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Behind the scenes: Shooting a documentary atop a moving train

22 May

From 2015 to 2017, filmmaker Miguel de Olaso (AKA Macgregor) and his crew spend many months traveling back and forth on the famed Mauritanian Railway—one of the longest and heaviest trains in the world, the so-called ‘Backbone of the Sahara—to document the grueling journey endured by merchants who regularly travel atop this train to transport goods to people living in remote Saharan towns.

The result is a beautifully-executed 12-minute documentary titled The Mauritania Railway: Backbone of the Sahara, which follows the journey of Malick: a 27 year-old merchant who relies on the train for his livelihood, even as he risks death each time he climbs aboard.

The short doc was shot entirely on a Sony F35 that was modified to take Nikon lenses (for reasons you’ll understand in a moment), and filming the documentary was a grueling process. We spoke with Macgregor shortly before the documentary was released last week, and he shared some details about the kit he used, the challenges he faced, and why he would never ever do this again.

The Mauritania Railway

by Macgregor

My crew and I put ourselves in the shoes of one of these merchants (over a two year period) and filmed the journey they go through on a daily basis. The result is a cinematic and immersive glimpse into a way of life that exists nowhere else in the world.

I shot the entire documentary on a Sony F35, Not sure how much you know about this “old” digital cinema cameras. The F35 was the successor of the Panavision Genesis, which was a big, heavy beast. But after the arrival of the solid state recorders a few years ago, the F35 became pretty compact and lightweight given the image quality it provided. Still not a DSLR in terms of size, but comparable to an Alexa for a fraction of the cost and size.

Anyways, even though I owned a set of PL mount lenses, I didn’t want to get them ruined in the desert sands of Mauritania so I decided to modify my Sony F35 with a custom built Nikon mount. That would let me travel lighter and use way cheaper glass than PL, but still capture a super high-quality image. We needed to travel with all our gear for more than a month and be able to move fast. Would a DSLR or Canon C300 had been a better choice? Possibly, but this project had to look amazing and I did not want to compromise on image quality. This had to look like a feature, shot on real locations and with real people.

Of course not all the lenses made it back home, but the camera did and it’s still working to this day.

This was a passion project that we did for the fun of it. But shooting atop of this damn train was horrible, dusty, endless, painful… I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. It might all look very pretty with nice music, etc. but oh man, after three trips I said I’m not doing this again. Of course, we did end up going back and shooting more footage… #filmmakerlife

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Check out the full short doc at the top to see the final product, and then scroll through the behind the scenes photos above for a glimpse at what it takes to create this kind of documentary. And if you want to see more of Macgregor’s work, be sure to pay his website a visit or give him a follow on Instagram.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Behind the scenes of Himalaya Bound: Images of nomads in north India

24 Apr

17-year-old Mariam leads her family’s caravan through the foothills of the Himalayas, while carrying her 2-year-old niece in the blue plaid shawl over her shoulders.

The forests and mountains of north India are home to a unique nomadic tribe whose world revolves around caring for the water buffaloes that they herd. During the fall and winter months, the Van Gujjars dwell in the lowland jungles of the Shivalik Hills, where thick foliage provides plenty of fodder for their animals at that time of year. But by mid-April, as temperatures there soar above 110 degrees, the leaves and grasses wither and die and creeks and streams run dry. With nothing left for their buffaloes to eat or drink, the Van Gujjars must move elsewhere.

Entire families, from infants to the elderly, trek with their herds up into the Himalayas, where melting snows reveal lush alpine meadows laced by gurgling streams, which provide abundant grass and water throughout the summer. When the cold sets in at the end of September, they head back down to the Shivaliks, where the jungle has sprung back to life following the monsoon rains. The tribe has followed this cycle of seasonal migration—up in summer, down in winter, perpetually living in the wilderness and shunning settled village life—for over 1,500 years.

My most recent book, Himalaya Bound: One Family’s Quest to Save Their Animals – And an Ancient Way of Life, which was published by Pegasus Books earlier this year, follows one extended Van Gujjar family on their spring migration into the mountains. In this article, I’ll delve into the story behind the images that are featured in the book’s photo insert, which is sandwiched between 230 pages of text.

Who Am I?

I’m a freelance photographer and writer for magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times. I’m also the author of three books.

I often find myself drawn to stories about nomadic communities around the world—for my first book, Men Of Salt: Crossing the Sahara on the Caravan of White Gold, I traveled 1,000 miles over age-old trade routes north of Timbuktu with one of the last working camel caravans on Earth. I’ve spent time with nomadic / transhumant people in Africa, the Middle East, a number of states in India, as well as Mongolia and the Southwestern U.S.

Before taking on the project that became Himalaya Bound, I had dreamed of migrating with a tribe—partly to document what is becoming an increasingly rare way of life, and partly because I imagined it would be an amazing thing to experience.

The Van Gujjars’ livelihoods are based almost entirely on the sale of buffalo milk

Planning

No, I did not fly over to India, wander into the jungle, and start randomly knocking on huts asking Van Gujjars if I could migrate with them. As the idea for this project began to crystallize in my mind, it seemed wise to investigate how realistic it was to pursue before channeling too much time, money, and energy in its direction.

My first step was emailing the director of the Society for the Preservation of Himalayan Indigenous Activities (SOPHIA)—a small non-profit organization based in Dehradun, India, that advocates for the tribe—asking if he thought it would be possible for me to travel with a nomadic family and document their migration from beginning to end. He replied that he would check in with a few Van Gujjars to see if they were open to the idea. As it turned out, they were; since they were being pressured by the government to abandon their way of life against their will, they thought it might be helpful if someone would share their story with the rest of the world. SOPHIA also connected me with a translator who was willing to join me for most of the journey.

