While I am not the biggest fishermanI enjoyed the trip for the good company and the images I created as a result. Between the landscape, the friends and the random moments, the photos I took on this trip were  some that I will cherish forever. This year we were even lucky enough to see the Northern Lights on the last night.

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Awhile back, maybe three or four months ago, my girlfriend, Emily, wanted to create a video similar to the famous Fifty People One Question video. We were slated to do it in Boston on one of our visits, but never got around to forumlating anything. However, we still would like to do that again at some point in the future.

Skip forward to today and we have modified the idea somewhat. Emily came up with the idea to ask seniors at Syracuse University what their favorite memory of the past four years was. This is the result.

Music: Computer by State Shirt

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The director, Andrew Wowelko, was looking for a dark comedy look and feel, but he always wanted the visuals to build throughout the piece. Additionally, he called for dynamic shots either with a dolly or a jib. The jib that Newhouse has is at least 20 years old and doesn’t work very well. On a previous shoot, I had to use duck take to make sure the legs of the jib would stay connected to the base. To avoid this, I wanted to use something else that could use to give us dynamic shots. The Glidecam was a perfect option. 

Before this, I never used a Glidecam seriously. I worked for Dave Williams who owns CinemaCake, a prestigious wedding film production house. Dave is a legend in the world of Glidecam and is even listed as a dealer on the Glidecam website. Watching Dave operate a Glidecam made it seem like it was one of the easiest things ever.

With this in mind, I decided to order one from LensRentals.com. On a moral note, I am not getting paid to promote them, I am just a satisfied customer.If you haven’t used them to rent equipment yet, you should. They are fast, easy, and pretty cheap. I received the Glidecam on Thursday. This gave me some time to play around with it and balance it, none of which I did. Thinking it would be simple to balance, I waited until I was on set to start. I was so wrong. So wrong that Adam Kerchman, a really awesome filmmaker from Boston and NYC, warned me as I was tweeting about the Glidecam.

@tedrysz3 @theprimewizard take more time than you think you need to balance the glide. Use two fingers to clip and take small even steps

— Adam Kerchman (@AdamKerchman) April 12, 2013

After about 30 minutes of unsuccessfully trying to get the Glidecam balanced, I decided to turn to YouTube. There is another awesome filmmaker from NYC, Steve DiCasa, who created a 30-minute tutorial on how to balance your Glidecam. Warning: it will take you much longer than 30 minutes to balance it the first time.

I believe it took me about an hour and a half to finally get the Glidecam totally balanced at home. However, once balanced, it was much easier to use.

Fast forward to the next day, on set and ready to shoot with the Glidecam for the first time. We had to be outside for the shot and of course in Syracuse, there was more wind than anything. Additionally, the main actor, Nick Brown, is extremely tall. This meant that I had to hold the Glidecam above my torso, making operation more difficult than it already is.

After a few shots outside, I ditched the Glidecam until our next spot. I set up a c-stand and balanced the Glidecam again to make sure everything was aligned. We were inside for the shot, but this time there was movement in two dimensions, again making operation difficult. I used the forearm brace to help the overall balancing of the Glidecam and it was a big success.

Those two shots were the only ones that used the Glidecam. While the device is a huge pain in the ass to set up, once it is, it can add dynamic visuals to your story and production value to your film. I highly suggest watching Steve’s video and making sure you have plenty of time to practice with a Glidecam before you use it on set. You can see my attempts in the video below. Enjoy.

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A collection of my work from the January 2013 until the present.

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After 10 days, almost 3500 miles and 14 states later, we arrived back in Syracuse last night. I have to say that this trip has given me a new view of our country, a better sense of where I want to go in my life, and some of the best friends and people I could ever ask for. I could not ask for better people in my life and I couldn’t have imaged a better experience to solidify friendships and love that will last the rest of my life.

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The photo above is special to both of us. This is a spot that both Emily and I have wanted to take a photo of since we started Discover Syracuse back in the summer. Every time we would go to take the photo, there would be a group in the bus stop that would discourage us from doing so. Syracuse is a city full of unexpected barriers that separate the different cultures that live here. This bus stop happens to be one of those barriers.

You can check out Discover Syracuse here. Let us know what you think of the project so far.

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We ventured out back on her porch and in the snow and wind, set up the shot. Emily doesn’t like the cold at all (don’t tell her I said that) so I set up the space heater for her as we shot. Yes, I set up a space heater outside. It didn’t do much, but better than nothing. The light was perfect though, I have to admit.

After doing a few with Emily in different positions, we finally came up with something that she really liked. Again, this photo shoot furthers my hypothesis that Emily is the visionary and I am just the guy who takes the photo.

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I have not been photographing seriously for very long – I would say a year at most. I do not even consider myself a photographer, rather someone who simply takes photos. But in that time span, I have had a few occurrences where people use my images as Facebook profile pictures or in some other way. I have never cared, unless a person has not cited me as the photographer. I don’t do photography for money otherwise I would do something else. I don’t do it for notoriety either, however it is nice when people recognize my work. I think that is something that everyone who takes photos seriously enjoys.

I had an incident recently that really drove me nuts. Someone used one of my images as a cover photo on Facebook. Like I said before, that is fine, but I wasn’t cited. It is equivalent of me using someone’s academic research in a report and not citing it. The average person might not care, but the person who did the research sure will, especially if they read your report.

Ever since coming to college, the Internet and its use has exploded. Social media is an awesome tool to meet new people and have new experiences, however I think that sometimes it is abused. I love that all kinds of photography get shared through Twitter and Facebook, I just think I speak for most of us who take photography seriously when I say we don’t ask for much, just that you credit our photos when you use them.

Just from my experience, and I am not as serious as others,

I have taken easily over 50,000 images in the last two years. That is probably a low ball guess, but just some perspective.

I have spent over $5,000 on all of my equipment. That is a lot of hours worked and college loans that I will have to pay back after I graduate (bastards).

I spend an absurd amount of time on my passion, including this post which took over 5 hours of work.

So the next time you are going to use someone’s image, just make sure you cite them, please. To be honest, some of us are more picky about this than others and there are certainly a lot more anal people out there than I, but it is just common courtesy.

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