Travis,

The real disadvantage is having to find the hood, put it on, and rebalance. I like to keep my rig the same as much as possible, so I only add things on when really needed. Certain days Mike will put the hood on and shoot with it all day (usually when we have an outdoor ceremony).

I find it takes a lot of practice to getting solid artistic shots without a stabilizer and it can be more hit and miss, but one you start getting the technique down it is really all up to your mind to come up with the ideas.

When I spoke with some of the vendors in Tupelo, they didn't seem to have any clue what we were doing in terms of an SDE or a steadicam, and the fact we go flown in from Canada really confused a lot of people.

I noticed that little kid looking at the steadicam there. To be honest, I'm surprised there aren't more shots of the groom doing that as he was totally in love with the rig and I often ruined a good photo as he was watching what I was doing and asking me how it was done when he should be paying attention to his new wife. At least it always seems to be a big hit when it is distracting.

Patrick

Good to know. We work a lot outdoors, so I'll probably still need to get a hood and for some weddings I'll just use it all day so I don't have to rebalance.

I've shot without a stabilizer for 5 or 6 years now, so I'm pretty adept with handheld. It's just there are some types of shots that you really need a stabilizer for, and those are the shots I'm hit and miss on when I try them handheld. I can't wait to get better with the Merlin.

As always, thanks for taking the time to answer questions; much appreciated.

Nice work Patrick.

I'm going to guess based on some of the footage that it is the EX1 on the steadicam?

You beat me to it Matt.
Patrick I was going to ask if you have changed cameras as the footage looks like the EX1?

Cheers
Simon

Your work is truely inspirational. Deffinatly differnent to what we get here in the UK. Were much more traditional (static, slow mo, B+W etc).

Matt & Simon,

I think Patrick only uses Canon cam at the moment. A1 and H1.

Patrick,

may I know whenever you shoot those silhouette scene, what settings did you do the cam? They look good. I'm using Canon XH-A1 too. You bump up the contrast level in post too right? :)

I would say close the iris or maybe the spotlight button (if it has one) could also yeild the same effect.

I tried that and had the f-stop bump up, but that makes the image v dark, including the window. Is there any special technique to achieve it?

Simply amazing work. I learn something new every single time. Patrick, what system are you using (macbook pro, desktop) to capture and edit your SDE's? Also, do you present your SDE's in HD? In a tight edit like this are you playing from the laptop, DVD player, or through something like a Matrox MXO? Thanks for continually inspiring us all to do greater work!

Here you go Joel!

http://stillmotionblog.com/?page_id=153