So this year, I covered the sale in video for Time.com (it can be found in their iPad edition as well – my first, I’ll have to admit).

I wish I had more time to shop while I was shooting, but I did come away with a nice pair of binoculars for $5 and a perfect condition Diana camera for $4. They guy didn’t know what he had buried in that box of Brownies!

Last year was my first time covering the Santa Train, and the finished product was an audio slide show. I was so struck by the event that I vowed to go back and cover it again only this time with video. It’s an interesting comparison, really: Both had audio, but one had moving images and the other did not. I’m still not sure which one I like better, although I’m leaning toward the still version.

Anyway, enjoy the ride and Merry Christmas!

Competition draws crowd to see who is the fastest tobacco cutter

September 3, 2009 – Lancaster, Kentucky, USA. Alvin Stamper, 26, defends his title as the tobacco cutting champion at the Garrard County Tobacco Cutting Competition. At the end of every summer during the tobacco harvest, men gather to compete against each other to see who is the fastest at cutting the crop before it is hung in the barns to cure. From planting to the auction house, tobacco remains one of the most labor intensive crops and the hands and backs of laborers have yet to be replaced by machines.

This video and a complete story with photos is available for licensing.

Shot with the Canon 5D Mark II, 24-105 IS f/4, 70-200 IS f/2.8, 300 f/4. Sony wireless mic and Sennheiser MKE 400. Gitzo 2451 CF tripod with 2180 head.

View their engagement video “Their Story”.

So are you dreaming of shooting sports at 30 frames per second at 1/4000th shutter speeds? Well now you can with the Canon 5D Mark II and the updated firmware 1.1.0 which allows for manual exposure control in video mode. The tough part will be finding the balance between using a high enough shutter speed to freeze the action and trying to keep your video smooth which is accomplished at the slower shutter speeds. But what if you don’t care about the video and only want to frame grab? Might be good cases for that. Like maybe the backswing of a golfer? Tennis? Baseball (at the plate)?

What else might this be good for? You can’t count on the auto focus tracking a subject while shooting in video mode, so I wouldn’t expect football, soccer or basketball to work well.

Ah, but it’s cheating, you say? I say no. It’s using a tool. If a Mark III could shoot 30 frames per second, I’m betting no one would complain.

I shot a little test video of my pigeons being released in my backyard using two 5D Mark II’s shot at slow and fast shutter speeds. Hopefully you can see the difference in the video quality: The higher shutter speed producing jumpy, flickery video and the slower shutter speed providing a smoother look.

You can download the frame grabs to see the difference up close. They were captured in Final Cut Pro.

Frame grab from video shot at 1/2000th of a second. The resulting file size is 1920px by 1080px, about 6Mb.

Frame grab from video shot at 1/30th of a second. The resulting file size is 1920px by 1080px, about 6Mb.

Here is a test frame from Rob Carr of the AP. He says he plans to test it out more during a tournament in the coming weeks. That's a very publishable image there (remember what we used to get with the Nikon D1?).

In it you will find tips and do’s and don’ts based on my experience with the Canon 5D Mark II. It is current with the most recent firmware upgrade, 1.1.0.

Click the image to download the pdf

Included is:

Pros/Cons of the camera

Exposure control

Working with Audio

Focusing

Accessories

Shooting workflow

Final Cut Pro workflow and export settings

I tested out the new controls and have found them to be easy to use and very functional. One interesting surprise is the increase in available shutter speeds. Previously, the camera limited shutter speeds from 1/30th to 1/125th. Now, shutter speeds up to 1/4000th can be used in manual exposure mode. It’s unclear where the shutter speeds will top out when in one of the automatic modes since you can’t see your exposure settings in those modes.

Shutter speed appears on the left, then aperture.

To use the manual exposure while recording video, you must have the camera set in Manual (hello Mr. Obvious). I use the top control dial to change the shutter speed and the rear control wheel to change my aperture. You can see your exposure changes on the LCD screen and you can see your shutter speed, aperture and ISO settings as well.

If you have your ISO set to AUTO, though, then the camera reverts back to a kind of automatic exposure setting even if you are in Manual exposure mode. What happens is this: if you are setting your aperture and shutter speed and you have ISO set to auto, then the camera automatically adjusts the ISO up and down to give you a correct exposure. This will not allow you to over- or under-expose your image until you max out the range of the ISO. And you won’t be able to use exposure compensation, either. So I would advise NOT using the ISO AUTO setting while in manual exposure mode – kind of defeats the purpose.