Gear

My choice of camera gear was determined by three factors: weight, budget, and year. The year was 2009 and I had to watch what I spent. But my main consideration was the fact that I was embarking on an assignment during which I would be trekking for over a month, from the lowlands into the Himalayas, while hauling everything I needed on my back—including a sleeping bag, clothing appropriate for temperatures ranging from over 110 degrees to below freezing, a first aid kit, and more. Thus, my goal was to make the most out of as little camera gear as I could carry and still get satisfying images.

I ended up taking a Nikon D90 (remember the year) with a few Nikon lenses: an 18-70mm zoom, plus 50mm F1.4 and 35mm F1.8 primes. I kept my old Nikon D70 in the bottom of my bag as a backup in case the D90 failed (it never did), and I brought along a low-quality but very lightweight tripod. Knowing that I might spend days or weeks without an electrical outlet, I also carried a bunch of batteries.

The prime lenses proved to be crucial: many days, we hit the trail by 3am, aiming to arrive at our next camp as early in the morning as possible. This meant that my best shooting opportunities on the trail were often during the liminal hours in weak light around the break of dawn. With the caravan marching forward, I had to get shutter speeds fast enough to stop motion, and the only way to do that was with wide apertures—often shooting at F2. Carrying my fully loaded backpack, I would run ahead of the family, pause, turn, shoot, and repeat, as they quickly caught up to me.

Hamju carries his nephew, Karim

Goku carries her brother, Yasin, while following the Yamuna River into the Himalayas.

Getting the Images

The most important element in the series of images I returned with was the time I spent deep in the Van Gujjars’ world. I lived with them for forty-four days: walking with them, herding buffaloes with them, swimming in rivers with them, joking around with them, helping with daily chores, and sleeping under their tents. I formed real relationships with my companions, which I think accounts for how natural they appear and how clearly their personalities are communicated through the images.

I never set up shots or posed anyone—I either snapped away while they were doing whatever they happened to be doing or, for true portraits, they presented themselves however they liked.

The heads of four Van Gujjar families discuss their strategy for moving higher into the Himalayas, after the government has threatened to ban them from their ancestral alpine meadows, where they have gone each summer for generations, because those meadows are now within a national park. They scrambled to find a different place to spend the summer.

Jamila cooks lunch on the trail, with her 2-year-old son Yasin on her lap.

Mustooq and his little cousins, Bashi and Salma, asked for their picture to be taken.

Dhumman, the father of the family I traveled with, wanted a photo with his favorite buffalo.

Of course, the time I spent immersed with the tribe also allowed me to witness—and shoot—the scenarios that were essential to telling their story, as they happened.

One part of the Van Gujjars’ culture that I needed to capture was the deeply personal connection that they have with their water buffaloes. They think of their large horned animals as family members, and readily sacrifice their own comfort for their herds. If a buffalo falls ill, Van Gujjars become wracked with concern; if one dies, they mourn for it as though it were human. They never eat their buffaloes nor sell them for slaughter, using them only for the milk that they produce. (Though they are Muslim, Van Gujjars are also traditionally vegetarian, averse to the idea of killing animals.)

In order to get photos that convey this relationship in a way that was organic and authentic and not staged, I had to be there during those moments when that kind of closeness was demonstrated, and my companions had to be comfortable enough with me around so the fact that a foreigner with a camera was taking pictures didn’t alter the moment for them.

Goku pets one of her family’s buffaloes, at about 10,500’ above sea level.

Sharafat dries off after a swim in the Yamuna River, trusting a buffalo enough to use it as a lounge chair.

Karim gets his milk straight from the source.

Bashi watches the herd at a camp in the mountains.

In the course of documenting the migration, unexpected issues arose. While covering the human rights aspect of the story, I learned that the government was threatening to ban a number of Van Gujjar families—including the one that I was traveling with—from their ancestral alpine meadows, where they had spent summers for many generations. Those meadows had been absorbed into a national park, and park authorities didn’t want the nomads using them any longer. The Forest Department announced that any Van Gujjars who entered the park would be arrested and have their herds seized—while refusing to offer them any alternative pastures.

This left these families deeply shaken, facing dire circumstances, because they had no idea where they would take their buffaloes for the season. Hence, when the father of the family I was with joined about 80 of his fellow tribespeople at Forest Department headquarters in Dehradun (about two hours by bus from where we were camped) to plead with park officials to let them go to their traditional pastures, I went to take pictures.

Though I did nothing more than photograph what was a very peaceful scene, the park director had me arrested for being a “foreign political agitator,” and when I objected I was forced into a police car at gunpoint. Fortunately, no one thought to demand my memory cards, and the captain at the police station released me relatively quickly, realizing that the charge was absurd. What could have been a nightmare turned into a gift: by the time I rejoined the Van Gujjars that night, word about the incident had spread among the tribe, so even people I hadn’t yet met trusted me by my reputation, knowing that I had been pushed around by the same person who was pushing them around.

Weeks later, another episode posed a photographic dilemma for me. While camped at about 10,000 feet above sea level, a cataclysmic Himalayan storm struck, during which a tree washed over a cliff and landed on several young buffaloes, crushing one’s front left leg. A broken bone stuck out of the yearling’s flesh and the hoof below it flopped around like it was attached by a rubber band. It was bad, really bad, and because of how close they feel to their animals, everyone in the family was devastated—even the men were weeping.

Watching this unfold, part of me was aching to take pictures of this scene. But another part of me felt that in this moment of raw anguish, it could be the wrong thing to do: that the snapping of a shutter could create a self-consciousness that would inhibit my companions’ experience and their expressions of suffering and vulnerability.

Bashi comforts the yearling with the broken leg

I vividly remember a photograph that once appeared on the front page of a major American newspaper, probably twenty years ago or so: it was taken at a funeral, I believe in England, after some horrible tragedy. I don’t recall the specific circumstances—what stood out to me was that one of the graveside mourners depicted in the image was looking at the camera dead-on, and using her fully extended middle finger either to wipe a tear, or to convey a not-so-subtle message to the photographer. It was hard not to imagine it was the latter.

I think it matters how taking someone’s picture makes them feel, and I try to weigh how important it is to get any one image if the taking of that image might be hurtful or disrespectful in some way. There are an array of factors to consider in what can be a split-second decision, but I do think it’s worth questioning how many photos the world needs of grieving people in tears. Surely we need some, but how often do those photos serve a larger purpose—such as provoking outcry against genocide or bringing aid to famine victims or filling in a crucial piece of an important story—and how often might those images be, say, a photojournalistic cliché?

In the particular dilemma that I faced, I decided the world’s need for photos of this family in their moment of distress was outweighed by what I perceived to be the family’s need to freely express their feelings without a camera clicking around them. I felt as though shooting right then would have been greedy—as though I would have been willing to make people I cared about feel uncomfortable so I could return with a photo of their suffering. I kept my lens cap on until a semblance of composure returned, hoping that perhaps there is some kind of photographer’s karma, which would reward me with even better shooting opportunities for letting this one pass by.

I don’t claim any moral high ground for making that choice. It was simply the right choice for me, in that moment. I’ve talked to a number of photographers who adamantly disagree with my decision, and I understand and respect their opinions even if I don’t share them. Of course, since I’m a writer as well as a photographer, I knew that I could always write about the scene later, creating a deeply moving image with words, thus telling the story without disturbing the moment as it was happening. And a couple of days later, I felt like I did receive a bit of the photographic-karmic reward I’d hoped for.

The family decided to save the yearling, splinting its leg and carrying it up and over a 3000-foot-tall Himalayan pass to the meadow where they would spend the summer.

This was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen. And they did it not because the animal was worth much money, but because they love their buffaloes and would never leave one behind if there was any chance of saving it.

After the Migration

I’ve been back to visit the family I traveled with a few times over the years since the migration. Once, I was lucky enough to catch them on their way back down from the Himalayas, and was able to join them for a few days on the road.

Though I had given them many prints of the pictures I took, it wasn’t until 2016 that any Van Gujjars got a real taste of what I was doing with this story. That year, a set of my photos from the migration was exhibited in New Delhi at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, and I gave a slide show at the opening. A few people from the tribe had been invited to attend, and though none of my companions were able to come, some of their cousins did.

The presentation was translated into Hindi as I gave it, and afterwards one of the Van Gujjars asked for the microphone and told the audience, “This is our life!” saying he was very happy that their story was being told. It was the most satisfying form of validation that my work on this project could have received.

Michael Benanav writes and shoots for The New York Times, Sierra, Geographical, The Christian Science Monitor Magazine, Lonely Planet, and other publications. His photographs have been used by international non-profit organizations and featured in National Geographic Books, on CBS’ 60 Minutes, at Lincoln Center in New York, and in exhibition at the Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts in New Delhi.

To see more of his work, visit www.michaelbenanav.com. To see more about his new book, Himalaya Bound: One Family’s Quest to Save Their Animals – And an Ancient Way of Life, visit www.himalayabound.com.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Behind the scenes with some incredible camera robots

05 Apr

Tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee of MKBHD recently took a trip to Portland, OR to meet up with the team behind Motorized Precision and show off some of the incredible camera robots they’ve built. The resulting behind the scenes videos show you why these robots exist, and the kinds of shots they’re able to get that are just plain impossible for a human to recreate with the tools we currently have available.

Forget stabilizers and dollies and tracks and sliders, a human would have a very hard time capturing a shot like this:

Which was done like this:

You might recognize this robot and its CGI-like moves from the commercial that introduced Microsoft’s Surface Studio to the world. Anything that wasn’t CGI or visual effects in that commercial was shot using the KIRA robot:

Brownlee and the team at Motorized Precision set up several example shots using both the KIRA—MP’s most powerful and capable robot—and the smaller MIA. Both of these are controlled by a piece of software called MP Studio, which also allows you to manipulate the robot using an XBox controller, something Brownlee also demos.

Check out the full ‘Dope Tech’ video at the top to see more interesting behind-the-scenes shots.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Behind the scenes: Shooting Lamborghinis in the snow

16 Mar

Every year, Lamborghini puts on something called the “Winter Accademia.” It’s a week-long event wherein professional racing drivers teach clients how to drive the latest Lamborghini supercars on snow and ice—in short: one of the coolest events a motorsport photographer could cover. And this year, motorsport photojournalist Jamey Price was there to document the whole thing.

I stumbled across Jamey’s story earlier this week on Facebook, where he shared the Behind the Scenes video above. But rather than just post the video without further context, I reached out and asked Jamey for some details about the Winter Accademia and what it’s like to shoot it.

What he ended up sending us is worth publishing in full, so read on to find out what it’s like to shoot the Lamborghini Winter Accademia 2018, and then scroll through the gallery at the bottom to see some Jamey’s favorite shots from the event.

Shooting the Lamborghini Winter Accademia 2018

Every winter, Lamborghini North America organizes a driving event called Winter Accademia for existing and prospective clients to drive the latest Lamborghini models on snow and ice. Most people see a Lamborghini as an exotic car meant for driving in “normal” conditions, but in reality, with a little help from Pirelli winter tires with small metal studs, they are more than capable as performance cars on the ice too.

I’ve been fortunate to work with Lamborghini since 2013 covering races, as well as private driving events, concours and auto shows around the United States. This is simply one of the many events that is organized for the brand during the year. But as you can guess, it’s one of my favorites.

Lamborghini descended on Hotel Sacacombie on the lake that bears the same name in Quebec for a week of driving in late February and early March. The cold temperatures during the winter freeze the lake with over 30 inches of ice, which is more than enough to drive on. The track is simply a plowed section of snow on the frozen surface of the lake where we can run a drift circle, figure eights and the full track where a team of 7 professional racing drivers can teach clients the finer points of drifting a Lamborghini.

As a photographer, it doesn’t get much better than this. Yeah, it’s long days in the cold which is brutal on both the gear and myself, but it’s amazing photography chasing these high performance cars in an environment that is very contained, safe and, most of all, fun.

Especially with the professional drivers, I can put myself in places I would never consider standing under normal conditions at a track. Because everything happens in slow motion on the ice, you can get pretty close and capture lots of photos of the cars completely sideways and throwing snow and ice into the sky.

Credits: Lamborghini, Lamborghini Squadra Corse, IRIS Worldwide and the amazing team of professional drivers I’m fortunate to work with every week.

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A big thank you to Jamey for sharing his experience and photos with us. To see more of his work or follow along as he shoots some of the most adrenaline (and gasoline) fueled events around the world, visit his website or give him a follow on Instagram and Facebook.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Behind the scenes: Photographing mountain hares in Scotland

04 Mar

The high winds blow the snowflakes into my face, and the stinging feeling in my eyes forces me to look down as I continue to walk forward. I remove the snow that has gathered in the lens hood on my Nikon 200-500mm and, with my binoculars, I search the landscape in front of me.

Nothing to see. Not a single mountain hare.

I am in a total whiteout of blowing snow, and it’s only because of the more clear and calm weather of a few hours ago that I’m aware of the the beauty of this Scottish landscape I am surrounded by here in the heart of the Cairngorms National park.

Who I Am

My name is Morten Hilmer and I am a full time professional wildlife photographer and former special force soldier in the Arctic Dogsled unit – the Sirius Dogsled Patrol. I am specialized in photographing in the Arctic regions and since 2005 I have spent more than 4 years in the amazing high Arctic nature.

(You can read more about my time in the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol on the BBC Earth website).

Beside the many publications, my photographs have been awarded in the Wildlife photographer of the year and European Wildlife Photographer of the Year photo competitions. And in Spring 2017, I published my first book: Silence of the North.

Wildlife photography for me is all about fascination, getting close to nature, feeling its authenticity, and sometimes even feeling reunited. Through my work, it is my mission to share my fascination and raise awareness of the importance of taking care of this awesome planet and all creatures living on it.

Nature Photography is also about adventures—whether the adventure is an expedition to the desolated freezing ice desert of North Greenland, or a shorter trip to the local forest. For me one is never better than the other.

Photographing Mountain Hares

A short break in the snowfall gives me just enough visibility to skim the landscape in front of me and just enough time to get a glimpse of a movement about 50 meters in front of me. I kneel down to support my arm on my knee to keep the binocular more steady. It is the the mountain hare. Instantly I feel excited and extremely lucky.

Slowly, I walk closer while concentrating on the hare and keeping my movements as slow and invisible as possible—I don’t want to scare this little guy. Not only will it destroy my opportunity to get some good shots, but more importantly, it will disturb this little hare that already has a hard time finding enough food to get through the winter.

I am now quite close and I decide to leave my camera bag behind to make it easier to crawl the last distance. I grab an extra battery and my card holder, and get my vlogging camera ready with the microphone. I fell the need to share this moment, even though it adds another challenging element that I have to record myself at the same time as I am working.

What’s In My Bag

For a trip like this, I need to be able to cary everything on my back, which means all of my equipment has to fit into one Lowepro Pro trekker 600 AW. Therefore, I decided to leave my big Nikon 600mm F4 at home and instead bring the smaller, lighter and more flexible Nikon 200-500mm.

As for the camera, I am using my Nikon D5—primary because of its durability in cold, wet conditions like this one. I was tempted to bring the D850 because of the superb image quality, but I have had a few moisture problems when I’ve really challenged it with snow and heavy rain.

I have also brought the Nikon 16-35mm VR and, of course, some extra batteries, cards, cleaning equipment etc.

As for my vlogging camera, I am currently using a Panasonic GH5 with the Røde Videomicro and the 42.5mm and 12mm Leica lenses. I charge the batteries for this camera with power banks.

If you want to dive deeper into my equipment, I explain it in a little more depth in this video.

How I Set Up My Camera

Everything is ready and I move a little bit closer. Through the viewfinder, I can sometimes see the hare and sometimes it disappears, hidden by the blowing snow.

I find myself using almost the exact same camera setup and setting whenever I capture wildlife photography, regardless of which camera and brand I am using. I primary shoot with Nikon, but I have also worked with the Canon 1D X Mark II, the Canon 5D Mark IV, and the Sony A7S.

My camera is set to manual exposure, and because of the constantly changing light I turn on auto ISO. I use this setting because I want to be able to set both the aperture and shutter speed myself to get the perfect level of blurred background, and at the same time use the shutter speed that gives me the exact level of movement in the blowing snow that I want.

This way, I get the best from both the worlds of aperture and shutter priority programs, allowing only the ISO to be the variable factor. Yes, I do run the risk of noise, but I always keep and eye on how high the ISO goes as I shoot.

I set my AF to 3D, and assign the function button on the front to single point AF—I am ready.

An Amazing Experience

It is interesting how looking into the viewfinder can make everything else around me disappear. I reckon all photographers know this feeling. Only me and the little hare—nothing else exists. I watch how he sits there in his little snow bed and, only every now-and-then, he moves a little bit. I don’t dare to take my eyes from the viewfinder.

Suddenly, the hare raises and stretches his long leg and then, without warning, he rolls around in the snow. The time he gives me to react is too short but what did I expect—this is what us wildlife photographers have to deal with all the time, and I assume it’s also one of the things that makes us keep going out again and again… all these photos that we have seen but haven’t been able to capture.

I manage to get a few shots of the rolling hare, but already before I look at them, I know they are not totally in focus. This is fantastic—so intense.

The little fellow sits for a moment looking at me and I pray that he will not run away. He decides to stay. He starts eating the sparse vegetation and with his small paws he scrapes away the snow on top.

I don’t know for how long I have been here, but it is getting quite dark and I am getting colder laying in the snow. My thoughts starts to travel to the side pocket of my backpack where I keep my thermal with warm coffee.

As I walk down the mountain I think about this little hare who is still sitting up there on the mountain in the blizzard, patiently waiting for the Spring. It is so fascinating how they manage to survive in such conditions. It is my first time photographing wildlife in Scotland, but definitely not the last. It has been an absolutely fantastic experience to spend some time with the hares in highlands of this amazing country and tomorrow I am going further up north to find and hopefully photograph the impressive stags.

A Few of My Favorite Settings

Set custom button to preview

One of the most important things for me is that I want to have my left hand on the lens— at the ready to zoom in or out, and to take over manually when autofocus fails. Therefore, I always set one of the custom buttons to preview the image, and another to zoom the image 100%.

I like to have the preview button as the lowest function button on the front of the camera, so that I can press it with one of my fingers without having to move my index finger from the shutter and the thumb from my AF-lock button.

Predefined AF on custom button

Before I start photographing, I alway choose the autofocus method that I believe will do the best job. In my case, it is often the 3D AF on the Nikon D5—either that, or single point AF. Then I try to predict which other AF method I will need, and I set the top button on the front of the camera to use this method as long as it’s pressed.

Auto ISO on/off

Because of the option of doing exposure compensation in manual mode with auto ISO on, I use either this setting or full manual almost all the time. I call Manual with Auto ISO: MAI. To be able to make a quick switch between M and MAI, I setup one of the custom buttons near the release button to toggle Auto ISO on/off.

Behind the Scenes Videos

In November 2017, I started a new video project that takes other photographers and nature enthusiasts behind the scenes on my travels. In a series of 4k YouTube videos, I share my experiences from my trips and expeditions around the world.

Below are Part 1 and Part 2 of Photographing Mountain Hares:

Morten Hilmer is a professional wildlife photographer and former Danish special forces soldier in the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol, an Arctic dog sled unit. For the past 13 years, he’s specialized in capturing Arctic landscapes and wildlife. You can find more of his work on his website, or by following him on Instagram and Facebook.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Behind the scenes: Shooting a motion time-lapse in the Canadian wilderness

17 Feb

Back in summer 2017, I went on a six week adventure to British Columbia and Alberta in order to capture Canada’s beautiful landscapes in the most impressive way possible. I wanted to make a time-lapse film that raises more awareness of our planet and our environment.

Planning

When it came to logistics, I tried to be as prepared as possible for this 6-week trip, and did tons of research ahead of departure. I knew I probably wouldn’t have a whole lot of internet (or time to waste on the internet) in the Canadian wilderness, and wanted to be prepared to just take things as they came. So I collected locations that I discovered on Google, on Instagram, or on other photographers’ portfolios, and created a long list of spots that were worth checking out.

I didn’t have a specific shot list. I just tried to capture the most beautiful scenery and moments that I could find along my adventure. However, I paid a lot of attention to interesting details around me instead of going for spectacular vantage points only. That’s how the whole moody intro sequence was conceived. By stepping closer to the subject, I tried to approach time-lapse in a slightly different way than you see in your typical, ‘epic’ time-lapse films online.

Challenges

I guess my biggest challenge with shooting this project was my own safety—doing all of alone, in an area packed with grizzly bears, was pretty scary.

Hiking alone comes with a risk that I always had to bear in mind. I carried bear spray at all times, and tried to let the bears know that I was there by creating a lot of noise on the hiking trail (they can get really dangerous when they’re startled). When I set up a time-lapse shot, I always had to have an eye on my surroundings and make a lot of noise by singing or talking to myself. Over the course of my trip, that risk was something I got used to.

Being all alone also didn’t make it possible for me to camp out on location. Obviously because it is very risky, but most of all because I simply couldn’t carry camping gear along with my camera gear and slider all by myself.

As a result of this, I had trouble getting to the best possible location at the best times of day. In order to shoot at sunset or sunrise, I either had to find a location that was fairly close to the parking lot, or take the risk of hiking up or down in the darkness with my head lamp as the only light source.

This is all of the gear I brought with me into the Canadian wilderness

Gear

Since I was all alone on this mission and wanted to hike out to locations a lot, I had to keep my gear package as compact and efficient as possible. I packed my Sony a7S II and Nikon D5100 (as backup camera) together with a newly purchased Canon 16-35mm F4 and Rokinon 14mm F2.8, as well as two cheap vintage lenses: an SMC Pentax-M 50mm F1.7 and an SMC Pentax-M 100mm F2.8.

As you might have noticed, my camera package was pretty humble. That was all I had and all I could afford, and honestly—that was all I needed.

A great Sony camera with only 12 MP paired with a sharp Canon wide-angle lens that could almost do anything on location. This lens is my absolute favorite due to its great flexibility for wide three-dimensional time-lapse movements. The Rokinon lens is well-known for its night- and astrophotography abilities, as it has just little amount of coma and is wide enough to capture almost the whole night sky. The Pentax lenses are actually my first lenses I’ve ever bought. Obviously, they’re old, cheap, and not the sharpest; they’re also small, light, and capable of projecting an image onto my sensor I was totally happy with.

In contrast, my time-lapse gear was downright extravagant thanks to a sponsorship from the innovative company eMotimo. They gave me a loaner for a great package for the duration of my whole trip: The spectrum ST4 is a newly designed 4-axis motion control system that, combined with the iFootage Shark Slider S1, simply can do it all—slide, pan, tilt and even pull focus in video or time-lapse shooting mode.

