and that’s not necessarily a bad thing depending on how prepared you are for it.  If you’ve had a pulse for the last 18 months you’ve noticed a growing trend, video on the web. Video for breakfast, video for lunch, maybe even a little video with your tapas if that’s how you like it.  I’m not talking about your youtube videos of people doing stupid things via cellphone cameras or old home movies, I’m talking about professional grade video coming from the most unlikely people, still photographers.

Case and point, Vincent Laforet.  Vincent was and is a commercial still photographer who has a Pulitzer Prize and a countless awards for his work at the New York Times, Vanity Fair, Time, ect, ect.  This last September Vincent got a pre-production Canon 5d Mark 2 from Canon to see what he could put together with it’s new HD video capture ability.  What happened next surprised everyone.  In a matter of a 72 hours Vincent shot and edited a short film/piece called “Reverie” that would go on to be viewed hundreds of thousands of times in a matter of days.

Reverie turned out to be a motion picture grade piece of work.  While no one was surprised by Vincent’s talent what did surprise everyone was that it was shot on a $2700 digital camera, not a $75,000+ camera that is used everyday in the motion picture industry.  The success of this piece has flooded Vincent with offers for other film work and completely changed the dynamic of his brand.

So why is all of this important?  It’s important because there is a growing appitite for content out there.  Now just having beautiful images doesn’t cut it.  People want behind the scenes video, outtakes, the making of, video shorts, and any other additional media they can get their hands on.  This was part of my inspiration for my experiments with the behind the lens videos.  I’m taking this a step further with my most recent purchase this week of a Canon 5d Mark 2.

I’ve only had it for a weekend and I can already see how this will be huge.  I plan on expanding my skill set, my portfolio, and my audience with the introduction of high end video.

Will video replace architectural still photography?  Short answer, no.  But those who do both with thrive.  They will produce for their clients the same stunning architectural imagery that will be used on the covers of magazines, ad campaigns for destinations and products, as well as designer’s portfolios, but they will also create compelling video to be used alongside of their still work.  You will also find that many of these still shooters will be courted as directors of film projects.  Check out Chase Jarvis’s amazing portfolio of still work as well as his directing work.

I wish I could say that after a weekend with the new camera I’ve got the next Reverie to show off but that would be a lie.  What I do have is some footage of our 3 rescue dogs that I shot yesterday morning while unboxing the camera.  Enjoy

Blake Marvin Photography: Canon 5d test footage from Blake Marvin on Vimeo.

Finally got around to editing together (and I use the term editing very loosely) a new behind the lens video.  I’ve made a couple of changes/additions on this behind the lens video by adding some background music, a couple of finished shots from the shoot, as well as a new host for the videos.  The reasoning behind the changes are threefold

1.  The audio from the Flip Mino HD pocket camera is pretty terrible and most of the time at 5 in the morning there’s just not that much to listen to.

2.  By adding a couple of the stills it allows people to see the fruits of my labor from the shoot.  I get a bit nervous sometimes that people come across these videos and think that this is what I’m delivering to the client and that’s what I’m there for, in fact the videos are just meant to be a bit of a behind the scenes from the shoot and not the shoot itself.

3.  I’m now uploading the videos to vimeo as well as youtube.  While I like youtube for it’s universal appeal and wide audience, I feel that the vimeo community and the quality of services are just better.

Enough rambling.  Enjoy the video from the Loews Lake Las Vegas shoot this week.

Blake Marvin Photography: Loews Lake Las Vegas from Blake Marvin on Vimeo.

Still in the Virgin Islands although I’ve now setup shop in St Thomas shooting the Yacht Haven Grande. Situated at in the Charlotte Amalie Harbor, Yacht Haven Grande bills itself as a “Megayacht” facility. Even though it has been a fairly quiet time in the harbor I can attest to the Megayacht claim. I have to say that I know very little about yachts, but as the British say, these machines are some serious pieces of kit.  From the ferry ride from St Croix to shooting the sun go down ocean there is a bit of everything, and yes the moped is and was a terrible idea, especially the part about riding on the opposite side of the road with only one hand because my other is shooting video, still. With all that being said it was a a lot of fun and beats tracking down taxis around the island.  Had a bit of a partly cloudy weather day today during times when I could of used more sun than clouds.  Keep those fingers crossed for tomorrow.  Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day.

Blake Marvin Photography : Yacht Haven Grande from Blake Marvin on Vimeo.