Songs to run to

I have always been an avid runner, and except for long swimming stints, I usually hit the streets/ trails several times a week.  When I'm not running with my running pals, I usually have a playlist going on my iPod.  I've gone through my favorite albums and found songs that are between 150-170 BPM, the ideal tempo to run to, and I thought I would share them.

Running to a beat is much more exciting than just running along with something upbeat but at the wrong tempo.  It almost becomes a dance at this point, and really helps me get into the run.  The changing tempos cause my stride to change every 3 minutes or so, and that seems to prevent repetitive strain from using exactly the same muscles throughout the run.

I highly recommend giving it a try, now that the weather is getting nicer.  So here's the list!

BT is my fave, and a bunch of tunes from his album "This Binary Universe" are perfect, they are 12-14 minutes long, and just a great droning way to run.  I've probably listened to these tunes 1000 times.

-"All that Makes Us Human Continues", "See You On the Other Side", "1.618", "Dynamic Symmetry"

Mutemath is also great- from their album "Mutemath"

-"Picture", "Without It", "Noticed", and "Chaos"

Other random ones:

-"Davyan Cowboy" and "Oscar See Through Red Eye" by Boards of Canada

-"Must be Dreaming" and "Psychobabble" by Frou Frou

-"Have You Got it In You" by Imogen Heap

-"I Feel it All" and "Past in Present" by Feist

-"Nattappet" by Detektivbyran (super fun)

-"Lorelai" by Fleet Foxes

-"Strawberry Swing" and "Lost!" by Coldplay

Spring break starts!

Kids are on Spring Break, they're going to have to put up with a lot of Dad's mini projects, thank goodness for digital devices to keep them occupied!

New phase begins

Last Wednesday marked the last day of my full time employment with Wine Studios in Japan.  I spent the better part of 5 years as an audio engineer, sound designer, voice coach, voice artist, boom operator, dialogue editor, sound dude, and primarily composer! 

It was an incredible ride, together with Josh Friesen, we made music/ sound for well over 350 different songs, stories and animations for the Grapeseed ESL curriculum.  We got to work with animators from Disney, local voice artists that are heard on the radio/ TV daily in our country, and were priveleged to fly to Japan and spend a good deal of time in one of the most beautiful film studios/ soundstages.  

The whole experience as moulded me into a composing machine, utilizing the latest and great technology to be able to create music at the speed of thought.  I had to edit so many tracks of dialogue for animations/ stories, that I can spot a "p" plosive and remove it faster than you can say... well... plosive!  

I am excited to be moving on and devoting more time to photography and video, but I will miss all of the friendships I've made over the past 5 years, as well as the mochi.  Sweet sweet mochi.

Photography and video has become such a big part of my life, and the next phase will involve bringing all of these skills together to help others with their creative visions, as well as increasing the creative content that I throw at the world. 

Many thanks to Josh for getting me on board, and to my boss Joshua in Japan for being such an amazing man to work for.  This job has brought me so much and I am grateful!

So long, and thanks for all the fish!!

Sunset shoot

My daughter Bella is an amazing subject, she's patient-waiting for me to set up the shots, and she's helpful! Got some great shots up the hill at Highpointe.

Thoughtfarmer shoot at MEC

I shot an interview today for Thoughtfarmer.  Set up at Mountain Equipment Co-op to film how they use Thoughtfarmer's amazing intranet software.

Used a 60D and a 5D MKII with the incredible VAF 5D2 anti aliasing filter.  Pretty much makes the camera almost perfect for the video shoots I do.  More to come on that later!!

Fiddler on the Roof shoot

Spent the day shooting production stills for Fiddler on the Roof, was a challenging shoot with such a large cast, but it was fun!  Used the Pocketwizard Flex TT5  flash triggers with a Canon flash and a strobe.  The play looks like it will be amazing, but it's almost sold out already!

   

Canon C300 event

Got to head out to Vancouver to see Vincent Laforet speak about the new C300, it was almost a year since Vincent chose me to come to the Creative Live workshop and be a part of his 3 day weekend workshop.  The C300 looks like an amazing camera, but for now I'm sticking with the 5D MKII, and will add a 5D MKIII to the mix before too long!

Justin Carlson playing with the C300: