Professional mountain photographer and filmmaker Jimmy Chin has worked on all seven continents, in some of the most remote places on earth. A hugely experienced climber, Chin has had more than his fair share of brushes with disaster in the mountains, where every ounce of weight counts when it comes to getting great shots – and getting down in one piece.
Jimmy Chin’s current film ‘Free Solo’ follows climber Alex Honnold as he became the first person to ever free solo climb Yosemite’s 3,000ft high El Capitan Wall last summer. Only slightly less hazardous was a more recent trip to Greenland for DJI, with professional ski mountaineer Kit Deslauriers.
Over a more than 20-year career, Chin is still inspired by the challenge of “going to new places and exploring mountains in remote places”. For the Greenland trip, alongside his normal DSLR kit Chin brought along DJI’s newest consumer drone, the 4K-capable Mavic 2 Zoom to capture footage of their adventure.
Chin describes the Mavic 2 Zoom as a “multi-tool”, which he used for everything from high production-value shots to scouting locations
The DJI Mavic 2 comes in two versions – the high-end ‘Pro’ with a 1-inch sensor, and the less costly but more flexible ‘Zoom’, which offers an optical zoom lens. Chin describes the Mavic 2 Zoom as a “multi-tool”, which he used in Greenland for everything from high production-value ‘dolly zoom’ and tracking shots to scouting locations and routes. When you’re shooting in the mountains, it might take hours to get up to a certain peak, but with the Mavic 2 Zoom, he could go in search of great-looking locations – and look out for hazards – remotely.
Speaking of remote, in such extreme conditions, gear needs to be reliable, but it also needs to be easy to use. In Chin’s words, “you need equipment that’s intuitive, and which you don’t have to spend a bunch of time figuring out how to make it work” because, as he says, “a lot of your mental bandwidth is taken up by making sure you’re being safe”.
Behind the scenes in Greenland with the DJI Mavic 2
Among Chin’s favorite shots from the trip are the aerial tracking sequences, showing Deslaurier descending down the mountain slopes. In the past, Chin says, “I couldn’t have got those shots in the past without a helicopter. They’re very difficult angles to get when you’re high up in those remote areas. Traditionally, those kinds of shots are expensive, they’re high production-value shots, and being able to create them with a drone I can carry in the top of my pack is incredible”.
As well as its portability, Chin praises the quality of the video that the Mavic 2 Zoom can capture. “You need a camera which offers high quality, because shooting in a location like Greenland, you know it might not be possible to ever go back. Every shot is potentially a once-in-a-lifetime shot”.
This is sponsored content, created by DJI. What does this mean?
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
