Rosie and I took a trip over to Shelburne Falls this weekend to take some photos of cool stuff (like, say, a bridge covered in flowers [photo!] and prehistoric glacial potholes [photo!]). I also took 10 frames with the intention of making this somewhat erratic panorama of the falls using Photoshop’s photomerge feature.

It’s a little messier than previous panoramas I’ve done, but that was on purpose. I wanted to create the look of overlaying a bunch of photo prints to create a collage image, inspired by a great Hurricane Katrina retrospective CNN did recently.

The difference is that I didn’t choose the Blend Images Together option, which is why you see such distinct lines between the frames, and I went with Reposition for the layout, whereas in the past I’ve chosen Perspective or Spherical for panoramas.

Anyway, there are a few more images over on my Flickr page.

One fish, two fish? (three fish?), originally uploaded by sp.sullivan.

I took this through the glass at the Our Hudson Home exhibit at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, NJ last weekend. I love the expression on the puffer fish’s face, and the way it’s reflected in the glass.

Taken with a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi, Canon 35mm f/2 lens at 1/80.

“Eventually, the road dead-ended in the swamp. I got out of my car and walked into the tall grass, pressing it behind me with great effort, and arrived at a couch that was purple and looked new and turned out to be very comfortable.”

- Robert Sullivan | “The Meadowlands: Wilderness Adventures at the Edge of a City“

I’m working on a preview for an upcoming production at City Stage in Springfield, MA. It’s a youth multimedia theater production that challenges some of the misconceptions about life in the inner city – specifically Springfield. It brings to task the alarmists who act like this underdog city of ours is some kind of warzone.

I’m editing the video package now, but here’s a brief explanation from director Magdelena Gómez:

Rumors of a New Day | PREVIEW

I’m still monkeying around with the footage from “dark dining room / music for a cure,” but I put together this little trailer while I figure things out (read: wait for my girlfriend to fix it).

Not sure why some of the clips that seemed synced in Final Cut got out of whack after being exported. I’ve been having issues exporting video from Final Cut lately. I don’t blame Final Cut. Ever since I started using it in high school I’ve been using that program ass-backwards.

Basketball Hall of Famer David Robinson’s torso signs an autograph for a fan at a visit to Baystate Medical Center’s Children’s Hospital. Not pictured: Basketball Hall of Famer David Robinson’s head.

On Friday I went down to Baystate Children’s Hospital to produce a story package about some Naismith Basketball Hall of Famers visiting sick kids.

While I normally don’t like these types of “canned” stories, I saw very little self-promotion on the part of Baystate and the hoops stars, and a lot of genuine concern for the kids’ welfare, so I actually had a lot of fun putting the package together.

The problem with these events, though, is that they’re more or less designed for the boilerplate needs of TV news: Get in, get some shots of the kids, get a soundbite from the players and get out. And that’s fine if you just need a spot for the 6 p.m. broadcast, but not so much if you’re trying to shoot photo and video and tie it up with some copy.

I try to depart as much as possible from the TV news formula when I shoot video – because the Web is the Web, and not TV, and so you can’t expect the same formula to work. I don’t do stand-ups. I try to avoid narration. Lately I’ve been trying to get away from talking-head interviews (though not on this one).

Basically, I try to steal more from the documentary video style, keeping in mind that video on the Web does not exist in a vacuum – that it will be surrounded with a headline and some photos and a few hundred words of text filling in the boring details that in a television broadcast would have to be wedged in there because there is no accompanying text.

You can find the finished package at MassLive.com, but here’s the video portion:

It’s not perfect. I tend to get an inferiority complex when covering an event with real TV news guys, with their big cameras, sturdy tripods and shoulder mounts. Conventional wisdom says only take your shots from a steady tripod, but I find that’s just not possible when you work like I do: with only as much gear as you can fit in a backpack.

You’ll notice during David Robinsons speech there, the camera is bouncing all over the place. That speaks to another challenge this story presented: David Robinson is really tall. Seven foot one. When the players walked in the door, I had to adjust my shot to get him in the frame. When he started talking I was still fiddling with things, so I just braced the tripod against my torso and tried to keep things steady.

