It's a pleasure to publish the video and drone shoot with Australian broadcasting couple Stan Grant and Tracey Holmes, carried out last winter in the Snowy Mountains.
The mini documentary was commissioned by leading portrait photographer Nic Walker who wanted a video production to document his photographing of Grant and Holmes for the National Portrait Gallery's Love Stories collection, which has just opened.
Walker went to great lengths to have this portrait take place in the dawn light on the edge of Kosciusko National Park, a place of great important in Grant's (Wiradjuri) and Holmes' (European and Chinese) family stories. It was an early start after leaving Sydney the day before, but the mood captured in Walker's portrait is, simply, beautiful. The amount of work that went in to the image is remarkable; and it pays off. It was an extra treat to take a trip after the (admittedly not too bad) lockdowns we'd had in Sydney.
The video production itself is shot in ultrawide screen (21:9) at 4k to make the most of the stunning landscape. Shot on a Canon c300 mark ii and a Mavic Pro 2 drone, both capturing 4k footage in LOG (Canon LOG3, from memory, with a coolish grade). I was a little worried about the drone battery in the cold conditions, but from memory the temperature was hovering just above zero. That Mavic drone really is a workhorse and a nice size to carry into remote jobs like this. My toes faired less well, and some poor bugger put his feet in that freezing creek.
In terms of production time it was fast - shooting and interviewing in a two-hour period, with the odd drone shot captured later in the morning. Let us know what you think of the edit and shoot in the comments.