Jim Olive Photography

I am currently photographing for an article about the efforts of a citizen based group, Friends of the River’s efforts to restore the original course of the San Bernard river into the Gulf of Mexico.

Shooting from dredge barges, boats and airplanes you encounter vibration that can affect the sharpness of your images. Even at shutter speeds of 1/1000th the images can be compromised by the movement of the conveyance. A tripod to hold the camera steady is not the answer in this case. To shoot from moving platforms a gyro stabilizer is required. It will allow you to handhold the camera steady due to the inherent stability of the gyroscope.

Photographers specializing in aerial, automotive and boat photography generally own one, as I do, in order to achieve a higher percentage of sharp images. The gyro that I use and recommend is the Kenyon KS-4 and if you occasionally get a request for aerial photography or other moving platform based photography you may wish to consider renting one from a company like Light TEC in Houston, Texas. They generally rent for approximately $50/day and considering the couple of thousand dollars it cost to purchase one, it’s a bargain and you can expense the rental to your client. They are also very handy to use when you are panning hand-held long lenses while photographing birds in flight, racing cars etc. My source at Canon says that the newer stabilized Canon lenses can sense lack of motion when the camera is on a tripod or gyro stabilizer and will automatically turn off. The older models do not automatically turn the stabilizer off and the instruction book says to turn the stabilizer off manually in those situations. One of the advantages of turning the stabilizer off is to save power, nonetheless, I always carry 2 extra fully charged batteries for my camera along with an extra fully charged battery for my gyro. Hint: Try to find that rubber eye piece you misplaced the 2nd day you got the camera and place it back over the eyepiece. Why, you ask? aerial shoots are not particularly known for the smooth ride and as you are bumping along up there as the plane goes from thermal to thermal the rubber will cushion the blows that come from holding the camera against your eyes. Here is a shot that is representative of the aerials taken the day the river broke through into the Gulf. As always, when shooting remember the 3Ps, patience, persistence and practice.

Best,
Jim Olive

Dredging the San Bernard River through to the Gulf of Mexico