Category: Aaron Linsdau

Recording voice overs isn’t as simple as it seems. I’ve been working on getting the audio set for Antarctic Tears: The Movie, and it’s been a long haul getting audio correct. As all still cameras now have video capability, learning better audio to present your video and still work is worthwhile. The Nikon D800 records amazing film, as well as the Canon 5Diii. Photographer  journalists are now virtually expected to produce good video as well as compelling stills.

Apple would have you believe you can just hook your ear buds into the computer, click the Record Voice Over in Final Cut Pro X and everything will be good. Only if you want room noise, the dog next door barking, and lots of static hiss to ruin your otherwise good film.

How about the built in microphone on your Macbook Retina? Only if you want to record fan noise, your keyboard strokes and who knows what else.

No, you have to go to some effort to get good audio and a great deal of effort to get excellent audio. People spend a lot of money on it! How do you make a basic voice over that sounds decent?

• Buy a great mic
• Buy an awesome audio recorder
• Build a sound booth [you’re an audio engineer, right?]

10k later, you’ll be set for your first audio book. Maybe.

OR

• Buy a pretty good audio recorder: Zoom H4n
• Buy a good starter microphone: Audio Technica AT2035 + XLR cable
• Hop in your car/truck, get a few blankets, and make a recording.

Don’t believe it? Here are 2 audio samples of what you’ll get if you chose

A bad recording location: Wood floors, cathedral ceiling, lots of windows. This was recorded directly into a Zoom H4n into the stereo mics

You can hear the room echo. It’s terrible and makes the voice over difficult to hear.

Now, listen to this audio recorded on a Audio Technica AT2035 connected to the Zoom H4n in mono mode (mono input mode makes it possible to use a single microphone and record on both stereo tracks).

You can hear the voice, it’s clear and there’s no high or low frequency echo. Would this be better if it were recorded on a Schoeps CMC641G microphone? Sure! But you’ll be set back $2000 or more just for the microphone.

Go to Source

I’ve been self-assigned the duty of creating Photo Wednesdays with the Teton Photography Group. To foster discussion, have a good time and improve communication between photographers in the group, we’re going to do this.

Loren Nelson will be sending out more specifics. Specifically, it’s informal, post your photo you think is interesting, even it’s your house cat. We’ll eventually have themes, but it’s a forum for everyone to post, have fun, and learn something. It’s a supportive environment and I hope to grow this into something fun that people always like to check out every Wednesday.

This will be open to everyone who is a TPG member, more details from Loren forthcoming, but we expect it to be fun and worth the time. Even if your photo is like the above and you’re hoping to get some discussion, it’ll be good. You see the pink area? That’s from light leakage in the Nikon D800. That’s why it has a little hatch on the viewfinder for long exposures. I learned that one. But it does make the photo more colorful, so maybe it worked out.

The Jackson Hole Off Square Theater Company contacted me to photograph their staged reading of The Lion in Winter, a 1966 play by James Goldman about Henry II of England, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and their children (include Richard the Lionheart) during the Christmas of 1183.

The play was made into a movie in 1968 featuring Peter O’Toole and Katherine Hepburn. It was also made into a television show in 2003 with Patrick Stewart and Glenn Close. Though those actors are gone, the actors who played in this rendition directed by Natalia Macker, went well and was quite enjoyable.

Presented in two parts, the play relates the trials and tribulations of the medieval era and illustrates how people have not changed in 1000 years. The intrigues, devious nature, and constant infighting are no different today than they were at any other time in history.

Given the play was presented as a staged reading, I at first thought it wouldn’t be too interesting but I was quite wrong. Even though the actors held their scripts to read from, they did such a good job of interacting with each other and making the reading dramatic that them holding their scripts didn’t take away from the action at all.

One interesting technique that the play used was a narrator at the side of the stage to give audible cues to the audience for actions that would have required more props and action than the play afforded. Whether it be Henry drawing a sword on John or Eleanor cutting herself with a knife, the lack of props didn’t detracted from the play.

One of the best parts of photographing on a stage with the lighting is that I don’t have to add any drama to the image, I just have to capture it at the correct moment. So often lighting in things can be bland, so I work hard to add great lighting to give dimension and emotion to the image.

It’s important for me to deliver dramatic images to my clients to give them the feeling of a moment which would be lost otherwise with boring lighting. It’s not the camera that makes the photographer better but rather a sense of timing and ability to manipulate lighting to make the image striking and exciting. And if you can’t change the lighting, then finding a place that makes the image good and the lighting workable is just as important. When I teach photography, I impart in students that it’s important to work the image. With digital photography, you can see what you’re getting, so you can keep adjusting and get the image just right.

For those more interested in learning some of my lighting techniques, check out my training DVD Flash Photography with Aaron Linsdau at TVL Video.

During my last expedition across Yellowstone National Park in 2012, I had the chance to photograph this stunning sunrise over Duck Lake, on the way to Old Faithful, after leaving West Thumb early in the morning.

As I was taking the shots to create the panorama, wolves began serenading me. At least that’s what I told myself as I made my way up the pass. There were at first a few mournful howls as the sun warmed up the horizon, then they all broke into a symphony for what seemed minutes, then went dead silent as the echo faded across the valley.

One of my more memorable experiences of crossing Yellowstone, the sound of wolves stayed with me for the rest of the trip. I even had one following me over to Old Faithful later that night. There were a few snow coaches that passed and photographed it, then later saw me along the same road. Many of the passengers demanded the driver go back and warn me that a wolf was following me.

None of the drivers turned around because they were all not worried, as they know the wolves are very spooky in the park. I didn’t learn about this until some time later when a ranger related the story to me. I got a good laugh, as I did see the markings and paw prints in the snow from the huge prehistoric dog. He (or she) certainly had followed me and got close enough that I expected to see eyes with the howls. It really wanted to know what I was, the stranger walking through its land in the night. As so few rarely travel through Yellowstone in this fashion, I was a curiosity.

It was frightening and all at once exhilarating to have something that weighs nearly as much as I with speed and teeth following me. For all the times I’ve been through Yellowstone in the summer and winter, I’ve never actually seen a wolf. They’ve walked by my tent, left tracks inspecting me, and even stalked me. Yet they’ve never approached me, somehow knowing what I was.

Perhaps he/she was following me because I had shortbread cookies.