Over the Top

Some time ago I shot a remarkable image for my Guinness world record show of Tony Matia who held (maybe still does hold?) the world record for the biggest barbie doll collection

We hired a very big car studio and shot down thru a hole in the ceiling.

The day was a success but it was not a cheap operation

I then started to think how I could achieve this without going to massive expense

One could use a step ladder but if you look straight down you get the legs in shot

After many false starts I came up with this set up which consists of a BIG high roller stand by Manfrotto Avenger, you Need a stand of this caliber and stability to support a dslr with a good degree of safety

The next component is my good old RED wing boom as it is solid, but importantly also is cantilevered which means if I choose to go higher I can but I still maintain the camera angle

And last but but not least is the Manfrotto 468 RC2.

A great but lockable tripod ball head

Not forgetting a safety line for the camera AND tripod head just in case

Shooting tethered via fire wire to my camera, needless to say I'm lookig forward to trying out Canon's live view with this set up which could be the ultimate, but ants in his pants Gardner has not got round to trying it out yet....in fact I'm writing this on my blackberry as I'm flying to Holland

I have managed to more or less perfect this over the last couple of years

Here is a cover I shot for radio times a few weeks ago