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lewmonst

All the little things about cameraflying...

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Femur-ing in big style while the camera is running, returning 2 years later to find the footage is still being watched and enjoyed by your 'friends'.:$B|

Editing, the amount of time it takes is directly proportional to the number of people asking...is it ready yet?

Having to tag everything, batteries, leads tapes, chargers etc, with a wee sticky label identifying it as yours.

Losing cameras in fires, can I join your club Lew, I lost mine in a fire this weekend.[:/]

Oh one last thing NTSC and PAL, and 'DVD-' and 'DVD+'.>:(
--------------------

He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

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All of Lew's plus ...

* Having your lens ripped off by a riser
* Gleeking your lens with snot when you climb out so now you have this nice smudge dead center on the camera ( now I blow my nose on jump run!)
* biffing on a no wind day and roll on top of your camera
* Having the "nite switch" button come on (internally) and ruining the first video of a busy day.
* Running into town and buying a new video camera to finish the rest of the day since you already screwed up the first two (with the nite switch)
* weighing 230lbs w/o gear and flying video for a 140lb tandem master and his 95lb student! "Come on wings, don't fail me now!"
*crawling over a TM in a cessna who likes to launch in a sit position from where I typically sit
* landing 6 miles off because you trusted a birdman with his spot. (nice pix anyway, Mike!)
*printing your cards, VHS labels, CD Labels, DVD labels -- all at your own cost
* making leads for your tapes.
*finding music your tandem student wants online -- paying .99 cents for it -- charging them nada

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I've had to buy my fair share of gear, and blown some shots that can't be reproduced.

OTOH, I've had Paul Quade score my family tickets to Disneyland and meet us there,

had Tony Hathaway call me a home a couple times, and work with me duplicating the 121-way record,

had Mike McGowan go out of his way to say hello,

talked on many occasions with Gregg Gasson and Brent Finley about the state of the art,

had Craig Girard tell me I did great when filming 8 way Airspeed day last year,

actually got paid to wear my gear out of the Hercules in Sweden for Schwede,

got to fall for Foxes at Nationals with Lew!

I'll never get the money back, but the memories are absolutely priceless.

-and- "No, I can't give you a firewire now, but it'll be in the DVD!"


:)

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I've had to buy my fair share of gear, and blown some shots that can't be reproduced.

OTOH, I've had Paul Quade score my family tickets to Disneyland and meet us there,

had Tony Hathaway call me a home a couple times, and work with me duplicating the 121-way record,

had Mike McGowan go out of his way to say hello,

talked on many occasions with Gregg Gasson and Brent Finley about the state of the art,

had Craig Girard tell me I did great when filming 8 way Airspeed day last year,

actually got paid to wear my gear out of the Hercules in Sweden for Schwede,

got to fall for Foxes at Nationals with Lew!



I made your cool list... wow.

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I'll never get the money back, but the memories are absolutely priceless.

-and- "No, I can't give you a firewire now, but it'll be in the DVD!"


:)



SOO true.

I still need to throw in all my still photo little things...

peace
lew
http://www.exitshot.com

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People will start talking about how bad your work sucks, well maybe that only happens in Deland, Jealous fucks.



We aren't jealous...we're waiting for beer, sucka! :P:ph34r:

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BEER RULES:
1. An unwritten law, one as immutable and irrefutable as gravity and backed by history, states that skydivers enjoy the drinking of beer almost as much as flight itself.

2. A manifestation of this fact is the tradition of the buying by an individual skydiver a case of beer (that being twenty-four cans or bottles holding twelve or more ounces of beer, ale, or some similar such substance) for his or her fellow jumpers to celebrate the accomplishment of a particular feat or milestone in one's jump career.

* First camera jump
* Getting your name or photo in "Parachutist" Magazine



**quote taken from AggieDave's post on "10 Things Skydivers Hate The Most" on Bonfire.

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10. Being asked by Norman Kent to shoot something for him.

*every time you name-drop a "skygod."***

**quote taken from "10 things skydivers love the most" in Bonfire with the addition of my own new rule, which I believe can safely fall under rule #5...

***5. Recognizing this, the following happenings are to be regarded as suitable occasions for buying beer. This list is not to be construed as exhaustive.



;) Can I hear a "hell yeah"? Lighten up and enjoy the whole ride. B|

Kim
Watch as I attempt, with no slight of hand, to apply logic and reason.

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How about shooting a "something way" at a boogie, the organizer announces that there will be video and it will only cost 2 bucks each, one of the participants pipes in that their pal "Zeb" is looking for some video practice and that he will shoot for free and put in a lift ticket for himself, the other participants upon hearing that keep their 2 bucks and go with "Zeb", who does a shitty job, but he's free. After the day is done "Zeb" comes up to you and is asking for advice on how to make his video better. I know what I would tell him. What would some of you tell "Zeb"?


