I was contacted by Results PR in London to film for Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing after they sailed into yachting history by becoming the first Arabian entry to complete the gruelling, nine-month round the world odyssey. Most of my coverage was for Abu Dhabu Media which featured key interviews, VOX POX and general coverage of the Abu Dhabi Pavilion.
During the event, I also got to work with Tom Bushell, a sports presenter/reporter for City7 TV and Dubai Eye 103.8. Again we set up key interviews, recorded VOX POX and several pieces to camera. Tom was a joy to work with and we have plans to work again on sports related projects in the future. We were also given a great opportunity to join the crew on a Pro-Am race and I learned fast about filming onboard a racing yacht. The first minutes into the race I soon realised that strapping down equipment bags was essential as I watched my gear slide down the stern of the ship during a tack. £5K of gear nearly washed away in front of my eyes but got snagged up on something- huge sigh of relief and no tears!
For beautiful images from DSLR cameras you have to compensate on poor audio so recording sound off camera and syncing in post is worth it in my eyes. The Canon 5D Mark II s have been working for me over the last three years and if it works and the clients are happy then why change? Knowing and respecting the limitations of the camera system you are using is important in this game. As long as you embrace the problems and have them covered as much as possible then you’ll be a happy DSLR shooter and your clients will be getting what they want at the end.
