Photography, Video and Storytelling at a Balloon Festival

"Balloons" captured by Lumix Ambassador Bob Coates with a GX85 and 8mm fisheye

LUMIX G9 Mirrorless Camera Body, 20.3 Megapixels plus 80 Megapixel High-Resolution Mode, 5-Axis Dual I.S2 - DC-G9KBODY

Intro by Skip Cohen

My buddy Mark Toal is back with a "Mirrorless Mark Monday" post and it's the perfect description for what so many of us are experiencing.

Just like Mark, I've found that I start out shooting still images but find video such a welcome expansion about capturing an event. Then, I put them together with ProShow Web, and I've got the perfect hybrid slideshow with still images, video clips, and great music.

Technology, besides all the creative tools at our fingertips, has given every photographer the ability to be a better storyteller. 

​Mark's shooting with the LUMIX G9. Just click on the camera above for more information.

Follow the LUMIX Ambassadors and the latest news about mirrorless photography with a visit to their Facebook page. And, check out more of Mark's support to help you grow as an artist with a visit to his website. 

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Tigard OR Festival of Balloons - 4K video from Mark Toal on Vimeo.

I’m discovering that more often when I go out to photograph an event I end up shooting video. A couple of weeks ago I went to a local hot air balloon festival here in Portland, OR fully intending to shoot still photos of the balloons at sunrise.
 
As the sun started to rise and the balloons were being filled with air from giant fans and then hot air to make them rise it struck me that the still photos were missing the sound and feel of the balloons rising. The sound was as important to me as the image.
 
Since I wanted to shoot still photos along with the video I left my Panasonic Lumix G9 in the program mode and just pushed the RED video button when I wanted to shoot video. I set the video quality to 4K because I have a new 4K computer monitor that captures so much more detail. If you have a 4K TV you can put the video files right out of the camera on a USB drive, plug it onto your TV and see how amazing 4K video is.
 
You will notice some distortion in the video since I was using the Lumix 8mm fisheye lens for a lot of the scenes. This beautiful lens allowed me to get very close to the balloons and I feel really captured the feeling and sound of them rising into the sky.