I've always been drawn to the photo essay. W. Eugene Smith was a master of them. I think I first was aware of his work from the Life Magazine spread,
The Country Doctor. The cool thing about doing a photo essay is that it gives you focus. You have a subject or an idea to build images around. So instead of being restricted to one general image that hopefully tells the tale, you can build the story from a variety off points of view. It's a lot like putting together a slide show. I love the discipline of creating a decent slide show, the ruthless editing, and thinking about a beginning, middle, and end.
As cameras are getting better at incorporating video as well as still capability, now we can start to explore the idea of a video essay. Here's my shot at it, taken with a recently acquired Sanyo Xacti HD 1010 refurb, and edited in Sony Vegas.
The Preserve from Anthony Mindling on Vimeo.
Tony, this is outstanding on so many levels. Very well done and it does indeed weave a story or more than that... weaves a wonderful feeling of tranquility. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI'm very pleased to hear you enjoyed this effort, Diane. It's great fun to make these "moving stills", and then see what happens when sound and music is added to create a mood.
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