I am back from my road trip to Dallas, stay tuned for a final write-up on that.  I had a great time driving down with my brother and helping him get settled in his new place.  I finished editing this video before I left but didn’t have a chance to post it before I left.  This was the first video I put together where I planned out the shots I wanted and roughed up a storyboard before I started shooting.

I had a great time filming and thoroughly enjoyed the hike.  The views from the top of the firetower were spectacular.  The firetower on Overlook Mountain is one of the few remaining firetowers left in the Catskills Mountains where hikers are still allowed to claim to the top.  From the top you have a great 360 degree view of other Mountain tops, Albany and can look in the general direction of New York City.

Overlook Mountain Hike 9-6-09 from Michael Holtzman on Vimeo.
Click the link above to watch in High Def.

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This weekend I got to test out my one week old Canon 5D Mark II.  First off, yes this camera is awesome.  I’m not going to write a review on it as there are tons already out there that go into extreme detail.  Suffice it to say the high ISO images, superb images on the full frame sensor and the 1080p movie mode are welcome improvements from my Canon XSi.  I’m not knocking the XSi, I still plan to keep it around as a backup and to let the girlfriend use it.

Back to the fireworks.  Last year for the fourth I shoot fireworks up at Alexandria Bay in the Thousand Islands.  You can see that flickr set here.  Overall I was impressed with some of the shoots, but I was excited to see what I could come up with this year.  The fireworks in Albany are set up from the Empire State Plaza.  I decided to set up shop just across the Hudson River.  I had a perfect view of the fireworks along with the larger buildings to better frame the shots.

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