The greatest thing about getting out with your equipment and pushing your boundaries is that the experience very often attunes you to the limitations of your gear.

The good news in all of this is that figuring your way around the problem invariably opens up a number of new possibilities…

And so begins an interesting cycle of problem solving and further experimentation.

A while back I had the urge to head down to the local skate park to shoot something that placed me out of my comfort zone.

This spur of the moment decision has lead to a number of repeat visits, new techniques and skills and a few new contacts made over the course of the past 18 months.

It’s been an interesting process, with a number of really useful lessons, which I’ll share with you after the jump.

Firstly, a minor Disclaimer

Most of the images I’ve included are images that emphasise a point, and are definitely not what I’d call my best work.
However, the point we often forget is that we need to shoot a fair amount of crappy images before the hero shots start happening more regularly.
As photographers, we NEED to suck at times.
However, that is all for nothing if we cannot recognise where these images fell short and then take steps to improve them.

Not knowing what you don’t know is hard.

Hopefully, this post will teach a few lessons without you needing to have first rammed your head against a wall.

I got very addicted to off-camera flash some time ago.

Initially it was all about heading somewhere interesting with fellow photographers and then taking turns shooting each other and seeing what the gear would do.

Admittedly, when you’re starting out, a speedlite through an umbrella is a great start, and suddenly you’re producing images which are amazingly better than what you’re used to.
But shooting colleagues quickly got stale, and something needed to be done to step things up a little.
So the decision was made to head out to the skate park.

Any doubts or concerns I may have had about approaching a bunch of strangers (Kids and teenagers no-less) were quickly dispelled once the lights were set up.
By and large, these kids love their bikes and decks as much as I love my camera gear, and once I’d explained what I was there to do, getting a few willing subjects was an absolute piece of cake.

(And for any women who may be reading this, please let no one ever tell you that men cannot be vain and image conscious!)

The interesting thing about this first shoot was that it introduced us to all the variables that need to come together to get an image that works. (Points you only realise when you’re sitting in front of the PC going through the images you shot)

1) Focus.
A good action shot needs to be crisp and in focus.
Knowing how to pan/pre-select a focus point and which camera auto-focus settings to use are skills that take time to get acquainted with.
For those of us who don’t shoot action regularly, it often takes a little warming up before things are doing what they need to do.
A camera with decent AF and fast glass make a huge difference as well, but this is definitely a skill that needs to be honed and kept sharp.

2) Flash coverage.
Getting the image sharp is useless if you don’t capture your subject in the area where the flash is firing.

3) Be wary of your background.

It may be fine for a start, but as photographers are generally pretty picky, and finding a way to remove the onlookers without resorting to Photoshop would be fine. Obviously this would require shooting on a quiet day, but more on this later.

4) Shutter speed.
The single most important lesson on the day.
Shooting using flash immediately puts you at the mercy of sync speed/x -sync.
Check this out if you need a better explanation. (1/200s is not exactly fast enough to freeze the action we were shooting, as the image below will prove.)

5) Consistency when using manual flash.
These guys are moving pretty fast, and though you know what line they’re following, even the smallest movements towards or away from the flash can have big effects on the image. (Sometimes disastrous)

6) Know what they’re doing.
Being in the right spot with the light aimed perfectly helps nothing if your composition sucks. When shooting skaters, be wary of how they skate and which way they’ll be turning or coming through; You want to shoot their faces and not get a frame full of butt or back when you press the shutter.

As mentioned in a previous post, I make a habit of writing down my problem list as soon as I can after a shoot, while the issues are still fresh in my mind.
All in all it was a great first attempt, and aside from the problems that experience would prevent in future, the problem list, and solutions I opted for looked something like this:

How to get a faster Shutter Speed to freeze motion
This posed a slight headache. The premise here is that I’d need to use high speed sync which is impossible with a Skyport transmitter.

I had 3 options:
a) Buying a second flash and using it as an on-camera master to trigger the off-camera flash, which would make high-speed sync possible.
b) Canon ST-E2 transmitter which seemed a cheaper option. (But I had concerns about line-of site for triggering)
c) Pocketwizard Flex and Mini units. Awesome, reliable, but expensive.
These would also solve the problem of manual flash, as they allow wireless E-TTL flash, which would make problem 5 a thing of the past.

So it was with this setup that I headed back to skatepark.

Honestly, I noticed a huge difference in the sharpness of my images, as I was now shooting at speeds in the region of 1/2000s quite comfortably.

However the big problem that now surfaced was that, in some areas, the lightstand just could not be safely placed close enough to where the action was. (steps, rails etc…) and because of this the distance was too great for the reduced light that the flashes spit out in high speed sync.

I remembered a post on strobist which ultimately provided the solution I needed, albeit after a few headaches.

The Kacey Pole adapter allows you to mount a flash onto a standard painter’s pole, with the idea that an assistant can then extend the pole and direct the flash wherever it needs to go. (In this case, just by following the skater/biker as he moves into frame.)

Provided the assistant has good aim, the light will always be pointing right at your subject when the shutter fires.

(AND because I’m using the pocketwizards in TTL, the flash power is almost always exactly what I need it to be.)

Coincidentally, the Kacey pole adapter is not available in NZ (surprise surprise) and I opted not to have it shipped in from the States as I wasn’t certain if the thread was compatible with NZ paint poles.

My solution?
I bought a decent painter’s pole from Bunnings Warehouse and went to a local engineering firm with what I needed.
Though it cost me around $150 ($70 for the pole and $80 for the adapter) I now have a VERY versatile tool up my sleeve which has come in quite handy on a number of occasions.
(I’m still waiting to use it with sunset shots in the water, but that will probably have to wait until summer.)

This is what the complete assembly looks like.

Admittedly, my next modification will be to add a small crossbar to make it easier to keep it level, as it has the tendency to twist in your assistant’s hands.

Here is a close-up of the head of the unit.
(Note the wires for the battery packs, and the orientation of the umbrella bracket adapter.)

So there you have it, a few little lessons learnt through trial and error.

Again, my thanks to everyone who was around to help and share the experience over the months it took.
Firstly, to Shelly, Heather and Joz who have helped out as human light stands and company during the shoots, and secondly to Carl for literally putting his body on the line in my quest for some great images.

Head on over to the Facebook group page to check out the keepers from Carl’s shoot.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post.
I’ll try and keep subsequent posts a little shorter.

Happy snapping!