Vincent in Africa

[Vincent Oliver]

Hi all,

Here I am in East Africa for a three week Safari shoot. At the moment I am in Nakuru and will be filming the Flamingos later today, although from the distance they look a little sparse in numbers. Kenya has had very little rain in the last three years. We Brits can soon change that, as rain follows us everywhere.

I will try to post stills over the next two weeks, but this may be difficult as internet connection here is a hit or miss affair.

Some notes on the kit I have carted along.

My EX3, a 70-300mm Nikkor ED lens together with Mike Tapas Nikon/EX lens adaptor, the lens is not brilliant but it will do for the one or two drop in shots, I would have preferred my fixed focal length lenses, but that kit would be too much to cart about. I also have my radio mikes, a sony portable recorder, three BP 60 batteries, chargers, headphones, stacks of SDHC memory cards, a 1TB hard drive, card readers, pola filter, Tiffen IR filter, cables and other bits. The best news is that I managed to fit all of thin into a Kata CC 193 bag. I know its not ideal, but this size bag is allowed in the cabin of an aircraft. I did take off the Mike holder, just because I could see this parting from the camera.

We are off to the next location in the morning, but for the time being here is a shot of me sharing breakfast with a few guests. This is a frame grab from the EX3

[Bob Jackson]

What a great photograph.
Looking forward to seeing more.
Have a great shoot.

[John Harbor]

Just fantastic....... what more could I say

[Ned Soltz]

Wow! And I only shared my cereal milk this morning with a couple of domestic shorthairs!

[Brian Barkley]

The giraffe is prove positive that God exists. It is impossible that such a creature could have evolved from nothing.

[Attila Cser]

or the appearance of giraffe is a proof that you want to see such creatures :-)
which shows how limitless Mind is,
that's naturally can include a god/gods if you like....

[Kevin Spahr]

Vincent, loved the photo and we're all green with envy - but please keep updating us!

and guys enough with the god/no god argument - I'm sure you can find a different forum for that discussion...

[Phil Hanna]

Vincent:

What a wonderful opportunity. Love the pic of the Giraffes.
Good luck on your shoot. Look forward to many pics of the journey.

Phil Hanna

[Attila Cser]

"guys enough with the god/no god argument" -ABSOLUTELY

with a remark that I think we had no argument, just an enhancement of a topics :-) off side tough,

So back to track:
Vincent, I'd love to see short clips soon and also learning your best setting in sunlight,

even though I'm heading currently to opposite direction for the weekend,
shoot in the Arctic Circle with Santa, and up there nowadays isn't sunny, not cold,
just wet and humid :-(

[Vincent Oliver]

The shoot is going well, spent the day at Nakuru game reserve and filmed stacks of wildlife, Rhino, Flamingo, Lions, Zebra etc.

I have been using the Nikon 70 to 300mm zoom lens with the EX/Nikon adaptor for many of the distant shots, but as we can't leave the vehicle in the reserve, I have had to shoot everything from either the roof or inside the Land Rover. This is not so easy with a second stils cameraman, client and assistant on board, the slightest movement when using the lens at the 300mm setting and the footage looks like it has been shot on a ship. I am going to ditch the use of this lens for wildlife, unless we have a solid ground to work on.

Besides the wildlife, the assignment also has to show the scenery and lodges, as well as guests enjoying their holiday. This side of the job is going well.

I was intending to take my Canon XH A1 camera but after a tape jammed on a job, I decided to ditch that idea. I have no regrets on taking the Sony EX3, in fact it is ideal for this job. I can download at the end of each day and see what needs to be done on the next day.

Attila, I have my ZEbra settings set to 90% and this works well in keeping all the highlight detail. I do avoid shooting with direct sun on a subject, often I prefer to shoot against the sun as this produces a nice rim light.

I haven't got any video editing applications with me, only ClipBrowser, so the movie clips will have to wait until my return in two weeks time. Here are a few stills taken from the footage, and converted to JPEG.

Hope to have an internet connection at the next location

[John Harbor]

"Attila, I have my ZEbra settings set to 90% and this works well in keeping all the highlight detail. I do avoid shooting with direct sun on a subject, often I prefer to shoot against the sun as this produces a nice rim light."

***********

Your Baboon, flamingo and Lion settings are fine too ;) ;)

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Vincent,

Do I envy you, man!

Have a good time and stay safe.

[Vincent Oliver]

Having a great time, the EX3 hasn't let me down. Did some arial filming yesterday, worked OK but I had to lean over the camera to see through the viewfinder, which was not ideal. I would think the EX1 would be the better option for this kind of work.

My internet connection here is very erratic. I return to London on the 23rd and will compile a 10 minute video of some of the highlights. Have a lovelu sequence of Samburu dancers.

Off to lake Victoria at 4.00 am and it is now 12.45 am, so must get a coule of hours sleep in.

[Vincent Oliver]

Am in the process of editing over 23 hours of African footage - need to make a 20 minute DVD from it. Will publish something next week.

Happy New Year to you all