Woo-hoo! New camera

Received our new Canon XH A1 this week, and put it right to work, shooting a video for the Hartsbrook School in Hadley, MA. The A1 is capable of shooting in high definition (HD), but for this project I am using it in standard widescreen mode. After some inital tweaking with the presets, I beginning to get the images close to what I want.

Here are a couple of screen shots from today:
The High School building, Piening Hall.

Two seventh grade boys doing perspective drawing in the shadow of the Mt. Holyoke range.

Four Seasons Boston

Tonight, I was at the Four Seasons in Boston with my favorite photographers, Glenn and April Livermore! Anne and Marc were the wedding couple, and they were so easy to work with, very sweet.

The Four Seasons was, well, The Four Seasons—luxurious, efficient, and AMAZING food! Anne and Marc did a fabulous planning job, everything looked so beautiful.

Here are some pics:

The cake...

The bouquet...

And a detail from the ketubah.

Chipmunk Returns

A bit of chaos here yesterday, as the chipmunk who visited a few weeks ago returned. We called a wildlife control specialist, who doubted our word that a chipmunk was running around the house. Flying squirrels was his suggestion.

Well, he had to apologize after chasing the little creature around our girls' playroom. And the chipmunk gave him quite the runaround, darting among barbies, polly pockets, and countless other toys strewn about the room.

Well, "Chippy" (as our youngest daughter named it) is now removed, and things are settling back to normal, though there is a bit of Chippy mess to be cleaned up in odd corners.

Chipmunk!

I'm at my desk editing last Friday when my intern, Fiona, says, "Tom, there's a chipmunk in your office." Now, I get a little freaked out by wildlife, especially when it's indoors, but I managed not to startle until I actually laid eyes on it. Yep, right there, paused on my floor—a chipmunk. I followed it through my house, opened the front door, and casually herded it outside, with Fiona's help.

About an hour later, Fiona had gone home, but the chipmunk had returned. Yes, back in my office. And since I was alone I was free to really jump when I spotted it. I though it would be a simple matter of herding out the frfont door again, but this time, the chipmunk ran into the kitchen and under the stove.

I made a system of barricades in the kitchen to force the chipmunk closer to our open back door, but it took to hiding under the refrigerator, and stayed there until the next morning. I saw it beside the fridge, so we left it alone with our barricades up and the back door open. Several checks later in the day found no further sign of chipmunk. It seemed like a good opportunity to pull out the fridge and clean all around it, vacuum the coils, etc., so I can with certainty say it isn't in the fridge anymore. We sure hope it found its way outside and is not lurking somewhere in the house, waiting to startle me a third time.

Fire Alarm

On Saturday, I was at the Elm Bank Reservation in Wellesley, MA. Elm Bank is the home of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, which has quite beautiful and extensive grounds. The bride and groom, Eliane and Shawn, had the ceremony and reception there. Below is a shot from the ceremony, with a grand vista!


And from the opposite angle, before the ceremony, with the Manor House in the background.


Somehow during the reception, a fire alarm was accidentally pulled, and there was 40 minutes of flashing strobes and an intermittent alarm sound. Everyone continued with the reception as best they could, and fire trucks soon responded. While the firefighters were resetting the alarm, guests were snapping away at the bride and groom in front of the fire truck, as shown below.




Aside from the alarm, the day went very well, with great weather, a beautiful bridal party, and happy guests. Who could ask for more?

Dam Poison Ivy!

I was in Acushnet, MA, this week, shooting some footage for the National Marine Fisheries Service. They are documenting the Acushnet River Fish Passage Restoration project with work taking place at the Acushnet Sawmill Dam and at the Hamlin Street Dam, both in the town of Acushnet. My guide for the shoot was Steve Block, a Habitat Restoration Specialist for the NMFS. Steve did caution me about poison ivy in some overgrown areas, but I still managed to get a bit showing up on my arm a couple of days later. Hopefully, that's the extent of it. I washed all my clothes right away, and my sneakers last night, and my wife bravely applied Tecnu to my tripod today. We'll see if that takes care of it.

Of course, I have 3-4 more visits to Acushnet to document the construction, so we'll see if I can avoid it next time.

As this shot was taken, the tripod was probably sitting in the poison ivy.

Full Circle

I've been playing with a new toy this week. It's a customized film transfer projector designed to do frame-by-frame transfers of 8mm and Super8 films. In between doing film transfers for clients, I've been testing it out with films from my childhood. Films that I had spliced together myself onto big reels, back when I was 13 or 14 years old. I probably haven't seen these in over 20 years. No one in my family has. They sure will make a nice Christmas presents. Here are a couple of screen captures from my home movies:

Here, my brothers and cousin tear down a gingerbread house on New Year's Eve (circa 1971).

Here I am in the yellow pajamas, between my cousin and my brother.

The film transfers are going great. We clean all the film before transferring, and the frame-by-frame transfer gives very sharp images, so it looks terrific—and it's a lot of fun to watch all the old movies. Check your attics, your closets, and your basements. Dig out those old memories. Film won't last forever—better get it transferred to DVD!