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drakkar

became camera jumper

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drakkar

Hii all
how to became camera jumper?escpecially tandem camera

I've only done a few tandem videos but I'm a tandem instructor. Here's a list of stuff to practice from my point of view.

-Get into position in front of and slightly low on the tandem to get good video of the passenger's face. Up high or far away do not make good videos.

-Learn to get into that position quickly and smoothly after exit. For most people, that means working on belly flying skills.

-There are many different ways to exit on tandem videos, front float low, looking back, being one of the coolest, but that takes some practice. For now, rear float is probably the best for you.

-Stay clear of the danger areas around tandems at ALL times. There's a "cone of death" zone above and below the tandem. Stay out of both.

Hope this is some help. Experienced camera fliers could tell you more, but I don't see too many weighing in on this one. Good luck.

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Learn about photography.
Build a camera helmet.
Start skydiving with said camera helmet without going near a tandem.
When your camera flying is reliable and people aren't afraid of you. Then, start hunting down tandems.
"Any language where the unassuming word fly signifies an annoying insect, a means of travel, and a critical part of a gentleman's apparel is clearly asking to be mangled."

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Don't try to learn to fly camera with tandems, become a decent belly camera flyer first. Forget about freeflying or other stuff for a while, and learn to use your cameras on the ground first (learn about ISO/f-stop/focal length and their relations, read the entire manuals, shoot some landings at your DZ, etc etc)

Ready to try your cameras in the air?

Step 1: Buy a suit with wings, I myself prefer very big wings and adding weights if/as necessary to a suit with small wings, even for lightweight camera flyers. But you do need wings so get some.
Step 2: Do a couple of solos with that suit, focusing on exiting backfloating (for most airplanes, like Caravans), with wings collapsed (keep away from the airplane stabilizer), keeping a heading and doing ( a lot of) practice pulls (again, while keeping a heading, don't start turning, collapse your wings after pulling and don't pull the pc through the wing!).

All good? then proceed to:

Step 3: Add your camera helmet for at least one solo jump, same as above. Remember to get a good briefing for your camera helmet from a very experienced camera flyer/your instructor first.

Step 4: Find some non-students belly fliers to film, a beginner or intermediate 4way team is perfect. Do this for a good number of jumps, if you do this at least reasonably well you can expect to have your slot covered but expect to have to show the video for debrief.

Step 5: Can you consistently exit on time with a rookie FS4 team, keeping them in frame until break-off and keep on heading? This will take a good number of jumps (couple hundred probably) to do correctly and consistently, you will bump into jumpers, make camera mistakes and whatnot along the way. You have to learn, but you CANNOT use a tandempair to learn all this!

So, feel good about your belly flying camera skills? Good, go find your instructor ans show him/her the last 5 bellyjumps you did which should be perfect. (Rules on this may vary per country, per dropzone or even per instructor). If the instructor agrees, you may find yourself being cleared to jump with tandems (again, rules may vary, you may have to jump without camera a couple of jumps, or other rules/restrictions may apply).

ciel bleu,
Saskia

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