After editing the video, I also encountered some serious problems preserving picture quality when exporting it, which made me realize just how much I need to work on the more technical aspects of post-production.

By now I can cut up a video package pretty quick, but anytime I encounter a glitch, I’ve got to call up Rosie or see which of my friends who are better at this stuff than me are on GChat. Not a great solution on deadline.

Matthew Larsen and The Documents live | DARK DINING ROOM

Matthew Carefully live | DARK DINING ROOM

Rosie and I had some fun this weekend doing videography at a really great benefit concert, put together by Matthew Larsen and held in Greg Saulmon’s apartment in Holyoke, MA.

Highlights of the night included Will Stratton and his 12 string guitar, Matthew Carefully’s awesome combination of mandolin and a suitcase full of loops and Greg’s iPhone slide guitar (photo!) during headliners Matthew Larsen and The Documents’ set.

Despite two of a videographer’s least favorite words (see: dark, room) being in the title of the event, we think we got enough footage to put something nice together.

I also brought along my handy Zoom H2 audio recorder, which – as evidenced by the two tracks at the top of the post – did a pretty good job gathering sound. The acoustics in Greg’s apartment didn’t hurt, either. I hadn’t used the Zoom to record live music before, so I had to adjust a bit as the night went on. Will Stratton’s set is on there, but I’m going to have to tinker a bit with the tracks before posting anything.

Apparently Rosie thinks a two-camera operation with detached audio is too much for me to handle – a challenge that cannot go ignored – so we’re going to each grab all of the raw footage and sound and see what we come up with individually (spoiler alert: hers will be better).

In the meantime, here are a few of the frames I popped off when my camcorder wasn’t rolling, and check out the SAMFund, which helped fund Matt’s upcoming album.

This weekend I went rock climbing with Rosie and her brother near their home in Sunderland, MA.

It was the first time I’d been rock climbing on actual rocks; next time I’m not wearing boots.

See more here.

This weekend, I covered a sunrise hot air balloon launch at the Green River Festival in Greenfield, MA. My assignment was to shoot a lot of photos to be made into a gallery. On top of that, I wanted to experiment with combining video, photo and sound. The end result, posted above, was a pretty okay package made with my whole backpack of gear.

I shot most of the photos with my kit 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 lens, which I’ve been ignoring a lot lately in favor of the 35mm f.2 prime, because the subject matter (big, bright balloons!) called for wider shots. Video was shot with my handheld Canon HD camcorder, without a tripod, because I had too much equipment as it was. Most of the nat sound came from the camcorder’s on-board mic, but the interviews all came from my Zoom h2 audio recorder.

I went with the Zoom for two reasons: One, I had concerns about wind affecting the audio quality of my shotgun or the on-board mic, and two, I wanted to get away from an oft-used crutch in Web news video: the talking head.

Because the visuals in this story were so striking, I thought it would be best to ditch talking heads altogether. I still introduce characters with lower thirds, when I’d rather have done it with sound Radiolab-style, but I feel like the story moves along faster without people talking awkwardly into a camera. It’s amazing how much more comfortable folks are around my goofy-looking recorder than they are in front of a video camera.

The sound in the piece leaves something to be desired. Chalk that up to my lack of experience driving stories with audio. I had the foresight to grab the sound of the fans, and the propane burners, but any other sound you hear in there besides the interviews is just stuff I was fortunate enough to get with the camcorder mic.

It’s tough to be thinking about audio as you make sure you’ve got everything you need by way of photo and video at once, all while drifting 1,000 feet over Western Massachusetts. But you won’t hear me complain. The package leaves a lot to be desired, but it’s one of my favorites, and I think I took a lot out of the experience.

Also, balloon rides are pretty cool.

Mr. Sullivan -

I’ve been reading through the comments donors sent us via the web last month and saw yours, which read: “I pledged $60 last summer and never got my mug. It doesn’t mean I won’t pledge again but my hands are scalded from pouring the coffee directly on them for want of a mug.”

My apologies. I’ll be mailing you the coffee mug today. It should arrive by the end of this week.

Thanks for your support last fall.

If you have any questions, please reply to this email or call me at the telephone number below.

Friendly dude’s name omitted
Annual Giving Director
WFCR & 640AM WNNZ