I spent about an hour yesterday at Mt. Rushmore. It was much better than I was expecting, somewhat of a reverent place and spiritual experience. Mt Rushmore was essentially the idea of a man who just decided one day he wanted to build a National Monument that people all over the world would come to see. So he got the resources together to do it, and did- it was finished right around the time he died. Pretty amazing because now this is exactly what it is, a highly recognized National Monument that people all over the world are flocking to. I consider this a real life example of Field of Dreams. He built it (obviously with the help of a lot of people, including the government) and people come.
The place was absolutely PACKED and I wanted to film a short video with it over my shoulder, but there were tourists like EVERYWHERE. The same was true with shooting on Times Square, the difference being I didn’t attract any unneeded attention on Times Square…at Mt Rushmore, I did. Kids would come up and start screaming, people would try to come over and see what was up, try to talk with me. Jeez people- cant a man make a photography video in peace!?! LOL- I even walked around the whole park looking for a good place to shoot and it didnt matter, like hundreds of people everywhere I went. Anyone who has been to Mt. Rushmore will know what I am talking about.
I came up with an interesting solution to filming “Michael’s Top 5 Creative Photography Tips”, right there at Mt Rushmore, surrounded by tourists, kids and park rangers- not a single person came over to see what I was doing. It couldn’t have worked better. We have some very interesting tendencies as a culture. If you are standing talking into a camera, everyone reacts one way, if you change one little thing, they ignore you. You will see what I am talking about. Hope to post it later this afternoon / evening.
This shot wasnt intended to be a 365, it was one of the test shots I take right before I start filiming to make sure Im standing in the right spot. Of all the pictures I took at Mt. Rushmore, this just turned out to be the best. 🙂
Did you find the City of Gold behind the mountain?
I’ve never been, but heard lots – how about the giant white horse that’s being done, is it still on hold? Finally picked up my new 580 ex II today along with a couple Gary Fong diffusers-a little play time, and you know, I’m thinking I really like my nice vinyl bounce card that I made for the workshop MUCH better. Go figure – I think I’m onto something!
Thank you for the picture.
Michael, how would you focus a shot like this?, Are you calculating more less where you are and focus there?, Or will the camera simply auto focus prior to the shot?
Im finding myself looking at the focus distance on the lens, say 5 feet, setting it manually and then doing a test shot. 🙂