So when he called and said he needed a ‘wingman’ for a video and photography project, I was already in. When he said he’d pay me, I lost my frickin’ mind…literally…the gig I’ve been dreaming about for…well…ever. Yes. Done. Let’s go. Can’t talk too much about the project just yet, but essentially, the man behind bringing the world’s best magicians to the forefront, Murphy’s Magic’s Director of New Product Development Jason Brumbalow, who I also worked with at VectorMount for GoPro, was recruiting me to go help and guide him through making a series of nature videos and photographs in the Pacific Northwest for a personal project. I was humbled and I was immediately in.
My biggest decision was whether or not I was going to be taking my DSLR with me. Why was this a big decision? Well, I’ve never taken any sort of extended trip, let alone a trip designed for photography and videography, without the DSLR. And even a short 2 years ago, I wouldn’t have even considered it. But after playing with these mirrorless systems thanks to Samsung including me in their Imagelogger program, well, the decision became…real. And when it came down to it, I figured, one, these things are definitely capable, and two, if anything, it would add a bit of a challenge and excitement to what was already shaping up to be an epic journey.
Thanks to that program, they recently sent out their new NX30 body, and just last week, a surprise package that included a 30mm/f2, a 10mm fisheye, and a 50-200mm lens showed up at my door. I took that as a sign. So I went with the Samsung NX30. And I left the Nikon kit behind (*gasp*)!
Anyhow, figured I’d post here to take you along the journey the best I could. Here are a few images taken from Day 1. We flew into Portland at about10am, and were picked up by Jeremy, our host for the week, and Jason’s good friend. From the airport, he took us for a bite at one of his local haunts, Produce Row, where the taste and flavor absolutely matched the presentation. From banger plates to corned beef gruyere sandwiches, somehow it all landed on our table. Once were crawled out from under the coma, he took us to the house, we settled in, and then he dropped the keys to the truck in our hands and off we went!
We spent the remainder of the afternoon scouting the surrounding areas to see what were in for. Umm…in a word…perfect. Our first location was Moulton Falls, and literally, it was the first place we pulled off on the side of the road on the east fork of the Lewis river, a tributary that leads into the Columbia River, and it was immediately apparent it was the first location we’d set up at the next day. We then headed downstream just a tad further to the Lucia Falls, also on the Lewis river. At this point, the rain started up and the sunlight began to disappear, so we figured it was as good a time as any to head back to home base to work out our game plan for the week.
Some of the best pictures of the trip are in part 2 of this series, "Going Green And Greener And Greenest"...trust me, they're worth it!!
(Oh, and yes, please excuse the vertigo...I went a little crazy with the new fisheye on day 1...all apologies...I've never had a fisheye before. I promise it tapers down in the coming days)
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