Chris Dodkin
West Coast Correspondent
Searching through the archives for some more surfing action, I came across this set of in-line skating shots, and figured it was another good 'US' sports theme to post.
These were taken at a skate-park in Sedona Arizona on a very cold day in late November last year, and feature local Carlsbad skater Jesse Williamson.
This is one of the few sports where a fisheye is the lens of choice - it's pretty much the de-facto standard.
Shooting high speed targets with a 15mm fish presents new challenges - it's AF motor isn't build to track in AI-Servo, so you have to go 'old skool' and set the focus manually, and guesstimate where the target will be in the final composition.
DOF isn't an issue with a fish - but you do need to avoid it focussing on the sky before the skater arrives in frame!
Lighting is the next issue - you often shoot low to the ground to catch the action against the sky, leaving the subject looking like a silhouette.
The fix here is to use fill-flash - preferably off camera. (I couldn't go off-camera as my IR Canon trigger wouldn't work outside in full sun!
)
This was my first run through, so I learned a lot, had a ton of missed shots and bad exposures, but in the end, I got what I needed, and Jesse was very pleased with the results.
Any future shoots would probably require that I purchase some pocket wizards to get wireless flash off axis - so that alone is stopping me doing a whole lot more as I don't have $$$ sitting around for wireless triggers!
Any way, here are a few B&W processed images from the shoot: 1D MKII - ISO 400
These were taken at a skate-park in Sedona Arizona on a very cold day in late November last year, and feature local Carlsbad skater Jesse Williamson.
This is one of the few sports where a fisheye is the lens of choice - it's pretty much the de-facto standard.
Shooting high speed targets with a 15mm fish presents new challenges - it's AF motor isn't build to track in AI-Servo, so you have to go 'old skool' and set the focus manually, and guesstimate where the target will be in the final composition.
DOF isn't an issue with a fish - but you do need to avoid it focussing on the sky before the skater arrives in frame!
Lighting is the next issue - you often shoot low to the ground to catch the action against the sky, leaving the subject looking like a silhouette.
The fix here is to use fill-flash - preferably off camera. (I couldn't go off-camera as my IR Canon trigger wouldn't work outside in full sun!
)This was my first run through, so I learned a lot, had a ton of missed shots and bad exposures, but in the end, I got what I needed, and Jesse was very pleased with the results.
Any future shoots would probably require that I purchase some pocket wizards to get wireless flash off axis - so that alone is stopping me doing a whole lot more as I don't have $$$ sitting around for wireless triggers!
Any way, here are a few B&W processed images from the shoot: 1D MKII - ISO 400
