Just Before Going To New Zealand

Chase Jarvis is a photographer I really love following. Heck, if he ever counted his mentions on this blog, he’d probably call the stalking police.

Chase’s latest installment is a cool video about his latest joy trip assignment to New Zealand where he shot a campaign for Sandisk.

A small treasure of goodies came out from that ride (check here for videos, BTSs, Gear talk and more), but in this post, I’d like to focus on the last video. The one where Chase shoots a rapid-hell-fire-8-FPS-strobed-ski sequences.

Ok, I’m gonna take my chances and try not to sound like a third grade
teacher when I’ll say – This video is not about gear, it’s not about
technique it’s about homework. More after the jump

I love how Chase makes it look so easy. Sooooo easy. I also really appreciate the fact that Chase shares the fact that he does lots of homework before “coming on stage”.

We all have visions, images we want to take. Can we actually pull them off, technically I mean. Nothing sucks more that to arrive on location and discover that you don’t have the gear / flash firepower/ lens / add your own to make your concept work. So what do you do? Practice on dry.

Two whole minutes out of the 5 minutes are for testing and preparation taking Chases shouting&cheering out, that leaves us with a 1 to 1 prep to shoot ratio.

I love the fact that testing the Broncolors for framerate was not good enough. They tested it with the actual generator to make sure they have enough juice in the field.

There’s a saying I got in the army “hard drill makes an easy battle”. (There is also “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”, but that’s a different story).

What’s this has to do with DIY? Everything. Often it DIYed gear look good when you’re done. But will it hold? Will it survive the travel to your location? Will it balance on a light stand, it worked perfectly well on the floor, right? Test it before you need it.

There is nothing more embarrassing (to you) and annoying (to your model) than to watch you fiddle with your gear when you oughta be shooting.

This applies to everything. From a 5$ Macaroni and Cheese one speedlight shoot to the world best athletes with super Broncolors on steroids.

Got a “homework story” to share? Hit us in the comments.

Click here for more chat by Chase including lighting diagrams, images and some great advice.