Yeti01

Roma

Sitting over the top, flying the Rome's sky

Sitting over the top, flying the Rome's sky
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Sep, 2016

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Behind The Lens

Location

I took this photo jumping at Fly Roma drop zone (Rome, Italy) during the passage of a warm meteorological front. Among my shoes the buildings of Rome's suburbs

Time

The sun is going down, approximately 15.00 of an October day. I had been waiting the whole day to jump, because I had to test some changes made to the brakes and the legs straps of my rig, which suggested to wait for some wind to have safer landing conditions. This drop zone has always some wind but, Murphy law, when you need it... no way. There was a clouds front coming from the sea, and I decided to jump for taking some "over the top" shots.

Lighting

For skydiving photos the best natural light is always when the sun is far from noon and the atmosphere is slightly turbulent (winds or after heavy rain). The sky becomes bright. The clouds play a very important role. Without clouds the photos become flat and, with the ground so far from, there is no light or colors variation into the frame. The action cams generally have very poor settings, so it's very likely to wait for the best natural light conditions ad have a good post-processing job. With my Nikon I often play with the ISO settings according to the subject(s) - sun positions and the resulting raw is always easier to develop.

Equipment

Even if I often jump with my Nikon D5100 on the helmet, generally I prefer the lighter and safer small action cams. Here I was wearing two Drift Ghost-S set at 12MP. Weighting only 171g, with a very flat profile, and rotatable lens, it is a safe camera to wear over the helmet, reducing the risk of entanglement with the parachute's lines. The photo helmet is an adapted Bertrand Adrenaline jet helmet, with emergency release chin guard.

Inspiration

I like to take one diving photo from the various drop zones I jump, laying on my back or sitting, with my legs or my feet focused against various landscapes, sometimes framing them. A kind of a reaction to the hundreds of photos by Facebook of people, laying on the beach, with their feet close-up!

Editing

Skydiving photos need always some post - processing. The photo was taken in jpeg, which has not the same variety of possibilities of raw development. I had to reduce the softness due to the humidity in the air, slightly enhancing the colours to have the best freshness. But even if the Nikon offers more possibilities of settings, at the end of the day skydiving photos post - processing follows always the same rule of thumb: "the less, the best!"

In my camera bag

I am obliged to have two bags. The first one contains one Nikon D5100 with a Nikon 18-105 mm, a Tamron 70-300 mm, and the skydivind wide angle lens Tamron SP AF 10-24mm. A certain number of filters are stowed in various pockets. I always take with me a tripod... it could be useful, but up to now I needed it only when I forgot it home. The second bag is for the action cams. It contains two Drift Ghost-S (one fot the video one fot the photos) and one Drift Stealth, a smaller camera that fits perfectly over a self made mount on the back of my left hand, for the selfies.

Feedback

Don't do this at home!!! :-) Seriously, the action cams or a normal camera are fantastic for taking nice skydiving photos. Any rookie wants it's own camera to share photos and videos. But cameras can be very dangerous and need some safety devices like special helmets with a quick release chin guard to prevent entanglements with the parachute's lines. Audible altimeters (I stowed two of them in my helmet, one per side, plus the digital one on my wrist), and an extra analog one on my chest strap for tracking or relative work conditions, and a lot of experience not to loose the situation awarness once focused in maintaining centered the target. Last but not least, Robert Capa said "If your photographs aren't good enough, you're not close enough". He laid the foundation stone of skydiving photography

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Yeti01

Yeti01

Roma

Sitting over the top, flying the Rome's sky

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow Yeti01

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