SNOWED IN / APPRECIATING WHAT YOU HAVE (GEAR NERD ALERT)

The wife and I got this Nasa suit from a good friend and we went and played outside yesterday. (pic below) Neither one of us have lived in a place with snow in a longtime so it feels like Disneyland showed up to our little house nestled in the red rocks. 

I haven't been snowed in since I was a kid down on the Loop Road in the 80's. There was no phone app to check and see if school was cancelled. We called. If no one picked up, school was cancelled. It was a simple and magic time that I can only fully appreciate now because we can see the difference in being plugged into the internet at almost all waking hours of the day. We have become such a demanding "I want it/need it now" kind of folks because of this access and it is great and concerning. With the awesomeness of the "Weefee" (wifi), there is always something to do, task to complete, game to play, videos to learn from. It's like eating but not digesting. If we keep eating without digestion, what will happen to us?

I have a phone, lap top and desktop computer. Don't forget about the TV wired in with Amazon Fire stick in the living room. Even though, with this snow, we are physically, somewhat cut off from the world for the moment, I have all the connection I need. It's great and it is a bit tiring.

I feel that there is not much time for reflection and contemplation. As I write this, adding more content to the thing that keeps us all so occupied, I ask myself "Is this a good thing?" Boundaries has always been one of my weak points. As I get older, I become more aware. I write out lists everyday. Usually, they are too ambitious but if I get 60-80% done, I will be easier on myself at the backend of the day. We all have to have goals and we can all take little bites at a time. Are you out of shape? One wrkout isn't going to do much. But if you workout for 2o minutes a day, 5 days a week for 6 months, you will see a huge difference. 

Personally, as time goes by, I see myself, naturally, moving away from technology to a degree, because I enjoy quiet time now. I didn't realize how much noise threre was, that I put into my life at all hours. Now, I enjoy nature, listening to wind in the trees and water in the creek. The key is to get out of that energetic pull that keeps us all in the "FOMO" stage (Fear of missing out) I'm 46. I don't know if I'm allowed to say that. There is so much going on in the world (good and bad) at all moments of the day that we will never be able to experience it all so let's all pace ourselves and find a healthy balance.

In my developing "hippie mind" I think this Busy-ness / business (see that?) is designed for us to evolve to a point where we only use our phones and internet for a fraction of the day. Then we disconnect, the the tech away and be present with ourselves and fellow humans. 

When I spend time with friends and or family and we are engaged and talking and a phone goes off and that phone becomes the center of attention, I feel as if the experience is being ripped away from both of us. It's sad but the great thing is that it's in our control to say no, turn the phone off and just be people, "people-ing" around for a while. There will always be calls and emails and fb updates but those loves ones are only here, in our lives for so many minutes. How many minutes of them do you want to sacrifice to look at someones food post, complaining text or buzzfeed notification about the 10 best body scrubs for under $10?  

When Theraysa and I were on our honeymoon, I was constantly in a battle between enjoying our week in Moorea Tahiti and taking every picture and video that I could because that place in like heaven. Wow, it's cool. I often had a problem in deciding if I should shoot with my Canon or my iphone or just be present. Canon give better quality footage but iphone allows me to post on IG when we get back to the room. Sometimes I would do both. At least when I was in the water, snorkeling or paddle boarding, I didn't have to be connected to a camera...just kidding. That's where my knockoff GoPro came in.

It's called an Akaso Brave 4. If you don't have the $400 to drop on the GoPro 9000, this is a great way to get your feet wet in seeing if you will use it enough to justify the cost. I've had this one for 8 months and have taken it in the ocean, ATV riding in the Tahitian mountains that look like the set of Moana. I've done some crazy mounts on my bike for some mountain bike rides at Broken Arrow and Girdner trail etc. It is a pretty good camera for under $100 and the only thing that broke was one of the clips. I dragged my bike up a rock so that was my fault.

I could start nerding out on the color profiles and that I see hints of green where there shouldn't be but that is being nit-picky for such a budget camera. I am honestly gonna beat this thing up until it dies out and then see if I will switch to GoPro or if Akaso has earned my business for the longer haul. So far, I would be glad to pay a few more bucks and stay with Akaso if the picture improves. 

I also had some correspondence with GoPro on a camera rig I had built and was looking to prototype and market. GoPro was the obvious first stop. They were interested in doing business and sent me a deal memo to start the actual process. I read the deal and in the small details, it basically stated that they could take any of my ideas, develop them with or without me and my say so. In the end, they stated that they could take all of the credit and give me zero compensation, residuals etc. The whole thing was essentially a scam. Why would they do that?

​When you are an industry leader, you can do whatever you want and people will still say yes because you are so big. Things like this start to happen which is a huge bummer since (I believe) GoPro was started by one person with a cool idea. 

