Aaron Paul Vogel

I spent Monday at Buttonwillow Raceway watching street bikes go incredibly fast around the track. I was there with some friends trying to wrap up video shooting for my final project and ended up taking as many stills as I did video shots. That was just too much fun. These are all un-cropped, un-toned and edited for good shots and shots of my friends, so there's a couple half-fuzzy ones in there. Anyway it was a blast, and if you're in the Los Angeles area I highly suggest you check out www.takeit2thetrack.net for info on their track days.

So this has nothing to do with photography, but everything to do with my life. Well, maybe that's an exageration, but some how without my [formerly] trusty steed ready for some high-speed schenanigans I just don't feel whole. I'll note the entire story later, I just wanted to get these photos up for now. Big thanks to Mike and Israel for getting my butt home. It would have been a long walk.

I just read this blog post at PDNedu which referred to an article by Mindy McAdams called What I learned from the online photojournalists. For some reason it really struck a nerve - not in a bad way, just in as much as it really made me want to reply... which is what I did:

"As much as I'm in favor of Visual Journalism, I just don't see the video camera taking over for the still camera. While I'm certainly no expert on the subject, and this is all just my opinion... having done the kind of video that newspapers are starting to do, I can honestly say that I feel there's a big part of 'shooting' that a video camera doesn't fill as well as a still camera. My quick reasons:

• Shutter speed. You're always shooting at a 1/30 or 1/60 shutter speed, if you do otherwise the video looks funny. Sooooo.. do you really think a 'camera' that only shoots at two speeds can take over the industry? I don't. Yes, that $1500 HDR-HC3 shoots at 1/240.. great, you have 3 shutter speeds.
• Ergonomics. Can anyone you know hold a video camera as comfortably and stably as a still camera? I can't. I use a tripod for almost everything. Do you want to shoot all your assignments with a tripod?
• Speed of workflow. The new P2 cards aside, working with MiniDV tapes is a pain in the butt. Even with disc based recording there's a big gap between the speed of editing a folder full of stills and video clip where you're looking for the best still grab.
• Lens choice. Unless you're looking at buying something like the Canon XL series, you don't have the option of switching lenses on most of these cameras. While the optical zoom range is pretty large, can you really say that the quality of the lenses is up to par with L glass or the Nikkor glass? Ziess makes good glass, but do you really think you're getting their best stuff in a pro-sumer $1500 camera? Probably not.

Again, sorry that I seem to have gone off. It started to just flow once I got going.

I love the video movement, and it's cool to seem something new ruffle everyone's feathers. I would imagine it separates those that really want to work for their jobs and those that are just in it to work. I just feel that there's a lot of hype that's freaking people out when it really shouldn't."

So the bike is sitting in the garage awaiting a heart transplant, and I'm just going silly with boredom. So what do I do? I grabbed my roommate's long board out of the garage and head on down the sidewalk. Mind you, I don't skateboard. In fact I've, until yesterday, yet to step onto on that I didn't fall immediately off of. But longboards are different. I discovered I can actually stay up on one.. and even carve a little bit! It's really close to snowboarding, which I can do. So here's a little video clip I made with my phone, just to prove I can actually do it.

I'm still working on my final for MPV261. I received an extension on it from Rick so I could film a bit more, and it really helped. I expect to finish that by the end of this week. In other good news I'm really close to getting credentials for the Laguna Seca Moto GP race at the end of July, which I'm really stoked about. I've only shot motorcycles once before (see my post on Ti2TT) but I feel like I learned a lot from that experience and I'm ready to take another shot at it. Lesson one: 2x extenders REALLY hurt sharpness. I'm hoping this time I can get really close to the track. Wish me luck.