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Since I’ve been using the Canon 5Ds for shooting video, a big advantage and disadvantage is using the Canon “L” lenses for shooting footage.

The advantage is the superb look and clarity of the images they produce and the disadvantage is the lack of autofocus for video. (At least a decent working autofocus)

My old HV20 camera was awesome in the fact that I could stand off camera and record interviews and establish connections with my subjects during my questioning.

With the 5Ds (especially with the 70-200mm lens at 200) just a slight shift of the subject during the clip and the focus will be off on the subject’s face.

This happened with this weeks Common Chords subject Cheryl Adamson.

In editing the piece, I tried to keep this distraction to a minimum but I was frustrated it is there nonetheless.

When I was showing the video to my boss and just made a comment I needed another person to focus pull while I conduct the interviews.

“Right,” he said jokingly and suggested I hire a crew for my next column.

I laughed and remembered the status of American newspapers and figured I’d have to live with the problem.

Rev. Adamson was awesome and I loved her playing and voice. She is the image of the musician I had in mind when I started the column.

Her gift of the art is that she empowers others to take the plunge and learn music.

If you have the time I’d suggest you listen to the audio clip of her playing the Sons and Daughters hymn with just the melody. This song has been in my head since I first heard it 3 weeks ago.

To read my story and hear the audio I recorded that day go to my Common Chords blog at TheSunNews.com

rlh

This lightning strike cancelled a high school football preview photo and gave me a scare with the intensity of the strike and the penny size hail that fell. 

I’m posting a couple of cool videos this week but I must wait till they publish on the paper’s site first. My next Common Chords is this week and I’m shooting the next one after the 4th weekend.

Sorry I haven’t posted lately, I’ve been busy and really haven’t felt compelled to post the stuff I’ve been producing lately.

I think I’ve been depressed due to the death of Kodachrome. I wanted to publish some of the last images I shot on this film but they were nudes taken in the mid-1990’s and I promised the models I would never publish them on the web. 

rlh

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Last week I put together this video for a story about citizens complaints to the response of the wildfires by the local police and fire. Emotions were still high and frustrations deep nearly 5 weeks after the April fires that took more than 70 homes in the community in North Myrtle Beach.

Here is a link to a recent blog post showing some of my photos from the fires and here is a link to Sunday’s story.

rlh

This is the latest entry in my Common Chords music column.

I met Jim and Charlie through a show at the South By Southeast concert series in Myrtle Beach. Because of Jim’s reluctance to be captured on video, I decided to produce a less intrusive soundslide program about their story.

Their friendship reminds me of my own with longtime buddy and blood Raymond “Bubba” Mabe. 

Here is a link to my other blog Common Chords and the growing lists of musicians I’m gathering. On this blog I publish the story I wrote for the paper and include audio clips from the musicians. 

This one is dedicated to Bubba.

rlh

Kelly Joe Andrews, a rider with East Coast Stunters, performs during the group’s Friday night performance at The Dog House, North during the Crusinin The Coast Spring Rally along the Grand Strand.

The loud Harleys are gone for this year’s “Cruisin The Coast Spring Rally” and next comes the crotch rockets during the Atlantic Beach Memorial Day Bikefest. Both rallies are fun to cover but you never know what you’ll see during AB week.

With all the controversy over May’s bike weeks in Myrtle Beach, it will be interesting to see how the MB police handle the Black bikers during the road blocks set for this week. Will my friend Mickey James and the NAACP be watching?

I know I’ll be watching.

rlh  

Joey Stone, a biker from Taylors, S.C., grimaces after getting a kiss from a dog named “Prissy” Thursday at the Broken Spoke Saloon in Garden City Beach. Stone and his friends were enjoying festivities at the Cruisin’ The Coast Spring Rally held this week along the Grand Strand.

Covering the May bike rallies in Myrtle Beach is like taking a class in Testosterone. You see all kinds of politically incorrect maleness everywhere. For that matter there’s plenty of female violations of the PC codes. 

In the past, as a photojournalist shooting just for print, I would look to tone down the rallies with my coverage and look for less edgy moments. I felt a conflict, because this is not the way the rallies are. They are in you face, blunt, sexual and terribly politically incorrect.

With the advent of the Internet and the galleries we produce for thesunnews.com, I’ve been able to not restrict my coverage and tell the truth no matter how blunt it is.

In the end I’ve garnered a more truthful connection with my own maleness. Yes, I can’t help but look at that beautiful woman in the thong bikini.

You know what? I want to look.

Here is a gallery from Suck Bang Blow shot on Wednesday.

Here is a gallery from The Broken Spoke Saloon from Thursday

rlh 

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It’s a strange life when your last two posts are as diverse as mine. However, I live in a crazy area where diversity is still a mixture like oil and water.

