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The Hollywood Distagon at f/2: A Single Daffodil and the Contax Zeiss 28mm on the Sony A7RV
April 28, 2026
Credential Me DNCC
Yep, I’m cutting my Summer Vacation from writing here short and covering the Democratic Convention if the DNCC will kindly provide me with Press Credentials to access the inner sanctum sanatoriums. Keep your fingers crossed for me, and hey, if you know anybody now would be a great time to give them a call on my behalf!…
Read moreThe Making of: Three Days In August
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to actually shoot a feature length motion picture using only a Sony mirrorless body? Wonder no more, The movie is called Three Days In August! This first feature film shot exclusively in 4K on a Sony Alpha mirrorless camera premiered on the big screen April 19th, 2016 at the Dallas International Film Festival. Sony Artisan Jeff Berlin was one of the Producers and camera operators who made Three Days In August. So when my friends Paul Gero and Marc Weisberg, both also Sony Artisans, invited me along at Cinegear Expo to hear Jeff Berlin and
Read moreANATOMY OF AN INDIE: We Have A Trailer!
The story progresses forward! I’ll let you enjoy our first release of the Married Young trailer, and talk more about it in my next post. Any questions, please ask them in the comments section below, and I’ll do my best to answer them for you.
Read moreANATOMY OF AN INDIE: The Language of Lenses
Every lens has a personality and a usage. Certain lenses are good for close-ups, certain lenses are dynamic for emotional moments and certain lenses work for action. I have even had an Executive Producer who encouraged me to use the “funny” lenses – in his world, anything that was a short/wide lens was built for comedy, which of course, I think is absurd to me. Consequently, when going into a movie production, we come equipped with as many lenses as possible. But what they don’t teach you in film school is that while every lens has a personality, the combination
Read moreANATOMY OF AN INDIE – Suspension of Disbelief
At the core of Western Narrative Filmmaking is an unspoken contract that filmmakers make with the audience. It is called “A Willing Suspension of Disbelief.” What that means, is that I, as a filmmaker, am going to do everything possible to make the image look natural. I will do everything possible to create and further the illusion that what we are seeing is real. The audiences’ part of the contract is to believe. They are willing participants in the ruse. We all know that this isn’t reality. We know that James Bond is a character and that romance doesn’t really
Read moreWPPI 2016: The Overview
Once again, the first hints of Spring in the air, the Wedding & Portrait Photographers International show, WPPI 2016, beckons me to Las Vegas. This conference is one of my annual favorites. I love the focus on up close and personal education, the intimate setting of the MGM Grand Ballroom & Conference Center, and having a place that lets me meet old friends to discuss gear in a less stressful environment than at CES or NAB. Bottom line, if you’re shooting portraits or weddings for a living – or want to learn how to – you owe it to yourself to
Read moreYou’re A Photographer, But Are You An Artist?
Are you an Artist? Are you familiar with American photographer Roger Ballen or his work? If not, you should be. Do you think before you shoot? This and 7 thoughts from world-renowned artist Roger Ballen on what the differences are between the way an artist sees life and the ways many photographers view the world. These are Ballen’s own judgement criteria on how to answer that elusive question about self doubts a lot of photographers face, “Are you an artist?” 1.) Do you ponder the work of others? 2.) Can you redefine your understanding of the meanings behind words? 3.) Do you see
Read moreDillon Markey – Playing With Power
The Dillon Markey story: In 1989, Nintendo released the Power Glove for its Nintendo Entertainment System. In 2015, Dillon Markey modified a Nintendo Power Glove, turning this humble Nintendo relic of a bygone generation into the most awesome stop motion animation tool ever made. Dillon Markey is an animator for Robot Chicken and PES, among other things. “Animation to me is the purest form of conceptualizing mechanical physics. Stop Motion has become my focus, primarily due to the tangibility, immediacy and direct interaction with those physical mechanics. Even the silliest gags require complex recreations of the way things move in the
Read moreNomads Of Mongolia
Life in Western Mongolia is an adventure. Training eagles to hunt, herding yaks, and racing camels are just a few of the daily activities of the nomadic Kazakh people. Global nomad filmmaker, Director, DP, and editor Brandon Li spent a few weeks living with the nomadic Kazakh people. To really understand a culture and people well enough to tell their story requires earning their trust. Speaking from experience, that takes time, and a conscious investment of yourself in learning how to traverse the local culture. Obviously, Brandon did a real good job in Mongolia. The people seem to be genial, co-operative,
Read moreSony A7 Camera Series and ZEISS Milvus Lenses
When it comes to a subject as complex as choosing what particular set of expensive video lenses to use, nothing substitutes for actual hands on experience. The experience a Professional like Jem Schofield has acquired over his many years of using the various lenses and lens combinations, gives Jem a level of understanding few of us will ever have. I love having the insight and advice of Professionals such as Jem to draw upon to assist in making our own choices. With the introduction of the Zeiss Milvus line, some thought Zeiss short sighted leaving out Sony FE mount. I’ll have to admit, I am one of those.
