Anne and The Boys are out of town for a few days this week. It's always weird having the house to myself overnight and having even a short respite from parental responsibilities. I joke about Anne being the family quarterback and me being the JV waterboy, but she NO DOUBT runs the parent show around these parts. That being said, not running the dinner service, being wrist-deep in the day's dirty bottles, and coercing two small children to go the f**k to sleep, I made the most of last night and was out before, during, and after dusk like some kind of monster.
The better three-quarters of my family are off visiting relatives with her mom. They're planners – and better than me – so they arranged their trip while I was working the deadCenter Film Festival this week. If you're up for it, go watch what on-camera talent Katie Parker and I put together for them last year.
I was also out last night scouting for another small personal project shooting this week. For scouts, I'm normally out with my Canon 5D Mark III & 24-70 lens kit plus the Artemis app on my iPhone. The DSLR is out there because the images are better and I can do more with the camera, but having an iPhone app that will show the aspect ratio with a specific camera, resolution, and lens is incredibly helpful in prep. Sidenote: I promise I shot these last night; The app dates are off.
If I'm out by myself, I'll shoot my clenched fist to get an idea of what the light will look like. The knuckles and creases are a quick stand-in for the shapes of the face and eye socket. Lower light levels don't always play nice with my camera's auto-focus, so I'll open my hand up to give it at least a fighting chance. I've also seen people online carrying around black marbles to check for eyelight – but I'm not dealing with that kind of nonsense. Probably should though...
