Search the Community

https://vimeo.com/190419876 - Every once in a while you get the call to go outside your comfort zone. Answer the call. Déjà Mae and I have shot quite a few photos together but recently she asked me to shoot a video for the next song on her recently released album “Sloan” I was totally into creating something magical except there was one major obstacle… She asked if I could shoot it underwater??? Underwater cinematography is not my forte but being pushed out of your comfort zone is where creativity lives and it’s been a while since someone asked me how long I could hold my breath. For this particular project I chose the Sony A6300. It’s small shoots 4k and 120 fps at 1080p which helps slow down the erratic motion of swimming. The water housings are more economical and the dynamic range is pretty damn close to the high end Sony. The down side, it overheats like a mofo. Even in water which makes for longer breaks in between takes. I used the Meikon underwater case for a few reasons. It’s easier to open quickly to dissipate heat and cheaper since Sony keeps releasing A6000 model cameras (3 models in the last year A6000, A6300, A6500) which most of the underwater housings are incompatible from body to body, also you can adjust zoom, focus, shutter and aperture all underwater. I hate the flat light of shooting underwater so I came up with a bit of an interesting solution to provide key and fill light underwater. I took a couple of c- stands and positioned a gold fill card to reflect the sun where I wanted. So the gold fleck highlights in the water are from that. Cheap and simple continuous light sources don’t have to be expensive. Just take note of the sun’s path and adjust accordingly. If you are still reading this, I appreciate it because sometimes people don’t quite understand what goes in to making a shot but there’s a lot going on. Thanks Deja for trusting me with your vision and inspiring me to get weird. Do yourself a favor and check out her new album and her full-length video coming soon.

Even with the uncontrolled tungsten lights, this camera performs very well for skin tone. Here is my latest indoor shoot. https://youtu.be/dxJ48KRePM0

I have a 5D Mark III and I use it with ML RAW. The new a6300 beats even ML RAW with its SLog feature and simple workflow. I love this camera over my 5D. The 4K video is excellent. In this video I used it with a Sigma 30mm 1.4, the Sony 16-50 and the Zhiyun Crane. A complete combination for a professional work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEMLvLUnO_U

I'm a photographer but this camera is no joke for video. It's not perfect and has a few issues but for the money I feel I couldn't have done any better. Every shot is the a7iii with either the 35 1.4 of the 85 1.8. On 3 shots I used the Mavic Air.