Everything began on my end-of-undergraduate-studies-vacation on Hawaii in the summer of 2013. Together with my good friend Arnaud, we wanted to significantly sharpen our kitesurfing skills. Unfortunately, not everything went according to plan for me as I broke my foot on a coral reef on day 4 out of 45 planned…
Although Arnaud was now responsible for my overall well-being, he also had full-time access to my photography skills. While he went kiting every morning, I hopped up and down the beach on one foot, trying out my recently acquired first full frame DSLR camera. From macro, to landscape, to sports, I had plenty of time to experiment with everything and when looking back, this is the moment my photography “took off”. Needless to say, my kitesurfing skills did not, but that experience showed me once again that it is always possible to thrive, even in face of, or perhaps because of, adversity.
Fast forward a few years and a similar pattern emerged. Kitesurf training, photographing and filming was on the agenda in the windy Dakhla, Morocco (or Western Sahara depending on who you ask) together with the talented Merle Mönster for three weeks. I already had a cold when arriving, so I took special care to first keep it low. Meeting a few other pros made the decision to focus on shooting a little easier. It was cool to hang out and some amazing shots resulted (c.f. above and here). But as it turns out, hiking through desert storms with heavy camera gear cannot be described as resting and I was soon confined to my bed. For a week or so. Slowly getting better, I managed to shoot a little early in the morning or at sunset. Slowly adding some kitesurfing for a few days until the cold came back a third time, although in a slightly less severe fashion.
Anyways, also, the drone got confiscated at customs (I got it back afterwards), Merle trashed her boots, hurt her feet in every possible way (including many shell cuts) and succumbed to the mysterious “speedspot flu” on our last day. Our kite gear fell of the taxi with damage to several boards, I quite deeply tore my foot up on a rock (I was however careful with the shells) and the wind was constantly too strong for freestyle (though I enjoyed the wind on my few kiting days). Other than that, everything went smoothly. I met some amazing people, including very friendly locals, discovered yet another beautiful place on this planet and progressed on my filming skills. I’m grateful to everyone that made this experience possible and I’m very thankful to all those that I had the privilege to photograph and film, in particular of course to Merle!
In the end several hours of raw footage accumulated that combined with a little editing…
(Color grading in Premiere Pro is such a pain…)
… resulted in the following 4-minute video (or 40 second teaser trailer) from Merle:
And also this edit, starring the pro crew of Mikaila Sol, Merle Mönster, Claudia León Martínez, Fabio Ingrosso, Paul Serin, Aron Rosslee, Stefan Spiessberger and Anthar Racca:
On the technical side, everything was mostly shot on a Canon 1DX Mark II with monopod. To some extend a tripod was used and for shallow depth of field shots the camera was pared with DJI’s VR Goggles. Those were crucial for focus! Wide angle shots were hand held. The frame rate was usually set to 120 frames per second, which slowed down to 24 fps allows for 5X slow motion.
Gordon Schücker 