Jaco Wolmarans, a freelance photographer and journalist based in Cape Town, will share his flight story on a helium balloon from Robben Island to the mainland of Cape Town, South Africa – a fundraising event for the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital in Johannesburg (click on images for larger view);
Floating from Robben Island to Cape Town suspended underneath 200 helium balloons was a crazy idea, in my opinion. Clearly the world media thought the same. We were swamped by news teams filming every step of South African paramedic Matt Silver-Vallance’s preparation on Robben Island at 4am.
I was still lying in my tent, shooting into the mist from the relative warmth of my sleeping bag. The scene was unworldly – smoke from truck exhausts lighting the way, plus the backlighting from their headlights, made for great atmospheric lighting. I pushed my D4 to the max to get crisp shots, but capturing the frantic movement of volunteers hoping to inflate the big balloons before sunrise was not always possible, I realized.
I was the official airborne photographer for this fundraising effort by Silver-Vallance, an eccentric character who hardly ever wears shoes. He was raising funds for the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital in Johannesburg, and managed to do the impossible – to fly from the national heritage site that was Robben Island. My footage and stills were to be supplied for free to media worldwide – my contribution to the charity.
