NIKON MASTER YOUR CAMERA

Helen Sloan talks shooting stills on the set of Game of Thrones

Nikon Ambassador Helen Sloan talks to us about her time as a unit photographer shooting on the set of Game of Thrones

The job of unit photographer spans several different areas. The most important is scene coverage; I’m the third (sometimes fourth) camera, and that means folding myself into weird shapes to get the shot. Then there’s the ‘specials,’ – portraits of cast members in my impromptu photo studio, used for posters or merchandising. I really love to shoot behind the scenes, documenting not just the material you see on TV, but the amazing locations, extreme conditions and all those interesting details and behind-the-scenes tableaus: the whole ballet of making this show.

There’s no typical day ‘in the office’ – one morning we’re setting fire to people, the next we’re in a cosy studio, and then we could be in a boat on a choppy lake trying not to tip into the water. On Thrones, it’s literally 360 degrees of cool stuff. It’s art on an industrial scale and I never run out of material.

During all of this I have to be relatively invisible. Normally my cameras are enclosed

in ‘sound blimps’ which make the task quite difficult. The equipment becomes heavy and cumbersome. Inside the blimp I always have my D5 with a 24-70 and also another body with the 85 1.4 in another blimp!

Luckily for me (and my back) the DF provides me with everything I need in a small and light body – but with all the punch of a larger camera. Its shutter is very quiet, so it’s perfect for my BTS work. I can leave my camera cart behind on set, sling the DF over my shoulder and go adventuring across the set, getting some great documentary shots of all the goings-on.