Recreational skiing photography

[awf170]

i prefer not to use flash in an outdoor setting if possible. Sometimes it "flares" the snow or in other words makes it blinding white. I would take a dark pic and brighten it on photo shop. Im only 13 but i love takin pics and hope to become a photogrpher for TWS when i get older. Maybe just a far fetched dream but hey, im young and let me make up my little fantasies as long as possible! Next year i would like to get more into the scenery picture takin. (trails, mountains) A way to make the trail look steeper is set the camera on the trail facing up. It also is a intresting shot. The only problem i have takin pics is that my friends dont like waitin for me to get my camera out out, but recently they have been very intrested in getting a good shot...mostly for myspace. Check out my gallery.

SnowRider

Nice pics!

Here they are if anyone is interested.
http://forums.alpinezone.com/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/2376

 

[Lostone]

I'm almost never without my camera.

If you have the best camera in the world, and when you see a great shot, it is on a table, at home... :blink: Not doing anyone any good.

Best way to get a couple good shots? Take a lot of pix.

Oh yeah... and remember to be at the right place. :lol:

White balance is the suggested method for stopping the graying of the snow, which is a natural tendency for automatic cameras.

And I would suggest taking the pic slightly lighter and darken in Photoshop, or another editor. I've found that trying to brighten tends to make the pic grainy.

I try to shoot with my Minolta D7I. It is a fixed lens 5MP SLR. But not being able to be without a camera while working, last year I picked up a Kodak C340. It is a 5MP fit in the pocket job. I got a Kodak because I figured they were making cameras long enough that it should be ok.

I was wrong. There are a lot of things about this that make me think the people that designed it, don't use cameras. In reality, it isn't the camera part that is bad. It is the programming of the functions.

Most of the pix are ok, but sometimes it just goes to a strange set of settings and makes a terrible picture out of a good scene. This happens pretty rarely, but if you are shooting a sequence or just take one shot and it is a bad one, you might have missed that chance, and it might not come up again.

a few of my pix:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lostone/sets/1671755/
(I suggest the slideshow button on the top-right of the page.)

And some for now...

And as for friends not wanting to wait, they love to see the pix, but hate to have to wait for you to take them. :smash:

I tell them not to bother. When I want to shoot, I shoot. I have no problem with them leaving me alone on the mountain. I'll find my way back. But if you want the shot... you have to take the time to get it.

 

[kbroderick]

i prefer not to use flash in an outdoor setting if possible. Sometimes it "flares" the snow or in other words makes it blinding white. I would take a dark pic and brighten it on photo shop. Im only 13 but i love takin pics and hope to become a photogrpher for TWS when i get older. Maybe just a far fetched dream but hey, im young and let me make up my little fantasies as long as possible!

If you're serious about getting into action sports photography, check out wheelsandwax. One of the things you'll notice is that using flashes, even in daylight, can help a lot; unless you want a silhoutte, you can only shoot from roughly 180 degrees of angle most of the time unless you use some fill flash to balance. Once you start getting into lower light levels (e.g. MTB in the trees or night shots), flash is a must and remote strobes can be exceedingly helpful.

Back to the original subject--yeah, it can be tough to show how gnar something is when you're taking photos of it. Oftentimes, shooting from the side with a vertical plane of reference (e.g. a tree or lift tower) helps, but that may not be possible or get you the shot you really want. Consider:

Looks like a bit of marginal snow conditions, but nothing particularly hairy, right?
Consider this similar shot that does a slightly better job of showing the extent to which the ice flow impedes progress:

In short, it's essentially a six-foot-ish mandatory drop. That sounds small until you consider that (a) there's not exactly a lot of room to recover on landing and (b) it's a mandatory drop. (Incidentally, I had skied the next chute over and cut below the ice flow to get the shot...at that point, I wasn't particularly comfortable skiing with my camera, especially with a big lens on it.)

I got a lot of shots last year, particularly late in the season (see my skiing and riding gallery for more of them). My suggestions, based on what I learned in that process:
a) bring the camera with you. If you don't have it, you won't get any photos at all.
b) have the camera ready to shoot as quickly as possible. Wearing gloves or mitts that allow you to use the camera without taking them off helps quite a bit; in general, I can have the camera out and ready to shoot within fifteen seconds of coming to a stop, and I can put it away just as quickly. This keeps your friends from getting too anixous
c) if you get decent shots of your friends, get some prints made. They'll wait longer for you to set up next time
d) shooting at +1 EV is generally a decent starting point, but use the histogram and/or your intuition. Depending on the cloud cover, general lighting conditions, and even the color of your subjects' clothing, you'll need to adjust that.
e) speaking of subjects' clothing, it's really nice if they can wear bright, vivid colors.
f) a reasonably wide lens is a better choice for most skiing shots than a serious telephoto; I got used to shooting with my 50mm (80mm equivilant on 35mm film because I use a 20D w/a 1.6x crop factor) because it was light and carrying the camera with the 50mm under my jacket was relatively easy (I also use an Op/Tech Stabilizer strap around my torso to keep it from bouncing around); I'm planning on picking up a 30mm lens for next season, which should provide a better all-around setup.
g) if you can shoot RAW, you don't need to worry about whitebalance in camera (although most point and shoot cameras can't capture RAW anyhow, so this is largely irrelevant)

That's it off the top of my head; however, it's also late and I need to get some sleep, so I may have overlooked some obvious stuff. If you're interested in technical details (e.g. focal length and shutter speed and whatnot), check out the gallery I linked above; if you view an image and choose "Details" instead of summary you can see most of the EXIF data.