Floater Extreme Sports Photography.

I saw another thread posting photography so I figured I'd make my own. Me and my dad do professional photography in town and I enjoy taking extreme sports photos. Here is some of my work. (I'm gonna post a bunch from my facebook so the quality isn't as great. But new work I'll add higher quality photos).

01. Huge Set Ollie. Brandon Tran

02. 360 Flip 50-50 Matt Berger

03. 360 Flip Mike Proulx

04. Backside Lipslide *Forget Name*

05. Backside flip Brandon Tran
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=254356761250205&set=a.181188678567014.43117.138699702815912&type=1&ref=nf
06. Backside 180 Brandon Tran

07. Switch Heelflip Gabe LaGrange

08. Pop Shuv-It Brandon Tran

09. Front Nose Blunt Justin Wely

10. Front Feeble Mike Proulx

11. Sandman Gap Brandon Tran

12. Rippin Berms Sylvain Beaudry

13. Rippin' Sylvain Beaudry

14. Seasons Chris Kish & Sylvain Beaudry

15. Splash Brendan Johansen

16. Huge Gap Sylvain Beaudry

17. Superman Brady Caron

18. No Foot Can Brady Caron

19. Kickflip Andres Gap Justin Wely

20.

Edited by Floater, 02 December 2011 - 07:26 AM.

These photos are sick man! Always been a fan of Extreme Sports

Sick pictures man, what camera are you using?

Seriously though these pictures are awesome!

Some of them are older and from my first camera a canon rebel xs. But now my personal camera is a Nikon d90 which I do a lot of my shooting with. But my work camera is a Nikon D3S which I love to use! obviously ahah! I'll post some pics!

You have a lot to work on man. Clearly composition was never a thought in your head, but it needs to be. Most of the backgrounds are way too distracting, especially the skatepark shots with the kids in them. Your MTB shots are either out of focus, or of the riders asses... You need to show the viewers how big those jumps really are.

The first thing you should do when you get to a spot is look for good angles. Putting a telephone pole through your subject is very poor photography. Try some framing, or rule of thirds... Just some very basic photography tips that will make your shots a lot more entertaining to look at. (and it won't make other photographers cringe) Clearly you have a lot of good athletes around you, and you're not giving them the respect they deserve.

I'm not even going to get into lighting yet, but you need to work on that too. Look at your diptych shots. It looks like you were taking a picture of a tree... and a guy on a bike just happened to ride by. Eyes are going to be drawn to the brightest part of the shot, which happens to be the tree. (which in the second shot is actually in focus)

Photography is a beautiful thing, and for me at least, improvement is the most important part. Please take what I said as constructive criticism, and not too personally. I tend to lose my tone when I type a lot, so it might come out as negativity.

You have a lot to work on man. Clearly composition was never a thought in your head, but it needs to be. Most of the backgrounds are way too distracting, especially the skatepark shots with the kids in them. Your MTB shots are either out of focus, or of the riders asses... You need to show the viewers how big those jumps really are.

The first thing you should do when you get to a spot is look for good angles. Putting a telephone pole through your subject is very poor photography. Try some framing, or rule of thirds... Just some very basic photography tips that will make your shots a lot more entertaining to look at. (and it won't make other photographers cringe) Clearly you have a lot of good athletes around you, and you're not giving them the respect they deserve.

I'm not even going to get into lighting yet, but you need to work on that too. Look at your diptych shots. It looks like you were taking a picture of a tree... and a guy on a bike just happened to ride by. Eyes are going to be drawn to the brightest part of the shot, which happens to be the tree. (which in the second shot is actually in focus)

Photography is a beautiful thing, and for me at least, improvement is the most important part. Please take what I said as constructive criticism, and not too personally. I tend to lose my tone when I type a lot, so it might come out as negativity.

I appreciate the constructive criticism. Some of these photos range back to when I first picked up a camera. I've learned a lot over the last year, I now run a professional photography company in town and do studio photography which I'm learning tons about lighting from. Some of the photos were video stills thats why the bad quality. And on such ones as the tree where it is out of focus, it's because of shooting with low-aperture. Personally I like shooting in a lower aperture some times, which causes blurring in the foreground/background of the focal point.

