Round 2 at the skate park!

I took some limited shots today. The colours were great as the sun was peaking through the clouds. I caught a shot with the fresh snow on the local mountains in the background. If the weather is nice tomorrow i'll go back and try and get some serious shots in. I was just at the fence today, all from the same spot. The guys are all really cool and i could go wander around wherever i like and they'd come to me trying to get some good shots in.

Let me know what you think, and where i could improve.

http://public.fotki.co​m/cstenersen/rebel_xt_​photography/hastings_s​kate_park/

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From my amatuer eyes they are ok but in some of them the background kind of distracts from the actual subject. You might want to look at cropping a few a bit tighter. Otherwise nice pics.

Agree with Nidz, but I also know from experience how hard it is to get these kind of shots without background distractions. I don't care for the "weird" angles myself. #6 and #8 are the best IMO but would like to see the horizon leveled.

KAC

i would like to see #2 without the angle because of the nice background .

the snow on grouse is what distracts me. in fact, it was distracting me all day long yesterday.

nice shots. I prefer the camera to be level though. which lenses did you use?

The wierd backgrounds don't do it for me either....

hah, Catching lots of flack for the backgrounds and the angles elsewhere too! I'll have to work on that.

Like I said, the background thing (at least in my experience) is difficult at skateparks. Keep at it, you've got a good start at it.

KAC

drop the tilt framing, mainly because its a general no-no rule, and it's use is in the dire situations that it will add something to the images composition. when the time comes, you'll just know when its good to use and bad to use...

if your shooting from a distance, open that aperture up as much as possible, you want clean backgrounds as much as possible, the more blur in the bg the better

get closer, get lower, get WIDER

#7 and #8 are the strongest as far as getting the trick vibe goes, but if you were right next to them, shooting wide, or in the bowl shooting from a low angle, the trick would feel bigger than life

when you crop them, try adding a white frame... you'll probably find it'll enchance the picture

love the second one

you're off to a great start. try getting in the pools and laying against the walls. as a few have said, i'd lose the tilt. backgrounds are sometimes unavoidable - but i bet if you got low enough most of it would disappear, leaving the trick as the thing that snaps your eyes. definite try wider, too. a low wide shot will revel lots of the pool, possibly some of the other riders watching, and will really accentuate the air. take photo #7 for example - try to imagine how it looks from underneath - you'd see his face, it'd look like massive air, and the separation of his leg would really make for great composure.

wow - i love the colour of the changing trees - i wish we had that here

not sure about the skaters where you shoot , but at my local park it is really frowned on when photogs get in the bowl . do that here and you wont get ANY shots . just a word of warning , like i said it might be different where you are at .

i've built a decent rapport with the skaters at most of the local parks here in sydney. take the shots and email them one or two. they love getting photos and they're happy to give it a few go's to get the right shot. it helps tremendously, being a (former) skater myself so a) i get a little cred and b) i generally know where to be. speak to the skaters and riders and get a feel for their attitude towards it. you may want to wear knee pads and be prepared to occasionally be hit by runaway boards.

btw i don't take pics of cyclists who bully skaters out. a majority are decent guys and i'm happy to take them.