Using a Playstation Controller, I could easily set up literally any shot I wanted, and the ability to set keyframes in between the start and end point of my programmed shot gave me ultimate control over my composition. Additionally, an innovation that I’ve never seen before is a mountable extra motor to automatically pull the focus as the time-lapse is running. There are many ways to mess around with that: one I used was to shift focus from an interesting foreground to the revealing scenery in the background.

Another great feature worth mentioning is the ability to repeat a programmed movement at different speeds. This allowed me to record shots at different frame rates, but still have the exact same camera movement in each.

Since I couldn’t get the idea out of my head to combine a moving time-lapse shot with a real time video, with both shots having the very same camera movement, I did exactly that in the final shot of ALIVE. I recorded the whole scenery in dynamic time-lapse except for the person (me) being recorded in real-time video 25fps. Even though it took a lot of time perfectly masking out the person in post production, this shot probably wouldn’t have been possible without the spectrum ST4.

With all the flexibility of the motion control devise I felt an enormous freedom as a time-lapse photographer and could explore further ways to creatively make use of its features. However, this turned out to be a weakness as well, as I often found myself tempted to design way too sophisticated time-lapse shots. In this case, the inorganic/mechanical camera motion often drew way too much attention when watching the processed time-lapse sequence making the scenery appear surreal.

So in the process of my trip I learned that less is more in this case. It is way more important so be at the right spot at the right time—which is ultimately what I was seeking for my whole adventure.

Editing

In the editing process of ALIVE it was certainly very hard to come up with an edit as I had to choose the best among 149 time-lapse shots I recorded on my trip. Since I wanted to keep my film under 4 minutes, I forced myself to make some hard decisions. That turned out to be a pretty emotional process because every shot has a background story that connects to me personally.

It just often felt super frustrating to kick out a shot for which I woke up at 4 a.m. and hiked up a mountain for two hours in order to be there for sunrise.

A Story

Let me conclude my little behind the scenes tale with a story from Lake O’Hara, one of the most captivating landscapes I have ever experienced in person, and the final shot of the film. I decided to hike up to this incredible viewpoint for sunset and kept shooting until there was no light left to work with. That was the moment when I found myself alone in the darkness on the edge of a cliff.

The final shot of the film, captured above Lake O’Hara at sunset.

Should I take the risk of hiking down the steep and forested trail in the darkness potentially ending up as grizzly bear food? Or should I rather just stay up here all night and do another time-lapse of the milky way? Without camping gear and food, I stayed and spent another 5 hours in the cold darkness until the sun came back up.

Even though this shot of the milky way didn’t even make it into the final film, there is nothing I regret about staying up on this mountain all night all alone without a tent in bear territory… simply because it was one of these adventures that made my trip so unique.

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PyeongChang 2018: Behind the scenes with Nikon Professional Services

08 Feb

Sixty NPS staff members from 13 countries are gathered to help photographers at this year’s Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.

The PyeongChang Winter Olympics offers a chance for athletes to shine on the world’s most prestigious stage, but it’s equally as important an event for the hundreds of professional photographers covering the proceedings. In order to capture the most critical sporting moments, they need everything – camera position, angle and timing – to come together at once. This is no place for gear trouble, and that’s where Nikon Professional Services (NPS) comes in.

NPS can be found at most major worldwide sporting events, including the Olympics, as well as international entertainment fixtures such as film and music festivals. NPS also provides camera support services at smaller domestic events like national sporting championships.

There will be 60 NPS staff members from 13 countries on hand, offering support in around 10 languages.

As preparations gear up for this year’s PyeongChang Winter Olympics in South Korea, we spoke to a senior NPS technician and veteran of 15 Olympic Games about what’s involved.

At the PyeongChang Olympics, there will be 60 NPS staff members from 13 countries on hand, offering support in around 10 languages. Planning for the event started two years ago, and as well as D5 and D850 bodies the NPS inventory will include a range of specialized prime and zoom lenses. The exact figure is confidential, but the total value of all the gear is equivalent to ‘several hundred luxury cars’.

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Located in the main press center, the NPS depot will serve all press photographers, regardless of NPS membership. Services offered will include camera check-ups, cleaning and repairs – as well as technical advice and loaner equipment.

Nikon’s professional DSLRs can keep shooting well below freezing, but the extreme temperature difference between inside and outside shooting environments can still present challenges. Among the services available to photographers will be solving a problem unique to shooting in winter – condensation buildup inside lenses.

It may look like a studio light at first glance, but it’s actually a Robotic POD ? an MRMC robotic motion control rig incorporating an AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR lens and D5 combination.

The PyeongChang depot is also newly equipped to offer support for robotic remote shooting systems made by Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC), a British company that’s now part of the Nikon group.

Major international events like the Olympics are the front lines of technological development

Major international events like the Olympics are the front lines of technological development, and several press agencies will be using MRMC’s Robotic POD (pictured above) at the Winter Games. The latest remote head, it incorporates a D5 body and boasts a less complicated system than conventional models to allow for easier control. With accurate zooming, focusing and rotating, the Robotic POD enables remote shooting in a much wider range of scenarios.

But the depot isn’t just there to help when a photographer has gear trouble – NPS hopes it will serve as an ‘oasis’ amid the high-pressure environment of the games, providing a valuable opportunity for photographers and technicians to talk and share ideas.

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Behind the scenes: The story behind this volcanic eruption wedding photo

02 Feb

Photograph by Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press

Photojournalist Jack Kurtz was in the Philippines covering the eruption of the Mayon volcano for ZUMA Press this past month, but the photo that’s gotten him the most attention wasn’t one of his press shots. Instead, it’s this serendipitous wedding photo that has spread across the Web like wildfire—a once- or twice-in-a-lifetime kind of photograph that captures the power of nature as a backdrop to the human experience.

The story behind this shot is simply about being in the right place, at the right time, with the right attitude.