With some shots, especially skateboard shots you don't have a decision of who's gonna be in the background. The shot I have published in Thrasher magazine has 8 or 9 kids all around the guy who's doing the trick and it adds to the photo. I take a lot of photos when there are skateboard demo's/filming happening so It's not my choice who's in the photo. I understand where you're coming from though with this. Photos with the border around them were from my first day ever owning a DSLR then I had not much idea as to what I was doing. And as for the angle I choose it's usually what angle will make the trick being performed look the best. Do you have any photography work you could show me yourself?

Edited by Floater, 03 December 2011 - 07:53 PM.

Do you have any photography work you could show me yourself?

Definitely bring out some flashes next time you go. You need your angles to show the trick well, but you also want too how big the gap/jump/stairs/rail are. It was hard to tell in a few pics what was going on.

Photostream

Definitely bring out some flashes next time you go. You need your angles to show the trick well, but you also want too how big the gap/jump/stairs/rail are. It was hard to tell in a few pics what was going on.

Photostream

I have 2 norman flashes 1's a 400w and ones a 200w those some pocketwizards a couple light stands and my light meter? I've been meaning to get out there with my flashes I just I guess never have gone through with it.

Again, I appreciate the criticism.

I'd suggest either getting farther away and using a telephoto lens (or however long your lens can get), or doing the opposite and getting much closer with a wide angle (24mm or below).

At the focal length you most commonly use, it is a compromise between two, not really getting us close to the action or showing us the whole scene. A telephoto lens will 'compress' the scene, making it look like you are viewing everything through binoculars. This is a how a lot of magazine photos are shot because it keeps the perspective nice and straight and "normal" looking (good for 8x10 photos that are essentially right in your face). A wide angle lens would be good if you want to get really close to the skate boarder and show the depth of a photo. It will exaggerate the proportions of the jump and include a lot of the scene of around you, so you will most likely pre-compose your picture and be really careful about composition. Remember, moving your body an inch or two to the right or left can be the difference between an award-winning photo and one that is thrown away (any national geographic photographer will tell you that.)

Basically, try to pre-visualize the shot and, instead of reacting to a scene, anticipate the action and your photos will improve a lot. It would be cool if on some shots you got wider and showed a view of the whole venue to give a sense of place and on other shots if you really zoomed in and got the participant's expression and posture.

Well I have 24-120 and a 70-200 on my full-frame. So I'll try and take some new photos and post em up.

this is dope man +rep

you should get some snowboarding pics

If anything, toss that 70-200 on the D90 to get the crop factor and turn it into a 105-300.

If anything, toss that 70-200 on the D90 to get the crop factor and turn it into a 105-300.

On a d3s you can use digital crop, which basically is the same thing as rocking a 105-300. So best of both worlds.

On a d3s you can use digital crop, which basically is the same thing as rocking a 105-300. So best of both worlds.

What do you mean "you can use digital crop"?

Do you mean that the camera has an inherent crop factor or are you saying that you can just crop in post?

If you mean the latter, then it actually wouldn't be the same thing as using a 105-300 because the physics aren't the same. If the sensor sizes are different, then the resulting focal length will be different. This means that two cameras with different sized sensors will not experience the same perspective when using the same lens.

In other words, no....


Edit: I just checked it out. I guess it just uses a smaller area of the sensor. I've never heard of that as an option before, I can see why they would offer that, it's actually really smart.

Edited by *ColtClassic*, 05 December 2011 - 09:52 PM.

On a d3s you can use digital crop, which basically is the same thing as rocking a 105-300. So best of both worlds.

That's awesome! I've never had the good fortune of using a D3 model. I've only been able to handle a D5000, D90, D80, and a couple different Canon models.

Keep doing it man!

Have you ever photographed competitive paintball? Its pretty fuckin fun

Edit: I just checked it out. I guess it just uses a smaller area of the sensor. I've never heard of that as an option before, I can see why they would offer that, it's actually really smart.

Yup, when i shoot my action photos I sell at tournaments I use it all the time to get shots that are right in close it's a very nice feature.

Have you ever photographed competitive paintball? Its pretty fuckin fun [Cool]

No I haven't paintballs not too big around here, maybe next season though.

Got a couple more photos to edit and post but this for now..

^

If you shot it directly from the side (parallel to the wall) and used some off camera flash
(to your left, from a 45 degree angle) this photo would not only be more sound composition wise, but there would be less clutter and the light would "shape" the subject better.