Since Kai Man Won, and Lok Cheung from DigitalRev, one of my favorite photography and social media websites  (click here to read my previous review of their site.)  both took the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.  I decided that I too would take part in this great fundraising effort for ALS research.

It would also give me a chance to try a multiple camera shoot, practice some high speed photography. In addition to planning, directing, and editing a video production.

ALS – Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Diseas (After the famous baseball player) affects rought 30,000 Americans, with approximately  5,000 new cases being diagnosed each year. ALS is a fatal degenerative muscle disorder, that results in the loss of voluntary and eventualy involuntary muscle movement. The average time from diagnosis to death by ALS is usually about 36 months, with only a 4% survival rate longer than 10 years.

What is the ICE BUCKET Challenge?  The premise of the challenge is that participants take *Contiguous video of them pouring a bucket of ice water over their head in order to raise the awareness of ALS.  After pouring the bucket of ice water over their head, the challenger will then challenge someone they know to also take the challenge.

There are 2 versions of the challenge that I am aware of, the first being if you accept the challenge by pouring the bucket of ice water over your head, you are to donate $10 to ALS research.  If you choose to not take the challenge you are to donate $100.  The second version being you only donate if you decide to not take the challenge.  however this is criticized as not being in the spirit of the original intent of the challenge.

Here I am taking the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

* The video and photos were not taken in 1 take!  As this was largely an exercise in photography, 3 takes were used (We only got all 3 takes with the photo camera , as there was a technical problem with the 7D during the last 2 takes.)  However, roughly the same amount of ice was used in all three takes.

** Because we bent the above rules, I felt that it was only fair to donate $25 (PER TAKE) so Brent’s World donated a total of $75 for ALS research.

How did this improve my photography?

I found that I am not a very good director, the preparation and setup went according to my idea, but due to difficulty communicating what I was envisioning, I made the person on the other side of the camera very self conscious and mistakes were made.  Camera shyness isn’t always about the person who is having their picture taken.  If you are lending your camera to someone.  Regardless if they know you well or are a complete stranger.  Always maintain good composure and be patient when trying to explain to them what you want done and how to do it.

Second.  While I do think I got some OK shots, I ended up doing it ass backwards.  I intended to use my Canon Speedlight to freezes the motion.  I found the flash does not recycle fast enough to use in burst mode AT ALL!  I also had the camera settings reversed from what I should have been using.  Instead of using a very narrow aperture, low shutter speed and using the flash to freeze the motion.  I used a fast shutter speed, and a middle of the road aperture of about f5.

I lost allot of clarity on the water by not stooping the lens down to about f9 . I should have also planned more then 3 takes.  Though supposedly the store had run out of ice.  2 bags was all we had.  The next heat wave, I should stock pile ice for a week and see if I can get this down.

Video was a disaster!!  Another reason to have planned on more than 3 takes.  I should have shot the photos first, then gone back and take video.  I thought that since the video pretty much would take care of itself, I could just start it and forget it.  Good ol Murphy showed up, and I was lucky to get away with 1 video out of 2 takes, Of course it also  helps if you remember the name of the people you are going to challenge!

So things could have turned out better, but in the end I mostly had fun with the project, when you do something like this it is more about you breaking from the mold of what you do day in and day out with your camera.  So the learning experience is what is important, you are helping a good cause and that is just icing on the cake!

Thanks for reading!  Enjoy your camera!