Kurtz tells DPReview he arrived in the Philippines on Saturday, January 20th and proceeded to spend most of the week capturing photos for his agency—mostly “photographing people in evacuation centers and the volcano when it was erupting.” But after five intense days of photography, he needed a break, so he took Thursday as a “personal day.”

“I needed to run some errands and since the volcano was quiet it seemed a good day to do that,” says Kurtz. “I finished my errands about 4:30 in the afternoon and decided to go to a church a few kilometers away to try to make a sunset photo of the volcano erupting.”

The volcano had been quiet all day that Thursday, so it was a risk, but as Kurtz told us: “nothing ventured nothing gained, and off to the church I went.”

When he got to the church, there was no sign of an eruption and clouds were obscuring the cone, but he decided to wait and was rewarded for his patience. In his own words:

As it got later, the clouds drifted off and smoke started to puff its way out of the cone, signaling a likely eruption. All good signs. I set up my small table top tripod on a flat rock, made a couple of test pictures with my Pen F and iPhone controlling the camera with the Olympus OI Share app. Everything was working so I sat down and waited.

While I was sitting there, a couple who had just been married in the church came out to a restaurant next to the parking lot to make their wedding photos. Just as they got to the overlook, the volcano started its eruption. I grabbed my gear and ran over to the restaurant to photograph them.

Before I started photographing, I introduced myself to their wedding photographer and asked if I could make some pictures (I think it would have been rude of me to butt in on his job) and he said okay. I started photographing the couple. During a break, I talked to the couple. I told them who I was and asked if I could put the photos on the wire. They said it was fine. Then I went back to photographing.

A few minutes later, they finished up, everybody thanked everyone else, and Kurtz went back to his spot in the parking lot to set up the exposure that would yield the photograph below.

Photo by Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press

Speaking with DPReview about the technical details behind the photographs, he says the wedding photo was made with his Olympus Pen F and 17mm F1.8 lens at ISO 400, F4, and 1/30. Color balance was set to daylight, and the photo was later edited in Lightroom 6 to straighten the horizon and adjust the color balance (“Because of the time of day and light, the skintones were a little warm, so I knocked the color temp down a little.”)

The eruption photo above was also shot on the Pen F, this time with a 25mm F1.8 lens at ISO 200, F4.5, and 85 seconds. The camera was set on a small tabletop tripod and controlled by the OI Share app on Kurtz’ iPhone. It, too, was edited in Lightroom 6.

A big thank you to Mr. Kurtz for sharing his photographs and the story/technical details behind them with us at DPReview. To see more of his work, be sure to visit his website or give him a follow on Instagram.

Photography by Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press, used with permission.

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Behind the scenes of ‘PARALLAX’ – shot with the Sony Cyber-shot RX0

26 Dec

PARALLAX was directed by Philip Edsel. Director of Photography: Peter Longno. Producer & BTS: Moyo Oyelola. Choreography: Jacob Jonas. Dancers: Nick Walton & Joy Isabella Brown of Jacob Jonas The Company. Music: “Into” by Aten Rays.

Sony’s new Cyber-shot RX0 is a tiny, rugged action camera capable of full HD slow-motion capture and external 4K recording. Unlike most cameras in its class, the RX0 offers a large 1 inch sensor and an option to record video in the S-Log profile, making it more versatile when imported into professional editing suites, and more easily compatible with professional video workflows.

Filmmaker Philip Edsel has been working with the RX0 (or rather, with a lot of RX0s…) for a while. His new piece, PARALLAX, was shot entirely using RX0 cameras alongside a variety of different peripherals, including a ‘bullet time’ rig. We spoke to him recently about the challenges – and unique opportunities – he encountered when shooting with the RX0.

What kind of challenges do you face when filming athletes?

When working with athletes for a film like this, our number one concern is safety. Having athletes perform crazy flips and jumps repetitively can most certainly be dangerous if you’re not taking the proper precautions. Thankfully our athletes were super talented and always landed their movements with ease. After that, the challenge was just capturing those movements in a way that did them justice.

What kind of gear would normally be considered appropriate or industry standard for a piece like PARALLAX?

This type of film would normally be shot on a cinema camera – something like an Arri Alexa or RED. If it was a personal project of mine, I would shoot it on my Sony A7S II or A7R III. Cine cameras come with a lot of baggage though – cages, rigging, external batteries, monitors, hard drives, etc.

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What is your most important criteria when it comes to choosing the gear to shoot a piece like this?

The two most important criteria for shooting this film were quality and versatility. The quality of footage from the Cyber-shot RX0 was surprising. We shot 4K externally and when we were just handheld or shooting slow-motion, we shot HD. Always in S-Log, which really made the most of the dynamic range of its sensor.

As far as versatility goes, we needed a camera that could be nimble enough to take on any of the crazy ideas I threw at it.

We had 10 cameras running pretty much non-stop, and no extra batteries

What limitations did shooting with the Cyber-shot RX0 place on you?

We weren’t really limited by the RX0. If anything, it was the opposite – we were enabled to pursue all sorts of non-traditional angles and shot ideas. The only challenge that was specific to this production was battery life. We had ten cameras running pretty much non-stop, and no extra batteries. The batteries in the RX0 are small because the camera itself if so compact, which presented a bit of an issue at first.

Our solution was just to rig up a small external USB battery, and shoot while the camera was charging. We didn’t have a problem at all after that.

What did the RX0 allow you to do that a more conventional rig wouldn’t?

For this project we used the camera in just about every way I could think of. It was handheld, stabilized on a gimbal, crammed into tight corners and small spaces, used underwater in the ocean, and in an 8-camera ‘Bullet Time’ rig.

I don’t know of any other camera that would have allowed us to do all of that. We would have needed different cameras for different scenarios, or been restricted to more traditional angles and shot ideas. This camera’s size allowed us to be as versatile and creative as our athletes.

Behind the scenes of PARALLAX

Can you describe your shooting and editing workflow?

