Corey Rich with Novus Selects, asked us to DP for a Project for Nikon Hong Kong, in Teton National Park. Our subject was Nikon photographer David Schultz, who specializes in landscape and wildlife photography. With a client like Nikon, and a location like the Grand Teton National Park we were excited about the possibilities.
We brought in Ben Woodworth a cinematographer for Black Diamond to help us on the shoot. He was an amazing asset to the team.
J. Walter Thompson is the agency that represents Nikon Hong Kong. They flew in art director Quentin Yong from Hong Kong to guide the project.
The F-stop packs we used came in very handy on the longer approaches. The Nikon lens and D4 packages demanded an efficient pack, and the F-stop carried the load in style. We also utilized the Lite Pro Camera Jib for dynamic camera moves. Its light weight and ease of setup allowed us to deploy the jib quickly to capture scenes and wildlife on the fly.
A new tool to the team was a collection of Schneider Optics 4 x 6 grad filters. This high quality filter set was critical to maintaining the sharpness of the Nikon glass and allowed us to capture challenging exposure situations.
We spent 5 days with Shultz traveling around the park searching for epic backdrops, wildlife, and long light. Our days began at 4am and often pushed through the night.
While there was no shortage of majestic scenery to shoot, we did struggle to capture the elusive wildlife in the park. Just as we were packing up on the last day of the shoot, a herd of buffalo wandered across the road, and we quickly scrambled out into the field with the Nikon 200-400 with a 1.4 extender on it. Using the crop mode of the D4 to even further extend the reach of this amazing setup, we captured Schultz in his element.
Schultz’s is a total pro and it’s easy to see why he is one of Nikon’s premier photographers. On our final night, we sat around the campfire listening to his adventures in Antartica and the Arctic Circle as sounds of crickets and time-lapse shutters serenaded his fascinating stories.
It was a great week of work, and pleasure to work with the Hong Kong.
Big Tree Media 