I just returned home from an amazing week long adventure in Panama City Beach Florida at Beach Blast 2012. I have tons of pictures and video to edit so it will take some time for me to get that done, but until then I just wanted to keep you all informed on what exactly went down in Florida. Below is an edit by the very talented Anthony Green, who just so happens to be one of the best acro pilots in the world and really knows how to work a video editing program. We collaborated with the video and in just a day he used video from both him and I and some of the helmet cameras from the Paramania team to create this work of art that really sums up all the fun and the new toys in our sport. Be on the look out for some crazy beautiful pics and my own edit very soon!
This weekend I took it easy and went exploring the local area of Colorado Springs… While I was exploring I took the time to start expirimenting with my DSLR Canon 5D. If you read some of my previous blog posts you may have seen I had the opportunity to work with Devin Graham in one of his videos. After watching him and his friends work I really felt inspired to get out and shoot some video, it has always been a passion of mine ever since I was a kid, but I think there is no better time than now to get serious about it. The following are three videos that I shot and edited in three days. I am really just trying to explore what works best, what kind of shots look great, how to pan and tilt to really draw the eye. I know I have a lot of work to go, but I will never learn unless I get out there and do it. In the end all I really want to do is inspire people to do the same, get out and enjoy life. I hope you enjoy the videos, if you like them comment and share them! Let me know what you think!
It’s been a few months since Lee Boone and I flew in the 2011 Amigo Airshow. I had to be quite about the pictures because PARAMOTOR Magazine posted an article with pictures so I couldn’t publish the pictures prematurely. There has been a video out for a while on Vimeo, but I really don’t like vimeo, it just doesn’t reach as many people as youtube, which is why I have re edited a short video and posted it on youtube so that I can hopefully share with the world what a great sport this is, and to demonstrate that yes, even a slow flying paramotor can put on a BIG show in one of the nation’s biggest airshows. If you want to check out the article you can purchase the issue of the magazine here
Somehow I was invited this past weekend to take part in one of the craziest, fun filled, epic events that has ever gone down in the history of extreme paintball wars. If you don’t know who Devin Graham is by now, you must be living under a rock. He is a youtube video producer of the most blockbuster kinds. I have been following his videos ever since he started producing, before he was well known. I admire his work and his cinematography. Anyone can pick up a DSLR camera that takes 1080p video and shoot, but this guy takes things to a whole other artistic level. Watching his videos is inspiring but being there and seeing him think about every shot, setting everything up, making the world his 3D canvas was truly inspirational. I can’t thank him enough for trusting me in this shoot to put on a good show, allowing me to be a part of the video and giving me some great tips that I hope to use in some of my future videos. The title says, “A Dream Come True” because Devin made me feel like I was some sort of Hollywood action hero on set and that is something we all dream about when growing up watching our favorite action movies.
A little more about the shoot; I showed up thinking I was going to provide a few aerial shots, shoot some pictures from my aerial platform called a paramotor, maybe get some film with my Canon 5D Mark II, but that is definitely not what went down. Devin had something else in mind, he wanted me to be a huge part of the film, flying with a paintball gun and shooting people from the air. The extra aspect in my opinion added just one more depth of field to the action. In addition to the people running around, jeeps with mounted guns and electronic triggers, smoking hot paint covered females hanging off an 800 horsepower NITRO CIRCUS baja race truck, dirt bikes with gun touting operators, and mountain boarders… there was also a fighter pilot paramotor buzzing people’s heads raining down a barrage of green paint. It was truly a sight to see and I am pretty sure that I had the best viewpoint of all the action. Flying around low with a paintball gun required immense flying coordination, I was constantly making adjustments with my breaks and switching back to the gun for some low pass strafes, weight shift was key as well. It was difficult but hopefully the video that Devin produces will show some crazy paramotor scenes. With a bit of luck this video may put paramotor a little more into the mainstream as well. The possibilities are endless here with this sport; the type of flying we can do is just like no other aviation aircraft in the world.
Besides all the crazy flying action, it was so awesome to see such a huge group of people passionate about what they do. After all, in life if you have no passion about something, nothing really matters. From Devin and his crew all the way down to the mountain boarders, every single person was passionate about what they were doing. Everyone was ecstatic just to be a part of what Devin and his crew had organized, smiles everywhere and with the sun shining bright over Salt Lake City, it was a couple of days that made you sit back and say, “This is what life is all about.”
Please be sure and check out this video to see what Devin is capable of, and most importantly subscribe to his channel and be on the lookout for his upcoming films.
Below are some stills that I managed to capture in between all the crazy flying.