I'm sure Mr. GoPro didn't start this policy. It was more than likely drafted up by a team of lawyers who have plans to take over the world through contract loopholes for aspiring entrepreneurs trying to get established but I am an optimist. I believe that we will all collectively learn, in the future that control and money seem great but it doesn't grow the collective consciousness. These big companies with big overhead aren't always putting out the best stuff but their expensive adverts might try to make us believe different. 

There are so many companies that used to be considered "Knock offs" and they were the cheap alternative. Now, I am seeing that these previous "Second Rate" companies are hanging in the pocket with the big dawgs, producing close to and sometimes better results than the more expensive "brand names." Platforms like Amazon are leveling the playing field a bit more so that ad money isn't as effective as it was before ad targeting on IG and fb.  

My Viltrox lens adapter on my Canon R6 was needed to use my EF lenses. Canon was sold out and I had no other options so Viltrox was the only option. I'm a Canon guy because Canon always gets the job done. I was not excited about buying an "off brand" lens adapter but it turned out to be a great piece of gear at, under $100.

Now, I have been playing with some GoDox flashes and softbox, wireless remotes that fire 2 flashes at once. For the money, it's pretty solid. Not perfect but very good. If you compare my current GoDox experiment at under $1,000 to a high end $3,000 strobe setup, it really closes the quality vs cost gap...My wife and I recently did a shoot with a great photographer who does use the much more expensive gear. When I got the pics back, the flash quality was no different than the ones I am using currently. This is great news for all of you aspiring photographers on a budget. You don't have to be rich to get gear that does a great job. If you are just starting out or looking to upgrade some gear and don't know what you need/want, shoot me an email and let me know if I can help.   

Back to technology and how it keeps us so occupied. Yes, I get the irony. I am finding moments in time to get away and be alone without technology and its awesome every single time. 

My apple watch was always a pain when it came to syncing and giving me music and not rerouting to my iphone or pulling music that it didn't have without wifi. I just wanted music when I ran or rode my bike. After almost a year of getting frustrated with 2 different bluetooth earbud sets and apple watch, I put that stuff away, got a $30 Sandisk mp3 player at Best Buy and some $20 wired earbuds. I dropped a ton of my music onto the the Sandisk. It holds like a million hours of music (rough estimate) and it is NOT connected to anything. I charge the player every other week if I use it often. The apple watch would sometimes die mid-workout. The earbuds would also die from time to time.

With $50 of "old school" gear, I put my $400 apple watch and $100 bluetooth stuff away for good. Sometimes, more expensive doesn't mean better. It just means you bought equipment from a companies that spends a lot advertising a product that isn't superior. It just has that feeling because we see ads everywhere that make us believe its the best. Remember: Perception equals reality. If you believe its the best, it is...until it gets proven otherwise.  

Don't get me wrong, working in the film and photo world, it's almost impossible to function without apple products because they work, don't get viruses and they last. I'm a 20 year Apple guy but I'm just not an Apple watch guy and probably never will be. But, I am typing on a refurbished 2012 MacBook Pro that I bought from Melrose Mac in Hollywood in 2016 I think? I haven't switched to an "air" because I love having ports on the side. My audio jack died so I bought an $8 USB audio adapter made by "Millso" and this thing is still trucking. I mainly write, do email and make music on this lap top and it still does all of those very well. 

My hope is that, I can get some computer genius to rebuild my laptop in a few years and put whatever new parts are needed, into it and I will continue to blog and make music from it. 

When my iMac phases out, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna get that Mac M1 and a aftermarket monitor that is made for photo color correcting. All the reviews I have seen are that it handles and out performs some of the other, more expensive Apple products in speed tests. 

My perspective is probably a bit different in that, I'm not a "consumer" in the traditional sense. I don't run out and try to be the first one to get whatever the new, cool gear is out. You will NEVER see me in line for much of anything, especially whatever new iphone comes out. I'm not hating. I just don't understand this phenomena the way I don't understand those polar bear club people jumping into ice water on New Years or those crazy Irish people who fall down that hill and call it a race. It's just not for me. 

This gear, in my humble opinion, should be used to enhance our collective experience. I have many photo/film friends who are often getting on me and laughing that I don't go get all the "cool" new stuff. Why? I don't need or want to do long boring talks about what the best iphone or 8k camera has the best dynamic range, color space or bit rate. If the image looks the way I was hoping it would look, I am so happy. We have so much technology and if we spend more time on learning the art of storytelling and picture taking in place of getting the next awesome whatever, we might all wind up much happier. The newest does not insure the best outcome.  

I am a "Film Gap Kid" (just made up the term) in that I started in the film/photo world when it was still film, did my first short films on 16 mm, won awards then transitioned to digital in 2009 when RED released their MX.

If you were born after 1990, the chances of you physically working with real film (it gets developed with chemicals in a dark room) are almost zero. If you learned photography and video on an iphone or even a Sony PD 150, you have not seen an entire dimension of what it took to make this thing work. The reason I am addressing this is that the kids don't realize how easy it is to make an image now because they never knew different. A kid with an iphone and a lap top said he couldn't make his first short because he didn't have any money. I pointed to his iphone and lap top and said you have everything you need to do your short. Write a script and make something. Whatever you don't know, look it up on youtube or email/call me. I'll help. 

