Cabin in the woods

 A Cabin in the Woods

Emily and I went up to a friend's cabin for a few days on Lake Logan.

A foggy sun rise

While we were there we hiked around and took some pictures of Anna on the dock.

There is a neat stream that runs next to the cabin.

The cabin is available for rental. It is a wonderful escape in the mountains of NC.

A few Saved Shots

I was at a local tractor show last year and was never happy with the way the pictures turned out (It was one in the afternoon and the light was terrible). I spent some time today and I feel like I was able to salvage a few of the shots.

Fleenor Guitars 

Fleenor Guitars is my brothers business - He is a self taught luthier as is my father. My father took up working on violins after my brother started playing (adolescent + fragile instrument = repairs) and discovering that his grandfather (my great grandfather) built violins. My brother has focused his work on acoustic guitars and Electric basses and guitars. I did a post on some of his work before you can find it here.

His latest work was for a custom ordered Bass 

The pickups are custom hand wound

 The back plate is held on with rare earth magnets (I thought that was a cool feature)

To find out more about his work you can visit his face book page here, he is currently working on a web site which should be up in the next couple of weeks.

First DSLR Video

I went with my churches youth group to their annual  winter retreat - My father brother and I do the sound, media, and video for the retreat. We normally switch between different roles throughout the weekend. This year I was able to focus on the Recap video. It was the first time we did not take our Sony cameras that record to MiniDV tapes so we did not have to worry about capture but it was also the first time I have relied sole on my DLSR for video work. 

This was my rig - extremely basic - I did not need to worry about audio and I made sure to use the 14-24 to keep the focus in check with out a follow focus.

I built the stabilizer last year to use at retreat.

It is made with aluminum, dowels, and bicycle handle grips.

I did use my 70-200 for some focus pull shots but I keep my camera mounted to a tripod.

Here is the video, Enjoy!

Here are some stills from the weekend. 

Recent Happenings

Did a shoot for a local band Hope Sets Sail. They played there first live performance at a house party. This is the first time I have relied on the awesome low light capabilities of my D800. When we arrived I quickly discovered the only light source was a black light. They had requested some video work during one of thw songs so I decided to forgo thew strobes and just crank up the ISO, I have to say I was more than happy with the results. (the laser light helped the mood)