stillmotion

we each have our own individual blogs and rss feeds, which you can find by clicking on each person’s image above. this is where we share our travels, what we are up to, and other very unimportant yet hopefully rather interesting details about each of us.  the bunk house is the place we share our neat imagery of our awesome couples. our education blog from stillmotionexperience has now been integrated here too. neato.

want to know what we’re up to right now? follow us on twitter by clicking below.

thank you gail + joel + bridal party for being so awesome.

- justin

jay promised myanh a six pack for their wedding day (the one on your body, not the beer).

while she didn’t get that, she did get some yummy little caesar’s.

speaking of little caesar’s, myanh is quite accomplished at eating pizza while in a wedding dress.

separately jay and myanh are both awesome people, but together they sure have some crazy moves.

P.

soundtrack by derby // if ever there’s a reason.

licensed through with etiquette.

in response to michael’s recent e-mail which started with “you guys are barely updating the blog, slackers… HAHA!”, i thought it would be appropriate to post a handful of their images on the blog.  except, with a little twist.  a little mystery.  more soon, michael + cypril. :)

- justin

it’s finally here! with etiquette has launched! but what is it?

with etiquette is a music licensing house designed for independent artists and smaller labels to license their original music to wedding photography and cinematography studios!

for more info, visit www.withetiquette.com, and www.madewithetiquette.com.

and don’t forget to follow w.e. on twitter!

-the sm family

first imaging usa, then the wedding co. show, now in[focus], and in the near future, the announcement of a couple of top secret projects we’ve been feverishly working on, has meant our blogging has become a little sporadic.

however, now that a number of these events have passed, and our projects are nearing completion, we can get back to our regular scheduled blogging!

first up, minh + jarrod’s portrait session.

we’re really honoured to have our image as the campaign image for the wedding co. show this year.

it’s one of our favourite images from jonah and du’s wedding, and is of them walking together, holding hands, in the little park that separates le germain (where they dressed) from le select bistro (where they wed).

in addition to the image being used in a number of magazines, it is also on the front of every show ticket.

speaking of which, stillmotion is going to be at this year’s wedding show.  we’re really excited to share what we have been cooking up over the past few months.  :)

the show runs from jan 15th – 17th @ the carlu.  all the details can be found on the wedding co’s website.

the wedding co. was also kind enough to supply us with a couple of extra tickets to the show, so we thought we’d have a little contest to give them away.

leave a comment in this post or send an e-mail to justin@stillmotion.ca about what you’re most excited for at the 2010 wedding show, and on monday morning, we’ll have a draw to select the winning response.

see you next week at the show!

- justin

what does a same day edit and kickboxing have in common?

featuring world champion and egyptian champion of kickboxing khaled fahim.

shot entirely on the MKIV in 24P.

2010 will be the year of same day edits for stillmotion. we will be offering two different sizes.

you can come see us this january, the 17th-20th, in austin, TX as the featured speakers of IN[FOCUS]. we will be doing a 3 hour presentation on what it takes to bring your same day edits to the next level. this will be an action packed 3 hours guaranteed to help those who are just getting into same day edits, or those who have been doing them for years.

we will also be starting the first off shoot of the evolution experience, a same day edit workshop. it will be 2 days at our edu studio here in toronto where we focus on theory, shooting, and actual editing exercises (FCP based). we are looking for a very small group – only 8 people per class – so we can have a lot of one on one time and really cater the experience to your skill level. if your just starting out, this workshop alone will make you more than confident to start offering amazing same day edits. if you have been doing them for years, this experience will surely take every same day edit you do to the next level.

this workshop will cover pre-production, shooting, and lots of editing. each attendee must have FCP 7 as well as a laptop to do their own editing. we will provide cameras, lenses, and other gear to shoot, capture, and work with.

you can grab a seat at IN[FOCUS] and hear 12 speakers across three days in austin, TX this jan 17-20th for $645US.

you can register at infocusvideoevent.com

if your interested in one of the eight spots in our same day edit workshop here in toronto, ON this april 13-14th. check out stillmotionexperience.com to apply. the cost of registration is $2000.

edwina and john were married 4 hours before the the new year in chicago, which made for one of the most challenging and exciting same day edits. we always do our best to be on time or early with an sde, but generally if something happens, a couple minutes of wiggle room is ok. when it comes to new years, that couple minutes means so much more. the sde was slated in the 11:30-11:45 region. factoring in the time to color and export the finished piece, we cut it pretty close, but we every second to put this together.

at 11:25 we had quite the scare. we did an early sound check and ran the projector that edwina rented (since we were in chicago and not TO) and everything appeared to be good. when we plugged in the laptop we had no signal – the screen just stayed blue. at 11:27 it didn’t leave us with many options. one of our backup bags of cables had one that the projector liked more, so we setup, taped cables down, and prepped the crowd in less than 60 seconds. it was quite the experience to share this on new years and edwina and john were such a humorous and fun couple to share it with.