Your iphone will auto expose and auto focus which are the two tough parts to the tech side. Put a handle on that iphone and get at it! 15 years ago, none of these things were possible. Money to buy film and pay for processing used to be the enemy. Now, I believe it's just laziness.

I am the same way with food. My ancestors grew it out of the dirt and I have no idea what to do if my dinner doesn't come wrapped in plastic. It's just subjective to the times I guess.  

I wandered again. My point is that we only appreciate when we don't have certain things. I lived in a house for a year without hot water and showered at the YMCA when I first moved to L.A. Now, there isn't one time in my life when I ever, take for granted, a hot shower. I say a thank you to the Masters of the Universe every time I have a hot shower.   

I made my film "GOD SEND" (Amazon) with a camera that only shot 1080p aka 1K. Many "Independent" film festivals won't even look at your movie if it wasn't shot on a Red or $30,000 Alexa in 4K. This is silly because it is no longer rewarding the ones who get out there and do it with almost nothing. The concept of "Independent" film is that it was often done with little to no money. I made my entire film with less money than some of these other folks spent on the camera and I beat them. Our "independent" industry needs to rethink how it is finding and promoting content because the true future masters of cinema and visual storytelling might not have a Komodo in the closet and a monthly subscription to the Adobe cloud. That matter not though. Keep creating people. Follow your voice. How your work is recognized does not matter. What matters is that you keep making things that keep you fired up and inspired.   

My film winning multiple awards with a "cheap" camera isn't to brag. It's to prove a point that you can do great art without all of the coolest, newest gear. I attribute some of this to being very crafty in how I shot the film in that I didn't have money for permits or any crew members or any lighting packages. I had lights that construction workers use, bought at home depot. Not even the nice ones. I had $10 silver bowl lights and put regular light bulbs in them. My softbox was from cowboystudios.com and cost like $10. Maybe they paid me to take it. It was so cheap that when I put (4) 100 watt bulbs in it the whole thing melted...and I kept using it because it was all I had. I am so graetful for cheap gear when it comes through because you push your limits and you appreciate good gear when you can afford it. That is a win win. 

I got my first Canon 10 years ago. I have shot other projects on many cameras and most of them have been great. I just love Canon as my personal go to. I don't buy the newest, coolest ones every year because I'm not a rich guy. I just really value my equipment and push it as much as possible. I like to figure out how to do as much as I can with what I have because I was raised that way.

In 10 years, I have bought 3 Canon cameras. I got my 60D in 2010. When I upgraded from my 60D to my 6D in 2014, I gave the 60D to my brother in law and it's still cranking out great stuff. When I bought my R6 a few months ago, I decided to keep my 6D as a 2nd camera. If I can win film festivals on a $1,200 camera, it can sure as heck be my B camera until it chooses to go up to the big camera heaven in the sky. 

Canon (camera/lenses) and Sandisk (SD storage/mp3 player) and Sennheiser (sound) Tamron (lenses) are some of my tried and true favorites over the years. They have been consistent. I picked up my first Tamron 70-300 4-5.6 lens in a pawn shop in Phoenix for $80 in 2010 and I still use it and love that piece of glass. 

​I love Moby's music. I recently saw that he still has his first Korg keyboard that he bought in like the late 1980's for $100 I think. I bought a Korg after seeing how much Moby loved his Korg and I am not disappointed. After 30 years, he still makes music with it and he is one of the biggest music people on the planet!

Appreciate what you have folks. If you want to be a photographer and only have an iphone 6, get on youtube and learn all of the tips and tricks you can and shoot 10,000 pictures with it as you save for the camera you want to upgrade to. I saw a video last night where this kid was shining a flashlight through a bottle of water, onto his model, creating this cool shadow pattern on the model. It was in black and white (also cool) that whole set up cost nothing and the pics are great!

Lean on your creativity and hone your skill of innovating. Because, when you get the cool gear, that skill will always serve you well. If you learn on expensive stuff, if it goes down, you are dead in the water because you never learned to innovate. Learn on the cheap stuff and you will be able to push the good stuff to do more than the others who have the same gear. 

Still, one of my favorite books on filmmaking is "Rebel without a Crew" by Robert Rodriguez. It's an awesome read for anyone who loves an underdog story. This guy took nothing but his passion and drive. He forced creativity because he had little to no resources. He sold his body to medial experiment companies to fund "El Mariachi" and had time to write it because he had to stay at these facilities who were using him like a lab rat. This determination put him at the top of the Hollywood food chain and still to this day, I quote RR saying. "Take your disadvantages and turn them into your advantages." I hope whoever is reading these blogs gets inspired.

If you aren't inspired, send me an email and let me know what I can do to enhance the desired outcome of you taking the time to read this blog. Much Love everyone. levi@flickershackfilms.com