Dark Side of the Moon
I am a photographic opportunist, always on the lookout for new techniques and original angles. The word ‘problem’ doesn’t exist to me. In every technical or creative challenge I see an opportunity to try something new … like making a group shot on the moon.
The genius behind the image above is Yvan. I’ve been an admirer of his work for years but I’ve only met him for the first time on our photo party last week. It’s very interesting to see how Yvan makes his aerial pictures and panorama’s.
He has a 6 meter (that’s like 18ft) tripod to shoot from the air.
He uses a remotely operated Canon G9 for the pictures. From his ‘dashboard’ on the ground he can pan and tilt the camera, see the videofeed from the G9 and press the shutter. Serge and Ake were also impressed by all this technical stuff.
Even more impressive that the monster tripod is Yvan’s kite. Attaching the camera rig to a kite allows Yvan to shoot from even higher, much higher.
We realized waaaaaay to late that the flying G9 would be the perfect match to our mutual pile of wireless operated flashes. Due to the limited space in the camera rig, we couldn’t put a pocketwizard in the G9’s hotshoe. A hotshoe adapter we had lying around, turned out to me the wrong kind to connect the G9 with the PW. Serge’s Elinchrom Skyport triggers came to the rescue (the did fit in the rig) but by that time the suset was gone and we had to forget about making an aerial groupshot combining flash and the ambient light from the beautiful sunset. Dragging the shutter wasn’t an option either because the kite moves to much.
But still, we managed to produce some images from the air. Tom had to check out his beautydish before we could take the shot. (there was a second speedlight to camera left btw).
One thins is certain, we are going to take this a step further in the future. More aerial pictures and a cool pano can be found on Yvan’s blog (in Dutch). Thanks Yvan for the cool images and the fun packed day.
Very cool. It’s always great to see things from a different perspective.
Btw, how did you all manage to shoot things without all your gear floating away?…jk.
Thanks for sharing!
Fantastic tecnique! I also know another photographer who make the same type of photo but using an aeromodel. The results are very particular and the funny is assured!!
Thank you Bert!
@Alim: Tom’s secret (a local) was to throw some sand on anything that was light enough to fly away. Luckily I convinced him that my camera gear was heavy enough without the sand.
There was always someone watching the gear too.
@Matteo, do you happen to have a link on that photographer?
Interesting blog. I choose your site in the BlogDay 2008. Visit muy site: http://www.luzzes.com/blog.
Thanks for share your work and your knowledge.
[...] | Confessions of a photographer Más información | Blog de [...]
thx Luzzes
And here was me thinking mounting it on a painter pole would be cool..
Sheesh wow!
You could try a DIY satellite
[...] Strobist links a cool video from another “trash the dress” shoot HERE and as a follow up there’s a post about the kite-mounted remote-controlled G9 HERE. [...]
Impressive really a genius.
[...] I so want that G9 kite mount. He uses the G9 on a monster light stand, [...]
wow !
wow !
amazing !
this is sublime !
wow !
can Yvan share how he created this remote system ? ?
[...] 这个摄影师是荷兰的， 这个链接里面你还能看到超高三脚架做的俯视拍法。 [...]
@Cory: just ask Yvan, I’m pretty sure he’ll be happy to explain.
Freakin’ Awesome dude!