EPIC AFRICA part II

[Michael Dalton]

Here some images from a shoot this week on the Kenyan/Somali border. It was a game capture to move an endangered species to safer areas. There were no roads, so everything had to be moved by helicopter including the animals, people and equipment. It was seriously fun. My epic took a pounding in pretty harsh conditions, but held up. Sand being blasted by the rotor wash stopped my fan a few times, and power was always a challenge. Of I had to hang from the skids of the chopper and drop in and having my epic lowered to me on a rope.

Because of threat of kidnap and attack on our choppers, we had ranger unit from KWS for security with automatic rifles. I shot about 200-300gb a day. Thankfully I was able to get a new retnia mac and a kind user here sold me a USB red card reader so I was able to handle offloads.

Here are some quick grabs.

 

[Will Keir]

Bad kitting, shit in the litter box!

 

[Michael Dalton]

more like "I'm going to hold tight, because this thing will bight my nuts off" It went crazy inside the chopper and bit a vet.

 

[Joe Pontecorvo]

Great stuff! It sounds like quite a bit of hand held in the mix. Do you have any pictures of your rig? What type of hand held rig are you using? What was your lens kit? Good to hear the Epic is purring along under extreme conditions.

 

[Melih Engin Eskier]

Great stuff. Have these animals been drugged?

So you've shot circa 46 mins. a day assuming you shot 4K on 24 fps.

 

[Mike P.]

For being such a seemingly calm dude, you're doing so pretty bat-shit crazy stuff! All those shots look brilliant. Can't wait to see motion.

Did you use ISO800 or are you using 320 and watching exposure carefully? Seems to be a lot of highlight retention in most of those shots (in direct sun, no less.)

 

[Dominik Muench]

wicked shots, what a great location to work at, hope you're having fun and be safe.

 

[Michael Dalton]

Hi Mike P, yeah, I'm a lot tougher then I look. I seem to dabble a lot in the extreme stuff which now seems somewhat routine for me.

Honestly this is really run and gun stuff. I'm using what ever I need to get a close enough exposure and doing my best not to shoot in the sun. I often shoot down at 250-320iso because I have no time slap a filter on. The cheetah stuff was exhausting, I was dialling in f-stops on the run (latterly) trying to keep up with my subjects as it changes from sun to cloud, there are no second takes in this. I often shoot f22 to give me a great depth of field and increase my chance of keeping everything in focus. I was also wrapping cloth over the cheetahs head and avoiding getting bit, as it was just the two of after we jumped out of the helicopter. The pilot is awesome! often we have a foot or two clearance on the tail rotor from trees, and cut a bunch of branches with the rotors. Very extreme flying. Game capture ranks up with combat as being the most dangerous. If I was not distracted by the camera, I'd have crapped myself several times.

I drop my handles on the rig, and just use an easom cage like Phil's and grab the side rails. The weight of the camera makes it somewhat stable. I used a tripod when possible but when your in an out of the helicopter that has no doors, you have to stow it properly in a compartment. The weight of the camera became an issue after a long day.

I shot almost all 5k, only 4k and 3k occasionally to punch in on something. I did shoot some variable frame rates. I'll have to figure out how to cut it in.

 

[Kristin Stewart]

Great, now that is something worth shooting with an Epic...

Kristin