(Pictured above: A brief moment chilling at Delicate Arch in Arches National Park.  My two cameras working)

It’s been a busy few weeks  and I’ve had no time to update my blog. So I’ve devised a plan to write shorter blog entries. They’ll be less intimidating to write and easier to read, and hopefully I can keep up to date easier.

That’s the plan anyway. So here’s the skinny on what I’ve been up to:

After returning from NYC a couple of weeks ago, I had to turn in an edit quickly. After I completed editing the video, I had a day to pack and then flew to Moab, Utah and then to Bend, Oregon to shoot outdoor adventure content for REI. I am going to write two separate blog entries for those trips in the next couple of days.

I returned last Friday night and have been busy editing the footage. I must say I am happy with the results of the first two, and I can’t wait for you to get a chance to see them. Hopefully I’ll wrap up editing this week and will have a couple of weeks before my next assignment.

I feel so fortunate to have REI as a client. They send me to such cool places and they are easy to work with. They have faith in my creative choices, which gives me a lot of pride and sense of ownership in my work.

Over the next couple of weeks, I want to work on other creative endeavors such as a comic book series that I began writing for young children. I’m writing the scripts and am working with my friend Ron who is a comic book artist and bandmate from The Tobasco Donkeys. I’ll keep the details secret until release.

I also will be stepping up my marketing for The Philmont Documentary Collection for the holiday season, and pursing other freelance filmmaking leads. I’d like to work on songs for the next Tobasco Donkeys album, but that may be pushing it.  That gave me another thought for a blog post idea. How I manage my time, my daily routine, juggling several projects at a time and making the most out of every day. It’s something I am very proud of. I can’t stand wasted time and so I have every day scheduled to the hour. This may seem dull but since I have been doing it for the past few years, it has been immensely rewarding. There are so many goals I want to complete before my time is up, that I just want to make everyday count. I’ll call the post, The Tao of Larry.

Thanks for reading my randomness. I swear I’ll be more focused in future posts. I’d be thankful if you subscribe to my blog.

Cheers,

Larry

Early Wednesday morning I jumped on the subway toward upper Mannhatten to meet some of the REI folks who would take me in a car to the first project. To be honest, I was bit apprehensive about taking all of my 42 pounds of camera gear onto the subway (yeah, I weighed it with my handy portable luggage scale). After seeing so many movies about muggings and crime in New York city- I was prepared for the worst. But it was a breeze. In fact, I rode the subway a lot over the last couple of days and always felt at ease.

Over 3 days, REI staff were working service projects in each of the five boroughs of New York. I filmed four of them between Wednesday and Thurseday. It was exciting getting to see different areas of the city and the best part was meeting truly incredible people. For each project REI partnered with local organizations who took care of individual parks. I have found that people who volunteer in these organizations are the best people you will ever meet. I feel honored to showcase the selfless work that they are doing.  Because the work that they do, however crucial, is usually under appreciated and taken for granted.  You can learn more about outdoor volunteer opportunites in your area here.

On Wednesday, I filmed a service project at a park in The Bronx. The REI staff were helping to remove evasive weeds and dig holes for new trees. The fun part was in order to get to the area where they were working I had to be pulled over in a boat across a shallow river by a guy in waders.

The weather forecast for Wednesday and Thurseday (when I was filming) was thunderstorms all day long. Filming in the rain is hectic because my cameras are allergic to water and so I have to put a rain cover on them. This makes getting to my camera controls, changing lenses and pulling focus clunky. The worst part is it’s really hard to get decent sound in rain because the sound of the rain pitter pattering on the rain cover sounds like annoying electronic clicks and pops. Fortunatly it was just overcast with the occasional light showers.

Later on Wednesday, I filmed a project in Queens in an area called Rockaway Park.

A truly eclectic area that is made up of lower income ‘projects’, surf bums, and gentrification. The REI crew was helping pull a lot of weeds and grass and garbage from a block of newly planted trees that were part of NYC’s, “Million Tree Program”- an effort to plant one million new trees in the city. We were joined by a fantastic organization called the Rockaway Waterfront Project. In particular there were some teens that came after school to help in the project and they were so awesome! Everyone was inspired by their dedication to their community and the environment.  You can see a great video and learn more about The Roackaway Waterfront Project here.

