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This is how to shoot a $2,500,000 car with a $50,000 camera

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There’s only a hundred Pagani Huayra BC in the world, and each one costs a cool $2.5mil. The “BC” in its designation stands for Benny Caiola, the first person to ever buy a Pagani automobile. With a Mercedes AMG designed V12 bi-turbo engine built exclusively for Pagani and pulling more than 750bhp, it’s a beast of a car.

When it comes time to photograph it, one also needs a beast of a camera. So, LA based automotive photographer Richard Thompson chose the Phase One XF 100MP for this Huayra BC advertising shoot. They also shot a behind the scenes video, so we can see what goes into a shoot like this.

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Behind the scenes of a timelapse shoot in the Alps at 13,000ft in subzero temperatures

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While usually quite exciting to watch, shooting timelapse is often rather boring. You turn up at a location that doesn’t yet look its best and set up your equipment. Then you wait, ready for just the right moment to tell your camera to start shooting away. Then you wait, and wait, and then wait some more, until it’s finally done. You could spend an hour sitting there waiting for what will become a 5 second video clip.

Sometimes, though, shooting it can be quite exciting, too. Especially when you’re at 13,000ft in subzero temperatures in the Swiss Alps. In this video, filmmaker Drew Geraci of District 7 Media takes us behind the scenes on such a shoot. We see how the shots are set up, as well as the results they produce.

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The incredible SNL visual effects masters get less than 12 hours to work on each show

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Saturday Night Live isn’t a show one usually associates with terms like “visual effects”. But there’s actually a lot going on in their digital shorts. The SNL team as a whole may have the whole week to prepare for each show. The visual effects department, though, aren’t so lucky. They typically get only about 12 hours to do all of the effects for that evening’s episode. Which is live, remember, so there’s no slacking.

The 2016-17 season has now come to an end. It’s set to return in the autumn. To tide us over, though, the SNL team put together this video showing some of what goes into the visual effects they create for each show. Some of them are quite obvious, while many others probably go by completely unnoticed.

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This is the full budget and lighting breakdown on shooting an $8,000 commercial

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The world of commercial shooting, whether stills or video, is an attractive one. It can be a tough one to break into, but it can also be a lot of fun. But it’s not like shooting for yourself or for personal clients. There’s often big crews to deal with, time and budget constraints, venue hire, actors, and a whole host of other potential issues to deal with.

On a recent commercial shoot for Nu Skin, filmmaker Parker Walbeck documented what went into making it. He talks about the gear used, as well as how it was used. We learn about the lighting choices and setup used to film the actors. Parker also talks about the budget breakdown for this shoot.

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OK Go raises the bar again with The One Moment music video shot in just 4.2 seconds

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For American rock band OK Go, boundary pushing music videos have become the standard. They’ve done the long one-shot takes with crazy optical illusions, shot with a massively co-ordinated cast of dancers, and they’ve even levitated in zero G. Now, they’ve done it again with their latest music video for new song, The One Moment.

The entire video, again, is shot as a single take. The main action in the video took only took 4.2 seconds in real time. After that, it bounces back and forth between real time for a few seconds, and then back to super slow motion with people flying through the air over fountains of paint. It’s a ridiculous video, and the amount of planning that must’ve gone into it to get it right first time just doesn’t bear thinking about.

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A behind the scenes look at photo coverage of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in Canada

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The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were ever so kind to drop into Kelowna as part of their royal tour of British Columbia and the Yukon this week. Here is a behind the scenes report on their visit. This is a bit of a long post, so you may need some time to sit down and read this one.

First I want to mention that I first needed to get accredited, and that is no easy matter. My editor had to fill out a very long and bureaucratic government form, this included a copy of my driver’s license and a letter of assignment from the newspaper that I work for with company letter head, I suggested he write “I hereby assign Gary Nylander, Kelowna Daily Courier staff photographer to photograph the Royal Highness’s, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the 27th day of September, 2016 in Kelowna, B.C.” I’m not sure if that’s what got written but it was a fun suggestion.

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Photographers recreate classic Top Gun scene with upside down jet to test a photography myth

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For anybody who’s seen the legendary movie Top Gun, there’s one scene often sticks out in the mind. In it, a fictional MiG-28 is cruising through the air. Maverick (Tom Cruise) and Goose (Anthony Edwards) fly above it, inverted, in an F-14 Tomcat. Goose then proceeds to photograph the pilot of the MiG with a polaroid camera.

Advertising photographer Blair Bunting wanted to try to recreate this. Firstly, to see if it was even possible, and also to see what the shot might have looked like. So, he teamed up with the Patriots Jet Team, as well as fellow photographer filmmakers Jaron Schneider and Toby Harriman of Planet Unicorn Productions. Then, they set to work.

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Photographer places life size animal prints in what used to be their natural habitats

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Growing up in England, home to brown bears, wolves, wolverines and woolly mammoths, photographer Nick Brandt noticed something. Like most of us, he spotted that they weren’t around any more. Mankind had encroached upon their territory and essentially wiped them out. Or at least, led to the cause of their demise long before any of us were ever born.

Nick also realised that this was still going on, today at an ever increasing rate. This is what sparked the idea for his Inherit the Dust series of photographs. For the project, he placed life size prints of animals into what used to be their natural habitats in order to photograph them. To show the new context of their environments, to make people realise what we risk losing.

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The making of a hybrid film: People of the Delta

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Joey Lawrence has been photographing the tribes of Ethiopia since 2008. Drawn by the aesthetic of the country itself and its residents, it’s a place he’s returned to many times since. In 2013, Joey started a kickstarter to raise funds for a cinematic narrative film. The film was to be shot in Ethiopia’s Omo Valley, and star the members of the tribes he found there.

The film has toured the festival circuit, picking up a number of very respectable awards. Now, the film is online, available to watch for anybody with an Internet connection. Joey has also released several behind the scenes videos to accompany the piece. You will want to sit back with a good amount of time spare to watch through it all, but it’s well worth it.

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Behind the scenes of the 12K Phase One XF IQ3 100MP Timelapse

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Not long ago, we showed you an amazing 12K timelapse from Joe Capra shot on the Phase One XF IQ3 100MP camera. Why shoot in 12K if there’s no platform which supports it and no devices capable of playing back that resolution? For more creative zoom options in post.

The final timelapse video was output and uploaded to YouTube in 1080p, but in this new behind the scenes video, Joe talks to us about the how and why of creating the video from initial concept to wrapping up the post production.

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