As you may have read in October's edition, Chris is an in-demand freelance lighting cameraman and photographer, and his assignments allow him to travel frequently all over the world. Here are some great pictures from those trips.
Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport
Chris Hollier: I work in television, and historically the viewfinders used in television cameras have
been black and white, however, the natural progression was the introduction of
colour using LCD & now OLED's (organic light-emitting diodes). No longer
can cameramen sigh when the director tells them to ''follow the red car around
the race circuit'' or "no, the team in blue" - knowing full well you're looking at the image
in monochrome. This advance in
technology is beneficial in composing the shot if there are dominant colours in
the frame that effect the subject, and it's nice to know the image you're
recording is the correct colour, but it can also have an adverse effect for
some.
There are operators who like to work without the
distraction of colour and feel it's easier to focus on a moving image solely in
black and white. Others believe the
composition of a shot is more favourable when the play of light dictates the
image - rather than the dominant colours - in a scene. For me, framing a shot with strong composition & good tone will always work best, and whatever makes it easier to focus will ultimately be my personal preference.
( For
these shots, I used an attachment for my iphone 4s called an Olloclip. It has a
'fisheye', wide-angle, and macro lens in the same housing, and I purchased it
as one of the first to pre-order off the kickstarter website, where companies
ask for funding to "tool up", so you basically pre-order for a
discount price ).
The Warsaw Crossings
The zebra crossing images were taken in Warsaw where I was based for ITV working as a Lighting Director / Cameraman on the European Football Championships. Each evening we would walk past the tomb of the unknown soldier through the Saxon gardens and across a wide zebra crossing.
The park was always filled late into night with groups of locals of all ages; when leaving they all seemed to obey the crossing codes no matter what the time. The longer we spent in Warsaw the more comical the crossings became and the thought of navigating the various road markings must have scared even the toughest Warsavian; the thought of doing it drunk incomprehensible - an ingenious ploy by the government perhaps!
Chris Hollier
CHDesign Ltd
+44 (0) 7956 889 808
e: chris@chrishollier.com