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Excuse my ignoranace but this crossed my mind the other day: what happens if you, as a paid cameraflyer forget to turn on the camera/suffer any one of the number of things that Lew listed that results in you not capturing someone's tandem video?

Advertisio Rodriguez / Sky

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Tandem gets the money they paid for that service back. If the stills work, some places give the roll to the customer free of charge, some places charge just a nominal fee for them. Depends on that business' policy.

On one of my first student dives the cameraflyer -thought- they had the video camera on (didn't have a CamEye or anything like that, but thought he saw the red record light reflecting in the pilot's sunglasses :S ). I got my video money back, plus the free roll of shot film.

Pretty disappointing, but it -will- happen at least once in a cameraflyer's carrier. Either by not hitting the record button before climb-out or the camera crapping out on the way down. It's the most horrible sinking feeling once you realize what just happened. B|

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

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Excuse my ignoranace but this crossed my mind the other day: what happens if you, as a paid cameraflyer forget to turn on the camera/suffer any one of the number of things that Lew listed that results in you not capturing someone's tandem video?



Then you dont get paid for that jump.;)



What could possibly go wrong?

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Man, I'm a newbie in camera and already had three of them! When I got into it I never realised what it was all about....so far I've had:

1. Zoomed in all the way
2. Had to go around because i forgot to put the goggles on (used to wearing full-face helmet...stupidB|)
3. Turned the camera OFF instead of ON climbing out and got a whole lot of nice scenery!

So, then I used a cam-eye and figured out that if you don't secure it properly it flaps in front of the lens for the whole skydive...:D

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Being a newbie at it is when you find the most shit will happen. then you get into a good groove, and that is when things like "turning the camera off instead of on" get replaced by "camera totally shits the bed in freefall" happens.

For a while, you would be surprised at what combinations will happen. Then you will have it all down, and that is when camera(read: expensive) problems will appear. That is when doing video really can suck.

That being said,
even when you have 1000s of camera jumps,
you can still do stupid things like many in the list.
Oh well, you missed a jump.
Life goes on.

jeff D-16906

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Forget tandems..what about when you dont get the video during a competition and you go to the judges and there is no video, try to explain that to the team..........sorry it happened to me.
http://web.mac.com/ac057a/iWeb/AC057A/H0M3.html

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one more thing about goggles....you forget your goggles....glasses altogether....done that a few times...good thing i fly mostly on my back. :S



Did you hear the one where I forgot my goggles.....:D Found that gaffers tape worked -real- well for me. :)
ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

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Oh... thanks for this list! I'm a beginner but almost all he little things have happened already.:)
I can even add one more)))

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Thinking you've just filmed the greatest jump of you life...then realising your camera was zoomed in to the max after you view the actual footage:S



... realising you was a looser ... making the next "greatest video job" ... a got it again!!! You forgot to fix it while thinking you was a looser.
Between two evils always pick theone never tried

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I've been shooting tandems for a few years now, not sure how many exactly, but a few hundred anyway, and this weekend I had my first botch-up. Tongue switch malfunctioned and I didn't get a single picture. Felt like shit having to tell the customer - it seriously bummed me out for the rest of the day.

And to add to the list, don't forget the tandem passengers who absolutely refuse to look at the camera, even if you fly in and tweak their damn noses!

Canuck

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Sitting by the door on a cesna and the pilot insists he has to open and close the door which has a handle made like a school bus door .And but when he opens it he don't watch what he's doing and pops it and just lets it fly right into your expensive still camera and almost takes the frickin lense clean off of it..
I was soo happy !!!!!!!:(


A friend will bail you out of jail , a REAL friend will be sitting next to you in the cell slapping your hand saying "DUDE THAT WAS AWSUM " ................

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What would some of you tell "Zeb"? (quote)

Before or after he get's punched in the mouth?

No really he would get a fuck off.
But it is fun to sit back and watch the newbies run out a buy a bunch of new toys for their head without doing their homework and or not asking any of the video folks who have been doing video/stills for YEARS about what to get and how to set it up the right way, so when their toys show up it don't fit right or is the wrong stuff in the first place and then they get on here to ask about what to do, without yet again asking an expert at their home dz.:D
What's so hard about shooting video/still anyway you strap some shit on your head and then it's just another skydive for crying out loud....:P

~
you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

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Try just one wing comming off and you having to fly like a pretzel just to keep it in frame and stable while the TI points and laughs!

Dark sunset, and you are wondering why isnt the flash going off anymore, in the middle of the dive, just to see your remote cable flap in front of you one second later.

...

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