Read moreANATOMY OF AN INDIE – Color and VFX
In my last installment, we completed the color work grading our movie. Unfortunately, as I have learned the hard way, nothing in life is free. It is not that Paul or Mark or Michael were anything but the kindest, most generous people – they are. The issue is that at that point no film had ever been colored there before. They did not have an engineer or a conform editor on staff. And so Paul, who is a colorist, had to oversee everything – he had to be an engineer and a conform artist and everything else. Paul had a
Read moreNew Sony α6300 Is A Killer 4K Video Machine
Sony today unveiled their latest “consumer” level camera, the a6300. Although the distinction between consumer level and Pro level are getting harder and harder to tell. The successor to the already excellent Sony a6000 brings almost all of the high end video features of the latest a7 series Sony cameras, and places them into this consumer level APS-C sensor equipped body. About the only thing missing is the image stabilization. The camera records 4K internally using the XAVC-S codec and it does this using a Super35 section of the sensor with a full pixel readout, without any pixel binning. It is limited to 29
Read moreSony Announces G Master Lenses
(G Master Lens Discussion starts at 4:10 in the above video, after the discussion about the exciting new a6300) G Master. Now there is a name that instills confidence. And rightly so from a look at the specs of the new lineup of Professional highest quality glass for the Sony E mount. Apparently, Sony has decided to get down and dirty about being serious in making their a7 series cameras fully professionally ready. The last piece, doing the work and spending the money developing new, fast, ultra high resolution optics. Sony has now committed to this direction, and these first
Read morePanasonic Develops Dramatic New Global Shutter
Panasonic, no stranger to the camera game, today announced a major new development in electronic Global Shutter technology. This Global Shutter tech or something similar will eventually find its way onto almost every new camera produced. And not just by Panasonic. Frequently, large manufacturers cross license each others patents, and / or directly purchase manufactured parts, as in the case of Sony’s relationship with Nikon, Sony providing the sensors for Nikon’s high end camera line. Too soon to speculate who the actual end users producing this will be, but I think fair to forecast it will be a Global Shutter for
Read moreFrom Clay To The Cloud
From Clay To The Cloud On View at the Laband Art Gallery Loyola Marymount University January 23 – March 20, 2016 Opening Reception Was Saturday, January 23, 2-5pm Talks were by Brewster Kahle, Founder of Internet Archive and Artist Nuala Creed, Creator of 116 Clay Archivists From Clay to The Cloud explores the human impetus to preserve our knowledge, our memory, and our cultural heritage. Twenty years ago, the Internet Archive took on the challenge of creating a digital repository—a 21st-century Library of Alexandria—where swaths of our lives from the Internet and other sources will be stored for generations to come. In order
Read moreBoy With A Camera For A Face
The Boy With A Camera For A Face is the superb online premiere of the multi award winning short film from writer/director Spencer Brown. The Boy with a Camera for a Face is a satirical fairy tale about a boy born with a camera instead of a head, whose every moment is transformed by the fact he is recording it. This is a satirical piece that is not to be missed. Accompanied by a voice over narration read by Steven Berkoff, the film is a biting social commentary that tells an epic story in fifteen minutes about the way
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