After the project, the REI staff joined in a big circle with the teens from the Rockaway group and each person talked about what they took away from the day’s experience. It was a real inspirational moment and after watching the footage, I decided to put it together into a two minute video. If REI decides to release it, I’ll be sure to show it to you.

The next day, I filmed a service project in a beautiful park in Mannhatten, just a couple of blocks from Columbia University. Again, it was pulling evasive weeds and again they were lovely people.

Next it was Staten Island to Gateway National Recreation area. I had about 30 minutes to poke around the park before everyone showed up so I walked around a bit to try to see if I could get a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty. But it was so foggy, I couldn’t even see to the other side of the bridge. I snapped a couple of pictures of the bridge and the old fort that used to be up there.

After taking this picture of the bridge, a guard told me I can’t take pictures of the bridge without a permit. I guess it has something to do with Homeland Security…

The best part about this park, is that there was hardly anyone there! Could this be NYC? It was a pleasant break from the hustle and bustle.

When the REI crew arrived, they helped clean up garbage from bike trails and from the beach that had tons of garbage washed ashore from Hurricane Irene. It was a pretty dirty job. There was nasty stuff everywhere- from beer bottles, to tires and even used needles. Just like all the other jobs, the big group of people were able to do what would take weeks to do for the park staff.

The mist was certainly getting bad, coating my lenses and making it almost impossible to shoot. I shot this picture at the end, only finding out when I got back to the hotel that it was a bit out of focus. I’ll blame it on the mist.

Today I stayed in and began to capture all of my media from the last couple of days and begin to edit. REI hopes to get a rough cut by Tuesday, so i’ll be pretty busy to pull that off. It was hard to stay in the hotel all day when there were so many places I wanted to see so close to where I was. The protestors on Wall Street were close by, and I really wanted to visit the World Trade Center memorial which was just a few blocks walk away. But I had work to do…

While I was editing in the hotel all day I decided to do something worthwhile with my camera sitting around so I set it up at the window and shot a time lapse for a little while.  Check it out:

Tomorrow, I am going to wake up at 4:30am to take a subway down to Brooklyn Bridge park in hopes to get a time lapse of the sun coming up and illuminating the Brooklyn Bridge and Mannhatten to open up the piece I am working on. Then it’s a race back to the hotel and off to the airport to catch a flight back to Austin.  It’s after midnight now, and I still havent packed…

Next Friday, I am leaving again to film mountain bikers in Moab, Utah and then rock climbers at Smith Rock State Park near Bend, Oregon. A stark difference from my time here in the Big Apple.

www.LarryMcLaughlin.net

I was in Seattle for 5 days last week for ‘work’. The weather was gorgeous and sunny. Clear skies and highs in the 80′s. From what I hear that is uncharacteristic of Seattle weather. And even though I didn’t run into Eddie Vedder at a Starbucks as planned, it was a pretty fulfilling trip.

REI asked if I could help them create a video showing the benefits of joining their co-op. The challenge was to create something great in a narrow time frame and I think we succeeded.  Most of the filming I did was at the flagship store located in the heart of the city.  It’s a pretty amazing store with a really cool pinnacle enclosed in a glass atrium.  Outside they had a waterfall and bike trails around the store.

Filming in the store was challenging because of the sound issues and the mixture of sunlight and incandescent light created a lot of color issues. For those who don’t know, outside light often looks blue if not correctly balanced in the camera. However, if you correct for the window light, then everything inside looks weird. So it’s best to stick with one or the other in your frame if you don’t have any lights or gels to adjust the light. It was run and gun style filming armed with my Panasonic Af-100. I was a one-man band so I didn’t have the luxury of lighting. Besides we were interviewing the staff and REI members on the spot, so lighting would have just been silly.

At the end of each film-day, I was fortunate to have Tom, the photo manager at REI, show me the sights around the city. For those who have been on business trips, you can appreciate having someone help you get out of the hotel and check out the city in which you are staying. We drove around through the cool neighborhoods, past the landmarks and walked the urban trails. What an incredible city! Loved the houseboats along the water. When I was a kid, I read a book about a family living in a houseboat and thought that seemed like the way to go. We saw the Sleepless in Seattle houseboat, and an interesting dirt sculpture under a bridge.

