Freestyle Skiing/Snowboarding in the French Alps [Archive]

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foodpoison

24-02-2008, 09:50

Spent an afternoon taking some shots at the snow park in meribel. Some real talent here. Awe inspiring to watch considering the bare few tricks I can do :p

1.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2214/2287522334_0396a817b8.jpg?v=0

2.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3089/2287521282_065f34ae16.jpg?v=0

3.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2255/2287520578_5e92fb8ff6.jpg?v=0

4.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2410/2287518102_f1af6a45c9.jpg?v=0

5.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2269/2286731041_76ca774d92.jpg?v=0

6.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3061/2286730507_0bb51b6aab.jpg?v=0

7.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3075/2286728563_76dcd0259e.jpg?v=0

8.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2062/2287514100_dfe35d45ba.jpg?v=0

9.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2233/2286726787_885953066c.jpg?v=0

Every one of these is a crop.
Shot with 350d and Sigma 70-300 APO.
On shutter priority mode, ss of 1/1250
ISO200.

Really pleased with how sharp most of these are, considering they're crops AND they're taken with a very mediocre lens.

wilmorh

24-02-2008, 09:54

some quality shots :thumbs:

Love number 3!!

foodpoison

24-02-2008, 09:54

Some more

10.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2249/2286725307_ba59063f23.jpg?v=0

11.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3098/2286723963_1ed0ce60c4.jpg?v=0

12.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2346/2287508228_c76360090e.jpg?v=0

13.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2275/2286720599_615368a0d7.jpg?v=0

14.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3061/2287506238_e39d2c46cf.jpg?v=0

15.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3041/2286717421_b0c376849c.jpg?v=0

16.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2323/2286716757_6256fd47d6.jpg?v=0

17.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3196/2286716003_282905078b.jpg?v=0

18.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3214/2286712667_f107d006b8.jpg?v=0

19.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3203/2287497506_3989782a64.jpg?v=0

foodpoison

24-02-2008, 10:17

And some more :D

20.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3250/2286710187_119563331d.jpg?v=0

21.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2311/2286709035_ef900063a6.jpg?v=0

22.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2249/2286708021_66968341c1.jpg?v=0

23.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2026/2286706815_d4030e9651.jpg?v=0

24.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2287/2287495993_28ef4d2340.jpg?v=0

25.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2083/2288284068_5677dc96d5.jpg?v=0

26.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3145/2287494677_a7e2826522.jpg?v=0

27.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2001/2288282656_8fbdb44500.jpg?v=0

superstat

24-02-2008, 14:12

love the shots....23 landed wrong could be tres painful!

well done

RyanYoung

24-02-2008, 14:18

1,2,,16,17,24 Are all amazing.

Geat stuff.

foodpoison

24-02-2008, 15:35

Cheers guys :)

dakid

24-02-2008, 19:45

Lovely shots. Be nice if the DoF could be a lot smaller, to make the guys stand out more, but that exposure is perfect, so it really is nitpicking. Very good photos :D

dellipher

24-02-2008, 19:47

Very good set! :thumbs:

Dark Star

24-02-2008, 19:50

Beautifully sharp set! Impossible to pick a winner!

Fantastic!

foodpoison

25-02-2008, 06:22

Lovely shots. Be nice if the DoF could be a lot smaller, to make the guys stand out more, but that exposure is perfect, so it really is nitpicking. Very good photos :D

Having said that, I regret not putting it into aperture priority mode at f/4 or f/5.6.

But hey ho :)

Thanks for all the positive comments guys :thumbs:

Didgi Widgi

25-02-2008, 08:50

cool i want a go....:-)

Craikeybaby

25-02-2008, 10:00

marky_h

25-02-2008, 14:29

Great stuff - 13, 14 and 16 are stand-outs for me. Lovely and sharp too, very well done.

foodpoison

25-02-2008, 15:17

Some nice pics there, I wish I could get out to the mountains this year, but snowdomes and Scotland will have to do for me this year.

One thing with your shots - none of them show the landing or take off, so don't give any idea of how big they're going...

Unfortunately, the 18-55 isn't really very good for sports shots in the history of using it, and there was no-where else to stand to get the take off in view.

They were probably getting, at peak, about 20ft of air, and flying for about 25ft.

In an ideal world I would have loved to get the take off in the shot, but I'm really pleased with how well these turned out considering it was my first ever time shooting these sort of shots.

Thanks again for the comments. Really nice to get such incredibly positive feedback :)

tigerimages

25-02-2008, 15:29

22 is great!

foodpoison

25-02-2008, 17:25

22 is great!

Thanks :)

That guy came out of no where and just backflipped, then skied off into the distance.

Was most surreal!

