04.02.11
Pro for a day, shooting BMX: Sean Samuels
Shooting live action sports sounds like a dream job, so we sent Photography Monthly deputy editor Sean Samuels to Relentless NASS 2010, an international action sports competition, to see what it was really like. Armed with a press pass and a new camera, this is his experience of shooting with the pros.
Last month the Royal Bath and West Showground in Somerset played host to Relentless NASS 2010, a three-day action sports and music festival that draws competitors and spectators from all around the world. As someone who has always wanted to photograph both BMX and skateboarding, I welcomed the chance to spend a day at the event shooting. So armed with a press pass, my new Canon EOS 5D, a 50mm lens and a borrowed 85mm lens, I set off to shoot the BMX Open Street and World Cup Street Skate competitions.
Now, I am a fan of this kind of imagery, but I couldn’t tell you who Adam is from Eve when it comes to naming the athletes involved. What I love is the lifestyle, the attitude and the camaraderie of the people who participate in these sports. Normally at an event like this I would spend my time wandering through the crowds snapping wide angle shots of the scenes before me. However, my press pass enabled me to get into the thick of the action and I spent most of my time up on the ramp with the athletes and crews as they waited for their turns to jump, ride and coast around the indoor course.
Outside there was clear blue sky and sunshine. Indoors was a completely different matter and it really tested the low-light capabilities of the 5D and my skills to capture action without flash and a fast telephoto lens, which all the other pro photographers were packing.
They had slave flash set up on stands at key points on the course, which were placed to illuminate the athletes at the pinnacle of their tricks. The benefit of the extra light is to ensure no element of the rider nor of the trick is in shadow, which is a pre-requisite from an editorial point of view. Most of the photographers were also using telephoto lenses and many were recording video. All of them were photographing from protected areas that gave them the best angles to shoot from to capture the tricks in the optimum light.
Amid the noise of the cheering crowd and the eighties anthems blaring from the sound system I decided not to try to capture every trick midflight from a distance, which quite frankly the other photographers were better prepared and positioned for. Instead, I opted to get closer and shoot what I could. This required a unique vantage point, which I found up on the starting ramp.
Getting this close to the action is not for the faint hearted. It’s crowded on the ramp and you have to keep an eye on what’s going on. If you get in the way the riders let you know, and at any point a heavy lump of metal could come hurtling towards you. I was no more than 4ft away from where the riders were jumping, landing and hurtling past during the build-up to a bigger trick. After a while a pattern emerged and I could predict to a certain degree how the riders were using the space and as long as I stayed in the background I could happily shoot away.
The next issue I faced was the lack of light. It was dark in the arena and the colour temperature was a murky orange so typical of such large venues. Pretty soon I realised the autofocus on the 85mm lens was close to useless so I decided to switch permanently to manual and tried as best as I could to make images that captured not only action and intimacy but also a sense of space.
I found that the best way to do this was to pick a plane of focus and wait for the BMX riders to enter it. I tried to fill the frame as much as possible, keeping the depth of field extremely shallow to blur out as much of the cluttered background as I could while still retaining a sense of the arena’s massive scale.
Having photographed one or two major events in the past I knew that a list of desired shots and a timetable of the day’s events were an advantage. On this occasion I didn’t have them. Had this been a professional job I would have wanted to capture the awards ceremonies and taken more shots that showed the atmosphere of the day. These would have included candid crowd shots, and portrait and product images taken at the market stalls. You must have a clear idea before hand of what you need to achieve and then ensure you get those shots. This is no mean feat. Often the events and ceremonies you want to photograph are happening at the same time and it can be a mad rush to get from one end of your location to the other, especially when you are covering something such as a festival. Having more than one day helps, but this may be a luxury you can’t afford, which is why being prepared and organised helps enormously.
Shooting outside, conditions were much better. It was a perfect day with a clear blue sky. The quality of light was not a problem and I was able to capture some interesting action shots, which I feel showed the scale and grandeur of the ramp that the riders were jumping. I believe these are the kind of shots more likely to attract the interest of the specialist magazines associated with the sport.
The resolution and size of the screen on the back of the 5D is for me the weakest element of the camera. Outside it was impossible to review the images that I had taken. It was so bad that I am considering buying a hood for it because you can’t be trying to duck into shadow every time you take an image to see if you have to change anything.
So I was eager to review the day’s work as soon as possible. That night I knew I wanted to give my selection a theme and so I chose the indoor work because, for me it was the more original. This was both a good and a bad thing as I have yet to hear from any of the magazines to which I submitted my images. No, that’s not true, one magazine got in touch promptly. It was a rejection. As an enthusiast photographer with privileged access I wouldn’t change athing about how I shot, but if this had been a professional shoot there are many things I would have done differently.
In hindsight I would have carried out much more research on the types of images the specialist magazines require. It was only afterwards, when I pored over a few, both in print and online, that I realised I had often missed the best parts of the tricks, the moment when the rider is doing something that is both graceful and incredible in the air. I still think I captured interesting shapes in my images, but in terms of what the readers of these specialist magazines want, I had not given them a reason to part with their money, so why would a magazine be interested? If I had the chance to do it again, I would ring the magazines beforehand to find out what they need, what the process is and how much they pay. So what did I learn?
Be better prepared
Both in terms of kit and what your audience wants.
Be bold
Choose your shots wisely, but when you see a good image – go after it. You’re always going to come up against ‘bigger fish’ photographers, so stand your ground, don’t let them get in your way.
Shoot as much as you need to
Don’t be afraid to use up all your memory cards.
EAGLE EYE
Move around until you have a unique perspective with all the elements that you need.
Know your subject
Unlike shooting BMX in a park where you can ask the riders to perform a trick over and over until you are happy you have the shot you want, here you can’t stop the athletes and ask them to repeat what they’ve just done. However, if you know the sport well, you can watch the warm-up period and get an idea of the tricks they may be trying to do.
Adapt and overcome
I’d rather come away with images I am proud of rather than no images at all. They may not be suitable for specialist magazines, but they are now part of my portfolio. On a personal level I achieved what I set out to do.
www.seanpatricksamuels.com
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