I was lucky enough to catch this year’s dress rehearsal of the reenactment of George Washington’s famous crossing of the Delaware on Christmas Day in 1776 (from where he went on to defeat the Hessians in Trenton and turn the tide of the Revolution). The reenactment takes place every Christmas Day at Washington Crossing State Park just down the road from me.
Because of the demands of the crossing and the number of volunteers it entails, they run a dress rehearsal about two weeks before Christmas every year. It’s a little easier to move around and shoot at the rehearsal, because the crowds are much thicker on Christmas Day.
Even the rehearsal is a tough thing to cover, however, because you’ve got to get across the river before they do…thank goodness for bridge they built right next to the launch point in the 20th century!
I shot this with a camcorder I’m trying out to complement my D7000 for video (sometimes, the form factor of a camcorder is just easier to use to cover breaking events), the Sony NEX VG 10.
It’s an intriguing camera, with a full sized APS-sized chip and interchangeable lenses in a camcorder body. But it’s missing a lot of the manual controls that even a semi-serious videographer like me needs, and the controls that are there are not all that ergonomically well thought out either.
For a company that’s been in the camcorder business as long as Sony has, you’d think they would have had this basic stuff worked out by now….but you’d be wrong! They can use some help.
(Sony, meet Nikon. Nikon, meet Sony—-now you kids go and design a really good, usable hybrid camcorder, okay? Don’t forget to use the Nikkor glass! Oh, and try to keep the price under what I paid for my first house, too, won’t you?)
Ah well, we can dream can’t we….after all, it is Christmas!
RuthCT
19 Jan 2011fabulous video of our local history Bob, I love how you added the detailed narrative and of course the music of the Phila Fife and Drum. My husband hired PF&D 2 years ago for a piano convention held in Valley Forge :))
One of these years, I’ll have to make it to the rehearsal event. Only year I did a few years back, it was rainy and cold and the river too dangerous that weekend, so no actual crossing took place on the river with the reenactors.