Video: A Spring Sunset in the Undergrowth

A Spring Sunset in the Undergrowth from Thomas Fitzgerald on Vimeo.

I shot this little video  around a little stream that runs through a walkway near where I live. I love how, even in little areas of rough ground, nature can take hold, and after a long winter the growth of spring is unfolding. There was beautiful light too. It was shot around 7pm, and the sun was just starting to go down. There's a second half (at the end) where I shot some of the trees. There was a nice gentle wind and the whole thing was somewhat hypnotic. This was all pretty much an urban setting. There's a small park alongside the walk way, but it's still pretty much in a city. Well, the suburbs any way. It is actually amazing how much nature there is if you just stop and look.

My main reason for shooting this was more of an experiment than anything artistic. I wanted to try out my Nikon 24-120 on the GH-2 (hacked) and also a new tripod that I had recently acquired. The 24-120 worked well, in that it has a lovely look when used on the GH-2. The problem is that it is very difficult to focus, because the focus ring on that lens is s**t. (the focus ring isn't directly connected to the lens mechanism, and slips when you go to focus) The tripod is the safari tripod. It takes a bit of getting used to and I haven't found the tension setting that works best yet. It's a little jerky in the movements at times, but that was my fault, not the tripods. I just have to find the sweet spot. It's a fantastic tripod for the price, and it has a proper fluid head and bowl alignment setup, along with carbon fibre legs.

Most of this is ungraded straight from the camera. I have made the odd tweak here and there to a couple of shots, but most of it is as it was shot. Everything post production wise was done in FCPX. If you like this what we're doing here on the blog, don’t forget to Subscribe to the RSS Feed, or check out my Google Plus and Facebook Pages…