Photographing Fast Subjects
I was incredibly busy last week. However, I still managed to fit in a skate park shoot at the local skate park in Weymouth. I got the job at The Front by hearing about a sponsored event that was being organised to raise money.
This is for new ramps for the kids and the general upkeep of the park. The shoot was at night.
If I am honest, I just wanted to opportunity to practice. I had ideas including a combination of high speed night photography, off camera flash. Oh, and the chance of earning a few bob. I shot from around 7.30pm to close to midnight and ended up with over 400 images to process. Not only that, I also shot a few hundred video clips as I also wanted to home my video skills including:
Camera Equipment Used
I used the Canon EOS 5D Mark II for the photography and the beautiful Sony PMW EX1 for video. I shot at 720p at 60fps which would be slowed to 24fps (frames per second) during post production. This would allow me to slow down the footage by 2.5 times.
Sometimes you just have to go to a job thinking it may not make any money but my experience, skills and portfolio will benefit regardless. As it happens, I have already made a few print sales with more to come. More importantly than that, I have made new contacts and will hopefully doing a lot more established and organised jobs for them in the future.
If you are just starting out, it is worth grabbing the bull by the horns. Just get out and about asking for work…paid or unpaid. Anything you do could eventually lead to more regular work but it won’t come to you! Get out and about and start looking around your area for similar events and just do it!
Here is a (low quality) slideshow I made up for the event which includes a mix of stills and video.
Click to play