Visual Thinking Northwest

26/07/2022

As an Oregon Video Production Company, we find ourselves crisscrossing the northwest regularly. Always looking for something cool to shoot, our 4K camera crew saw this sweet time-lapse video opportunity in Harney county as we were traveling to Boise for a TV commercial shoot.

22/10/2020

As the fires were raging across the west a few weeks ago, we were out flying a wilderness area northeast of Burns, working for the Harney County Wildfire Collective. They were surveying an area in which to create a firebreak, in order to prevent a Megafire. At the same time, we were just finishing a video on the process by which they identify areas in which building a firebreak can be accomplished. Given the current national discussion on what to do about Megafires that are destroying the west, I was astonished to learn that it takes a ton of cooperation between groups just to agree on a course of action. It’s not possible to just say, “start thinning the forest and manage the undergrowth”. Everybody involved has to agree on how to proceed, or nothing gets done, as evidenced by the recent conflagrations. The Harney County Wildfire Collective is a partnership between federal, state, and county employees, tribal members, conservationists, scientists, local ranchers and Rangeland Fire Protection Association members. It took some time, but they did agree on how and where to build a firebreak. It’s critical that more agencies and individuals work together like this to start getting a handle on this kind of disaster. https://youtu.be/Ds9uciYFLt8

15/07/2019

PSA for the Bend Food Project

18/06/2019

The sunset was glorious, the sound mesmerizing. On location in the Harney Basin, shooting 4K video of the annual Snow Goose migration through the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. There are maybe 10,000 birds in this shot, and when they decide to fly, their calls and the beating of their wings creates an ethereal sound rarely heard by humans. Need to capture high- quality 4K video anywhere in Oregon? Think Visually!

04/06/2019

“Clean living and pure thoughts”. An old, old friend of mine would say that whenever good fortune came his way. I’m not sure the Visual Thinking camera crew strictly adheres to that precept, but good fortune definitely came our way when USPS hired us to broadcast their live Facebook feed. USPS chose Bend as the location to unveil their new Wild and Scenic stamp collection to the world, but the day was less than stellar. It was grey and spitty, and one wag remarked that, we’d be lucky to complete the presentation before the rains came. It started spattering with about a minute left, and less than five minutes later, the skies opened up. “We’re clear!” never came at a better time. Need a 4K camera crew in Oregon? Think Visually!

27/04/2019

First Story is a terrific company that helps provide low-cost housing to derserving families. This is one of their many stories.

25/06/2018

One of the main precepts in any business is the importance of repeat customers. Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is one of our favorites. As with all non-profits we work with, we donate extra time, both shooting and editing, to make sure they get high value for the limited funds they have to work with. In our third video for the High Desert Partnership- the group working on restoring Malheur Lake and the Pacific Flyway to it’s former productivity- we were sent to get some 4K video of nesting bird species, and came away with some pretty cool images, including pelicans fishing. Apparently, this type of pelican fishes as a group. They form a circle and herd fish to the middle. It kinda looks like a “dab”, just before they swim off… Take a look: https://youtu.be/O5OGYcEoaJU

13/06/2018

21/03/2017

Questions answered about 4K, and one big advantage for you, as a business client! http://cascadebusnews.com/25938/

(Photos above | Courtesy of Visual Thinking) By now, most people are aware of the next stage in the development of video production and content delivery: 4K. For decades we watched Standard Definition or SD. The picture size, measured in pixels, was 720 x 480. In the early 2000s, we graduated to two...

19/09/2016

Had a great time shooting interviews and Broll for Al Roker Productions. Coast Guard North Bend recused 4 fishermen from a sinking boat, and we were hired to interview a survivor and crewman for a video airing later this month.

28/02/2016

Everybody wants shallow depth-of-field (DOF) for interviews these days, but the new chip cameras have a hard time accomplishing that; partly because of the chip design and cheaper lenses. Usually, you have to move the camera waaaaay back from the subject, or have the background 15-20 feet away. Because of those issues, many videographers can’t accomplish the look that networks and major corporations look for in a camera crew. Not so at Visual Thinking Northwest, and that’s why HP, Fox News, Oregon Youth Authority, the Oregon Ducks and many others come to us when looking for an Oregon Camera Crew. Here’s a little demonstration of shallow-depth-of field:
Shallow DOF demo

28/08/2015

Working on the History of Yaquina Bay video for Pacific Maritime and Heritage Center. "Ebb & Flow" is going well. Went crabbing this morning with an "old salt", and a 3rd generation crab catcher. Caught 70 crab, and 12 rockfish in 2 hours. Another epic day at the coast!

23/08/2015

The Oregon Youth Authority has a firefighting school at their facility in La Grande, OR. They wanted to let people know about the positive things they were doing with at-risk youth, and training them to be firefighters is a big part of that effort. They also wanted to let Federal and State agencies know they were available to help in the current fire season. Trouble was, there were no fires in the area for the few months after they decided to have Visual Thinking Northwest produce a video on the Riverbend Firefighting School. Finally, with the help of Oregon Department of Forestry, and a lot of careful preparation, OYA and ODF did a controlled burn for practice, and the resulting video came out pretty well: https://youtu.be/hdElYuzO9-w

13/08/2015

Just completed an intense but very cool shoot for a recruiting video for Oregon Youth Authority in Salem. Home at Seatime in Newport preparing for tomorrow's shoot with the Siletz Tribe on the History of the Yaquina Bay Waterway. Big nest of hard drives digitizing video and batteries being charged. Very cool day!

10/08/2015

Had a great night at the 2015 Ghost Tree Dinner on the Range last night. Big crowd, lots of donations for Kidd's Charities, and Visual Thinking did the PSAs for the TV spots. Support those less fortunate!

19/06/2015

Spectacular video about the history of water in the Deschutes Basin.

Water in the Deschutes Basin is a very precious commodity, and for 30 years, Bob Main directed the flows of these waters to landowners, businesses and recreational enthusiasts in such a way as had never been seen before. Regarded as a visionary, Bob gets a lot of credit for a healthy and thriving river system that delivers more water to more varied interests than virtually anywhere else in the country. Shortly before he died, Bob told his family the “History of Water in the Deschutes Basin”. They had the foresight to put this narrative on camera, and we used it as the anchor is this captivating video: http://youtu.be/QPLX7q4Zepo

When the settlers on the Oregon Trail discovered Central Oregon, they just passed on by. Too dry, and too much lava rock to effectively irrigate the land. fi...

10/04/2015

Shooting Challenge: Kids Statewide Making Contributions To The Environment: “The Oregon Youth Conservation Corps is a program that develops and builds youth through education and workforce development”, says Doug Denning, OYCC Director. It’s a little known program that works with “at-risk” youth: kids at risk of not graduating from high school, at risk of not finding a job. These kids are 14-20 and need a little more support and stability to gain some traction in life. It’s a terrific program that deserves more support: see the video here: http://visual-thinking.com/on-location/shooting-challenge-kids-making-contributions-environment/

A media production company