The General

The General from David Stephenson on Vimeo.

The day after it was officially announced that I would be “voluntarily laid off” at the Lexington Herald-Leader, I received an email from Craig Duff, a multimedia director at Time.com. The timing seemed more than coincidental. My primary profession post-Herald-Leader would be that of photojournalism advisor/coach/cheerleader/pot-washer at the Kentucky Kernel. But to keep my shooting appetite whetted, I plan to ramp up the freelance and work on some selected projects that have been rattling around in my head for some time.

On my to do list among many other things: Start networking the national news outlets – the ones I’ve worked for in the past, and a whole slew of others – to let them know I’m available and looking for some shooting and multimedia work. So imagine my delight at seeing an email from a multimedia director from Time.com. Craig had seen the Turtle Man video that Amy Wilson and I had produced and wanted to talk about it. At the end of his email, he mentioned a possible interest in a piece previewing the Kentucky Derby. Doubly odd about his timing was the fact that I had that very day posted the Keeneland Blossoms video which previewed the spring meet and Keeneland Race Track.

After a brief discussion with Craig, I decided I would attempt a video based on the outcome of the Blue Grass Stakes race at Keeneland. So I spent the day at Keeneland focusing on the favorites. Naturally, they didn’t win. An underdog named General Quarters, owned and trained by Tom McCarthy, won the Blue Grass Stakes and was headed for the Kentucky Derby.

After the race, I made contact with Tom’s son and asked if I could come back for an interview in a couple of days. Three days later, Amy and I were at the stall of General Quarters on the backside of Churchill Downs. We shot Mr. McCarthy working through his regiment with the General, which took about four hours. The horse wasn’t ready to go out to the track that day, so I came back a few days later to shoot the General on the track.

Amy did a great job of writing – as usual. Our goal, whenever we work on a piece together, is to be as complete as we can in the time we have. While our videos tend to be a bit unconventional, I like them for that. As I’ve become more and more accustomed to working with the 5DMKII, I’m realizing why I like it so much. It is allowing me to “see” much the same way I looked at things when shooting stills.

Only now, the photos move.

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Some technical stuff about the video:

All shot with the Canon 5D Mark II

70-200 f/2.8 with 1.4 teleconverter

24-105 f/4

300 f/2.8

Interview mic was Sennheiser wireless lav

Ambient sound from the track and bath was recorded with the Sennheiser MKE 400

Gitzo carbon fiber tripod with Gitzo 2180 fluid head

Glidecam 2000 HD steady cam

Really Right Stuff plates allowed quick switching between tripod and steady cam

Neutral density filter

Edited in Final Cut Pro

Keeneland blossoms into spring

Before the sun is up, horses are on the track. Riders in thick jackets and leather chaps ease them up the stretch and gallop them back down, around the turn. Hooves pound. Puffs of steam pour from big nostrils. The grandstand casts a giant shadow, holding winter’s last chill.

READ TOM EBLEN’S FULL COLUMN HERE

This video was shot with the Canon 5D Mark II on a beautiful morning before the Keeneland Race Track 2009 spring meet was to open in Lexington. I used the 24-105 f/4 IS and the 70-200 f/2.8 with the TCEII teleconverter. All shot with a Gitzo tripod and 2180 fluid head – with one exception: there is a brief shot where I used a Glidecam 2000 steady cam. First time I’d used it – need to practice!!

I love shooting at Keeneland – who doesn’t, really? This was the first chance I had to shoot at Keeneland during a race meet with the 5D Mark II. Weather was good, light was nice, time was right. I got out at the track before sunrise with no intent other than to just shoot and see what came out of it. I shortly ran into HL photog Charles Bertram (no big surprise there – he was working on a daily piece for the paper to preview the opening day of the meet).

Not long after that, I spotted HL columnist Tom Eblen shooting photos. He’s a darn good photographer and shoots his own photos to go with his column. After he gave me the general idea of what he was doing, it seemed to fit perfectly with what I was shooting. A few hours later at lunch time, I recorded him reading his column. I kept the beginning and the end as they were, and spliced up the middle to fit my clips and for brevity.

The Road to Recovery

In February, reporter Amy Wilson and I took a day-long road trip into Western Kentucky to see how folks were coping two weeks after what was perhaps the worst ice storm in modern history.

It’s a bit of a departure from what I usually produce on a news assignment. The editors came to Amy and said “Take David and go to Western Kentucky and do what you do.”

We weren’t exactly sure what that meant. But we decided that the drive, the people, the journey would be the story, no matter what we found – the story would present itself. And it did. It’s an unconventional piece for a very unconventional day.

Shot with Canon 5D Mark II, 24-105 f/4 and 300 f/2.8. Audio was recorded with the the Sennheiser MKE 400. Edited in Final Cut Pro. I was very happy with the MKE 400 microphone that day.

Below are some frame grabs from the day. The photo of the white house and the storm clouds was published six columns inside and was beautiful.