Friday 20 March 2015

Golf Crazy or Crazy Golf

Decisions, decisions.  Oh heck, we'll shoot them both!
In my last blog post I was talking about some of the commercial photography I do, but in the past week, I've been shooting something entirely different again.  Back in January I was asked if I'd be prepared to shoot some images of the Links golf courses in St. Andrews to partner some aerial images being shot with drones, all of which images are to be used in the production of a computer game on the far side of the world.
  
Always keen to take on a challenge, I said I'd love to be involved.  As usual the client is in a hurry, and of course, with the short days and low winter sun (beloved of we photographers in wedding mode) it soon became clear that January was not going to be a good time for shooting the kind of images required.  Artistic lens flare and silhouettes are not too helpful for animators trying to construct a game, so we've had to wait.  Now that the sun is sitting a little higher in the sky, we're onto the job with a vengeance, and what a job it is.  Imagine yourself in a computer game, and you're at the tee box (see, I'm down with all the technical golf speak now!) and you're looking around at the view before you select your spot and put your ball down.  I've been creating that view, then the view all down the fairway, round the bunkers and on to the green, all around the green with additional views from the hole cup (that's a 360 rotation), and some additional sweeps right to left and left to right from the back left and back right of the green....okay, so now you've zoned out!  Welcome to my world.  Multiply that by eighteen holes across three courses and you'll see why I was so delighted to find Mike and the catering van on the New Course yesterday.  Just a couple more days to do thank goodness, but if anyone needs any advice on the slopes and dips on those courses....then please don't ask me, because by now it's all a blur. 


Fantastic catering van with a personal touch from super cheery Mike.

Eden Estuary - stepping stones to....getting wet I guess!
"A Owl" - looks like he needs a wash and brush up.


Encountered more than our fair share of this as we scrambled about.

A brief sit down in the "rough" - waiting for golfers to play through.
When you've been photographing grass all day, this is a welcome respite.

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