Chrysalis Vineyards is a vineyard about 7 miles from where I live. I’ve been there with my wife and friends a few times. This one time I got permission from the owner to shoot there. I had my Canon XHA1, Letus35 FE, Canon HV20 and Steadicam Merlin with me.
Click on the image below to see the video
The intent was to shoot using the Letus35 FE, I had a Nikon 50mm f/1.4 and a Nikon 100mm f/2.8 with me. I should have had wider lens (like a 24mm) but didn’t own one at the time. The sun was out that day and I found it pretty hard to focus using the camera’s tiny view finder. It was ok if I didn’t intend to pan or if the sun wasn’t behind me, but most times that wasn’t the case.
Eventually, I resorted to long shots using the XHA1’s zoom lens (without the Letus35 of course). So in order to achieve a shallow DOF I zoomed in fully and moved back as far as I needed so as to get the composition I wanted. I believe I made one big mistake here and that is that I didn’t use the built in ND filters. As a result, the iris closed down completely (translated to not so shallow a DOF) and the camera was having a hard time focusing. So you’ll see a few shots where things don’t look they’re in sharp focus.
The HV20 was used with the Steadicam Merlin so I didn’t have to mount and dismount the XHA1 from the Steadicam Merlin each time. I find that I’m more comfortable with the XHA1 on the Merlin than I am with the HV20. The heavier camera (XHA1) makes it far easier to control movements, especially outdoors where the slightest breeze can knock the HV20 off course.
The story I try to tell here is that people of all ages come to Vineyards. You see Families, including babies and children; friends, lovers and even pets come here for a few hours of the day. They bring their picnic baskets and buy wine from the Winery. The shots you see here were taken during the course of 4 hours. During editing and put the shots together in such as way that you see people arriving, then settling down and then drinking their wine.
Hope you enjoy the video.