Here are some other tips I have found to be true with this firmware update:

• If you use the shutter or aperture priority modes, the camera will go into a modified auto exposure mode – you won’t really be giving priority to the shutter speed or aperture. It appears that it reverts to the old way of auto-exposing but it’s hard to verify that.
• If you set the ISO to “AUTO” and are in manual exposure mode, you can see the ISO numbers on the LCD by pressing the AE lock button (asterisk) or tapping the shutter button. By default, it appears that the display will show ISO AUTO until you press one of those buttons.
• When using manual exposure mode, AE lock and exposure compensation cannot be set (’cause, well, your manual settings are doing that for you).
• If you set the ISO to “AUTO” when shooting movies in manual exposure mode it is possible to set the aperture and shutter speed and the ISO will adjust for the exposure. So this amounts to having combo Aperture/Shutter Priority mode.
• When ISO is set to “AUTO” the range will be 100-6400 even if the ISO expansion is set.
• When manually setting the ISO and enabling ISO expansion range will include H1 (ISO 12800).
• Shutter speed range will be 1/30 – 1/4000 sec.  The faster the shutter speed the less smooth the subjects movement will appear to be.
• If “screen setting” is set to “stills display” or “exposure simulation” manual exposure for the movie mode will not be possible.

The day after it was officially announced that I would be “voluntarily laid off” at the Lexington Herald-Leader, I received an email from Craig Duff, a multimedia director at Time.com. The timing seemed more than coincidental. My primary profession post-Herald-Leader would be that of photojournalism advisor/coach/cheerleader/pot-washer at the Kentucky Kernel. But to keep my shooting appetite whetted, I plan to ramp up the freelance and work on some selected projects that have been rattling around in my head for some time.

On my to do list among many other things: Start networking the national news outlets – the ones I’ve worked for in the past, and a whole slew of others – to let them know I’m available and looking for some shooting and multimedia work. So imagine my delight at seeing an email from a multimedia director from Time.com. Craig had seen the Turtle Man video that Amy Wilson and I had produced and wanted to talk about it. At the end of his email, he mentioned a possible interest in a piece previewing the Kentucky Derby. Doubly odd about his timing was the fact that I had that very day posted the Keeneland Blossoms video which previewed the spring meet and Keeneland Race Track.

After a brief discussion with Craig, I decided I would attempt a video based on the outcome of the Blue Grass Stakes race at Keeneland. So I spent the day at Keeneland focusing on the favorites. Naturally, they didn’t win. An underdog named General Quarters, owned and trained by Tom McCarthy, won the Blue Grass Stakes and was headed for the Kentucky Derby.

Amy and I interview Mr. McCarthy at Churchill Downs. 70-200 f/2.8 on the 5D Mark II with wireless Sennheiser mic. Gitzo carbon fiber tripod with 2180 fluid head. Photo by Jonathan Palmer

After the race, I made contact with Tom’s son and asked if I could come back for an interview in a couple of days. Three days later, Amy and I were at the stall of General Quarters on the backside of Churchill Downs. We shot Mr. McCarthy working through his regiment with the General, which took about four hours. The horse wasn’t ready to go out to the track that day, so I came back a few days later to shoot the General on the track.

Amy did a great job of writing – as usual. Our goal, whenever we work on a piece together, is to be as complete as we can in the time we have. While our videos tend to be a bit unconventional, I like them for that. As I’ve become more and more accustomed to working with the 5DMKII, I’m realizing why I like it so much. It is allowing me to “see” much the same way I looked at things when shooting stills.

Only now, the photos move.

Some technical stuff about the video:

All shot with the Canon 5D Mark II

70-200 f/2.8 with 1.4 teleconverter

24-105 f/4

300 f/2.8

Interview mic was Sennheiser wireless lav

Ambient sound from the track and bath was recorded with the Sennheiser MKE 400

Gitzo carbon fiber tripod with Gitzo 2180 fluid head

Glidecam 2000 HD steady cam

Really Right Stuff plates allowed quick switching between tripod and steady cam

Neutral density filter

Edited in Final Cut Pro