Go-To Film Set Up
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Sony Fx3 paired with a Sony 200-600
Filming out in the field is inevitably a challenge. It is a mix of being hidden enough to not flare birds, but also being exposed enough to be able to see, move and capture whatever is happening. This particular day down in Arkansas with @blackwateroutfitter we were set up on a levy with a big goose spread set out in front of us. The clients and guides were on backboards on the decoy side of the levy while I was 40 or so yards behind them on the backside of the levy.
My side of the levy hadn’t been rolled yet, so all the rice was still standing and there was several inches of water as well. Setting up a @momarsh_sws elevated out of the water became the option at hand and worked super well. The down side of this is running a camera out of a blind with doors on it is a nightmare. I also prefer to run my long lenses on a tripod to get as much error out of the shot as possible, so that also becomes an issue in an elevated layout blind.
This is where a little ingenuity comes in.
To run the tripod, I had to have the camera and fluid head up above the doors. I was able to finagle two of the legs of the tripod through the flagging holes on the sides of the blind, all the way out and into the ground, and then the third leg ran down between my legs. This mostly was pretty stable as long as I wasn’t moving around a ton. Obviously now to run the camera like this I have to be sitting up higher than normal in the blind. Sliding myself up just enough so that my armpits and above were out of the blind, I was as low profile in the blind while still being able to do my job. With this though, I was now quite a bit more exposed than is ideal. A third of my body as well as my entire camera was up above the layout. Thankfully, I had brought with me the “blanket” cover that @tanglefreewaterfowl makes for their backboard style blinds and then used that over the top of myself and the camera. By using a couple hair ties to make sure the cover didn’t slide off the camera during any movements I was able to then get pretty well covered up. Visibility was obviously a bit hampered, but looking through the monitor on the fx3 makes a good set of eyes.
Filming out in the field is inevitably a challenge. It is a mix of being hidden enough to not flare birds, but also being exposed enough to be able to see, move and capture whatever is happening. This particular day down in Arkansas with @blackwateroutfitter we were set up on a levy with a big goose spread set out in front of us. The clients and guides were on backboards on the decoy side of the levy while I was 40 or so yards behind them on the backside of the levy.
My side of the levy hadn’t been rolled yet, so all the rice was still standing and there was several inches of water as well. Setting up a @momarsh_sws elevated out of the water became the option at hand and worked super well. The down side of this is running a camera out of a blind with doors on it is a nightmare. I also prefer to run my long lenses on a tripod to get as much error out of the shot as possible, so that also becomes an issue in an elevated layout blind.
This is where a little ingenuity comes in.
To run the tripod, I had to have the camera and fluid head up above the doors. I was able to finagle two of the legs of the tripod through the flagging holes on the sides of the blind, all the way out and into the ground, and then the third leg ran down between my legs. This mostly was pretty stable as long as I wasn’t moving around a ton. Obviously now to run the camera like this I have to be sitting up higher than normal in the blind. Sliding myself up just enough so that my armpits and above were out of the blind, I was as low profile in the blind while still being able to do my job. With this though, I was now quite a bit more exposed than is ideal. A third of my body as well as my entire camera was up above the layout. Thankfully, I had brought with me the “blanket” cover that @tanglefreewaterfowl makes for their backboard style blinds and then used that over the top of myself and the camera. By using a couple hair ties to make sure the cover didn’t slide off the camera during any movements I was able to then get pretty well covered up. Visibility was obviously a bit hampered, but looking through the monitor on the fx3 makes a good set of eyes.