American Kick Boxing in Thailand

Two years ago Mike Swick fought what he believed to be his last UFC fight.  He was done battling his health, and the stress it was putting on him, his family, his body, his happiness.

Three years before he retired he began following a dream, a vision, an obsession to start one of the premiere fight gyms in the world… in Thailand.

Now five years later his vision is reality, and the new lifestyle he created for himself in this paradise helped his mind and his body heal.  So much so in fact that he is climbing back into the ring this June to fight again for the first time in over 2 years.

His second comeback for one of UFC’s original fighters, and a long time crowd favorite.

BTM got two days with the legend in Thailand to create a feature for the UFC.

Our next stop.. Manilla!  Stay tuned.

Golf Channel’s Ginella’s Journey Shoot: Scotland.

SCOTLAND!!

 

 

For the past year we have spent months on the road with Golf Channel documenting the travels of Matt Ginella.  This month we had the amazing opportunity to go to the home of golf and document the most legendary and historic courses in the world.  Scotland is the home of golf where it all began.
We spend 8 days traveling the picturesque rural landscapes of this incredible country, playing courses like Turnberry, Cruden Bay, and the most historic of all, the Old Course at St Andrews. We even had a recon night sneaking into the graveyard in St Andrews and paying homage to the god father of golf, Tom Morris, placing a golf ball on the head stone.

Along the way we played golf with some personalities that are shaping the world of golf today, some literally and others figuratively.  From Oliver Horovitz, brother to Adam Horovitz of the legendary Beastie Boys and more importantly the author of the NY Times best selling book “American Caddie in St Andrews” to Donald Trump, the polarizing new owner of Ailsa the storied course in Turnberry. We experienced an incredibly dynamic range of perspectives on the game.

We also spent time searching for Nessie on Loch Ness, exploring ancient castles, fished for salmon, rode one of the last single chairlifts in the world, rolled greens in preparation for the Scottish Open at Royal Aberdeen, and rolled VIP style in Trumps personal helicopter.

We survived Alex’s mad skills with the right drive standard transmission VW, and the challenging UK culinary offerings. It was  an experience that has broadened our understanding of golf, and the world.

 

 

See the gallery of frame grabs from our trip!

 

You can see more by following us on instagram too.  Just search RexLint

 

Chile South America

This past September  Black Diamond took us to La Parva South America on an adventure shoot in the Andes Mountains.  Our goal was to capture the new gear for fall 2014 for a variety of Black Diamond promotional campaigns.

The collage below is some frame grabs from the epic.  These have not been graded at all.  This is what we saw on top of the world.  Totally amazing.

Every day started with at least a 2 hour hike though blasting winds over a martian landscape of shattered rocks and ashen sands.  The harsh environment hammering these mountains for millions of years created an alien landscape.  With 50lb packs, it was a rude awakening for our summer legs.

The team of Ben Woodworth, Adam Clark, Alex Hamlen, Bob Downs, and Susan Pratt, was an amazing group of people who’s passion for the outdoors kept us motived and entertained the entire week.

Our last night in Chile we finished our afternoon shoot around 3pm.  We then hiked up on one of the many stunning ridge lines of La Parva to wait for the sunset around 7:45.  Our goal was to shoot the Megamid tent with one of La Parva’s world famous sunsets.  The clouds broke at just the right moment, and we got some of the most stunning imagery we have ever captured, and we got it in 5k with our new RED EPIC.

We are looking forward to seeing how they use our footage.

Big Tree Media travelled nationwide to get pickup shots for Brew Dogs, which premiers on Esquire Network on September 24

Meet James Watt and Martin Dickie, owners of the UK’s fastest-growing brewery. In every episode, they will visit a different American brewery, celebrate an amazing craft beer, and create their own unique draft.

Brew Dogs premiers on Esquire Network on September 24.
http://tv.esquire.com/shows/brew-dogs

Big Tree Media met up with Sweetgrass Productions at the Sunrise Lodge in BC to film for their upcoming movie Valhalla to be released September 2013 in Denver

Weaving narrative-driven style with award-winning, face-melting backcountry ski and snowboard cinematography; Valhalla is a vivid explosion of color, character, snow, and nostalgic soul.

http://www.sweetgrass-productions.com/films/valhalla/

Our good friend Dane Henry and Sean Haverstock of SkyPoint Visuals test out a brushless motor driven Hand Held Gimbal in Tahoe designed by Haverstock

This past June we worked with Nikon photographer David Schultz in Grand Teton National Park. Schultz is hosting a workshop in Iceland this fall.

