My video channel on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/user/MikeWarrenVideo
My parents bought me my first movie camera when I was 14, not long after they realised that photography was not just another passing phase. I can't remember the brand, but it was a Russian standard 8mm camera that had to be wound up to operate. Exposure metering was accomplished by a selenium light meter.
This camera had the ability to rewind the film to create a double exposure and I used it to make things appear and disappear. My friend Michael and I started making a SciFi movie that was never finished because we couldn't afford the film, but we did have fun building the sets and models. We started another movie – a spy movie – a couple of years later with a few more friends and a borrowed super 8 camera, and although that project progressed further it suffered the same fate in the end due to lack of budget.
A friend loaned me his Sony HXR-NX3 for the weekend and I put it though it’s paces at Lake Mitchell, just north of Mareeba. The NX3 has a 20x zoom lens coupled with a 2x digital extender that’s great for wildlife. I was just starting to get used to using it by the time we […]
The Panasonc AJ-PX270 is currently top of my list. I’m looking forward to seeing some footage from it to see if the picture quality lives up to the listed specs. In particular, the LongG25 and LongG50 formats look like an excellent compromise between quality and file size. The only real down side of this camera […]
David Jones (DJ) from the Kuranda River Boat writes poetry and music when he’s not showing people the wonders of the Barron River. The video below, titled Delicate Balance, is a beautiful musical poem he wrote and recorded about the fragility of our planet’s water system, which I set to some nature images of the Cairns […]
Sony are about to release a new professional AVCHD camcorder, the HXR-NX3 that has quite a few things on my wish list. Powerful zoom to help getting closer to wildlife. Full manual on dedicated controls (separate focus, zoom and iris). Dual card recording 1080p50 recording Good low light performance, considering the small sensor size, which […]
On Saturday, our friends Furune and Ian visited for lunch. Afterwards, we all drove into town to watch the start of the Chinese New Year celebrations for the year of the snake. When we arrived, the Take Five band were playing, then the dragon performance kicked off the traditional Chinese celebrations. Although it was very […]
14 November 2012 We awoke at 5 o’clock this morning to prepare for an experience of a lifetime; viewing a total solar eclipse. I looked outside and noticed there was quite a lot of heavy cloud around and it was raining lightly. Not a good start for the eclipse which was due to reach totality […]
As part of the Barron River documentary project, we visited Kuranda to travel on the Kuranda River Boat last weekend. This was an extremely informative 45 minute cruise from the Kuranda township, near the railway station down river to the weir at the top of the Barron falls. Our guide, Brian gave an interesting and […]
We have now completed out third trip on Skyrail filming for the Barron River documentary. This time, we were able to capture the falls at the height of the dry season, showing how raging torrent from a few months ago has dwindled to a trickle. Even so, the falls are still very pretty, with several […]
My friend Simon likes to fly model helicopters, and the club he belongs to had an open day last Saturday. Several members form the Mareeba club also made the trip down to Cairns for the day. Here’s a short video I put together from the hour or so of footage I shot on the […]
The alarm went off. Morning already? 4:30am. Time to grab some toast and coffee before packing the photo gear into the car. We were about to drive to Daintree and Cape Tribulation, about two and a half hours north of home. We hadn’t been there for over a year, and since we had a free […]