Timefest 2011

 Last weekend I was very entertained by meeting up with some fellow timelapse shooters up in the Mammoth Lakes area. Tom Lowe had invited me up to this large meet up of timelapse shooters back a couple months ago. I'm really glad I made time to go up there but at first I was a little hesitant in having so many shooters in once place. But everyone there at the "Timefest" house were some of the nicest people I have ever met and truly professional. It was also nice just to meet up with people I have only had the chance to talk with on the phone or through email. Plus having so many like minded people was nice to have under the same roof. Like minded, in that we all liked shooting on DSLRs and timelapse was something we all enjoyed. Other shooters that were there for Timefest were Vincent Laforet, Carson from F9 Photo, Tom Guilmette, Dustin Kukuk, Mike Flores, Ben Wiggans, Eric Kessler and many others.

 The house that was the Timefest headquarters was a really cool place in the Mammoth Lakes area that was secured by Shawn Reeder, a local shooter from the Bishop area, that was a great host and of course came with us shooting. It was the prefect place to come back to after an all night timelapse shoot. It allowed us to all hang out and talk about new gear and new services for shooters. Plus it was a great opportunity to meet new shooters.

                    Tom and Carson working away on something important I'm sure.

                     Some behind the scenes filming for Tom Lowe's film Timescapes

The one night that I got to shoot with everyone was up at Patriarch Grove, which is one of those locations that you should go to at least once in a lifetime. Some of the trees up there are over 4,000 years old. Plus being at 11,400ft makes for some great views of the Milky Way.

 

While up there I got to see some interesting things going on. Eric Kessler from Kessler Cranes was there with a prototype system that Tom Lowe was using to preform a 5hr motion control timelapse move. It was just awesome seeing new gear being tested in the field and in some semi harsh conditions. It got pretty cold up there at night and the high elevation can sometimes cause problems.

 All-in-all, it was great to meet fellow shooters and to see some familiar faces as well. Really looking forward to the next Timefest. I was using the motion control rig from Dynamic Perception while I was up there and it allowed me to get some really cool 3-axis moves that I hope to show everyone soon in the new timelapse reel coming soon.

 Here are a couple frames from shots I got while I was up at Patriarch Grove.

My Timelapse Interview.

 Here's a interview I just did the other day for Zegagg.com. In it I talk about timelapse and how I kind of got started down that path. http://www.zegagg.com/?page_id=1617

New site...new blog

 So I decided to try and do a regular type blog to see what kind of info I can pass on about timelapse and general cinematography. I'm sure there must be some people interested in what I might have to say about the subject. I'm thinking about having some very quick, down and dirty videos on how to shoot timelapse. Just the very basic steps involved and nothing to specific in the settings I use because...well...get your own style.