Death of an F (or the Final-ity of a Users Group)
Update and clarification: None of the film editing users groups mentioned in my original posting are dead. Some have simply changed their names. I received some feedback on this article from some concerned readers that by simply looking at the headline title of this post in a web search, it could result in some confusion about [...]
Part 16 of 50: Color or Black & White? A Photographers Dilemma
This is part sixteen in a series of blogs on my recent artistic adventures in Mexico. I’ve been writing a lot about how I decide whether the photographs I create are going to end up being in black & white or color. Perhaps it’s time to share my opinions on that further after the last [...]
Professor Billy teaches DSLR Filmmaking at fxphd.com
If I didn’t have the opportunity to do what I do, I’d probably be a teacher. I love knowledge sharing. And this summer- in fact, this week- I’m beginning to teach a 10 week course on Digital Filmmaking at fxphd.com. The good people at fxphd and I have been trying to get together for a [...]
Yet Another FCP X Opinion From a Pro Editor – It’s not you, it’s me.
Nothing like a little crisis to get people talking. In the last two weeks I’ve had more editing discussions with my fellow pro editors from all over the country than I have in the last two years. Sharing information and viewpoints is always a good idea. Any regular readers of my blog will know that [...]
My Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group talk on 5D Mark II CineStyle and Neutral Density Filters
It’s always nice to be invited back to the Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group to discuss a topic I hope will be useful and interesting to those attending. Tonight I returned to give a talk about some tips I use to make my Canon 5DMark II motion footage look the best it can be. [...]
Summer Seriously Arrives in Chicago, and in other news, Facebook Launches Facial Recognition
Chicago’s psychotic weather continues, going straight from March to August in a week. All in all, 97 degrees is better than 40 degrees, it’s just hard to make the switch so quickly. Now I know how lobsters feel when they get thrown into a pot of boiling water. It’s kinda like that in Chicago today. [...]
What the LUT? – HDSLRs, Picture Styles and Look Up Tables Give Your Footage More Color Grading Options in Post
I’ve spent the last three years shooting motion with my Canon 5D Mark II. It was a fairly easy transition for me because I could use the same lighting concepts and composition techniques I had become accustomed to in the years of shooting film and then digital still images. The closest comparison I can make [...]
One For the Video Editors – June is Square 1 Month with FCP X
As many of you know, in addition to being a photographer, I’m also a video editor. We used to be called film editors, but I think the last time I received film dailies was back in 2009. So why talk about video editing on a photography blog? Because if you’re a photographer, your future skill [...]
The TwitPic Backlash – Are Social Networking Sites Selling Your Photos Without Paying You?
UPDATE: The ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers) is advising photographers not to use TwitPic as of this week. They too are recommending MobyPicture to share photos from your Twitter posts. It seems like never more than a few weeks go by before Facebook has made some sort of privacy change and we all have to shift [...]
Billy Sheahan Photography Class 102 – Choosing a DSLR Camera and Lenses
Billy Sheahan Photography Class 102 Choosing a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) Camera and Lenses This is part two in a series of photography discussions to help you make the most of your photographs. If you haven’t read Class 101, it will probably be easier to follow Class 102 if you do so first. DSLR [...]
Chicago Moon
I got up in the middle of the night over the weekend to get a drink of water and when I walked by my studio window I saw the moon just hanging there, big as life. Not a particularly unusual event, but this night it just seemed remarkably clear. I stood there with my water [...]
Television of the Future
Ten years ago, I was the guy who had the first everything. If it was new and it involved technology, I was the first kid on the block. At some point, either I became too busy to keep up with everything or I simply discovered it was financially more sensible to wait a bit. You [...]
Keeping Photography Imaging Fresh in the Digital Age
Digital is a funny animal. It certainly took a while for it to look as good as its analog ancestors. But it does… looks as good now, in my opinion. It has come in very tiny steps though and will probably continue to evolve in ways we can’t imagine. Those steps can be a bit [...]
Protecting your Labor this holiday weekend: backups, passwords and more
As we all enjoy this three day US holiday weekend, consider this my public service announcement to protect all your hard labor this past year and into the future. Taking a few minutes now to refresh yourself on proper backups and password protection will prove to be worth it in your digital future. Hard Dive [...]
Making Time to Daydream or How to Avoid Checking Your Email when your dinner companion uses the restroom
I love catching up with old friends. Laura is in town for a few days and somehow we both managed to carve out a couple of hours to meet for dinner tonight. Second dinner out in a week for me. That’s pretty amazing these days. I’ve known Laura for about 12 years. I first met [...]
5 years old… all over again
Remember when you were 5 years old? I do. I was living on the southeast side of Chicago around 99th street. Anything was possible. Big dreams. Big play. Big fun. I was reminded of that time twice today. First when I heard the Chicago air-raid sirens go off this morning at 10am. We called them [...]
Billy Sheahan Photography- New & Improved for the iPad
It’s always interesting to see the collective world react to something new. Especially when it comes from a company that leads the way when it comes to shiny new technology. When Apple released the iPad last month, you could almost hear the unanimous cheer, which was followed immediately by a groan as thousands of web [...]
Parlez-vous Billy ? Oui !
I’m continuing to make lots of improvements to the blog and my photography website which should be finished in a few weeks. With the introduction of Apple’s iPad, it’s been fascinating to watch web designers scramble to make sure their sites are viewable on the new device, which does not use Flash to display web [...]
A new look for the Billy Sheahan Photography Blog
It’s always nice to do a little cleaning and rearranging when Spring arrives. I always get the itch to change things up a bit. But change for the sake of change isn’t always good. It’s the improvement that matters. So I’m back to black type on white. Matches my main photography site a little better [...]
The CHIFCPUG lecture from March 24, 2010
For many of you regular readers, some of this blog entry may not make sense. I was honored to be invited to speak at the March meeting of the Chicago Final Cut Users Group this week, hosted by one of the top Chicago Advertising Agencies, DDB. Years ago, I was one of the co-founders of [...]
Rediscovering fire. The future of merging still photography, motion shooting & film editing
As many of you already know, I’ve had parallel careers the past fifteen plus years of being both a photographer and film editor. In the beginning, I made the decision to keep them separate. While they were both visual artistic expressions, for the most part they seemed to be different entities to me. I enjoy [...]
“Confess” – Making Jillian Ann’s new music video
“Confess” by Jillian Ann from Billy Sheahan on Vimeo. I thought I’d take a little break today from opening my Christmas cards (Yes, I’m that far behind schedule!), and write a little about the music video we released yesterday. A month ago to the day, our cast and crew assembled in Chicago to begin the [...]
A Holiday Music Video Miracle and Christmas at 7-Eleven
December is always a challenging month for me. Not because of the usual shopping stresses, but more because of work related holiday deadlines. It seems like my already bursting plate seems to overflow even more leading up to the holidays. I’ve learned over the years to not stress too much about it. There are things [...]
Questions answered about my iPhone app promotion
My Billy Sheahan Photography iPhone app (link opens iTunes), has been out for a little over a week now. It’s done phenomenally well. Beyond my wildest expectations. A little over 1000 installs every day. Really tremendous. And besides all the installs, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about why I felt I needed an [...]
