To that end I’ve started to invest is some fantastic ‘vintage’ gear. When shooting video, and to a lesser extent stills, on these new hybrid HDSLRs the need for good manual focus lenses becomes paramount. Modern stills lenses just don’t have the control surface that the older lenses do, the manufacturer assuming that you’d use autofocus instead. Well, in video mode we’re currently out of luck in the AF corner. However, older Olympus, Nikon, and a few other brands can easily be converted to work with modern Canon cameras by using a relatively cheap adapter. And hooray for that adapter.

So, I’ve been eBay stalking a few vintage lenses from the 70s, if for no other reason that they can be had for cheap. I’ve had my eye on an Olympus OM Zuiko 28mm f/2.8 forever, and I finally snagged one that is in mint condition. I’ve been needing a wider lens for a while and the Zuiko 28mm is the perfect fit.

I finally got out last week with the intent of testing it for timelapse photography out at the Baker Wetlands south of Lawrence on 31st. It this gorgeous little patch of land that has been embroiled in a battle over highway access for decades. After that evening I think I’m firmly in the camp of keeping it. Forever. Here is the painfully short timelapse I was able to capture of a spring sunset in KS. I was fighting with my equipment for too long before being able to get things going, so I didn’t get enough frames shot to capture more of the moment. Regardless, I’m very happy with how it turned out overall and can’t wait to continue using my TI-83 calculator as my intervalometer. I suppose this is the reason I took Calc in school?

While getting everything setup and properly exposed I snapped this sunset which I’ve fallen in love with. I’m still kicking myself for not starting the timelapse sooner. I could have gotten even more of this!

I’ve also needed to invest in a telephoto lens. Wanting to get into more wildlife photography, I’ve realized I’m never going to get close enough with my nifty 50mm, and my 80s era 28-70mm wasn’t long enough either. So, I looked into some of the 70s era Nikkor (Nikon) glass and came around to this gorgeous Nikkor-Q.C Auto 135mm f/2.8 (second one down). It is one serious lens, and I’ll admit it, just looks cool attached to my camera. The 135mm was what I used to take the shot below of my Dad. As I said these lenses are completely manual, including focus, so I was thrilled that my first time out with it I was able to grab a semi-decent sports/action shot. There is hope for being able to use it as a long portrait or action lens yet. It felt really good to be manually controlling all aspects of the shot; everything from aperture, shutter speed, iso to focus – it was my capture. No computers doing the work!

I’ve never decided if this here blog is supposed to be a personal or professional space? It’s definitely flirted with both, but somehow it seems that I’m in a place where those two things seem to be constantly mixing and collapsing in on themselves. One of my oldest friends lost his Father in the past couple of weeks. It was a tough loss, not only for him and his family, but for just about every life he touched. And in relating it to this post, I was very happy to have snagged a shot like this of my own Dad. He’s been a runner forever, pushing 100 miles a week in College, and while I’ve never been much of an athlete I was very pleased to be able bond with him over taking photos out at his latest race. Doing so really made the whole weekend heading back for the funeral come full circle for me.

Anyway, the last few months have been incredibly busy around here between the day job ramping up into another round of research/product testing, to lots of freelance rotoscoping work. It’s been hard to step back and have a lot of time for the Lady and family. These past two weeks have been really nice as things have slowed down a little and allowed for a little bit of reflection. Being able to capture a moment out in the relatively solitude of the wetlands, along with a bonding moment with my father has made all the difference for me and I’m glad I got off my duff and made it happen.

EVERYTHING else is older stuff that she’s found via antique dealers or auctions, so I can’t really complain when she’s going out sleuthing on a holiday morning.

Instead, I’m sitting in front of the computer, watching Nuke render out my latest daily, enjoying some alt/folk and sipping my coffee. I love iTunes’ ability to make up the ultimate morning/coffee playlist complete with Andrew Bird, the Decembrists, Rogue Wave, Bon Iver, Wilco, Eliott Smith, Death Cab and Bob. It turns into a crank every stereo in the house and knock some things out morning. Doing laundry while the computer churns, and I’m nodding along to my favorite contemplative tunes.

The reason I’m brain dumping now, is that I’ve realized I need to write and post more of my progress. If I force myself to post that means I have to a.) post more pics to go with it and b.) post my progress on my personal projects. Since I can’t link to most of the work stuff, I have to feel like I’m adding something out the interwebs.

Although, I did find the disney ad I worked on last winter on the youtubes the other day. It’s for EuroDisney (Disney Paris) and I worked on 2/3s of the roto you see in and around the cabin. Here’s the link.

