Ahhh August. The perfect time to shoot some snow. It’s
perfect winter weather in the Southern hemisphere, but won’t be for much
longer. So if you’re promoting snowy holiday times or winter Olympics
extravaganzas, times a tickin’! September/October marks the black hole of “no
snow anywhere except for really annoying places.” (Technical term.)
Our resident snow expert, Klaus Obermeyer, knows this all
too well. He’s a native of Aspen, Colorado and grew up skiing and snowboarding
from the time that he was knee high to a grasshopper. (At 6’8 I don’t believe
he was ever that small… but suspend disbelief for the sake of my metaphors….)
Klaus’s father, Klaus Sr, was the founder of Obermeyer ski wear and inventor of the parka, so the whole family
has snow in their genes (and often in their jeans, too).
Klaus Sr and Klaus Jr
Klaus starting shooting film on the side of a
mountain. Shooting his daredevil friends and working with filmmaker Robert
Fulton (who’s remarkable and has his own amazing life story .) This isn’t tripod and dolly work—this is Klaus skiing down a
mountain without poles, holding a film camera. Often backwards. Klaus has shot
an Olympic skier on a slalom run. The skier looks amazing and the technique
makes even a veteran skier think, “Amazing!” But then you think about the fact
that Klaus was skiing right beside him, holding a film camera, going backwards…
without poles, and thinking about framing. There’s no Olympic category for
that.
Of course the Klaus Cam was also born out of necessity for shooting snow. Being
able to shoot action close ups with out touching virgin snow was impossible—until
the Klaus Cam with its ability hang a camera on a long line from a helicopter
and get full 360 pan, tilt and roll that’s all gyrostabilized. (Imagine a
technocrane, steadicam and a helicopter had a love child.)