All of this footage was shot in S-Log. My Director of Photography Peter Longno did most of the organizing and sorting of the footage, which with ten cameras, was a lot of work. The bullet time footage had to be lined up and synced. I had a camera shooting time-lapse stills using an external intervalometer, and those timelapses had to be sequenced.

I wanted the edits to reflect the wildly versatile uses of the camera

The edit took quite a while because we had a ton of footage, and we wanted to make sure the pacing of the film not only matched the soundtrack, but also created an energy that did justice to the talent and the product. I wanted the edits to reflect the wildly versatile uses of the camera.

Once the edit was finished, Peter brought the project into DaVinci Resolve, where we graded the Log footage. After it was graded, Peter brought the footage back into Adobe Premiere to add some of the glitching and composite effects.

What is the biggest technical advancement that you’ve seen during your career as a filmmaker?

If you told anyone even five years ago about the Sony RX0 or A9, they would have laughed at you. If I always use a brand new camera in the same way I could have used a camera five, ten, or twenty years ago, then I’m not really taking advantage of the innovation that’s happened in the meantime.

It’s inspiring to me because I try to use the advancements in technology as motivation to advance the art I create.

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Behind the scenes of Joe McNally’s ‘High Fashion Heist’

18 Dec

Joe McNally created this shot in the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest, Hungary using the Nikon D850, a 14-24mm F2.8 zoom lens, and strobes. A lot of strobes.

Nikon D850 | AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm F2.8 @ 14mm | ISO 160 | 1/20 sec | F5.6

Joe McNally is one of the most recognizable names in photography. As one of the foremost fashion and portrait photographers in the world, his work has been published internationally in books, magazines and newspapers for decades.

In his role as a Nikon Ambassador, McNally had early access to the new Nikon D850. We spoke to him recently to talk through the process of creating one of the most arresting images of Nikon’s D850 launch campaign.

How did the idea for this image come together?

I think the bottom line here is that I’ve seen way too many James Bond movies! I wrote up three separate potential treatments, and this one I titled ‘The High Fashion Heist’. So imagine an elegant lady sweeping down a grand staircase, gown flowing behind her, clutching stolen gems, racing past the sleeping security guard. And the wrinkle is her gown inadvertently is toppling a priceless statue. It’s a heist gone wrong, that type of thing. I also wanted to include the feeling of motion or speed.

The museum was willing to work with us, it was affordable, and it’s Budapest, which is an amazing place

Did the concept evolve during the process of putting the shoot together?

The original treatment did not include the toppling statue. I was driving the sense of motion from the flowing gown, and we wanted to emphasize a little more tension, so when I re-wrote the concept I threw in the idea that she’s knocking over a statue.

Where did you shoot?

We had to work outside the U.S., and we came up with a number of locations – one of which was in Edinburgh, Scotland, and one was in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. And one was the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest, Hungary. They sent me scouting photographs of it, and it had that feel. The old elegance. The big staircase.

The museum was willing to work with us, it was affordable, and it’s Budapest, which is just an amazing place. So after the idea was approved, we moved forward on the location pretty quickly.

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The bust tipping over in the foreground – was that manipulated in post?

The column and the head are supported by metal braces. We couldn’t buy a bunch of busts and have them smash on the floor, so we took the column and put a brace against it, and the head, and then touched out the braces in post.

I’d say there were probably about 20 large power packs and heads, and about 10-15 Speedlights

How did you light this shot? Was it all strobes?

It’s virtually all strobes. We were allowed to come into the museum at around 6 o’clock at night when it was closed, and we worked until 6 o’clock in the morning. So there was no natural light. So if you look at the windows up top, camera left, those are strobes on a crane truck outside. I’d say there were probably about 20 large power packs and heads, and about 10-15 SB-5000 Speedlights.

Were you shooting in TTL mode, or was it all manual flash exposure?

I shot all manual for this. The D850’s touchscreen is fantastic, because now, if I’m doing something complex with six groups of Speedlights for example, I can just tap on the screen and alter their values.

How did the D850’s particular feature set help you in putting this shoot together?

First off, there’s the resolution. When you shoot in an ornate place like this, you really want to be able to capture all of the detail, and the camera handled that really well. The D850’s sensor has great dynamic range, so I didn’t have to over-light. In the cavernous spaces, I could hint at lighting, and I knew that the shadow detail would be alright. The autofocus is hyper-accurate, which is essential, because you don’t want to get THE expression and THE particular arrangement of the gown absolutely perfect and have any sort of focus issues afterwards.

I was able to effectively control two fields of flash, with the Speedlights being controlled from the camera

I was shooting the flashes in manual exposure mode, but I was controlling all of the Speedlights using the WR-10 radio trigger from the camera. So I had a big strobe system on a different radio system, but I also had the Nikon Speedlight system. I was able to effectively control two fields of flash, with the Speedlights being controlled from the camera.

We had a big crew, plus a video crew, the clients were there, we had a props person, hair, makeup, fashion, styling, and a very elegant wonderful model. I had a crew of five assistants! So the convenience of the new technology really helped.

Are there other features of the camera that you’re excited to try out?

So far, I’ve used the D850 strictly as a stills camera. I’ve been using it a lot just for simple portraiture and for beauty portraiture, but I’m very much looking forward to going into video mode with this camera. Again, the detail is really pretty luscious and pretty wonderful. I have a small stills and video project I’m going to be shooting in February, and I’m looking forward to it.

I shot the Rio Olympics with my D5, because it’s tough and it’s fast, and I’ve always used my D810’s when I needed resolution. But the D810 doesn’t have the radio controls that I’ve come to be so fond of with the SB-5000 flashes. And the D810 didn’t have things like the tilting LCD from the D500, which I’ve found to be very convenient. With the D850, I can have all of that in one camera. Speed, resolution and convenience.

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