special thanks to casey and danielle, our good friends, who shared their new years eve with us and were a huge part of this. casey shot throughout the day and danielle helped me put the edit together. this piece is also the debut of justin and amina shooting cinema with us :)

P.

ever since the MKII revolution within our industry, we have been patiently awaiting what canon would follow up with. all of our traditional 3ccd video cameras were replaced with these DSLRs and a pile of lenses. not only did our imagery improve tenfold as we transitioned over, but our understanding and appreciation of optics did as well.

when the 7d was launched, with it’s improved auto focus, aps-c sized sensor, and 24P/60P options (all in a sub $2000 price point) we brought in six of those and they became our workhorse. some felt the crop was a drawback – we loved the opportunity to get in tighter with less light loss (as compared to a longer lens on the MKII). the aesthetic of 24P was certainly not easy for us to give up, and that alone was enough reason for us to bring in the 7d.

now it’s time for the 1d MKIV to launch and our first question, of course, was how will it stack up against the others?

mark was kind enough to put in some extra hours around our rather grueling holiday schedule and put together this comparison of the three different cameras. we looked at high iso performance, the crop factor, and rolling shutter.

practically speaking, the rolling shutter felt significantly reduced on the MKIV. if you pair that with the increased weight and the different form factor that the integrated battery grip provides, it almost feels like you could shoot handheld. it has never been our style to shoot completely hand held (we often use a monopod or shoulder rig) but for those who do shoot that way, it feels much more natural with this camera. being a pro series camera, it certainly has a super solid feel to it. as we all gave it a test, the consensus seemed to be that the form factor of the MKIV was very conducive to video.

being a pro series body means you also get features like super fast auto focus, many more AF points (45 points), and it can shoot up to 10 photos per second in burst mode. while that may not interest those out there who are looking mainly to this camera for video, it certainly piqued my interest as a way of incorporating a time lapse of stills with other video segments.

the camera is is also ‘weather resistant’ so you can get away with much more in tough outdoor conditions. with our shooting style, that certainly means a lot.

the MKIV certainly triumphed in low light, and it is crazy what these cameras are able to do, but in comparison to the others it wasn’t as striking of a difference as i was expecting from reading vincent laforet’s blog. at higher iso settings the MKIV certainly looks cleaner, but the MKII and 7d both perform so well that it is tough to be significantly better than that.

as for the crop factor, the 1.3 factor of the MKIV is right in between that of the MKII (full frame, 1.0) and the 7d (1.6). while it doesn’t sound like much, when you see them side by side you realize just how much of a difference that actually translates into. i am of the mind that a crop factor always has it ups and downs. as good as it is to get wider when you have a full frame sensor, getting in tighter is also great in many situations. as you get longer lenses, they are generally slower and heavier as well, so keeping small fast primes that get in super tight is quite the tool to have. the 1.3 crop factor of the MKIV feels like a great balance between the MKII and the 7d. i think many who weren’t happy with the 1.6 of the 7d will feel much more comfortable with the MKIV.

so what camera would we choose? depending on what country your in, the prices will vary, but here we are looking at about $2500 for the MKII, $1600 for the 7d, and $4900 for the MKIV.

is the MKIV twice as good as the MKII? currently, with no 24P on the MKII my answer would be absolutely yes. if and when the 24P firmware update happens, we would need to see if the rolling shutter was corrected (or potentially even worsened with a slower frame rate).

is the MKIV over three times as good as a 7d? for me, the answer would again be yes, but for many it may not be so straightforward. the form factor, the crop factor, as well as the weather resistance would all lead this to be my main camera (not to mention all of the awesome photo features). if i were a smaller studio starting out, i would probably look to the 7d first, as that camera offers an unbelievable value. a perfrect combination for many will likely be a MKIV as the workhorse with the MKII or the 7d rounding out the team as B,C, and D cameras.

we should, of course, never lose sight of the fact that this is just gear after all and being such, should always come secondary to our vision and approach. i hope we demonstrated with our JC + Esther film that it doesn’t have to take a ton of gear, cameras, or lenses – but simply the right gear, with the right understanding and vision.

thanks again to mark for putting this together. we have something else shot with the MKIV that we are hoping to debut in the coming weeks. amina and justin are also planning a follow up with some images to give you their take on the MKIV which, from what i here, will quickly become our main photo camera. any questions about the MKIV, please feel free to comment and we will do our best to keep up.

P.

this is what makes a wedding day – for me anyway.

liam proposed to liz exactly a year before their wedding day in florence, italy.

the tux he wore on the Day was the same tux he wore when he proposed.

the jewelry liz wore was left to liam’s future bride by his mom before she passed.

the watch that liam wore was the same watch that his mom gave his dad on their wedding day.

the battery in the watch died shortly before the wedding, so liam changed the time on it to say 2:00, the time of their ceremony.

it still says 2:00.

as a wedding gift, liz gave liam two things:
-a pocket square she made out of a piece of her dress
-a pair of cuff links made out of two pieces of map. one had a map of florence, the other a map of st. catharines.

liz and liam got married in st. catharines.

and they are so happy.

-amina