This is the only time we're going to post about "toys."
One of the things we love most about working in digital art, photography, audio production, and video is all the toys. Boys and their toys, right?
In the end, however, they're all just tools. And we're noticing some distinct differences between the "toys" for photography and those used for shooting video.
When we shoot photographs, our kit can be as small or as large as we want, depending on the job at hand. Shooting video is a bit different. Like many photographers who are making or have made the leap to shooting DSLR video, we're finding that our minimum kit is a great deal more extensive for video than for shooting photography.
A couple of years ago on our 2014 Whirlwind Architectural Tour, we shot most of the buildings over two weeks with a camera, a tripod, and a specialized lens that helps correct perspective — an expensive tilt-shift lens. we had other lenses with us but that was our go-to lens.
Shooting in downtown El Paso, 2014. Photo by Elida S. Perez/Newspaper Tree
Prepping for the 2016 Southern State Political Tour is quite different, we're finding. Not only do we have to pack the camera, lenses for shooting interviewees, and a tripod. . . we have to pack lighting and sound equipment, cases out the wazoo to protect everything in transit, and tons of tiny doo-dads that we would have no use for, otherwise.
Of course, after pulling together my gear, there will be the inevitable (for us, anyway) last-minute winnowing of stuff we reeeeeally don't need. That's the hard part. It seems we need the pressure of getting in the truck with enough "stuff" to tip it over in a good, strong wind to get us to start throwing things out.
Since we plan to spend a few nights, at least, sleeping in the back of the FJ Cruiser at rest stops (simply because I'm small enough to fit and. . . well, I like the adventure of it) our space is limited to what we can carry in the very back — roughly, a 60" x 30" x 24" space. And that might be generous.
We're gonna need to get a bigger truck!
More soon.
— LSS
