filming wild bears in the meadows. All credit goes to Tony Rowell (http://www.tonyrowell.com), who spotted the bears and radioed us: “We got bears!…. turn around!” It was an incredible rush — a natural high — being out so close to the bears and filming them.