Wednesday, I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with professional burnout rider Nick Lee.

He has a hard life on the road but is genuine about his passion to keep biker’s freedoms and carry on traditions.

The night before, during one of his shows, he suffered 2nd degree burns after his bike’s frame reached temperatures of close to 460 degrees. (He has a special tool to measure point temperatures on his bike.)

As far as the video is concerned, I used two camera vantage points to shoot this piece. One of my 5D’s was mounted on a tripod and perched on a balcony on the roof of the bar. The other, fitted with a wide-angle lens is handheld by myself nearby the artist.

If you look again you can see me wearing the green t-shirt and sometimes a little too close for comfort. Other visual journalists (especially TV shooters) tell me I always get in their shots. I now feel their pain. Somehow I got in my own way. But with the action, I don’t think you notice that much.

It took me pretty much the whole night to edit and cut this video because I had a difficult time cutting so much of the cool footage. In the end I kept it under my 3-minute rule.

Sorry, I would write more but I got to get some sleep.

rlh

Sunday was the Buddhist celebration Visakha Puja at Wat Carolina and I was fortunate to be able to attend. With my recent move south, I now have a long drive to my spiritual center.

Visakha Puja commemorates three events in the Buddha’s life that each took place on this full-moon day: his birth, awakening, and death.

The ceremony concludes with Abbot Chao Khun leading the participants around the temple carrying flowers, a candle and burning incense.

Sadly I found out resident monk Phra Theip (pictured below) is going back to Thailand to practice his studies in his home country. It has been great to have his wonderful abilities with the English language and his kind spirit at the temple to translate complex Buddhist philosophies. We will miss him.

rlh

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My Common Chords column on Danny Stanley was the last video I shot on my old Canon HV-20. Of the three I’ve done so far with this column, it is my favorite for sound quality and production and my least favorite visually.

Using the sound recorded by the camera with a lapel mic, I mixed this in final cut with audio recorded at the same time with my Edirol R-09 digital recorder. The lapel mic recorded heavy for the voice and the Edirol recorded heavy for the instrument. I synched the two together in the timeline and then blended the voice and instruments in separate channels.

Danny is a great musician who was kind to help me out considering he was still battling the lingering effects of a cold and the recent death of his father.

Danny plays an awesome late 80’s Martin HD-28 guitar and a beautiful Chestnut Mandolin made locally in Conway, SC by Jennings Chestnut.

Here is the link to my Common Chords photo column I do for TheSunNews.com

rlh

I’m still processing my thoughts from the emotions of the coverage of the large Myrtle Beach area brush fire that took 76 homes and damaged just under a hundred more last week here along the coast.

In the meantime, I will post some of my most compelling images that could get lost in the massive photo galleries the photo staff produced. Everyone on our staff came to the plate on this news event but I wish I could of had the forethought to know the fire would jump north and give the people of Barefoot Resort some warning they were in danger.

During the coverage I decided to sidetrack the usual routes to the fire and hitched a ride with photographer Michelle Johnson of the SC Forestry Commission. Thanks to her I helped many families know about the conditions of their homes. Hey Michelle, I finally got the name of your agency correct.

I received more e-mails and concerns about this little dog than any other photo. I tried to get the animal to come to me but it was too scared. Later we followed up with a story about the rescue of the dog (his name is Onyx) and his return to his family.

During the first hours of the fire, I hitched a ride with two gonzo video journalists driving a black Hummer in order to get past the police checkpoints along Highways 31 and 90. Fully credentialed and driving my VW Golf, I was stopped and held at every checkpoint. With these guys we just drove on through.

These firemen with the Sumter Fire Department were great and worked hard to help the families victimized by the fire.

Michelle Johnson pointed this melted wheel rim out to me as we checked out the damage on Swift Street Thursday morning.

It was amazing how some houses were damaged and others were left untouched. I found out one thing. Don’t put pine straw around your house, this with add to the flames in the event of a fire.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and bugged the newsroom with my constant calls for updates to the web.

I worked Friday with reporter Isaac Bailey and we were detained twice by the North Myrtle Beach police from coverage of the families returning to their homes. In the afternoon we were treated with a ride in a police car after we snuck in with some insurance adjusters.

Thanks for all the nice e-mails I received about this image and thanks to the Portteus family for being so open about the fire.

This guy needed to keep busy and was mowing his yard Friday morning after the fire. The ruins in the background are not from his house but from neighbors. His house was undamaged.

Neighbors helping neighbors was a good thing to see and it was in abundance Friday afternoon.

I will continue to work updates from the aftermath of the fire and plan on sticking with Bob Portteus and his family as they rebuild their home on Swift Street.

rlh