WanderingMind

25-02-2008, 17:40

These are great, looks like a lot of fun :) loving the guy in 3 and 23 lol

foodpoison

25-02-2008, 19:31

These are great, looks like a lot of fun :) loving the guy in 3 and 23 lol

It was such good fun, and that guy was a complete nutcase.
He just threw himself through the air, and his skis and poles went everywhere. Was ace.

jamiefsmith

26-02-2008, 01:04

Number 3 is awesome, get a feel for movement with his hair!! Great shots

Plugus Maximus

26-02-2008, 23:23

No. 1 for me. Though I feel the crop is too tight. The timing is spot on and the skier has the pose close to perfect. Meribel has an awesome snow park!

Charlie C

27-02-2008, 00:18

i feel its a real shame u've shown them cropped a bit more of the surroundings would be great, give the skiiers and boarders something to be part of instead of them being randomly in the air. Having said that they are awesome otherwise!

Diego Garcia

27-02-2008, 07:14

Nice work on a tight budget.

One tip, over expose by one stop and lock it at that as this will render the snow far whiter. Yours looks good, but some are going grey.

Aside from that, I think nice work.

foodpoison

27-02-2008, 07:44

Number 3 is awesome, get a feel for movement with his hair!! Great shots

Thanks :thumbs: :)

No. 1 for me. Though I feel the crop is too tight. The timing is spot on and the skier has the pose close to perfect. Meribel has an awesome snow park!

Lots of comments about tight crops, maybe I should show some uncropped ones :shrug:
Yeah Meribel snowpark is ace. Possibly the best one I've been to.
Thanks for the c+c :)

i feel its a real shame u've shown them cropped a bit more of the surroundings would be great, give the skiiers and boarders something to be part of instead of them being randomly in the air. Having said that they are awesome otherwise!

The uncropped versions simply have the skier/boarder in the middle of the frame, with a lot more empty space around them. It is in no way more personal. I was shooting at 70mm, because my 18-55 couldn't cope, and if I went any further down the slope or up the slope, the angles wouldn't have been right.
Thanks for the c+c though :)

Nice work on a tight budget.

One tip, over expose by one stop and lock it at that as this will render the snow far whiter. Yours looks good, but some are going grey.

Aside from that, I think nice work.

Its quite difficult to overexpose it by one stop because I had it set on shutter priority because the sun was at different intensities and I was shooting maybe 30 degrees to the left of the sun, and sometimes shooting 20 degrees to the right of the sun, and I wanted to make sure the exposure was spot on.
But yeah, thanks for the tip :thumbs:
I was aware of this rule, but I just didn't know how to get it to work on the day so I just left it :)

paulbennett

07-03-2008, 12:17

johnt

07-03-2008, 13:58

love no. 13 the arm leads you to the body then to 'nitro'.

perhaps photoshop the background to blur a little, sell it to a mag!

paulbennett

07-03-2008, 14:23

perhaps photoshop the background to blur a little, sell it to a mag!

I dont think mags are looking for photos like that though, even though there good. I have never seen a photo where the rider fills the whole frame in any of the snowboard magazines i have..and i have a lot.

Im not knocking back the pic, because its good.

Craikeybaby

10-03-2008, 09:51

I'm with Paul on this one, Snowboard mags hardly ever just show the rider in the air, also in the case of 13 they rarely show "ass shots" either.

I think the pictures posted are fine, they are exactly how most photogs would take them, but people who know snowboarding need to see the take off and landing to know the context of the trick...

There is also an unwritten rule that comes from the skateboard world never to publish a shot if the rider didn't land the trick...

foodpoison

12-03-2008, 20:13

just my opinion, there wicked shots dont get me wrong.
But i would of opted for a super wide lens, and show where they're jumping from or landing..if you look at mags like onboard or method, the rider doesnt fill the frame, they include the scenery there in or what they're jumping off from.

IMO looks like there floating, and i dont have any idea how high they're jumping or where they taken the jump from or going to land.

example:
http://www.wheelsandwax.com/photos/albums/userpics/11029/Method-Edit-2.jpg

Thanks for the advice. This was my first attempt at this sort of photography, and I think that it has been a big insight into it.
The problem with shooting with a superwide on this occasion is that I was shooting into the sun, and hence lens flare would have been awful.

I'm a freestyle skier myself, and to an extent, I agree with those comments made. I don't buy magazines, and I have no intention of trying to sell these images to magazines because I know they're pretty sub-standard.

I also ride mtb, so I know all about composition.
The fact is though, on this particular occasion, I didn't think about shooting superwide, and even if I did, the conditions weren't right.

And craikeybaby, the comment about not publishing the photo if they didn't land it is fairly irrelevant. A photo is a photo, even if they didn't land the trick. Sorry, just my opinion. :shrug: