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scooterskydives

Lady Tandem Masters that shoot handycam

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I am not a TI but I do a lot of photography and have a lot of input from those who don't do photography or skydive and here is what I think. These students are here for a thrill (sorry but its true) and we also live in the era where people like to document every moment and they do it by taking pictures of themselves. This is so true that they put front facing cameras on phones and such. Even though the quality may suck the people care more about the experience of taking the picture and their involvement than any artistic value. Infact, the more involvement they have in the product the more they like it because it makes it more memorable. If thats what they want then give it to them. This is why it is becoming so popular to have "photobooths" and disposable cameras and photo event apps at wedding and other events and it is these poor quality photos that people love even over the several thousand spent for the professional photographer.
In addition, some shakiness and lower quality makes it seem more real in their minds. Its more like what they think they experienced and movie makers even use the shaky technique in movies (they use it a lot in "reality" shows) to make the film more "believable". So, once again, from a purely marketing and artistic aspect, from the purchasers side they will not only like the product but, in many cases, will actually like it more (especially when they get to film themselves under canopy).
Finally, the idea that they need to concentrate 100% on the skydive, in my opinion, may not be the best thing. By giving them a little distraction they will be more alert and relaxed ultimately making them respond better instead of focusing fully on something their brain is telling them may kill them. Think about it, when people get scared or freak out how do we help them through the task at hand? By distracting them.

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I am not a TI but I do a lot of photography and have a lot of input from those who don't do photography or skydive and here is what I think. These students are here for a thrill (sorry but its true) and we also live in the era where people like to document every moment and they do it by taking pictures of themselves. This is so true that they put front facing cameras on phones and such. Even though the quality may suck the people care more about the experience of taking the picture and their involvement than any artistic value. Infact, the more involvement they have in the product the more they like it because it makes it more memorable. If thats what they want then give it to them. This is why it is becoming so popular to have "photobooths" and disposable cameras and photo event apps at wedding and other events and it is these poor quality photos that people love even over the several thousand spent for the professional photographer.
In addition, some shakiness and lower quality makes it seem more real in their minds. Its more like what they think they experienced and movie makers even use the shaky technique in movies (they use it a lot in "reality" shows) to make the film more "believable". So, once again, from a purely marketing and artistic aspect, from the purchasers side they will not only like the product but, in many cases, will actually like it more (especially when they get to film themselves under canopy).
Finally, the idea that they need to concentrate 100% on the skydive, in my opinion, may not be the best thing. By giving them a little distraction they will be more alert and relaxed ultimately making them respond better instead of focusing fully on something their brain is telling them may kill them. Think about it, when people get scared or freak out how do we help them through the task at hand? By distracting them.



Those are some very interesting perceptions. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Some are things that I had never thought about, and some are things that the sport is going to probably need to accept, or at least understand.

There is a program on PBS (that I don't recall the name of) that is a guy with a small format wide angle camera on his left hand, doing all sorts of outdoor things while doing video and making overly obvious statements and commentary.

His monolog and the camera shaking irritates the shit out of me enough that I skip right by the program while channel surfing, but somebody must like it.

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I am not a TI but I do a lot of photography and have a lot of input from those who don't do photography or skydive and here is what I think. These students are here for a thrill (sorry but its true) and we also live in the era where people like to document every moment and they do it by taking pictures of themselves. This is so true that they put front facing cameras on phones and such. Even though the quality may suck the people care more about the experience of taking the picture and their involvement than any artistic value. Infact, the more involvement they have in the product the more they like it because it makes it more memorable. If thats what they want then give it to them. This is why it is becoming so popular to have "photobooths" and disposable cameras and photo event apps at wedding and other events and it is these poor quality photos that people love even over the several thousand spent for the professional photographer.
In addition, some shakiness and lower quality makes it seem more real in their minds. Its more like what they think they experienced and movie makers even use the shaky technique in movies (they use it a lot in "reality" shows) to make the film more "believable". So, once again, from a purely marketing and artistic aspect, from the purchasers side they will not only like the product but, in many cases, will actually like it more (especially when they get to film themselves under canopy).
Finally, the idea that they need to concentrate 100% on the skydive, in my opinion, may not be the best thing. By giving them a little distraction they will be more alert and relaxed ultimately making them respond better instead of focusing fully on something their brain is telling them may kill them. Think about it, when people get scared or freak out how do we help them through the task at hand? By distracting them.


That is a very interesting thought.
Here would be my perspective on that. I think there is an expectation based on price. If someone is paying $70-$100 for a video, I would think they would expect to get what they paid for. A quality product show casing them and their jump experience to the best professional level possible. I would also think if they were offered a video for let say $20 -$40 then their expectation might be a lot different. I would seriously question if someone paying up to $100 would be happy receiving a video that is extremely shaky and may not have them in the picture much due to their inexperience and high adrenaline.
To maybe put this in a photographer’s perspective if you were hired to take pictures for a wedding for $600 or more and the quality of picture is that of a camera phone(this meaning off centered shots/ missed shots of the major wedding events). I would not think the wedding party would be happy at all. However if they were only paying $100 then I would assume while they may not be happy with them they would accept them due to the cheaper price
Kirk
He's dead Jim

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I am not a TI but I do a lot of photography and have a lot of input from those who don't do photography or skydive and here is what I think. These students are here for a thrill (sorry but its true) and we also live in the era where people like to document every moment and they do it by taking pictures of themselves. .



True or not, it's the TI's RESPONSIBILITY to do whatever he can to protect that student from getting hurt...even to the point of refusing to take them.
Bottom line. Period.
My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

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I will bet there is a sweet spot for any TI shooting handcam where the subject framing is perfect or as good as it will get given the equipment they are using.

The key is to find that spot and hit it every time. Go back and look over your videos and try to see where that spot is. Sport professionals do this all of the time. Go to the tape. ;)

As for safety... I do handle checks with or without cameras. It was part of my training and is now part of my routine. You can see me do them on my videos. I have had multiple reserve rides with tandem passengers and the cameras have never been a problem.

Overkill is under rated.

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