Mainly I just liked the vibe of the city. I got to see see my first drawbridge go up! We got a fantastic view looking straight up at it from the waterfront trail. I can’t believe I have never seen a draw bridge go up. I was geeking out about it. The concept of a drawbridge, the fact that someone thought of that, is fascinating to me.

We walked over to the photogenic Gas Works:

which provided an amazing view of the skyline at night:

Tom at one point suggested we try some of the famous Seattle salmon. I felt bad telling him that I don’t care for salmon. Later he suggested some of the best sushi, and I told him that I don’t like sushi. When I told him I didn’t like coffee, I felt about as popular as Ozzy Osbourne at the Alamo. In an effort to save face and show some Seattle love, I told him that I like grunge music. But I think we missed that opportunity by about 10 years…

One of the highlights of the trip was driving outside of the city to the gorgeous mountains. We went to an area known as, “Exit 38″ and interviewed some rock climbers. The weather was fantastic and everyone was out in droves. Every time the topic of weather came up with the locals, they sighed and got long faced at the thought of the long, grey winter. It made me understand why all the Seattle grunge music was about being down and out.  It also made me understand why none of the grunge guys wore pink spandex like their LA predecessors.  In this climate, only flannel will do.

I’m heading off to the airport in the next hour or so- destination Colorado and Philmont Scout Ranch!

After wrapping up my first job for REI, I can head out with a sense of accomplishment. I can’t wait for you to see the REI stories I captured in Colorado which will be posting on their social network pages soon. If you’re not a fan of REI’s Facebook page, check it out if you can because I will be posting videos on there for months to come. The premise of the videos or web series is to capture REI members sharing their favorite outdoor adventures in their favorite neck of the woods. It might be a group of friends on a paddling trip, or a retired couple cycling from Bryce to Zion or motorcyclists riding and camping on a road trip. The possibilities are exciting. REI will be posting ways that you can submit to be filmed on their Facebook page. My job is to film and edit these adventures. How cool is that?

I’m heading with my son to Colorado today to spend some time with family over the weekend. Colorado is so amazing in the summer and a nice relief from Austin weather. We will make our way down to my parents cabin in southern Colorado where my son will stay with his grandparents for a few days. They have every day planned and so many cool things that a 4 year old can do in a remote area in the mountains. He’s excited!

I’ll be at Philmont all next week in support of my Philmont Documentary Collection which I released in November (www.Philmontmovie.com). I’m excited to announce that on July 5th the documentary will make it’s Philmont premier. It’s something I have wanted for a long time. I am excited about this filming venture because I can really just take my time and get a lot of beauty shots and not have to be documenting people. Don’t get me wrong- I love to document people, but it can be exhausting being a one-man crew and the change of pace will be welcome. Philmont will use the footage as they choose. It will most likely be supplemental footage for their new established video team. One of the best parts of the trip is the fact that I’ll be joined by my good friend- Andy Gerhart. I met Andy about 20 years ago at Philmont and we’ve shared some great times. He helped me launch our band, “The Tobasco Donkeys”.

And then I’m back in Colorado for a family reunion and to meet up with my wife and daughter for a few day vacation. It’s going to be a great couple of weeks!

I will post from Philmont and when I can. Have a great holiday weekend!

-Larry

The group I was filming got off the trail about 2pm today.  And just in time.  As we were getting in our cars at the trail head, the winds started picking up and the clouds grew dark.  We drove to a nearby bar and grill for lunch.  It was nice to not have a camera in my hands and be able to kick back and relax.