Also, here are a couple of nature photos. One is of this amazing spider web I caught in our backyard, and the other is from the Fieldstone Orchard from last fall. This past week it’s been feeling like fall is just around the corner, which means picking our own apples and Teressa’s amazing apple pies.

Last but not least here is the latest daily in my super project. I’ve done a lot of roto (cutting people out of the frame) over the years, and while it’s an incredibly manual process, I challenged myself to key and roto this shot without a single keyframe of animation. Instead I used the 3d track from before, projected my rotoshapes onto 3D cards and ran it through the 3D camera solve. Turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. Just needs a little touch up where the street lights pop and a railing, but way easier than rotoing 1600+ frames of buildings. You may be asking what in the world does this accomplish? Well, two things really. One, I can perform a sky replacement now and punch up what was a pretty blah sky. Second, I can now animate objects so they look like they are passing between the buildings. Exciting stuff I know. Next up, I promise something a little more thrilling than red outlined building, but this is just another step in creating something good.

First up…WE MOVED!!!

Two blocks.  Down the street.

Teressa found this adorable rental house that just so happened to open up when we needed it. Fate really. That was back in February, and we moved in late April.  We’ve been spending most all of our free time painting, gardening, settling in and building furniture (more on that in a later post).  Oh, and obsessively catching up on This Old House. Tom Silva is turning into my personal hero.

It’s a great house, and we’ve just about got all of our stuff where it needs to go. Best part of the house?  Teressa and I both have our own workspaces, so now we can both burn the midnight oil on projects and not annoy each other.  Although, I do kind of miss being able to spin around in my chair and annoy her with some thing on the internet…but now I can just yell it out around the corner.

A Trip

In early July we both made a trek up north to Chicago for a joint, but separate, bachelor/bachelorette party for our good friends Zach & Cortney. Since we were already booking flights we decided to stick around for a few days and check out the Chicago scenery and finally drop in on Ben & Martha.  As per usual I forgot to take pictures of the people we went to visit and got hung up taking pictures of the environment.  Here are a few photos from the fabulous architecture boat tour, couldn’t recommend it enough.  I ended up spending most of my time focusing on the gorgeous bridges and towers that line the Chicago river, and pushing them a little further than normal, but Teressa is already planning on framing a few…so mission accomplished.  What can I say, I’m really just trying to impress her.

A Camera

Which brings me to my new favorite gadget.  While Teressa probably wouldn’t admit it my gadget lust has subsided over the years. I’ve been more interested in what I can do with the things I have (ala Merlin and John), and not so much on the latest and greatest.  However, Canon has been introducing stills cameras that have a built in HD video mode…and I finally had to break down and buy one.  The t2i to be exact. It’s fantastic.  I’ve been shooting video personally/professionally since I was about 10 years old but I’ve never owned my own video camera.  One word; revelation. I can get up a 6am and run around town shooting magic hour sunrises and I have zero permissions to obtain to do it.  Well, except for Teressa’s…but I tend to make up for that by bringing back bagels.

If you can’t tell I’m super excited to be able to scratch this itch again, and I can’t wait to show you some of the actual results.  But patients…video/mograph is a dish best served slowly in this regard.  To tide you over dear reader, here is a daily from my matchmove test on some footage I shot from the river.  Now I just need to roto, animate, composite and color correct it.  Who said technology was making things easier again?  Freelancing/Day job tend to get in the way of me making pretty short films for fun..but trust me they are coming.

There’s an update on what’s going on around here.  I’m going to quite promising to post more work/freelance related stuff on here until I’m ready to post it.  Creating impressive demo reels is hard, and I keep getting distracted by actual work (thanks boundaryvfx guys), but I promise it’s coming soon…if for no other reason than my mother might finally be able to understand what it is I do for a living.  It’s something with computers and cameras I think….

I love Ben’s art. There, I said it.

Yesterday we had a lovely coffee date with Ben and his blushing bride to be, Martha (see bennyandmartha). Martha and Teressa were there for wedding planing business, more specifically the pastries and cakes for the reception. I couldn’t be more excited that Teressa is helping out, as I get to be the official cake-taste-tester while she figures out exactly which recipes are working and which ones are not.

While the ladies discussed all things bakery, Ben and I sat on the other end of the table and nerded out about TVs, movies, video games, and most of all his latest artwork. Ben hooked me up with four of his latest Moo cards to promote his awesome etsy store and blog. Check out the store to get full sized prints, and more importantly check a few of my favorites including “Watcher,” “Super Dee” and “The Start of Something Big.”

We joke now that my mother has graduated from KU twice now. Once with me, and now again with Steve! Congratulations Steve!

