MIXING THE MEDIA

A life-long Nikon user, Sandra’s development as a photographer has followed the evolution of camera technology from film to digital, stills to movie. More of her recent presentations to European photo festivals now include music and movies as well as still images, and she and Werner Bollman are even working with a composer, Torsten Harder, on the presentations for for the LYS project…

Do you prefer shooting HD movies or still images nowadays?

I definitely prefer shooting stills. But I do also take movies occasionally. I always switch to shooting movies when it comes to scenes that capture moving objects much better than a still image could do, things like swaying barley, moving snow. But I love the power of a great still image. It lasts.

Can you really combine the two media successfully? A lot of people say they could manage one or the other, but not do both to a satisfying standard.

It depends on your standards, I suppose, and how the movies are being used. I don’t have the intention of being the next great nature film-maker. For me, movie scenes are just an addition to my still life images, a little movement here and there, elegantly woven into a slideshow with stills. I don’t think it is possible to shoot both still images and movies and have perfect and standalone usable results, as the required equipment and way of thinking are quite different.