It's on near the Tron

We're at day six of a ten day shoot at the World Rowing Champs at Lake Karapiro. Good to be finally shooting the business end and the real action after months of planning, shooting the campaign and video and working on logistics. It's a very slick operation up here and the media are well catered for - just as well as there's about 50 photographers and hundreds of international media. The next three days will be hectic during finals, but it looks like the kiwi crews will deliver the goods on home soil [or home lake]. Below are few highlights below along with a behind-the-scenes from the media centre including a familiar face.

Something I said?

Last months issue of Next magazine featured a shoot I'd done with Green MP Sue Kedgley at Parliament a few months back. The same month she announced she wouldn't be standing for Parliament after next years election... I hope it wasn't something I said?

The shoot itself was great. It was a fantastic team effort with five of us charging about the corridors of power photographing Sue wearing an array of 1920's garb. While we were rushing around inside Parliament, coincidentally there was plenty of rushing around outside as co-leader of the Green Party Russel Norman was caught in the middle of the Tibetan flag scuffle which featured in the news that day. All just another eventful day in the capital.

What to do with 52 cameras

This is awesome - aerial surfers photographed simultaneously with 52 different cameras all in a row. Produced for RipCurl, the result is a three-dimensional still image of the surfer frozen in space, Matrix-style. Check it out. Right, I'm off to work out who I can borrow about 49 cameras from.

Sneak peak: our first TVC's

Our first TV commercials hit NZ screens tonight. Initially produced as just a web promotion for this months World Rowing Champs at Lake Karapiro, they proved so popular we've cut them in to a 30-second and 15-second spot. They'll air on TVNZ over the next three weeks during the 6pm news, Primetime and Breakfast time slots. The full video has been used by SkyTV [who are official broadcaster of the event] as a promo and build-up for their coverage as well. It'll be nice to sit back, put my feet up with a beer and watch them on the box.

WRCH 30sec TVC from Mike Heydon on Vimeo.

Rowers drown in popularity

Only a couple of months to go until the largest sporting event in NZ for 20 years, the World Rowing Champs at Lake Karapiro. I'm official photographer for the event and have been spending quite a bit of time at the lake lately working on the ad campaigns and marketing imagery. The promo video we produced [complete with a hidden code for a discount on event tickets] has had over 5000 views and climbing and the ad campaign has featured on numerous billboards around Auckland and Waikato as well as being printed on 1.2 million [count 'em - million!] programmes for the event itself. This is going to be a big deal people and it's bound to be a great event - and not a rugby ball in sight. Get in fast to get the good seats.

The only good Ferret is a dead Ferret

Sad news reported in the DominionPost this morning, that eight of the thirty Little Brown Kiwi relocated to Pukaha Mount Bruce earlier this year have been killed by a couple of Ferrets. I photographed the relocation in May and at the time there was much excitement about having so many of these great little critters roaming the hills up in the Northern Wairarapa. Fingers crossed the Ferret on the run, get's her just desserts sooner rather than later.

Hanging about in trees

Yesterday I was shooting a brief for thoughtplanters - a horticulture training organisation. It involved swing about in trees capturing arborists at work. Big respect for these guys who do this every day. It felt like I was up around 20 meters for hours but in reality it was more like 3 or 4 meters for about 30 minutes. It was definitely impressive to watch the safety measures they go through and how easily they can get around and up some pretty tall trees. Respect.

Wellington on a plate

A bit of fun with food, we've just finished a quick video for Urban Harvest as entry into a competition run by Wellington on a plate. The competition is to create a recipe video along the lines of Jamie Oliver or Nigella so we flipped this on it's head and used an, um, er, unusual host. Shot in the studio over 600 plus frames, the recipe was created by Al Brown and voiceover is by the very french Julian from Simply Paris Bakery. Jet Photography takes no responsibility for the accuracy of the subtitles!

Randy Campell would be proud

I admire anyone who treks up an icey mountain, risks their expensive equipment or their own safety or stands in the freezing cold for hours to get that 'one' shot. Red Bull run a contest called Red Bull Illume which attracts entries from all over the globe for this extreme sport photo comp. Below are some of the semi-finalists. Thanks to DJ Nick Warren for sending this through.

A little slice of Country Calendar

This month, we've produced a promotional video for Blue Sky Meats in Southland. After much planning and going through every scene before it was shot, the filming itself ran really smoothly and we shot it in only three days and met the tight deadline. Ironically the Southland weather didn't play ball and we had three days of great sunshine - for a lot of the video we'd planned for clouds and rain rolling through. The video got a big tick from the client and was a great reminder of how careful planning can cut production time down later. Check it out.

Blue Sky Meats from Mike Heydon on Vimeo.