It's springtime in the Rockies, a season of schizophrenic weather and the occasional realization that the Colorado Rockies are a professional sports franchise. Where previous Bourbon Street newsletters have regaled you with technical tidbits, travel updates, and admittedly self-serving promotions, let's start out with a query.

Recently, Bourbon Street's chief executive videographer John Bourbonais traveled to Bakersfield California to shoot highly talented (and thoroughly insane) BMX riders for "BMX Pig" a series for Rush HD, part of the Voom Network. Bourbonais wasn't hired merely to shoot, but to coordinate no less than nine HD cameras (Sony 730s and 900s) and ensure their visual continuity.

"When the 900 came out I figured out how to manipulate the color palette of the camera via the 'User Matrix' in relation to a Macbeth chart," Bourbonais explains. "I started with the 750 because there were six of those and I manipulated one of them, then I took that color setup and passed on those attributes via 'Memory Stick' to the other 730s." I then proceeded with matching the 900s with the 730s which was essentially a 10% desaturation. In the end, the cameras were all within 2% of each other.

All told it was a great gig. Bourbonais particularly enjoyed comparing notes with other talented HD camera aces like upstate New York based Denver Miller, who noted his success in shooting slow motion in 29.97 progressive rather than the standard 1080i. While Bourbonais has yet to "borrow" Miller's technique, he's looking forward to taking it for a spin. And now the query: If you've had any experience shooting 29.97 please e-mail Bourbon HD at: info@bourbonhd.com and share your thoughts. We'd love to compare notes.

A quick mental hors d'oeuvre: Has anyone seen Kodak's new Vision 2 stock for 16 mm? Has anyone noticed how little grain it has? Since film purists are always ripping on HD for lack of grain it's hard not to be puzzled by this gorgeous, grainless stock. What's even more bizarre is that Kodak named another 35 mm consumer print stock, High Definition. If that's not a marketing disaster on par with the late 80s "new Coke," we don't know what is.

Bourbon Street will be running two camera workshops next month at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. The first will be an intensive hands-on primer on lighting, composition and camera operation. "It's perfect for people considering a career in the field," Bourbonais says. Dates: June 21-June 25th. $400.

Following this will be a weekend workshop devoted exclusively to High Definition camera operation. Its focus will be on using menu options for optimizing images for location and post-production. Dates are June 26-27.. Cost is $350. To reserve your spot contact Brian Glach at 719-262-4071 or bglach@uccs.edu.

Stay tuned for the June newsletter where we'll report on our experiments with pro 35 adapter and Century Zoom/Primes as well as the results of tests run on a swath of HD tape stocks. Pretty exciting stuff, but please, don't lose sleep on our account.