THE CHAT with Karen Hutton: Gordon Laing
CameraLabs.com & Extended Holidays
My good friend Gordon Laing can tell you a thing or a several thousand about cameras! His hugely popular website CameraLabs.com serves up a few million pages of thoroughly researched, highly detailed camera reviews and videos each day. His YouTube channel has experienced over 27 million views alone, due in no small part to Gordon’s thoroughly engaging personality and passion for cameras and photography.
I love hanging out with Gordon – and this was no exception! He and his family recently returned to England after an 18 month “extended holiday” abroad. It started as a short vacation, but when the time came to go home the Laings said, “Why?” and just kept on going! Haven’t YOU ever wanted to do that? Gordon’s business and the family’s love of travel and seeing other cultures made it all possible, but what’s it really like trying to work over the internet, travel and raise a family simultaneously?
Sony Brought Us Together
Gordon’s based outside of London in the UK, so I don’t get to see him as often as I’d like to. He’s such a duck! But as good fortune would have it, we actually got to Chat in person in Nashville, Tennessee. We were both at the recent Sony event where we got to test the new mirrorless camera gear: the A7, A7r and RX10. We got to hang out, compare camera notes, talk about life, laugh ALOT – and I helped him out with a few of the exhaustive tests he does with cameras. Talk about detail-oriented! Nothing escapes Gordon. Believe me, when he speaks his opinion about a camera… he knows the exact what, why, when, where, how of it!
My New Solution for Audio
The only problem: my time with Gordon is always way too short! This was no exception. But I was so thrilled that we got to do our Chat on the final day of the Sony trip. It took place in this beautiful – and ECHOEY room at the Hermitage Hotel, where the sound of the storm blowing outside and air conditioning blasting inside made for some mighty interesting audio challenges. And although that aspect isn’t as perfect as I’d like, being a professional voiceover artist and all… thanks to Frederick Van Johnson (who was also at the Sony event – and harassing us off-camera in this episode!) turning me on to ScreenFlow Pro’s powerful handling of audio issues and as a video editing tool – it doesn’t sound NEARLY as blustery as it did sitting there!
It helped that we also shared his gear – two lavaliere mics into Sony’s new Music Video Cam, which right now I think makes better audio than my Canon 5DIII. I need to test that notion more, but that’s what I’m thinking right now. The MVC is an amazing little camera! We simul-recorded with it and Frederick’s Sony NEX-5r… which is ultimately the video that I chose for this episode.
Tech talk aside… I know you’re going to thoroughly enjoy my Chat with incomparable Gordon Laing!