Nun ist es wieder soweit, morgen reise ich ab nach Zermatt an die Patrouille des Glacier. Eine Übernachtung im Tal und dann rauf auf die Tete Blanche um dort gute Bilder zu machen bei Nacht. Und genau das ist die Frage, wie kommen wir rauf auf die Tete Blanche? Mit der Asche in der Luft die man nicht sieht dürfen die Helis nicht fliegen.

Letztes mal durfte ich bis Col de Bertol fliegen und danach zu Fuss auf die Tete Blanche. Es war ein super Gefühl in Arolla in del Heli zu Steigen und rauf bis auf den Col de Bertole, ich  genoss die paar Minuten im Heli die Hänge rauf zu fliegen. Der rest von da weiter war schon ein ziemlicher Effort mit ein fast 10 Kg Rucksack. Die letzten hundert Höhenmeter waren ein Kampf. Ich zählte die Schritte bis wir endlich oben waren.

Nun sieht es anders aus…dieses Jahr laufen wir wahrscheinlich von Zermatt aus. Die Asche ist da und wird auch noch ein paar Tage bleiben.

Dafür gibt es dann auf der Tete Blanche eine überraschung. Wir habe von dort danz Swisscom Zugriff aufs Netz und somit können wir Bilder “Just in time” ins Tal senden.  Also freuen wir uns doch.

So nun mache ich langsam Schluss für heute damit Morgen die Energien nicht fehlt.

Jürg

PS: Bilder von 2008

It was a cold day, waiting on the photo boat for the race committee to start the race, then speeding around like devils at 50 miles/h following the boats after the start (now I know how fast is Hydroptere).

5 Miles in to the race we had to stop and after a short break off again full speed for almost 20 minutes towards the gybing mark. Once there we had to wait a bit.  My Iphone was playing Jean Michel Jarre, with the big lenses we saw them on the horizon coming closer and closer,  they seemed slow.
Soon we realized that they aren’t. My song wasn’t over and BMWO followed by the umpire boat gybed allready at the mark. Right after comes Alinghi 5:  The cup is gone from Switzerland.

Jürg

PS: The photo of Alinghi 5 was taken on the same leg as the BMWO photo, on the way to the finish after the gybe.

The race was way out, Alinghi on port and BMWO on Starboard entry, first cross dialup and penalty…..BMWO with the wing sails higher and faster on the beat almost 10 degrees and deeper and faster on the run almost 30 degrees.
Tomorrow is another day, forcast 2 knots. Alinghi keep saying we are fast with light wind…let’s see if we have a race tomorrow and who knows maybe we have a third race too…
Good evening from Valencia
Juerg

Since a while Daniel Forster and me we started to work together on projects, this give us the chance to cover more complex shootings easier such as for example the 33rd Americas cup.

The distances are so big it’s impossible to shoot at the start and then being on time also at the weather mark. So during the 33rd America’s cup we will share the positions on the race course with the goal to give a better coverage to our customers.

The size and speed of the boats is also a bit of a challenge. For those who shoot in their free time try to go on the street and take a picture of a car moving towards you with 50 – 60 km/h maybe even more, you have to be quite fast with framing and the focus to get a sharp picture. Another point are the distances that’s why we will be using the big long lenses. For the cup Nikon Switzerland give me the chance to use their 500mm lens with VRII function. I really curious too see the difference. by the way the lenses it selves is 3.5 Kg plus 1.2 Kg the camera this means holding up almost 5 Kg.

Sometimes I think back at the Olympic Games where we got  Chinese agency photographers used to work in the football stadiums with tripods, coming on board with tripods and monopods. Very quickly they realized that this is of no use as the boats are moving too much. Some even got seasick but that’s another story.

Please come and visit our new website www.go4image.com especially for the 33rd Americas cup we made a gallery with Daniels images of the last 10 America’s cup going back more than 30 years to Newport 1977 until the images we will start to publish next week.

Jürg

Today Nikon announced the new Nikon D3s. I was expecting a new semi pro camera something between the D3x and the D700, a high resolution camera with with aprox. 20 megapixel at a affordable price.

Dreamer..the D3s is a 12.1 megapixel camera with great ISO values. The big surprise was, it takes video. Why not,  this is the ongoing discussion in the mediacenters at big events. All photographers are talking about the two worlds getting closer to each other. Honestly I’m not so sure.

Recently at an event the organizer hired a film crew who  worked on the water and up in the air without gyroscope. I never getseasick no matter how big the waves are but the outcome by watching this movie I almost got seasick, this TV crew was simply useless.  Now everyone believes that videos out of the still camera will change the market. I’m really questioning that.

I doo like changes and I take changes as a chance to do business but this time I have my doubts. Today in the yachting photography we are trying out so new angles to get more dynamics in to the images (have a look at this one), when I used the D3x in Singapore for the Volvo Ocean race felt the freedom to crop the image and this was a real new way of working. I didn’t bought the D3x as I believe it’s simply too expensive to go out on the saltwater with such a camera. This explains why I’m waiting for the Nikon semipro with 20 megapixel.

For the home/family use a camera doing also video is great but do we really need that in the PRO world? Are the good still moment similar as the good video moments? I think not. For the daily use on websites and agencies for the press this may be a solution. Two weeks ago Lynn, Daniel and I we just finished the book of the Voiles de Saint-Tropez and we have been very hard on us to choose the images for the book. Many of them are unique moments where the before and after doesn’t really matters. It’s rather a split moment captured who also gives you a bit of interpretation freedom about the before or the after who makes the image better.

Question: What is more sensual a beautiful women completely naked or dressed with a shirt where you can’t see anything but imagination goes wild?. Isn’t a video different from sill image? Browsing in the web about video and the still discussion I found a post from APhotoEditor he believes that top shots with a good headline are more successful as videos. On top it takes much longer to get the video edited and up on the web as a image.

What do you think about this?

Juerg

After 2 weeks shooting the classic yachts on the cote azur…here is my best image, enjoy….
See the book online

Order the book online

PARTNERS IN TRADITON – CLASSIC and MODERN YACHTS in SAINT-TROPEZ

Saint-Tropez, France (September 26, 2009) –Yachting photographers, Juerg Kaufmann and Daniel Forster, and sailing writer, Lynn Fitzpatrick, have teamed up to produce a coffee table book of Les de Saint-Tropez entitled PARTNERS IN TRADITON – CLASSIC and MODERN YACHTS in SAINT-TROPEZ. The book will be packed will stunning images and highlights of the yachts, people and atmosphere of the event.

The regattabook’s development can be followed online at regattabook.com. Each day we will reveal the images that the team will publish.

The 10th anniversary of the event will be exceptional. This year, Les Voiles celebrates the 100th year anniversary of Tuiga and her sistership, Mariska. Many of the world’s most beautiful traditional yachts such as Elenora, Cambria, Shamrock and Moonbeam will ply the same waters as the stylish Wallys. Additionally, all five of Eric Tabarly’s Pen Duick yachts will be assembled in the marina and raced during the day.

The regattabook will capture the essence of the event – the excitement, the venue, the yachts, the organizers, the partners, the characters and personalities that sail these boats. From the quiet of first light to the cacophony of 300 boats leaving port and the Mistral whistling through the rigging, the regattabook will enable you to live vicariously and remember a decade of regattas marking the close of the summer sailing season in the Mediterranean.

What to do with a grey day? Add a bit of color