Golfing at Twin Waters Golf Club

A couple of mates, free reign on the back 9 and a healthy dose of glorious sunshine! Is there a better way to start Grand Final day? No, there probably isn’t!

Until this shoot I was using the same 2 generic golf shots in everything that I was cutting. It was driving me insane. They weren’t bad shots, they were just the same flipping shot, every flipping time! I had had enough and decided it was time to do something about it.

So after making a couple of last minute calls and pulling every string I could lay my hands on, I managed to get some time on the Twin Waters Golf Course.  I knew I couldn’t just go out there with my camera and hassle whoever was playing, I needed some talent who I knew would. . .

1. Be able to hit a golf ball.
2. Look good hitting golf balls.
3. Be understanding of my requirements.
4. Be good to hang out with.

Luckily I had a couple of mates in mind who would tick all those boxes and then some! Enter Justin Hooper and Ned Richards (whose names haven’t been changed to protect their identities). We’ve all been mates for years and I knew these guys liked to play golf and would also help me out if I need things done a certain way to get a shot.

So up we get at the crack of dawn (Who is Dawn exactly, and why is she so forthcoming with crack?) and head to the Twin Waters Golf Club, commandeer two buggies and head straight to the back 9 where we picked a circuitous route around 9 holes getting what shots we could along the way.

I had in my mind what I was going to try and achieve, some nice locked off shots on the greens and tees, and some handheld craziness to break up the statics, so it wasn’t too much of a boring pan and scan show.

What I didn’t envisage was that I would be able to utilise the startlingly smooth fairways and golf buggy to simulate dolly-like movements. That was a bonus. Every tracking shot in here is self-driven too, with the camera on a tripod facing out the side.

I packed the full 500D kit with me and also took a reflector, which I didn’t use anywhere near as much as I should have (lesson learnt!). The shadows were very harsh and considering the hole didn’t always face in best direction for the light, I should have made use of the reflector from the beginning. But at the same time I wanted to get my shots, I also wanted the boys to have a good time, as they were doing me a favour as well. I’m not entirely certain, but I get the idea that playing a shot whilst somebody is reflecting the sun off a big shiny silver disc straight into your eyes would be at times difficult and after a while, very annoying.

Having only just got a hold of the Sigma 30mm f1.4 and very in love with it’s amazing depth of field (DOF), it really got a good run on this shoot. It’s so damn sharp and has such lovely bokeh when it’s wide open, it’s hard to put it back in the bag! I used it for all the handheld stuff as the DOF really takes the hard edges off things and it doesn’t look so much like handycam stuff (even though it pretty much is ). I also used it alot for the putting shots, as it’s damped focus ring, really lends itself well to accurately pulling focus. I was surprised that I managed to keep the ball in focus on the putting shots, it really says alot about how much easier the lens makes it.

I didn’t use the 50mm f1.8 II here, but I did give the Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 a good innings. It performed not only very well for the wide panoramic shots, but also in close with a shallow DOF. The perspective is really nice and allows you to focus on the subject, blur the background but still include quite a bit in the frame, albeit softly.

The telephoto shots are from the trusty old 75-300 f4-f5.6, I used it on the close up of the ball getting hit, the kangaroos and a couple of other shots. This lens is doing a great job for me, but I can’t wait to get a serious L series Telephoto with a low f-stop as it does have some serious down points. The high f-stop kills me in low light, and the fact it changes through the zoom range isn’t ideal either. I think the 70-200 f2.8 will be the next one on the list with a 1.4x extender. Better start saving!

So it all turned out well in the end, I was really pleased with how it went. Justin and Ned played really well, Justin notably chipped it in the hole from about 30 metres away. I was filming him from far off on the lens and didn’t see the ball go in the hole. That sucked, but it’s always the way isn’t it?! He also hit a couple of 300m drives (the last drive in the clip) and almost got an eagle on the 18th, just missing his putt. Turns out he’s a bit of gun!

So next time, more reflector and I realised in the edit I needed shots of the ball going in without anything in the background, to make it a bit easier in the cut and to make the boys look even better than they really were. I’ll do that next time and considering how much fun we all had, that won’t be too far off!