Flying my camera with a bicycle wheel... really.

Quite a while ago I posted about my DIY rig to "fly" my camera as well as stabilize while flying. A good friend of mine snapped some shots of me while doing the "flying" at the April Fools Fest at the Sculpture Resource Center in Tucson, AZ. I was "flying" my Canon T2i along with a Audio Technica shotgun mic covered with a nice "dead cat". Someone once asked me how difficult it was to get that "dead cat". I told them; "I don't really know. I never killed a cat."

So here are a few shots of yours truly shooting with my modified aluminum rim, or simply a bicycle wheel extremely modified for my purpose. But hey it works...

Photos by Ron McCoy - Ron McCoy Photography - Tucson, AZ

Some sample shots from this event while using my recycled bicycle wheel rig.

DIY - Camera rig for "flying" shots and image stabilizer.

I like to build things. I like the DIY concept if at all possible. I have several reasons for this.
1. When I build stuff, I get exactly what I want and how I want it.
2. It usually, and I emphasize "usually" costs a lot less than purchasing a finished product.
3. It solves a problem that I needed to solve.
4. It can be fun to build stuff. Sometimes.

Now this is not say, go out and build everything. Somethings are just not worth building. But some things really are. This just so happens to be one of those things. I looked at the prospect of purchasing a "FigRig" (a trademarked name by the way, as well as a patented product.) But for me at the time, it just seemed too cost prohibitive. It is a great tool. It is diverse. It is functional. It is a very slick piece of equipment.

Tucson 2011 stock footage for charitable causes.

It all started a week ago today when I first was called to go out and start filming in regards to the Tucson tragedy. This was the Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords incident involving several victims as well as fatalities. A week later, our beloved Congresswoman seems to be do extremely well considering the circumstances.

It seems our town has a heart. People have set up vigils, they have rallied, they have marched and they all have one thing in common - peace. You see, Tucson was inadvertently put on the map through this incident. It has been the center of the news frenzy for a solid week now. I have heard throughout the week, particularly at the beginning that people literally stated; "It's embarrassing to say one is form Tucson anymore." - But things change.