BEARLEFT Cinemagraphs

A while back now I saw my first Cinemagraph from the wonderful Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg. Please check out their wonderful work.
I figured out how to do it as I was viewing them and I promised myself that i would give it a go one day. It seems today was that day. As I set my work station off on a 2 hour render I mused what to do that would be productive. I had been set a challenge from another great photographer to shoot a pic that represents movement and stillness and the cinemagraph popped into my head and I thought it was about time to put my idea to the test. I only had 2 hours to plan, shoot and to make the final shot. 
After looking around the office for some ideas I thought a coffee was needed to move it forward and out in the grounds is a large Bamboo plant that was gently swaying in the breeze. Perfect I thought but just a bush moving isn't really much to look at so I made it even harder for myself and made it a self portrait too.

So I set up the camera 5D mkII, popped a LED Light panel off to the side and set it to quite a fast shutter speed as I wanted each frame to be sharp without any motion blur. Even thought the breeze wasn't strong I wanted to try and reduce the frame rate down in post so the gif wasn't too heavy on data. 

I tried doing some jumps while filming as I thought that me hovering in the air with the leaves moving would have been good but as it happens I just looked silly as you couldn't see my feet very clearly amongst the bush. 

So just standing and letting the breeze move the leaves was nice apart from the fact it was around 2ºC. I took the footage into After effects and cropped a 5 second moment I was happy with and made the comp 10 seconds long. I then duplicated the layer and masked me out with a slight feathering and made it a freeze frame. Then I reduced the speed of the bottom layer to around 50% so it gave it a little surreal feel to it.  I used time remapping to play it for 5 seconds forward and 5 seconds backwards to make it seem like it was looping. Its not perfect and I could make it much tighter but I was running out of time.
After rendering it out I took it in to Photoshop and played with some split toning and adjustment layers and added the text. Then I saved it for 'web and devices' and told it to be a GIF file and to loop forever. Like I say it is a first go to see if my method would work and it worked very well indeed. So next time I get a longer time frame I may have ago at making something nice to look at. 
Here is the finished GIF. 

If you would like a full tutorial or just some more information then please find us on facebook and ask away. Thanks for your time and please send me any that you have made.
Cheers
Aaron

Enough Light in Your Lens?

What do you get the photographer who has everything?   How about a new camera lens? After all, a photographer can never have enough lenses right? Only this one is different; it’s made of wood!

 Handcrafted by Sandra Diaz, the  huge, Eco-friendly hanging lamp has been modeled in the style of a DSLR camera lens, and is sure fire way of telling anyone who enters your home that you are into photography.

 According to Sandra’s Etsy Shop , “The lamp is made of white cedar wood and has a water-based varnish and beeswax finish on it. It is 100% Eco-friendly. It has a ceiling frame with a stainless steel cable and a red wrapped power cord.” The lamp also comes with a matching detachable lens hood which can be fitted as a shade, or on backwards, just like the real thing.

Currently there is only the one ‘DSLR Paparazzi’ lamp with a price tag of £441.97 (€500) available from 'Monoculoshop', but more can be made to order should you wish to kit out your entire studio!

4 Seasons in Trout Fisherman Magazine!

We had a nice surprise this week when we discovered that our latest DVD of Hywel Morgan  - 4 Seasons Stillwater Bank Fishing had received a fantastic review in the February - March edition of Trout Fisherman.

Over half of page 47 has been dedicated to the programme and features editor Jeffrey Prest has done a great job in describing the DVD. Hywel has been labelled as "the perfect host" and even our camera work gets a mention being described as "excellent". But by far our favourite quote has to be: "just watching him try to tempt a fish onto a nymph at close range makes you want to grab you rod" Say no more... :-)

A few of Hywel's essentials range also feature, and are reviewed, on page 40 and the complete range can be seen and bought from www.hywelmorgan.co.uk.

We're also pleased to announce that the cover photo, and no less than six pages of the magazine feature the fishery of our good friends at Garnffrwd Country Holidays where we filmed our 'Summer' section of 4 Seasons - Stillwater Bank Fishing

That's it for now on the fishing side of things until the beginning of March when we will be heading up to Glasgow Angling Centre to meet up with Hywel Morgan, Ant Glascoe Jr and many others for the big open weekend.

Heavy Metal Sunday

Last weekend was a very busy one for us at Bearleft.tv. After a late night of Aaron gigging at a party we were up at 5am on Sunday to head up to Northampton to shoot a promotional film with heavy metal rock band Sixpounder.  On location at The Music Lab in Millennium Studios the guys rocked out in the live performance space.  The band gave it their all, and with us using our full range of camera equipment, we can now create an awsome promotional video that the group will use to advertise their loud music!

One of our friends: Paul Mockford, of Shears Mockford Photography, was also on hand, and the image below is just one of the great shots he captured that day. (Paul has also set himself a challenge to take a photo every single day for a year and you can follow his growing portfolio of work on his personal blog)    

Jim belting out one of Sixpounders tracks

In the meantime all of our footage has now entered the post-production stage and we’ll post it on the blog once it has been completed.

