On the left, that sign we love so much here in NorCal: “Bicycles Must Stay on Singletrack” and on the right, professional action sports photographer, Colin Meagher shooting Max Plaxton riding the new carbon Santa Cruz Blur XC sporting WTB’s hot new Wolverine tires
We tagged along on a WTB photo shoot yesterday to give you some more “Getting The Shot” info, this time from world class action sports photographer, Colin Meagher Check out the action
If you didn’t check out our first installment of “Getting The Shot”, you can check it out at the end of a recent blog entry here at this link. The concept behind Getting The Shot is our way helping you to take better photos on your next ride, surf trip, epic powder day, etc. And the best place to start is on a real deal photo shoot, with the pros. So here we go.
In This photo, Colin is taking his 10th or so series of photos of Max. If you look carefully at my photo (taken with a so-called Happy Snapper, a Canon SD950 IS) you will notice… it’s not very good. If you look closer, you will see that it’s not even not very good. Here’s what I didn’tdo: I didn’t know enough to set the ASA speed to a much higher level. I didn’t use flash to gather more light, fill shadows, and most important, light that would have prevented the blurred image. Not so ironically, even my little Happy Snapper had all those and many more settings. Oh, and I once again, forgot to bring my camera’s manual to make the settings had I even known what to do!
Here’s WTB pro rider and high school teacher, Yuri Hauswald, following Colin’s instruction: not the other way around. Before Colin started shooting, he looked at all angles of Tamarancho’s famous “Olly Oop” for what would look best through the camera. He also tried several lenses to see what looked best. The process took a while, but the pictures Colin took looked a lot better – and a lot more exciting – than what you see here. The point: take your time, try different combinations, and remember that it’s up to you to tell your subject, supermodel or rider-in-a-stupor, what to do and where to do it.
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Colin in Harm’s Way. A pro like Colin knows that there are times when the photographer has to take some risks. Working with a professional athlete, like Max here, minimizes those risks, but as I said above: it’s about getting the shot. Sometimes that means being behind a rock, hanging from a tree, and every now and then, putting yourself in the line of fire. Colin emphasized three points here. First, don’t ever have your subject, – whether they are a world class pro or local schmo – do anything dangerous. Second, think about everything that can go wrong. If everything goes wrong and that means bad things happen, don’t even attempt the shot. Lastly. A dangerous or exposed shot doesn’t guarantee a good shot. In fact, difficult and dangerous set-ups can result in just the opposite when the stress and strain show up in the subject’s body position, facial expressions, etc.
And when it call comes together, you get something like this, which is not at all like the images I took! You can check out more of Colin’s work at his website click here.
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