Snowboarding shots from last weekend

both shot with 70-200

#1. 1/3200s
F5.6
ISO 320

#2. 1/2000
F6.3
ISO 320

Sun Peaks, BC, Canada

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C&C welcome. actually hoped for.. lol

Happy shooting

Tough to really see them to be honest haha I wish I could see them, being an avid boarder myself. Looks like its time for a longer zoom or a longer walk!

You could probably turn your ISO down to 100 because a 1/2000 second shutter speed probably isn't needed outside especially when you have white snow as a natural light reflector haha

I see you have a 70-200L so maybe a 1.4TC to get you a little closer? Just a thought of course. They look good from what I can see tho!

#3.
1/800s
F4.0
ISO 320

#4.
1/2000s
F6.3
ISO 320

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CW Jones wrote in post #9360700
Tough to really see them to be honest haha I wish I could see them, being an avid boarder myself. Looks like its time for a longer zoom or a longer walk!

You could probably turn your ISO down to 100 because a 1/2000 second shutter speed probably isn't needed outside especially when you have white snow as a natural light reflector haha

I see you have a 70-200L so maybe a 1.4TC to get you a little closer? Just a thought of course. They look good from what I can see tho!

Ive been submitting shots into the resort's website and they seem to always want a bit of the surrounding, to advertise it better I guess. And I doubt i'd need a TC, since all but the second shot arent using the full focal length anyways.

Thanks

Whoa that was a little unclear... lol what i meant is almost all of them are shot at much less than the 200mm the lens is capable of

Ah see makes more sense now! I didn't realize you were shooting them for anyone but yourself! haha Nice work then, they defiantly get a lot of the surroundings

Honest CC here:

I agree with CW Jones, it's tough to see the boarders because they're so small in the frame and the background is so busy, they just blend in. If you're trying to showcase the boarder in your pics, you need to somehow isolate them from the background. That will probably involve getting a different shooting angle where the background is the sky or snow.....or.....get closer to where you have the boarder take up most of the frame and get the background as out of focus as possible. In your photos above, I notice that most of them are from a downhill angle, ie. you are located above where the boarder is doing his thing. If you would position yourself below the jump, say 30-50 feet past the jump and a little to the side (whichever side the sun is coming from), you'd get way better compositions and the shots would really come to life. It's the same when shooting birds in flight, you really want the action coming towards you, not going away....it's just more pleasing to the viewer. Hope this helps in some way.

the reason they were shot from where they were, or at least the first and second one, is because I was shooting the jump beside me then shooting the rider when they hit the second jump as well, you can see a little bit of the landing in the bottom left corner of the first frame, and its not the best park setup ( in a photographic aspect ) because when youre shooting from the downhill side, the rider seems to end up right at the top of the trees in the frame every time, thanks though I'll have to give it another try tommorow and post a few more.

I see. Were the pics when they were hitting the jump beside you any better composition wise? If so, maybe post them for some CC.

After looking at your pics again, I would say the 3 issues to try and improve on are:

1. Try to be on the correct side of the sun. In your photos, you're shooting into the sun and thus your subject is dark due to the shadows. If you shoot with the sun at your back, it lights up your subjects better and helps them stand out from the background better.

2. As mentioned before, try to have the action coming towards you.... or, at least from the side like your last photo of the skiier.

3. Try to isolate the boarder/skier from the background by either being closer to them or getting shots where the background is snow or sky. Shooting from a low angle, where you're on the ground and your boarder is in the air, will likely make for good dramatic photos.

All this takes some homework on your part. You have to go search out the proper composition to make a good photograph. Check out this Google photo search I did for some examples and maybe look for similar spots on your mountain to sorta "copy" these shots:

Snowboarding Photos on Google

Of course it was a little easier for these guys because most of them were shot in the backcountry with no ski lifts or other people in the way, but I bet you will be able to find suitable locations on your mountain with some effort as well as trial and error.

Good luck, I hope to see some super pics from your next shoot!

second set looks better than first