Matthew Williams-Ellis is kneeling earlier than a carpet of sea-overwhelmed bluebells, capturing footage of puffins flying across the cliffs, and the air is a cacophony of seabirds and wind. I’ve joined Matthew on an extended and unique trip to Skomer to glean his image recommendation and help film a video with his expert companion, John Alexander. The duo is here for a four-day stint to film their today’s cinematic short video – assume journey pictures and photograph challenges, supplied with a healthy dose of Top Gear-style banter – filmed the usage of Nikon DSLRs. Matthew is a tour photographer, leading him to shoot documentary and nature images internationally. However, he was initially educated as an accountant after finishing his degree.
Driven to be successful, Matthew constructed a portfolio in his spare time when no longer running or analyzing and led his first tour vacation in 2018. “I love exploring the arena, each on assignments and for private tasks. I’m obsessed with the demanding situations that traveling gives.” In recent years, video has emerged as both superior and extra on hand with DSLR owners. However, it may require a unique mindset to take picture stills. I ask where the concept for Matthew and John’s movie, Photo Escapes at the Beginning, came from. “John knew of me from college and got in touch numerous years later to speak photography.”
The dynamic duo soon started filming collectively – at first covering UK locations, including the Antrim coast – looking for the precise locations to lead image vacations. Their pilot Photo Escapes movie was created during a journey to Kerala, India, in 2017. Moving back to the prevailing for our ride, we hope to peer and shoot puffins at the side of the rugged coastal scenes that Skomer is known for. The island is the handiest reachable by ferry – and a way to Storm Hannah; our first day was not on time because the crossing became too difficult.
Fortunately, using AirBnB in Wales as a base shooting still started the scene for the journey. I then began to look at how the magic takes place behind the scenes… Behind the scenes of a Matthew Williams-Ellis travel shoot. Matthew and John continuously consider ways to structure, complement, and increase their quick films. Using cinematic digicam drone footage is a key part of Photo Escapes; however, as Matthew had checked ahead for permission to fly on Skomer (unfortunately no longer), our greater day on the mainland became used to seize lots of aerial scenic and to use pictures of the use of the telephone-operated DJI Inspire 1 and Mavic Pro.
The next morning, Matthew stored a digicam at our crossing to document the journey to Skomer. He knows how important it is to create a narrative with video and link up each trip segment for the viewer. Once we’d arrived, a study of the island gave us a hazard to talk logistics over tea; then, we bounded out to shoot the island’s spectacles. Day on the island remains overcast, but that doesn’t stop us from shooting our first puffins and plenty of B-roll video (supplemental pictures intercut with the principal shots). An amazing quantity of effort (and footage) goes into developing a proper and immersive video, including strolling pictures from one vicinity to the following – arriving and departing. Continuity is fundamental, so the pair try to preserve identical jackets and garments for the duration.
Our closing day focuses on filming the puffins in flight, which means panning across the screen with lengthy lenses and perfecting the tracking approach—Matthew practices following the puffins with his Sigma a hundred and twenty-300mm f/2.Eight DG OS HSM Sport lenses, prefocusing on which they were probably to fly after looking ahead to their movement. He tries it with and without a tripod. “The tripod method has less flexibility but more stable motion. We tried 4K for a while inside the D850, leaving room to crop in on footage.”
Stills photography and video are two exceptional media to create, and Matthew knows how vital it is to document first-rate audio. When speaking to a digicam or accomplishing interviews, Matthew attaches a small Røde lapel mic to a Zoom recorder inside his coat, keeping it primary, so the tiers received’t are affected if he turns his head. Before recording, he tests and examines the stages to ensure the audio isn’t clipping. A loud clap shows that the audio is synced at the give-up of a long piece to the camera, making editing extra truthful. “One factor we haven’t carried out yet is to seize a ‘wild music’ [recording of ambient noise] of where we’re shooting,” Matthew tells me. The wild song can be laid over the final pictures afterward for more proper final results.
