- I am an outdoor lifestyle photographer and filmmaker based in Seattle WA. I love to push the envelope with my work and I enjoy sharing what I learn along the way.
This blog will show both current work as well as how-to's and insight on becoming a better photographer and DSLR filmmaker.
- Kirk Mastin
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Category Archives: random
Welcome APE readers!
Good to see you all here.
A big shout out to Rob Haggart and Ryan Schick.
As you can see I’m kinda infatuated with lo-fi media production:
Flip Video cameras for video work and my iPhone for my stills.
I’ve got a few more things to prove with content over technical quality, and then I’ll probably drift back to shooting with just my 5D and a 50mm. This combo is a mix of Zen and pure laziness.
-Kirk
Teaching film making at the University of Washington
For the last week I have been teaching a course in documentary film making for a program called Climate Quest at the University of Washington.
The goal is to take groups of high school students from all over Washington State through the process of preproduction, filming and post production, and help them make compelling short films about climate change.
It has been challenging and rewarding to take a group of people who have never used video equipment or video editing software and guide them through the thought process required to make a coherent documentary.
We start with storytelling and film theory and go right into interviewing technique, camera operation and most importantly, storyboarding.
The last few days are spent filming interviews with leading climate change scientists at the University of Washington, filming on location at the Cedar River Watershed (which is a delicate habitat that supplies the majority of drinking water for the greater Seattle area), and finally editing.
We are not yet to the editing stage (it will start tomorrow), but I can say that I have seen these students go from being somewhat timid amateur film makers to being confident film makers, interviewing Nobel Prize winning climatologists, paleontologists, and supercomputer climate model experts.
They have learned to ask important questions, set up wireless mics, use the rule of thirds to compose a frame and to plan ahead and answer the question of ‘so what?’ in their pre-production storyboarding.
I am really looking forward to sharing their final pieces later this month.
-Kirk
ps. the last photo is from my iPhone
Also posted in citizen journalist, tips
4 Comments
Battle Camera Match 1
So today I took my little Fuji F30 on a bike ride down through the Ballard shipyards…that’s me above.
This is all part of a competition between myself and a fellow photographer in another country. Identities will remain secret.
The whole challenge is that I have to shoot pictures without people in them. Very hard for me to do.
The competition for her is to photograph only people. My precise challenge was to approach an interesting looking stranger and get a good picture from the encounter.
Approaching people on the street is not easy, but not impossible. If I were to teach someone something about photography it would be to be good with people. Access is everything.
Repeat after me:
Access is everything.
The camera you use is almost completely meaningless.
These shots were shot with a fairly basic point and shoot, the kind of camera that most people carry. You just need to check your exposure and composition, and work with the constraints you are given, it’s the constraints that make you think!
So here you go. I went out to today and found a few photos. Are they mind blowing? Probably not. But they aren’t crap either. People get away with a lot in photography these days.
Alright, it’s your ball! Let’s see some cool pics of people on the street!
First and Last Pictures from a WWI AGFA Billy Record III
Guild Movie Theatre, Wallingford district, Seattle, WA.
Self portrait by blinds….even in perfect conditions on a tripod etc I could not get a sharp picture..
Random Rasta guy on 45th St. Shot at f22, I think at 1/500 sec. Still not sharp. UGH!
The camera in question. The Agfa Billy Record III
Some of the pics look sharp but they aren’t. Even when back or front focused, there is no part of the negative that is truly sharp. And the negative is like 20 times the size of a 35mm negative (or something like that.)
I’m starting a new project on bicycle culture in Seattle and I don’t necessarily want to lug a Toyo 4×5 around with me everywhere I go…even though that would be totally awesome. So I tried to use this antique 6×9 camera that has been on my shelf for ages.
I turns out it is almost impossible to use…to take a picture you have to use a tiny uncoupled range-finder window to find distance to subject, then adjust focus on the lens, set aperture and shutter speed, cock the shutter and make sure you aren’t double-exposing your negative.
All of this to get a picture that is not even very sharp at f22!!
So this camera is out of the running, obviously.
The ironic thing is that I owned a Mamiya 7 for a year or so and made beautiful pics with it. I sold it in part to finance a new Canon 5D. Now I have the urge to shoot film again….and well…maybe I’ll end with the Mamiya 7 I’m bidding on in Ebay. Or maybe I’ll win the Pentax 6×7, or maybe….just maybe….I’ll buy a Rolleiflex or Seagull TLR. Or if I win the lottery, a used Plaubel Makina 67.
I know Shawn is chuckling over this 
Also posted in review
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Annual Aurora Meeting :)
It was a life changing weekend for me. On the shores of Lake Sebago in Maine, I met with the most creative and inspiring photographers I have ever met and the best part is: I get to see them again next year!
Being part of the team at Aurora Photos has really changed my entire outlook on photography and given me a huge creative boost. I have so many new projects to work on now and new connections to build.
I will be posting much more in this blog within the next month….It has slowed down these last few weeks due to all my energy being spent moving to Seattle. After the 27th I will be settled into my new home in the Fremont/Wallingford district in Seattle.
A big shout out to Todd Korol who came up to me at the meeting and told me he had been tracking my blog for quite a while now and passing the link on to other photographers! Now I can understand that little map on my blog much much better. I kept thinking : who the heck knows of me outside of Idaho and a few bits in Seattle and Southern Cali?
I will be making some big changes to this blog soon. First I will create a separate blog for wedding related photos. Then I will turn this blog into an educational space where I can explain HOW I got each of these photos as well as how I toned them etc. I have no secrets to hide and if it wasn‘t for the generous help of other photographers I wouldn’t be where I am today. Who knows, maybe I will learn something from trying to explain and teach what I do.
I have some weird pictures of roadkill to post. I will put them up tomorrow.
Otherwise have a great Tuesday and please identify yourself in a comment or something, so I can get to know some of the blog-stalkers out there
Kirk
