Ollie
Jun, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This was taken not too far from my childhood home in Canterbury, England.Time
I'm not sure on the exact time, as this was shot on film and I didn't note this down the time on the roll when it was finished like I usually do. It looks like it was early afternoon probably 1pm or 2pm in really early spring.Lighting
I remember only having two flashes on this occasion and hoping that'd be enough, the fall off towards the lower part of the frame is probably a bit harsher than I would have liked but I think in terms of ambient to flash mix it's relatively even and thankfully the breaks in the hedge soften the intensity of the fall off a little bit which worked in my favour!Equipment
This was shot on a Mamiya RB67 and 37mm sekor fisheye, with a couple of sunpak 555 flashes on 8ft stands set either side of the subject.Inspiration
Whenever we go out to take skate photos we always look to head out and make something out of the ordinary street furniture or fittings that people tend to disregard, there aren't many traditional skate spots in the town I grew up in so it's always a task to be a bit creative and see different opportunities to create something out of nothing.Editing
This was just regular old HP5 which I developed, I'm always a bit free and easy with developing mixes, times and temperatures, so I guess you could say any processing or post processing work was a happy accident.In my camera bag
It's quite a big 'bag' now, I have a Peli roller and a Lowepro backpack and a stand bag. The roller is home to 3 Quantum Q flashes, battery packs and pocket wizards, a bunch of mounts and film and extra batteries and a sekonic light meter, other bits and bobs, like tape and string, lots of elastic bands; stuff that I'd curse not having in certain situations. The backpack, I carry a mix of things depending on the occasion, I have an RZ67 and fisheye and also a 127mm and a few regular backs and polaroid back. I have a D800 with a 50mm 1.4, 35mm 1.4 and 16mm 2.8 fisheye, I also usually have one of the mirrorless x series fujifilm cameras, can't remember which one, around my neck usually with a 35mm voigtlander lens. The stand bag is just full of 3 manfrotto nano stands.Feedback
I think situations like this are interesting challenges, you have to make pretty quick compositional and technical decisions by visualising the trick and also the end product, so there has to be an understanding of what's about to happen from both you and the subject, you also have to know what you want, for instance, I knew there was space between the tree on the right and the blossom canopy that I wanted to hit. It sounds oddly grandiose as it's just skateboarding, but there's quite a bit of choreographing that goes into taking a good skate photo, tricks usually look their best at their extremities, so there has to be a bit of a balance between how much you ask the skater to 'go for it' and what they're comfortable with doing. Advice I'd give is, take a moment to visualise what's about to happen, make a decision on light setup and trust it, if you're unsure test this digitally or with a polaroid ( do not rely on either as a guide for exposure, only coverage / shadows ), be happy with your angle and composition before things start, if in doubt have your subject stand in position so you can make a judgment.