I awoke this morning at 5:30 feeling pretty wrong.  Big headache, quesy stomach, all the symptoms of a proper hangover but in my case it was altitude sickness.  In all my running around filming, I wasn’t drinking enough water, and I have not been sleeping much over the last few days.  I grabbed some water and headed to the nearby meadow to check on my camera which was taking photos every 30 seconds for a time-lapse of the stars. The camera battery was dead as expected.  I had to restart the time-lapse after a couple hour attempt a few hours earlier because I forgot to turn off the autofocus on the lens.  If the camera can’t autofocus (which it can’t when its that dark) then it won’t take a picture.  Bonehead move- I learned my lesson.  I blame it on my sleep deprivation. The results from my second attempt look pretty cool because it shows the full moon moving across the sky behind the trees and it looks like the sun.  The only bummer is the batteries died a little earlier than I would have wanted them to- making the shot shorter than expected.  But it’s definitely something I can work with.  I’ll attach one of the photos here. Might be hard to see in the conversion.

A few things I’d like to improve upon next time:

1. I have to lighten my pack load somehow- although I’m not sure how.
2. I have to take better care of myself next time (BTW, I felt pretty good a couple of hours and liters of water after waking up.)  But need to sleep more and fuel my body better.
3. I need to figure out a more comfortable way to carry my monopod with camera.  It’s about 10 pounds and really drags on the arms with each mile.  I didn’t weigh the pack, but I would wager it’s well over 40 pounds.  Thinking of having a fast release clip from my belt to take the weight off my arms.  Another idea from one of the people I was filming (Paul), was to create a big neck strap similar to the way a machine gun is carried.  He used to be in the Marines.  He said my monopod was about the same size as a machine gun (or army rifle- my apologies for lack of firearm knowledge).  Regardless, the caparison between my camera set-up and a machine gun made me feel cool.

I got to use a bunch of cool new items for camping so I’ll share some thoughts on a couple here.   When I did manage to sleep, I slept really well.  So I’ll focus on my sleeping stuff.  I wished I had taken a photo of my tent set-up but I forgot so I’ll post links and to the product page if you want to check it out.  Here’s my new sleeping stuff:

1. Mountain Hardwear Sprite 1 Tent http://www.rei.com/product/810016/mountain-hardwear-sprite-1-tent.  An awesome tent that weights about 3 pounds and I loved the little side nook near my head for storing my cameras and such.  I love the easy access side door that unzips down most of the side of the tent.  I set it up in the dark with a headlamp- which was pretty quick and easy.  Love the screens all around in case I ever want to keep the fly off and gaze up at the stars.
2. Mountain Hardwear Ultramina 15: http://www.rei.com/product/747894/mountain-hardwear-ultralamina-15-sleeping-bag.  It did it’s job, was light weight, warm and compacted easily- but the thing I wasn’t crazy about were the two short side zippers that only ran about a third of the way down the bag.  Made getting in and out a bit of chore.  Also the hood design was sort of funky.  But it was fluffy and comfy and since I am a side sleeper, it was a bit wider than my last bag and more comfortable.
3. The Exped SynMat Air Pad http://www.rei.com/product/811907/exped-synmat-ul-7-air-pad.> – Smartest.  Purchase.  Ever.  If you are like me and don’t sleep well in a tent, check this little baby out along with the pillow that’s next on the list.  Amazingly comfortable and so lightweight!  I love it!  Didn’t slip off like I do on others.  And it packs down to the size of a nalgene bottle.  Highly recommended.  
4. Exped Air Pillow – Okay, so for many years backpacking, I just used my clothes for a pillow and I didn’t sleep all night and my neck was sore in the morning because that’s what I thought real men do.  But I was just young and silly back then.  This pillow is light, super comfy and packs really small (about 2 by 5 inches).

As I write this, I am bringing the footage of the last couple of days onto my computer.  I shot about 2 hours worth and it looks great.  I’m off to shoot some B roll tomorrow (which is additional footage to help tell your story).  On Saturday I’m filming a group of volunteers from Volunteer Outdoor Colorado on a trail service project.  There are expected to be over 100 volunteers broken into 8 person crews- so it should be fun.

That’s a wrap for today.  Keep on the sunny side.

- Larry

After 2 hours of sleep I boarded a plane for Denver this morning. I’ve been running around taking care of last minute business and getting excited about getting up in the mountains.

Walking outside for the first time after my arrival at the airport- the air felt so crisp and refreshing. A nice variation from the humid 100 degree days in Austin. Ah, I’m back in Colorado! Memories of all the good times I’ve had in these mountains come back to me.