Teressa gave me this print for my 26th Birthday last week courtesy of a great Etsy seller, Bittersuger. While I was a bit stunned by the image at first, I couldn’t help but smile when so much of US revolves around sinking ships, ruining parades and her calling me on, well…stuff. In a good way of course!

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to make the trip out to San Francisco as the class I was going to assist was cancelled. Stupid economy. However, that did free up the weekend for a great birthday with the whole family relaxing out at the lake. I couldn’t ask for anything better.

I’ll be in SF from April 9th through the 14, both checking out the city and helping out with the class, so if anyone has any tips or tricks for navigating the bay area they will be greatly appreciated.

Basically, I’ve been working on the LAUG website, organizing and creating our web relaunch, along with a bit of freelance Roto work and some consulting, which results in this project feeling a little neglected. I finally got some time this weekend to knock out one of the more convoluted steps and I’m glad that I can get things back on track.

I also picked up the 3DGarage.com – C4D training which should arrive later this month to round out my 3d skills and I just booked a flight to San Fran for some covert opps. I’ll post more when I can about it, but I’m very excited about the opportunity.

I know, I need to post more blah, blah but I’ve been busy actually working so deal with it. ;)

The Gordon Wedding

Last weekend Ryan, one of my best friends for more than 20 years got married to our new honorary Hutchinsonian, Joah, in downtown Lawrence, KS. It was a great weekend of catching up with old friends and watching two people we love tie the knot. If you’ve been on facebook this week you’ve seen the photos from the weekend start to trickle in, but I thought I’d post a few on here to commemorate the event. I’ve said it a thousand times since last weekend, but congrats again Ryan and Joah, and thanks again for including me in your wedding party.

Christmas

I might have mentioned it before but Teressa has a new job this year, and with that comes new obligations for the Holidays. So, we stuck around Lawrence a little later this year than previous Christmases and left town Christmas Eve in the middle of the afternoon. That left just enough time for us to zoom across the Kanza Prairie, change clothes, make it to Mass on time and then run over to Teressa’s mother’s for her annual Christmas Eve Chili. Let’s just say we made it, and with only about 15 minutes to spare.

After that, of course, led to exchanging of gifts at my parent’s Christmas Eve and then at her mother’s Christmas Day. I have the traditional shots of Christmas in my parents living room this year as always, although I sat in the wrong chair thus making the angles and zoom a little funny. Next year, I have to make sure to grab my chair. Unfortunately, there are no pics from Teressa’s house as on Christmas Day all in attendance are required to come over in their PJs whether they live there or not. Luckily for all involved I take a shower and slip into fresh PJs but this tradition includes a prohibition on taking photos due to the attire of those in attendance.

Christmas Aftermath

So far we haven’t gotten a chance to catch up with any of our friends as we are on such a short Christmas schedule, but we are hoping to remedy this tonight. Tomorrow involves a trip to the gun range to satisfy my Dad’s love of family and firearms (and safety of course), and then we’ll hit the road back to Lawrence and real life. I’m taking the week off in hopes of completing a backlog of personal projects, including the mock up of a weblog for my Dad’s new years resolution but more on that later.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays, and I promise next year I’ll be posting a lot more. I got out of the habit of brain dumping online and Teressa has definitely felt the burden of my bitching and moaning about current day events.

In August I applied and was accepted into the PixelCorps.com compositing team . The team is basically an opportunity to work on projects for a variety of PixelCorps clients as well as to enhance your skills through additional training.

Recently we were given the opportunity to work on a real feature film for Patrick Read Johnson and one of my visual fx heroes John Knoll. The film, entitled ’77, is a pseudo-autobiography of Johnson’s first encounter with the VFX industry and more importantly Star Wars. Here is a link to the trailer:

Yes, I know, there couldn’t be a better project for me to receive my first feature film credit. The film turned out to not only be a chance to push my own limits, but to work with a great team and have the work showcased in such a public way. Here are a few more links such as the full film credits, which include my peoples from the Pixel Corps TCC team. Oh and look whose name is right next to mine…yeah, that’s right John Knoll. For once being named Kappenman has paid off. Also, here’s the link to my rather small but exciting credit’s page: Matthew Kappenman

Hopefully I’m not divulging anything that is still covered under the film’s NDA. Since the credits have gone live on IMDB, I’m assuming we’re in the clear. Now, I know you’re asking when can I see the film? Well, after a successful screening at the Hamptons International Film Festival the director is now putting the finishing touches on the film. Basically, when I know a release date you’ll know a release date.

Hope everyone is planning a great holiday. Unfortunately we’ll only be in Hutch for a few days this year, so if you’re going to be in town hit me up for some coffee or a drink at one of Hutchinson’s fine establishments.