Derek Mason Photography, Halifax NS

Shot from Port Starboard facing aft with a few passengers near Nova Scotia side

Today I want to share the results of a photo shoot I did in June of 2011. This shoot was part of the main production in the design of a Trolley Wrap for Northumberland Ferries. The ferry runs between Mainland Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Find part 1 of the story here (http://justthatdesign.blogspot.ca/2012/04/holiday-island-shoot.html).

Shot from the stern with Fisheye

It sort of falls into the category of commercial photography on the border of technical boredom.

The challenge was to produce a background image that would comfortably fill the side of a Trolley, that’s right a trolley (bus actually, just shaped differently) with a little visual interest, while accommodating the other essential graphic elements to convey the correct messaging as developed in the concept. This trolley runs the summer streets for tourists exploring Charlottetown PEI.

Final image facing port with chain link gone and new water/sky

Since the completion of the Confederation bridge, in the spring of 1997 (opening in May 1997), costing 1.3 billion and spanning 12.9-kilometres (8 mi) from New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island, the ferry service traffic has dwindled drastically. Now only operating between Pictou NS to Wood Islands PEI it sees very few passengers. NFL was looking to find a way to draw those travellers that had taken the bridge to return via the ferry to enhance their experience and charm of traveling to and from PEI.

As a lad I spent many a summer vacation traveling to and from the Island. It was always an integral part of the vacation. Once you got off the ferry in PEI you felt no one could drag you back. Freedom indeed. Now with today’s technology it’s near impossible to hide from your day to day pressures.

Hence the thought behind the trip via ferry. It was totted as the ideal way to slow down on your way to your vacation spot. Spending time with family on the way and enjoying a leisurely boat ride with gorgeous views. The adventure was what it was all about.

Shot facing port

The series shows both the challenges of shooting the space and making it work on the trolley. (Note: the shoot is early June, shortly before the season would become busy, so as to get an unobstructed area to shoot.

Final image was shot with a Manfrotto pan head with images in portrait orientation and stitched in photoshop. All images were shot at 3104x4672px (24+MB each as RAW) ISO 100, f8.0 and 1/500th with 24mm (real at 35mm) to gain as much real estate as possible so as to reduce changes in lighting between frames (12 in all). Both port, starboard, forward and aft were shot to guage the correct perspective for the trolley and match as closely to the concept mock-up.

I have included a few single shots to establish the ultimate amount of material needed in each perspective (mostly shot with a fisheye to fill the frame. The fisheye made it very easy to assess what would and wouldn’t work. It also gave me a couple of interesting shots from the upper deck, one of which we used in the transit poster.

Left and right side of Trolley Final art

Enjoy, Derek