Steve Maller Photography

My dear friends Gary and Liz got engaged last night in the old fashioned way, with a modern, rock ‘n roll twist. See below for the technical nitty gritty!

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Here are some technical details on what I had to do. I originally planned to film this with two cameras from the sound booth. I was going to use a Canon HG10 HD camcorder for a wide shot, and use my 5D Mark II with my 70-200/2.8 for a closeup (it’s a small club). But when I got there, I faced a couple of complications. First of all, the club was so dark that my HG10 (which is pretty decent WRT sensitivity) could barely register a picture. Focus was hunting badly, too. Secondly (and more seriously), I quickly realized that once the crowd filled in the floor in front of the stage, my cameras in the back of the hall would be useless, especially when Gary got down on one knee, as we planned for him to do.

So I had to think fast, and here’s what I did.

My Beacktek XLR adapter which was originally on the 5D Mark II with my Sennheiser shotgun and a feed from the mixing board was switched over to the HG10 where it would simply record the audio, knowing that the video was going to be all but useless.

And as for the 5D Mark II, I decided I was going to have to charge the stage with a wide-angle lens and take my chances at super high ISO on built-in mic, and sync the audio later. I wish I had a second Beachtek box, but this is the first time I saw the value in that. Anyway, I used the 16-35/2.8 even though I would have preferred my 35/1.4 because I was worried the 35mm end wouldn’t be wide enough if I was right at the front of the stage. I pre-set the camera on Manual with 1/30, f2.8 and ISO 6400. Like I said, it was super dark. Fortunately, as you can see from the resulting video, it basically worked. The first 30 seconds or so of video are super jumpy because I was literally knocking people out of my way to get to the stage. I was originally told the proposal would be before their encore, but as the show started I was told it would be in the middle of the set, and by then people were already smashed up against the stage 20 or so deep. Sigh.

My last challenge was syncing the audio from the two sources, but g-d bless PluralEyes. That was simple (after I retimed the 29.97 audio from the HG10 to match the 30fps from the 5D Mark II).

I’m quite pleased with how this came out, despite all the shortcomings and challenges. It was a magic moment, and I’d say I managed to bring it home in one piece. Actually in several pieces, but I put Humpty Dumpty together again in Final Cut Pro.

I very much enjoy the long-standing relationship I’ve established with the Drama department at Burlingame High School. My older son Max was a member of the cast of four plays while he was there. Even though he’s gone now (and sadly, Sam hasn’t joined up…yet), I have stayed close with Mary and all the hard-working volunteers. So each semester since, they’ve asked me to shoot the cast and crew. It’s a fun afternoon, the kids are immensely appreciative, and everybody gets to feel like a real actor. I enjoy the creative challenge, and I know the kids’ parents appreciate the opportunity to get a “real” headshot of their budding stars. If you’re my friend on Facebook, you can see them all over there.

I am an Apple Aperture user, and have been ever since version 1.0 was released. Aperture is a terrific tool which is responsible in many ways for the great efficiencies I have achieved in my photo production. It allows me to work quickly and accurately, gives me a good number of editing tools, both for individual photos and en masse changes.

I currently have close to 100,000 photos in my main Aperture library on my studio computer, and I have anywhere from 10-20,000 photos on my Macbook Pro library, which includes my family pictures.

Every once in a while, though, Aperture has a hiccup that causes me trouble. Most notably, I’ve had cases where I’ve tried to move projects between computers, upgraded hard drive, or even upgraded the OS X on my computers. In these cases, I’ve had to perform surgery on my Aperture installation to avoid doing a complete rebuild of my library. Once I did try to do a complete rebuild, and my computer was tied up for almost 30 hours.

The symptoms most commonly associated with Aperture database problems are:

• Incorrect or corrupt thumbnail images
• Error messages about missing Master files
• Inability to export versions
• Inability to locate Master files
• Errors ordering prints and/or books

So, I have developed a set of tools that I regularly use to diagnose and repair my Aperture library and projects. I can help you to do this, too. If you have internet access and are running OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), I can use OS X “Screen Sharing” to access your computer and do this remotely. Most database and library repairs take less than an hour, and many can be completed in a matter of minutes.

If you’d like to hire me to do this for you, please contact me via email so that we can discuss your situation. The initial consultation is free. Up to 1 hour of repair work performed remotely over the Internet is $100. More complicated repairs will be estimated in advance.

Good luck, and happy shooting!

Steve