So ready to be walking in the mountains. An early morning awaits me and I’m burning the midnight oil as I write this. Still have to repack everything to be ready to shoot. Tired but ready. Went on a 4 mile walk tonight and it felt great. No acclimation issues. My marathon training paying off. The sunset was gorgeous over the mountains. The air smelled so clean I could taste it.

I hope to post again from the trail.

I’m catching a 6am flight to Denver tomorrow morning.  Some logistics of the trip are still in the air, because of permits and weather conditions.  All I know at this point is that I am filming backpackers somewhere in Colorado- so it’s going to be great!  Most of the plans are firmed up, but will know for sure tomorrow where we will be in Colorado.  The backpacking trip is the next day so it will be nice to know where we are going. I will be posting quite a bit over the next week- bringing you updates from remote locations where I can.

As I write this blog, I try to think about who my audience is and its hard to put a finger on it.  My audience ranges from outdoors types to filmmaking gurus and the just curious.  My intention for this blog is to provide useful info for people or at least be entertaining to family and friends.  So I’ll be dabbling between my outdoor pursuits, filmmaking and any other useful info I feel I can share.

Let’s start with my camera gear:

This is the gear I’m taking on this trip.  I spent a lot of time triple checking my gear and making sure I wasn’t missing anything.  Missing one item (like a mic cable or battery charger) can really turn a great shoot into a poopy one fast.

In case you haven’t heard, there’s been a lot of excitement over the last couple of years for people who are shooting video with DSLRs.  In other words, still cameras that shoot video.  Why?  For the prosumer type cameras such as the Cannon 7D and 5D, they capture incredible images with their large sensors and interchangeable lenses.  The interchangeable lenses are important because it allows the shooter so many more options such as depth of focus. Whether it is shallow depth of focus (blurry background or foreground) or deep depth of focus (foreground and background in focus)- this is what can make a shot look professional.  Look at a professional photograph and you will see these techniques used pretty clearly. I have the Canon 5D- which is an incredible camera!  Beautiful!  Amazing!  But it has it’s shortfalls.  There is no good way to capture audio and it can be difficult using in handheld situations because its built to take photos, not video.  So I also have a Panasonic AF-100 which is a proper video camera (you can plug a mic into it, etc…) but it has a large sensor and allows for interchangeable lenses!  I will be using them both.  For most of the filming where I am moving around, it will be the Panasonic Af-100.  For other beauty shots and time lapses- the Canon 5D.  They cut together pretty seamlessly.  Here’s some camera tests I shot with both cameras: http://vimeo.com/23412741

I could write a lot about all of my camera gear and why I chose each piece of equipment- but today I just wanted to give you an introduction.  BTW-  most of the photos I post will be pictures taken with my iPhone, so don’t judge the quality of the cameras by these photos.  If you are looking for a decent still camera that shoots video that doesn’t cost too much check out the Canon T2i.

And now my backpacking gear:

This is what I am taking on this trip.  The qualities I look for most in backpacking equipment is lightweight, high quality and easy of use.  As you can see from my camera gear picture- I already have enough weighing me.  And I’m not out to win a tough guy contest- I want to shoot while backpacking.  I want to be as nimble as 50 pounds will allow me.  Again, this is an introduction.  I’ll go over specific gear when it’s appropriate to talk about them.  Most of this equipment is new and I’m excited to take it along.  Among the highlights are: Osprey Aether 70 backpack, Jetboil Sol Stove, Mountain Hardwear Sprite 1 tent, and lots of other stuff.  I love Mountain Hardwear.  To the point of looking like an idiot- because almost everything I wear while backpacking is Mountain Hardwear.  But then again its hard to look bad with Mountain Hardwear.

Another Disclaimer: I am not getting paid by anyone to say great things about any of the camera or camping gear.   I am sharing my experiences about the stuff that I love.  Because I really value online reviews for making purchases, I want to share what works for me- that is all.  I value quality and I like my gear to last a long time and work great.

So here’s my stuff all packed up- THANK GOODNESS FOR SOUTHWEST AIR (2 free checked bags and 2 carry ons- a filmmakers dream!).

I’ve got a lot more to do tonight- so I’ll wrap this up.  More tomorrow from Colorado!

Larry