Page 13 - Cape-Camera-July-August-2021

Cape Camera July/August 2021

Flying high with SAA

My career path wound through numerous other interesting turn green and you will no longer be part of the team.
fields, all taking me to higher levels while broadening my expe- These air-to-air photo shoots gained our photographic de-
rience and knowledge, to the point where I could confidently partment great respect and admiration, especially taking into
present a résumé that led to being noticed by South African consideration that it was an all-female team - staffed by two
Airways. My introduction to SAA - apart from having flown on in-house photographers and a PA. All were hard working and
its services between Johannesburg and Frankfurt on numerous putting in a lot of time and effort, which earned them the nick-
occasions - was their invitation to apply for the photographer’s name ‘the Mean Team’. Most of these special photo shoots were
position at its head office in Johannesburg. I was very much usually requested at the last minute, leaving minimal time for
aware that an appointment to such an attractive position in one planning and organising.
of South Africa’s flagship companies was not only an honour but
also an enormous challenge. My responsibility was also to develop SAA’s Photographic De-
partment, and with that came a financial budget, which had to
This was confirmed when I was presented with an elaborate job be managed. As time went by, I was promoted to the position
description that included portrait photography, with emphasis chief photographer and an assistant photographer and a pho-
on creating, regularly updating, and maintaining a portfolio of tographic librarian were appointed to assist me.
photographs of the Who’s Who in the industry. It included such
interesting and well-known personalities as Dr Anton Moolman Keeping abreast of developments, the administration of the
(Transnet’s CEO) and SAA’s CEOs Gert van der Veer and Mike Photographic Studio, as it became known, evolved into a
Myburgh. However, the portfolio was not merely reserved for streamlined unit made up of four components: Image and slide
the CEOs, it also included SAA’s senior management, the heads library, corporate photography, publicity & travel photographs
of various departments, the wider management team, as well and large photographic shoots.
as top executives of other international airlines. And, to add a It was not uncommon that the corporate communications
touch of glamour, the photographic studio would also stock im- manager would send an e-mail that would read, for instance:
ages of high-profile personalities from the business, entertain- “Our offices in New York and Frankfurt need images portraying
ment and public sector who used SAA. the latest on-board meal services in Business Class and Econo-
In addition to my routine task of doing portraiture, the pièce my Class, served to adult passengers as well as children. They
need it snappy”. This required quick thinking to accommodate
de résistance was taking photographs for inclusion in SAA’s in- two travel classes on two different routes where two different
flight magazine, Sawubona, formerly named Flying Springbok. types of aircrafts operated.
The magazine’s contents covered a broad scope of interesting
articles, focusing on travel, tourism, lifestyle and aviation top- A photo shoot of this magnitude, which could take at least four
ics. I worked closely with the editor, heavyweight journalists and to six hours would have to be done in the cabin of a station-
other role players. I also provided material for inclusion in the ary Boeing aircraft. The entire service would be photographed
staff news bulletins (Flight Path and Technical News), colour bro- in different settings with ‘passengers’ of all ages being served,
chures, posters and banners. complete with crockery, cutlery and everything else that goes
Another exciting highlight of my job were extensive photo with it, such as cabin equipment, cabin crew, models and props.
The time pressure was always intense to get the aircraft pre-
shoots that demanded careful planning and intensive co-or- pared for the shoot immediately after landing and again to be
dination between numerous role-players, such as the regular ready to fly out to its next scheduled destination.
air-to-air photography of the SAA fleet of Boeing and Airbus
aircrafts, which involved the airline’s Flight Ops and Technical Working in such confined spaces and complex lighting condi-
divisions, Air Traffic Control (Department of Civil Aviation) and tions as inside an aircraft cabin (mostly requiring extra-long
operators of light aircraft (“chaser planes”), to name just a few. exposures), was photographically always challenging. In those
Taking photographs from a chaser plane is exhilarating because pre-digital times we used a Mamiya RZ67/medium format
the door of the nifty little plane is usually removed and the pho- color-tranny film, Fuji Provira Film (10 shots per film), and a Po-
tographer sits on the floor and communicates with the pilot us- laroid, to get exact-exposure shots at 125/250 @ F11, using soft
ing hand signals. Lo and behold if you had a meal before an air- boxes and other light sources. All images taken were on 6 x 7
to-air shoot! Chances are your stomach will turn, your face will trannies which were copied onto 35mm duplicate film for dis-
tribution to SAA offices worldwide.

Cape Town Photographic Society 12