Any way to make Skydiving more exciting to shoot at.

Don't get me wrong. I love them. Especially when a whole bunch of them jump all at once. I love the colours. I've seen a lot of awesome air-to-air shots. But not many ground to air, We're pretty limited to the sitting position shots. From time to time I've seen some experts that whizzes by so fast I thought they were going to hit the ground hard. and try to capture that on a horizontal or diagonal manner.

Any suggestions on how to make them more interesting?
- body or Facial shots only
- partial coverage of the chute?
- portrait or landscape? Or how about making them intentionally not lined up to the frame?
- silhouettes with cloud bg?
etc.

At the moment I am using a 70-200mm F4 IS w/ 1.4x TC. But soon will be using a 100-400mm

Throw some examples up. Take a look at the golden knights shots from the airshow photogs. You need a big lens unless they are close to the ground. You can stick the TC on the 100-400 and manually focus on the groups before they split up for landing.

As a skydiver myself, perhaps I can help you out.

Are you shooting at a small drop zone or a large one? If you can tell me specifically which one, perhaps I can give you some advice based on the style of the particular drop zone.

Here are some sites that may give you some ideas/inspiration:
Norman Kent
Performance Designs
The PD Factory Team
Canopy Piloting

Hope this helps,
Bryan

My apologies. I should have offered some examples.

http://www.gregorio.ca​/kodakan/jump/

on this articular day. The sun was between me and the drop zone. I am shooting outside the fence as I am not sure if they would allow me to shoot inside their compound.

So most of my shots are heavily lightened in Lightroom. some of the brighter shots was taken when I waited for the skydiver to circle so that the sun is in my back.

Also on this day, even though the sun was out. Unfortunately there are no clouds to break the boring sky.

I was using a 70-200mm F4 IS + 1.4x TC. handheld no filter

thanks for your reply and kind comments.

Drop Zones are very friendly places full of free-spirited folks. It really is a culture of its own, which can be intimidating at first. Just go on in and introduce yourself. Pacific Skydivers is a good drop zone. Tell them you're mildly interested in skydiving (even if you're not) and ask them if you can hang out and take some pictures. Here's some generalized guidelines to follow:

1) Most drop zones have a line that separates the general public from the landing skydivers. In skydiving parlance, it's called the beer line. They don't want Joe Public getting nailed by a landing jumper, so a line in the sand helps maintain order for everyone. It's called a beer line because if a skydiver lands on the wrong side of it, they have to buy beer for everyone. (skydivers have been known to drink a lot of beer after the last jump of the day) Ask them where the beer line is and make sure you stay on the right side of it!

2) Hang out long enough and once they get to know you, they may eventually let you into the landing area to take pictures. If/once you do, the best thing to do is pick your spot and not move when jumpers are coming into land. This keeps things predictable for the jumpers. If there are really experienced jumpers performing high speed landings, they may whiz by you at great speeds (50 mph) making for great photo opportunities.

3) If you really want to make friends, donate some pictures to the drop zone and some of its staff members. Selling a picture to an experienced regular jumper is ok. But whatever you do, do not try and sell pictures to students (or give them away). Every drop zone has videographers that sell video and stills...and this is their livelihood.

4) Hang out long enough, and you'll see some crazy stuff. Skydivers are a fun bunch!

Bryan

Thanks Bryan,
Your comments are really valuables. I really take a special interest to #3. You really hit it dead on. Never pee on your neighbour's backyard comes to mind . It's one of the reason why I made the images small. Directing people to the official videographer will probably earns you some ata-boy but also send a signal that you are not a competitor but someone who just enjoy taking pictures.

I appreciate your advice.

I've been a frequent bystander at the local airport where there's a lot of skydivers (read: hours per day). Many of the same people have seen me several times. It's gotten to the point that I am speaking to them more frequently. They have to be cautious w/ people hanging around as not to go where they aren't permitted. Insurance requires them to have boundaries. I would piss someone off by just walking up into their domain and start snapping at will. I'm building a rapport with the owners in hopes of being able to go up with the jumpers and take pics of them as they exit and from above them, from inside the aircraft. I've jumped before on Uncle Sam's dime and I love it.