Bearleft.tv on target!

Well, January has come and gone and as I write this we’re already halfway through February as well! As usual, we have been busy getting on with various exciting projects so we thought we would take a few moments to update you on the latest from Bearleft HQ.

Just recently launched is a website for our clients at DBCLeisure. Based in St. Briavels, Lydney  DBC Leisure is Forest of Dean’s premier shooting ground and offers clay pigeon shooting, air rifle and archery, which can all be pre-booked with experienced coaches. 

In developing the site we paid several visits to the ground and participated in a few of the activities, under the supervision of owner Dave Brown. Eagle eyed visitors may notice a picture of Aaron on the finished site ‘dusting some clays'. We had a great experience down at the shooting range and urge anyone who fancies having a go to get down there and give it a try. You can view their new site at: www.dbcleisure.co.uk

Over the last few days we have done so much, so there will be a few blog posts in quick succession to keep you upto date. There may also be some prizes up for grabs so keep following!      

Filming & Photography in Public Places - You and the Law.

For all of you in the media, or have a keen interest in video and photography it will come as no surprise to tell you that you have the right to film and / or take photos in a public place. However, over the last few years this has become somewhat difficult to prove as members of the public, officals and police have disputed otherwise with a sentence roughly like "You can't film here unless you have a permit." Usually at this point there is nothing you can do but pack up and move on as you have no proof to the contrary. 

Until now....

Fortunately here at Bearleft.tv we've happened to stuble upon an open letter written by Chief Constable Andrew Trotter, Chair of the Association of ACPO Communication Advisory Group. Originally for the use of officers and colleagues it contained information regarding Guidance for Photographers.

The letter is full of useful information and clearly states that members of the media or public should not be stopped when taking pictures or film in a public place. Having emailed the staff officer he has kindly given us permission to reproduce the letter in its entirity and it can be seen below. If you are activily filming / photographing in areas likely to attract attention I would suggest familiarising yourself with its contents and even go as far as to keep a copy in your kit bag.

I must point out that this letter does NOT give the holder "access all areas" and applies to areas that are considered to be public places and not privately owned. (Even here you must not film anything that could be seen as unfairly infringing on a person's privacy) It is imperative that everyone should know and fully understand their rights when taking pictures or filming in a public place. (For instance the police can still seize your camera, or obtain a court order to do so, if they believe that you have captured evidence relating to a crime.) 

Please remember that the police are there to help and protect the community and its members from, besides other things, an event or incident that might constitute, or appear to constitute a breach of local or national security. For more information on the subject you can refer to the ACPO media guidelines.

We hope that you will find this helpful, and allow you to keep doing what you love - making awesome films and stunning photos. From all of us here at BEARLEFT.TV, stay safe (and legal) and we will see you all in the new year.

T'was the Month before Christmas, and all through the office.....

was non-stop, knuckling down, and getting on with some hard work!

You may have noticed that the tweets & facebook posts from us may have dried up lately, which usually happens around this time, and this year is no exception! Among creating promotional videos & training materials for private clients we've also been working on other things......

The first is of course making sure that all of our DVD's are available for the Christmas shoppers and with our Amazon shop up and running over Christmas for the first time, this has been a task in itself! In fact our last DVD Hywel Morgan's Fly Tying - Stillwater Patterns has been selling so many we have received numerous emails from Amazon warning us of low stock levels!!! Fortunately we are well prepared and have enough in storage to meet demand!

We also received this glowing review of "The Complete Cast" - "Bought this for one of my sons as he knows all I can teach him. This taught me some new techniques and ideas and I've been fishing for 50 odd years. Most informative and very easy to appreciate and learn new skills. Highly recommended."

You can find all of our products on Amazon, Ebay and of course our own website at : www.bearleft.tv  where you can also see trailers before you buy. All of the fishing DVD's are also available from Hywel Morgan's website at www.hywelmorgan.co.uk. The Lost Railway series is currently on sale in the Forest of Dean at the Dean Forest Railway, Coleford Railway Museum and the Dean Heritage Centre.

...and if that's not enough to keep track off we are currently on the brink of releasing one of our two new projects with Hywel which we have been working on throughout the entire year. It is currently entitled "4 Seasons - Bank Fishing on Stillwaters" and we hope it will be out in time for Christmas (It's being edited as I type - nothing like working to the wire)  :-)

The weekend is also shaping up to be quite exciting with us filming two very different events. At the first we will be filming an extrodinary sight as a man attempts to pull a 16 tonne lorry single handed and then it's off to North Wales to meet up with hywel at a Graling competition and hopefully film more episodes for his Webcast channel. We will also be trying out some interesting camera angles and hope to get shots several metres above the river bank - Some interesting pics to follow!