This past weekend I was lucky enough to fly with Craig O’Brien’s camera team to film P3’s 100-way camp at Perris Valley Skydiving. Camera team for this event was Craig O’Brien, Terry Weatherford and myself.
I haven’t been to Skydive Perris Valley in a number of years. Every time I go I am amazed at the flight-line, amenities and recent improvements. It’s a virtual Disney world for skydivers, one of the few DZ’s with a wind tunnel as well.
It really felt great to be back in Perris with old friends and working on a team jumping out of airplanes in formation. Every exit has its own challenges and rewards. There’s nothing like watching your friends climb out of the airplane next to you. Last time I was here for a 100-Way camp 200 hundred people showed up. This time we were under 100 and the mood was total chill and only three of us covering the one formation leaving lots of room for flexibility.
P3’s model of coaching for bigger formation skydiving is the gateway to bigger formations and world records. Their team consists of Kate Cooper, Tony Dominica, Dan BC and Larry Henderson. As many of you know, Dan BC is one of the true legends of skydiving. I highly suggest you check out his new webpage. There are some informative blogs about team building, winning and becoming a leader. www.danbrodsky-chenfeld.com
This time out I was right there as the P3 team took everyday skydivers and taught them how to handle themselves in a much bigger formation flying situation. Days went by as camp members struggled with exits, fall rates and the idiosyncrasies of flying from four aircraft to build a 70+ formation. P3 leaders virtually elevated participants to the challenge with precise coaching, positive reinforcement, and slot placement to eventually create success. Even as just a cameraman on the load I couldn’t help but feel as part of one big team.
Day One: Work Flow & The Right Trail Plane
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After a quick camera team meeting over sector, plane assignments and safety we headed out for the first day of shooting. I got the Right Trail Plane. Love that slot. The view is amazing as you look straight up the line of flight. First day was currency for sure. Getting comfortable with a relatively new location, people, planes, and remembering the workflow for the job had to be accomplished on the first couple of jumps. It’s one thing to casually shoot at the local DZ with virtually no responsibility to anyone for anything; it’s another to get back on the train as a hired gun.
Of course I can’t stand still with just my job, I have to come up with dozens of crazy ideas, plans and objectives to occupy just about every second of my time. This leads to only frustration and problem solving until I finally find a rhythm and concentrate fully on my job description. Oh, the wonders of ADD.
It’s been a while since I was invited to an event worthy of coverage with so much going on and in the midst of it all the importance of workflow really hit home again. I am a workflow freak. I love the ability to move through my images quickly, precisely and confidently to immediately produce results in the field and on the fly. Trouble is, I haven’t really had a chance or the challenge to use it all living the life in Margarittaville, Sebastian, FL. Now here I am trying to remember. It took me two solid days to quit all the craziness and realize I needed to concentrate on what I was getting paid to do and my experience and practice in a solid workflow brought me right inline and on track fast.
The new content delivery system Craig OB has overseen and with the Geekery of George Katsoulis demands a clean workflow game. Their new “Da Bomb De-Brief” System is hands down the slickest skydiving event, debrief, and sales system I have ever seen. You can check out all the video and pics of the this P3 100 Way Camp Here for the next 90 days. My absence in this type of event made for a recovery of all the systems I had in place. The ability to jump, edit, finalize, export and upload after every jump is not only fun but leaves the day with no homework. When I leave all my photos are categorized, exported into the formats I will use them, tagged, full meta data and rejects deleted. I walked away with clean memory cards, the works.
As I drove away, I was ready for the next shoot fully prepared. That’s a great feeling. The fact is, in this environment, there really wasn’t time for much else. Jump, hit the ground, upload video, de-brief all videos with camera team, pack parachute, download images to computer, select, edit, export, and then get cameras and self ready for next jump. After that you’re lucky to meet the group for ten minute call. That’s a fast four days of jumping. I absolutely love it. My ADD mind is right at home.
How I accomplish the massive feat of organizing and moving through so much data is Adobe Lightroom. I find it quite amazing how many photogs out there don’t use it and actually sift through the images one at time using Adobe Photoshop to touch up, etc. I don’t need Photoshop anymore except for layers, distinct artwork, logos, etc.
Adobe Lightroom accomplishes several big challenges.
The first is organization. When importing to Lightroom you begin your organizational process. The structure of your library and the ability to call up specific photos is already happening.
The second is the ability to choose your selects quickly by flagging them. Once flagged you can then choose to just see your selects and work on just them. That means if I hit the ground with 100 images, I can narrow that down to 5-10-20 images in a matter of minutes and delete my rejects with a click of the button.
The next huge advantage is the ability to actually edit or tune-up many photos at once. In skydiving one will tend to make the same adjustments over and over. I can create a quick preset, save it and now use it on multiple images saving TONS of time over photoshop.
There is a lot of power there. I highly suggest anyone serious about their skydiving photography check it out. If more of us used this program the level of image editing we see all over Facebook would improve greatly. It’s a shame to see a muddy, washed out un-cropped skydiving photo in the feeds. Why would anyone post that, I have no idea. On top of that the program give incredible flexibility, power and control of slide shows, printing and much, much more.
The Right Trail Plane is by far one of my favorite formation positions. Looking straight up the line of flight is always amazing. While on jump-run one can see the lead plane most of the time. On climb-out the view really opens up. On exit I have to keep an eye on the base leaving an airplane much higher than I am and must wait a few beats before I leave so I am on level with it narrowing the gap I must close quickly. While doing this, I have to keep an eye on the exit and wait for the cute girl in red I want to get a shot of against a brilliant blue sky. Through all of this I must keep a level, steady shot that will somehow get it all.
The challenge of using our skills for specific purposes is exhilarating. This first day simply flies by and I find myself buried in self-induced projects. The participants of the camp are obviously getting their feet wet too. Every jump is burdened by sloppy docking, fall rate issues with many going super low they fell off manifest. I was happy. I was getting super current super-fast and ready for the next day of jumping.
Upon landing, us cameramen watch all our vibes and really look at what’s going on. People were learning tons, putting themselves in difficult positions and we couldn’t help but cheer them all on. Jumpers stayed happy, kept their spirits high and the coaching and level of positive vibes increased through the attention and direction of the P3 Pros.
Skydiving just ROCKS. Thanks for tuning in, more to come.
HP
Check out Adobe Lightroom here. It is one of the most inexpensive and powerful programs Adobe has in its line. If you have Lightroom, sign up for my skydiving newsletter, get 13 of my most talked about one click wonders, a video on how to install them, use them and how to create your own. Or just sign up for the posts on PRO Skydiving Photography.
