Off the Record

I took this photo of my collegue. She thinks I'm really pro.

I’ve been working on the island for a few weeks now and it turns out I’m meant to be a photographer, videographer and reporter. If you’ve ever travelled with me you’ll know that my camera rarely comes out. I’ve either lost it, broken it or I can’t be bothered to get it out of my bag. I’ve never owned a video camera, and my computer skills could certainly be better.

Now I find myself being referred to as ‘the island photographer’. People ask me questions about cameras, lenses and editing programs. I’ve been trying really hard to look professional even if my photos and videos aren’t that good. Here are some of my tips on how to look like a pro photographer/videographer:

• Get down on the ground to take a photo
• Shut one eye
• Take photo, look at camera, press buttons, take another photo, look at camera. Nod.
• Talk about lighting
• Take a whole lot of photos really quickly. Nod.
• After filming, say ‘that’s a wrap’ or ‘yeah, we got it’
• Use a tripod
• Taking films from different angles
• Talk about editing programs, compressing files, transferring, uploading, downloading and converting

A few days ago there was a massive all staff pep rally and pool party. The general manager asked me to film his speech among other things to make into a short film.

I felt particularly pro that day. I had my tripod and a few different cameras. I got a shot of all the staff walking into the room with a plan to do a time lapse (how’s that for lingo). When the speech started I ran over and changed angles, zoomed in and out, panned shots of the crowd, swivelled, adjusted the tripod; I had it all going on.

I’ve actually learnt a bit about video cameras over the past few weeks and there’s a nugget of information I’d like to share with you all. When you film something, it’s good to do panning shots and keep the camera steady, zoom in and out, get various angles etc; it’s even better if you push the recording button first. Yeah, that happened.