Boat interior, making nice, nicer.

I have been meaning to diversify my skill set a little to be able to offer a more rounded package to my commercial yacht clients. Here is an example of a yacht interior technique I have been working on.

This first shot is an example of what you might typically find in the for sale section of many yachting magazines or on the websites of yacht brokers.

The teqhnique I have been using involves shooting multiple exposures with flash which are then combined in photoshop to produce a composit. Replace the view through the windows and Voila.

The nice thing about having a boat is, if you don't like the view, you can move the boat. The nice thing about photoshop is, you don't need to move the boat.

Here is the galley shot, before..

and after...

.

Keeping dry on the AC72

I don't mind getting wet for a good picture, but I hate getting salt water on my expensive camera gear.
Pro series Nikon digital cameras and lenses do have amazing weather resistant seals but I doubt they were designed to sit in what amounts to a horizontal salt water waterfall which is what you can get on board a fast moving yacht.

I have been trying out a camera waterproofing product called Outex.
The Outex system is based around a latex camera condom with glass ports for the lens and viewfinder.
Once enclosed the camera can be pretty much used as normal, under water to a depth of 10 Metres.
You have to remember where your buttons are and you can't review the images on the LCD screen of couse but it does allow you to hold and operate the camera as you are used to.

It is a finicky thing to fit to a large camera like the D3s.  The whole Camera/lens arrangement must be forced through the lens hole in the latex bag.

Not perhaps as easy to fit as a solid waterproof housing but a damn site cheaper, lighter and more tactile, and frankly I don't need the ability to take my camera under water, I just want to not have to worry about it when it gets a dousing.

Here I am onboard the Emirates Team New Zealand AC72. D3s in the blue Outex cover.

  ... and here are some shots from on board.

... plus a few from on board CAMPER in the race from Auckland to Fiji.

Brutus

No complaints about the photo boat at the Louis Vuitton Trophy held in Auckland last month.

This beast was my office through out the regatta. Acres of space, tons of grunt and friendly, intelligent non smoking drivers.

A very stable comfortable and dry platform to shoot from. I was even able to use the 600mm while underway.













Brutus is the diving tender to Ulysses. Owned by one of New Zealands wealthiest men.
The drivers were really nice guys. Kevin, who is a deck hand and Chris, the captain on Ulysses.






Now we have been this spoilt any thing else will be a disappointment.

Light stand lite.

I have been working on this stand for a while now. Have been using the prototype for a couple of years in the field and was considering commercializing it in some way.
However today on the Strobist blog a very similar design by Swedish Photographer Peter Karlsson with an almost identical simpler version has put paid to the idea of patenting the concept.
So in the interest of sharing and giving back I will put my own design out there for people to copy if they want.
Like Peters stand it uses the light weight tent pole concept of thin tubes held together with bungie cord. Mine has spreaders to separate the legs. The flash is attached to a Kaiser cold shoe flash bracket that rides up and down the stand on a tube over the three legs. This stays in place purely using friction created by the legs being under tension.

So the flash can go from the top down to the first leg joint.
To go lower I just pull out the lowest leg sections and let them lie on the ground.

The prototype uses hobbled together hinges made from various model plane bits and pieces.
One end of the spreader slides up the leg to bring the three legs together then the three leg sections can be pulled apart to break the stand down.
This prototype is made from carbon fibre tubes used in kite construction and will support a flash at almost two metres and weighs just 250 grams.
Collapsed it measures 69 cm.





The next version I intend to make will be a five section leg so that the collapsed stand will fit in my Pelican lighting case.