Join internationally acclaimed polar landscape photographer David C. Schultz and Icelandic resident photographer Lurie Belegurschi for and incredible 5 day 4 night Winter Landscape – Photo Workshop in Iceland
5-9 November 2013

http://www.iuriebelegurschi.com/workshop-with-david-schultz

Nikon Hong Kong

Corey Rich with Novus Selects, asked us to DP for a Project for Nikon Hong Kong, in Teton National Park. Our subject was Nikon photographer David Schultz, who specializes in landscape and wildlife photography. With a client like Nikon, and a location like the Grand Teton National Park we were excited about the possibilities.

We brought in Ben Woodworth a cinematographer for Black Diamond to help us on the shoot.  He was an amazing asset to the team.

J. Walter Thompson is the agency that represents Nikon Hong Kong.  They flew in art director Quentin Yong from Hong Kong to guide the project.

The F-stop packs we used came in very handy on the longer approaches.  The Nikon lens and D4 packages demanded an efficient pack, and the F-stop carried the load in style.  We also utilized the Lite Pro Camera Jib for dynamic camera moves.  Its light weight and ease of setup allowed us to deploy the jib quickly to capture scenes and wildlife on the fly.

A new tool to the team was a collection of Schneider Optics 4 x 6 grad filters. This high quality filter set was critical to maintaining the sharpness of the Nikon glass and allowed us to capture challenging exposure situations.

We spent 5 days with Shultz traveling around the park searching for epic backdrops, wildlife, and long light. Our days began at 4am and often pushed through the night.

While there was no shortage of majestic scenery to shoot, we did struggle to capture the elusive wildlife in the park.   Just as we were packing up on the last day of the shoot, a herd of buffalo wandered across the road, and we quickly scrambled out into the field with the Nikon 200-400 with a 1.4 extender on it.  Using the crop mode of the D4 to even further extend the reach of this amazing setup, we captured Schultz in his element.

Schultz’s is a total pro and it’s easy to see why he is one of Nikon’s premier photographers.  On our final night, we sat around the campfire listening to his  adventures in Antartica and the Arctic Circle as sounds of crickets and time-lapse shutters serenaded his fascinating stories.

It was a great week of work, and pleasure to work with the Hong Kong.

Sigma Optics

Sigma photographer Liam Doran hired Big Tree Media to help him tell an important story about water.  The Colorado River was named the most endangered river in America by American Rivers. We spent 2 days with Zeke Hersh from Blue River Anglers in Frisco.  Zeke has been a long time advocate for river conservation and has gone to Washington to promote this cause. He has addressed congress regarding the Colorado River Echo systems.

We used exclusively Sigma Glass for this project.  It was our first experience with this glass, and we where very impressed.  The lenses where incredibly sharp, and their new line of optics is geared towards the professional adventure photographer/cinematographer.   We put the lenses through some tough tests, including a prolonged rain and hail storm. We especially fell in love with the 35mm f1.4, the 180mm Macro, and the 24-70 2.8. We can’t wait to get our hands on the new glass that they just announced the 120-300mm 2.8 and the 18-35 1.8mm

We also used our new Lite Pro Gear camera crane to get some really interesting dynamic shots of the amazing landscapes of the Upper Colorado River.

Special thanks to Zeke and his team Mike, and Warehouse (Mike 2) for getting us down the river safely and in style. Also, special props to Dustin Farrenkopf for dominating on the camera.

Golf Channel Morning Drive Travel Show Season 1

The Golf Channel hired Latitude Films out of Los Angels to produce its first travel series.  Latitude reached out to us to be on their camera production team.  We are rolling to 9 cities around America with host Matt Ginella.  We shoot on local courses in each city, have an adventure or two, and then hit the town to explore the restaurants and nightlife.

So far we have worked with celebreties like Walter Iooss (legendary sports photographer), PGA Tour and Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee, and the OG of Shock Rock,  ALICE COOPER to name a few.

Iphone shots:

We just finished the latest leg of the trip.  It was a three  day whirlwind tour of Phoenix, and Scottsdale.  We played 2 courses, drove some dune buggies, rode a bull (sort of), and toured the city looking for legacy scenics.

We got to stay at the Four Seasons in Scottsdale.  It’s a beautiful property spread out in the shadow of Pinnacle Peak.  The Saguaro cactus tower above the adobe compound. It was a “target rich” environment for any cameraman. The staff and guests where relaxed and casual, and the vibe was chill.

The highlight of the trip had to be Alice Cooper.  A legendary rockstar in the true sense of the word, Coop now spends his days playing golf and doing charity events for a variety of causes,  one being his own foundation that focuses on getting kids off drugs and into music. Coop is sober 15 years and his story of transformation has been an inspiration for a lot people around the globe.

He had our crew rolling with his jokes stories and outgoing personality.  His golf skills are legit as well, as they should be.  He’s been playing golf 6 days a week for 15 years.

Special thanks to Lite Pro Gear.  They let use one of their Feather Camera Cranes.  This jib added a dimension of camera opportunities, and it’s run and gun set up times allowed us to get great shots on a very tight schedule.

Next Stop… Dallas.