Zucchini Cookies shot with Canon 60D

[Steven Bills]

The other day my wife acquired a rather large zucchini from my sister in-law. Well, it's been sitting on our counter for the better part of two weeks now. But the other day, Kristina found a recipe online for zucchini cookies. Sounds kinda weird, huh?? Well, I have been wanting to get back into the mode of making little videos for a while now, as life has been kind of crazy for the past few months. Well, my wife found this zucchini cookie recipe (which turned out to be pretty good!) and I decided to film her while she made it!

Zucchini Cookies on Vimeo

So I wanted to shoot this in a way that minimized the human aspect but focused more on the process of the cookies being made. If that made any sense, then you win. Something. To do this, I used my wife's Canon 60D with the 50mm f1.8 lens to get a very shallow depth of field, to direct the viewer to what I wanted them to see. Most of this video was shot in the f/1.8-2.8 range, so as to keep the nice bokeh in the shot. Music is graciously provided by Chopin.

Also, there's one shot in this film that was not shot with the 60D, but with my Panasonic GH2. If you can spot it, then you win something.

Attached is a screengrab from my Ppro timeline.

[Bruce Foreman]

Very interesting, and I think well done.

From your vimeo page I also accessed and viewed your slideshow tribute to Michelle Crossan. I notice most of the later portion showed her in the army and in what has to be a combat zone.

Was she a casualty lost in action or as the result of a roadside IED? They are all my sons and daughters, all who serve in our nation's military. Even though I don't know the family and they don't know me, please pass on my condolences to her family.

Bruce Foreman
TSgt USAF (Ret)

P.S. I also liked your "Winter With The GH2", I've moved over to that system.

[Murray Christian]

Is it the oven time lapse shot? Seems like something you can achieve more casually with the GH2 (I don't really know though)

Either way, pretty cool idea for a short actually. Although after a while I think setting up the slider (I assume) and things would get annoying for slowing down the getting of cookies.

[Steven Bills]

Originally Posted by Bruce Foreman

Very interesting, and I think well done.

From your vimeo page I also accessed and viewed your slideshow tribute to Michelle Crossan. I notice most of the later portion showed her in the army and in what has to be a combat zone.

Was she a casualty lost in action or as the result of a roadside IED? They are all my sons and daughters, all who serve in our nation's military. Even though I don't know the family and they don't know me, please pass on my condolences to her family.

Bruce Foreman
TSgt USAF (Ret)

P.S. I also liked your "Winter With The GH2", I've moved over to that system.

Bruce, thanks for your comments. Michelle did serve in Iraq for a year (she was a medic), but she was killed in a car accident while driving up to our wedding back in May.

And yes, Murray, the timelapse shot of the cookies in the oven is the GH2 shot. Good eye there! And yes to your other point as well! Setting up the camera and tripod and slider DID slow down the cookie-making process! They were delicious though! :)

Thanks for your comments!

Steven

[Steven Bills]

Just gonna bump this once and then I'll let it die.

Any other comments?

SB

[Jim Michael]

That was pretty cool. Have you thought of including a crawl along the bottom with the instructions and quantities?

[Steven Bills]

You know, Jim, I did think of having some text on the screen of the recipe while she was making it, but by the time I thought of that while I was editing, she didn't remember where she found that recipe haha.

Steven

[Paul Mailath]

so the green stuff in the cookeis? - it's just zucchini right? a couple of years ago my kids fed me a cookie like that ... it wasn't zucchini

[Steven Bills]

Haha, yeah it's just a zucchini :)

SB