My favorite Skydiving shots of the year...

Some of my favorite Skydiving shots from this summer...

How do you keep your camera from falling ?

I wear it on my head... and have an external switch connected to a tube in my mouth... mind you my setup is not especially unique in the skydiving world... from what I understand there is at least one jumper I know of that hand holds a 5D and shoots with a 70-200 f/2.8 and clips it into a carabiner attached to his chest prior to deploying... He gets some very unique shots...

(these pictures of me were taken by a friend of mine... whom I believe actually posts here although I don't know his username...)

The photographs of the flag jumpers were actually taken from the ground with my 24-105 f/4L with a Circular Polarizer attached.

Very cool man. How would you go about focusing for that?

Sheeeesh! Awesome!
John

dawiyo wrote in post #6942188
Very cool man. How would you go about focusing for that?

Alas.. for air/air shots... you either trust auto focus... (which usually works ok)

or can generally manage with by setting a focal distance/aperture on the ground that provides a depth of field sufficient to capture the distances you expect to shoot during the jump while ensuring that the shutter speed is sufficient to prevent motion blur.

For example with a my 17mm if I set the focal distance at 5 ft and shoot with an aperture of f/10 I can get a depth of field sufficient to allow things to be in focus from about 2ft - 30+ft... I generally shoot in Tv mode with a Tv: 1/250 or higher (depending on how bright it is out that day)

Lately I've been using the XSi kit lens (at 18mm and have it auto focus) which actually works pretty well... for "fun jumps" taking pictures of experienced jumpers I almost universally shoot in RAW so I can correct the chromatic aberations of the lens in post processing.

I've attached a few more of my favorites from this year... all with the kit lens set at 18mm and Auto focus...

u are a brave man for doing what you do.

Aaagogo wrote in post #6942838
u are a brave man for doing what you do.

Thank You... I think...

Frankly there is a lot of Risk Management associated with skydiving and with Skydive photography... it's not possible to completely eliminate the dangers but they can be minimized...

So aren't you afraid of your gear entangling and you tugging at your strap instead of the rip cord?

Wow, these are great photos, thanks for posting them!! The only way I'll experience sky diving in real life is if I'm abducted and thrown out of a plane.

powerslave wrote in post #6942949
So aren't you afraid of your gear entangling and you tugging at your strap instead of the rip cord?

I'm not afraid of mistaking my pilot chute (deployment handle) with any part of my camera system.

I mitigate the "dangers" of an entanglement of the parachute lines with the camera helmet by having a single point cutaway system that releases the helmet (with upwards of $2000+ of helmet/camera/video equipment).

And I would cut it away in a heartbeat!!!

Just Amazing! Thanks for sharing.

Man these are some great shots!

This type of photography would be awesome to do, if I was not scared to death of heights (I cannot even ride the small Ferris wheel at the county fair).

Just looking at those pictures make me cringe..... blah.

when did you start?

did you know of the incident of the cameraman about 2 years ago? I wanted to skydive but my friend and his dad told me not to, and he is a cameraman and his dad runs their own place in Mexico.

i do do extreme sports, cave diving (sucba)

oh, to keep this photography related, get the 15mm Fisheye, my friend showed me his fisheye shots (35mm) and they are way cool from 10000ft

Aaagogo wrote in post #6945508
when did you start?

I started jumping about 5 years ago... and started taking pictures about 2-3 years ago.

Aaagogo wrote in post #6945508
did you know of the incident of the cameraman about 2 years ago?

I know of several incidents involving camera men in skydiving... probably more then you do...

But I'm also aware that jumps are often (typically completed) without incident.

Aaagogo wrote in post #6945508
oh, to keep this photography related, get the 15mm Fisheye, my friend showed me his fisheye shots (35mm) and they are way cool from 10000ft

The Canon 15mm is an outstanding lens... (A lot of skydivers use it) I'm actually considering getting the Canon 10-22mm to use for skydiving (and fireworks) on an XSi/50D.