Latest Wedding Highlight - Bronson & Savannah
 

Here's my latest highlights video for review and comments. If you watched the promo trailer on my website then you'll recognize a few shots. Enjoy!

Highlights for Bronson & Savannah on Vimeo

Bravo, Travis!!! Looks like you threw some pepper and hot tomale sauce into that recipe. Invite me to dinner sometime. Sure would like to have what your serving.

Tom, you have an interesting way with words. Thanks for watching!

I liked the choice for the color pallet. Seemed to play off the bride's facial tones & freckles very well. Great gliding in there too. You seem to be able to use that Merlin like a jib. No way I could get my glidecam up high enough to do those shots. :-) Also, great clear closeups too. I never seem to get the bride smiling when I want to do a closeup. Must take some good audio cues or the groom helping by cracking jokes. Well done as always!

Travis....plain and simple, you rocked that one out! Excellent camera work and I loved the warm tones.

kudos my man.

re
 

very nice, love the shots, great use of the merlin

not sure about the grooms face eating on the kiss, ouch

re
 

were all the main moving shots with the merlin, do u use the vest????

I don't know what's up. I posted a reply the other day but once again it either never showed up or it disappeared. Weird stuff.

Anyways, thanks for watching. My back really hates me when I use the Merlin like a jib. Regarding good closeups, a lot has to do with the photographer (during the photoshoot) and a lot to do with just filming a lot and anticipating what's coming (the rest of the day). Glad you liked the colors. Color grading is my nemesis.

Thanks Joe! Also glad to hear you liked the coloring. They had a very warm gold theme for their ceremony and reception and I wanted to focus on that. Again, thanks for the comment!

Luke, yeah the kiss went a bit over the top, but the bride was playing around with him. She's just like that. I think if you know the couple it works, but otherwise it does seem a bit off. Either way, I couldn't leave out the first kiss from their highlights video, lol.

I use the Merlin handheld .. no vest. I would love a vest. I would love $2k to buy the vest. I would love whoever gave me the $2k for the vest. Anyone? Anyone?

But yeah, 95% of the moving shots were with the Merlin. Thanks for watching.

Travis, I've used several different stabilizers but never the Merlin....when you go from moving shots to handheld stuff, do you keep the cam on the merlin or do you detach via quick release? and if you keep your cam attached does it feel right still being attached?

Travis - the visuals were nice, the stedicam work was well done, but the song choice stunk. I know you said in your Vimeo comments that it wasn't your choice, but I think you should have strongly suggested to the couple that you, the trained professional, pick the music for the highlights and allow them to have that song elsewhere in the video, maybe even see if you could relegate it to a menu screen or something. To me, it held the piece back and never allowed it to be nearly as good as it could have been otherwise. I've found that it's usually fairly easy to talk a couple out of a bad musical decision.

I can understand you not liking the song but to say it was a bad musical decision and held the piece back is way off.

We could argue it all day long, it's just a matter of opinion but I don't see how someone can say that the wrong piece of music isn't holding back great visuals. If he had edited those same shots to the "Hokie Pokie" can you tell me it would have been as good?

I didn't ever say the piece wasn't good, just that given the strength of the visual elements I was only left to wonder how much more dynamic it could have been if edited to another piece of music. I'd argue that Travis would in part agree with this being a weak musical choice given his comments on Vimeo saying that it wasn't his song choice. Seems to me that he's distancing himself from the music right there.

Again, good job, nice visuals, but how much better would this have been if edited to another song?

Excellent question, Joe. It really depends on the situation. If I feel like I might be doing another flying shot shortly, I'll just keep the Merlin attached while I go handheld. Sometimes I don't even fold up the arm. It can feel a bit awkward depending on how you're shooting handheld (angle), but it works. It does make for more physical shooting.

If I feel like I won't be flying for a bit, or if I want a shot where the Merlin would be in the way (like a floor shot), then I'll just take it off. The beauty of the Merlin is that when you put it back on you can recalibrate it fairly quickly once you're used to it.