Photos of me by Kristin Dahl.

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I just finished a 12-day raft-supported shoot in the bottom of the Grand Canyon with my RED Epic.  We shot lots of 5k material with the Epic and lots of timelapses with the 5D Mark III.  There were lots of challenges–from power and data management to equipment safety–but everything went off without a hitch and we came back with some incredible material!

I grew up on the river and around boats, so working in an environment like this is second nature.  Even so, this shoot presented a handful of challenges that required some creative thinking before we shoved off into the wilderness for 12 days.  Our crew developed a robust solar power system to keep camera and laptop batteries charged and keep hard drives running.  We shot approximately 4TB of data, which we backed up in the field redundantly using a RAID 1 system.  All of the camera and DIT equipment was kept 100% water and sand-free with a combination of dry boxes and bags.

The Grand Canyon is one of my favorite places on Earth, so getting a chance to both work and play on the river was a fantastic experience!

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Over the last two years, I have been working on a PBS Special about the removal of Condit Dam on the White Salmon River in Washington.  Our crew got to do some fun things, including a multi-year timelapse documentation effort, filming the dramatic explosive breach of the dam and lots of underwater salmon filming.  It’s been an incredible effort getting this show finished, a effort that paid off with a sold-out premiere event and strong TV ratings.

Though I’ve produced lots of documentary films and shot lots of TV shows, this was the first TV special that I’ve produced–likely the first of many!

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Recently, the Cadbury cocoa company hired me through Creative Artists Agency for a commercial shoot in Ghana, West Africa.  The campaign is called “Cocoa Life” and designed to tell the stories of where our cocoa comes from.  We shot the series of short films on the RED Scarlet–hard work in the intense heat but well worth the effort.  This was my third shoot in Africa, probably my favorite continent to work on.

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Recently, I got asked to shoot interviews for an upcoming Discovery Channel docu-drama series about the 1949 gold rush.  I worked with the production coordinator to find a good crew in Portland, Oregon and we created a fantastic look that will blend well with the show’s dramatic wild-west recreations (which were shot on Alexa).

We decided to shoot with the Sony F3 and Sony’s own cinema prime lenses.

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The folks at National Geographic recently got in touch with a need for 4k and 5k footage of waterfall kayaking.  Naturally, Spirit Falls in Washington immediately came to mind as the perfect location!

Our team did some technical rigging to establish unique camera positions in precarious spots, which allowed me to be close enough to reach out and touch the subject.  To capture the scene I primarily shot with the Zeiss 15mm f/2.8 prime lens, which limits wide-angle distortion, is incredibly sharp and has a beautiful contrast and saturation profile.  Certainly one of my favorite lenses.

All shots were made in 5k at 96 fps or 4k at 120 fps for final delivery in 4k.

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For an episode about catfish, I was tasked with filming, among many scenes, a demolition derby, underwater in the Tennessee Aquarium, from helicopters and in the wilds of the bayou.

Check out this gallery of images from the shoot!

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For an episode about salmon, our crew traveled to Alaska to film in a variety of demanding situations.  During the shoot, I spent several days filming underwater in frigid rivers on SCUBA, on boats and from helicopters.

Check out this gallery of images from the shoot!

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Our motley crew spent two long weeks together filming, what we all agree, will be a very good hour of television.  We also had a lot of fun.  The photos below are a selection of the experiences we had along our journey.  Enjoy!

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The images were shot with a RED Scarlet and a Canon 5D Mark III.  Lenses used were the Zeiss ZE 35mm f/1.4, Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 and the Canon 16-35mm f/2.8.  Shots were lit using available daylight and 2 Kino Flo Diva Lites. Motion was achieved with a Kessler Pocket Dolly and Kessler Crane.

All images by Studio3 staff and Andy Maser.

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