Shooting Skaters

[Jaedon]

I am going out this afternoon to try and capture some skate boarders / BMX / Roller Bladers doing their ting at a skate park near me. Does anyone have any suggestions about settings / framing etc that I might try to implement before I make my first attempt?

A friend of mine and I are basically going to have fune and see what, if anything, we can accomplish to test our skills. We'll see how things go.

[jorgemonkey]

Thats a great title :blush2:

I have to catch myself sometimes when I refer to taking pictures as shooting (AKA, I'm gonna go shoot my neighbors kid down at the park today)

But anyway, you might want to do a search here since I know we have some other skating/skateboard shots in a few other threads. Also I'd check out a few magazines to see what type of shots they are running, those should give you a few ideas. Aslo, just experiment and have fun! You're not gettin paid so might as well screw around a bit!

[Photo-John]

I'm sure I missed you and you're already out shooting. Hope you're having a great time.

My suggestions would be pretty much the same as the monkey's. First of all, don't worry about it too much. Just go have a good time and see what happens. You can start worrying on the next shoot, after you've discovered what some of the problems are. Second, it never hurts to see what the pros are doing. Buying a skate mag will definitely give you some idea of what works. I love Thrasher and buy the "Thirteen" photo issue every year. I think it's some of the best and most creative sports photography out there. Those photographers are artists.

Looking forward to seeing some photos and finding out what the problems are. There are always problems. Solving them is half the fun.

[poker]

Jaedon,

Let us know if you run into any ground rules at the skatepark. There is a public skate park that I want to shoot but I don't know if I'm allowed to even be there with a camera. I tried to call the phone number of the office but nobody ever picks up. I guess I should just show up and see if I get thrown out.

Have fun! and post soon!

[Photo-John]

Let us know if you run into any ground rules at the skatepark. There is a public skate park that I want to shoot but I don't know if I'm allowed to even be there with a camera.

Public = public.

At least that's what I say. You should be able to shoot anywhere that's not on private property - even if they try to apply special rules. Not only is it public - but you're a taxpayer - you payed for it! Make them make you stop.

[Tom_Proctor]

(AKA, I'm gonna go shoot my neighbors kid down at the park today)

That sounds horrible in everyway

[Jaedon]

Well I discovered 2 things today.

1-Kids on skateboards get up around 4:30 pm .. hehe

2-I apparantly do have a creative side.

Took this today at the skate park.

Just a reminder.. that life is all how you look at it.

Jay

Perspectives -


Comparison of speed -


Reflections-



Gonna go grab a skater / BMX mag and see how these compre now =)

I had SO much fun. All shots taken were at 400ISO and various zoom and Fstops. Gonna do a batch dump over night and see how my post looks in the morning. We got some really nice blur shots at slower shutters with hands and faces in focus.. just basically tried everytihing we could think of. The kids were great. I brought my laptop and gave them each a CD of shots of them in exchange for thier alloweing me to set up for shots and dictating what to do next. Worked out amazing.I have over 6 gigs of raw files to look at. I am exhausted

[Jaedon]

Jaedon,

Let us know if you run into any ground rules at the skatepark. There is a public skate park that I want to shoot but I don't know if I'm allowed to even be there with a camera. I tried to call the phone number of the office but nobody ever picks up. I guess I should just show up and see if I get thrown out.

Have fun! and post soon!

The ground rules were pretty simple as it is a completely public skate park. We just asked permission to shoot so we could get them to do tricks that we were set up for and made sure that no one was offended by the camera. The kids were great... especially when we offered to give them copies of the shots on CD afterwards so they can enjoy them too.

Puclic to me = no expectation of rights to privacy... but it's still nice to ask first.

[WsW-WYATT-EARP]

Looks like some great shots there !! I really like the reflection ones !! different from the norm