I add a detailed description to most of my films that I post on my website or on Vimeo. I do not, however, add any of my behind the scenes production stills to the video descriptions. I save all these cool pictures for my blogs.

Today, I went to the Kancamagus highway with my Sony PMW-EX1. Of course, the Letus Extreme was attached to the front.

The Kanc is route 112 and it runs right through the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It will get you to Lincoln from Conway or vise versa. There is nothing in between. No gas, homes or business for almost 30 miles! Cell phones do not work and the drive is steep and dangerous.

There are hundreds of hiking trails and the mountain views are beautiful....when they are not cloaked in fog.

I started at 6 am. My first stop was a mountain tarn. A tarn is a small pond locked high in the mountain tops. This place is very clean and the water is crystal clear. I had hoped to nab a shot of some wildlife here.

I hiked in dolly track, my Vinten tripod, lenses and my camera. Anytime I do this sort of stuff alone, I have to make a few trips to get the gear in and out.

I used my long lens to get shots of the lonely duck sleeping on the rock. This is a Nikon Nikkor 300mm f4 telephoto. By using this long lens on the EX1 and Letus, I was able to get tight shots of the sleeping duck from far across the pond. I also used this lens to get some of the shots of the mountain tops and exposed valley in the middle of the short. I had to add an extra support I bought from Letus to hold the weight of this lens and place it on the rail system.

I did not get any pictures of the Sabaday Falls setups. Sorry about that. I was scrambling to get it all shot before the rain got heavier.

The above picture is how I laid the 1 1/4 inch PVC pipe down in the stream. This was not easy. I pulled rocks from the stream and built up a “railroad tie” support to hold the rails in place. I did not want the dolly to shift and dump the camera in the drink. The rocks were slick.

I do not have a rain cover, as you can see, so I used an 11 cent trash bag to protect my investment.

One other thing I have to say is that my boots were full of icy cold water, my hands were freezing and since it was pouring rain, the stream was turing into a raging torrent by the second. I had left the dolly track in the stream for about five minutes while I was drying the camera and when I returned to it, the water had risen and was washing over the plywood decking! The rain must have been falling even heavier upstream at higher altitude.

Wet and cold feet. My boots were water proof, but when the water gets so deep that it goes over the top of the boot, the water proofing only hold the water inside. Got trench foot?

Headed home on Rt 93 towards Boston. Heavy rains made rush hour traffic even more enjoyable. I can’t wait to shoot another video on the Kanc!

Email me if you have any question