It seems these days we are an always digitally producing family. Tyler produces videos, digital and 'real' art, he writes well - though not for a blog. Anna does her own thing, Alex loves his iPad garage band and loves playing around with music creating songs. Tim started blogging and is knee-deep into generating humungous amounts of digital photography. Susanna has re-directed her blogging efforts from militarydutystations-blog.com to the real estate community Activerain.com -in hopes to generate not only a larger internet footprint but hopefully also a bit of $$$.
Today I'd like to introduce Tims bloggin entry:
Timing is everything.
Timing is Everything!
As a former Army-guy, one of my favorite activities was to go to
the range and fire my weapon…combining aim, breath control, trigger
squeeze, and timing in order to hit objects I could barely see for the
brief amount of time thy were up. Those same elements now combine to
help me capture those split-second moments for an athlete when they
reach that dramatic moment in there routine that expresses their skills
and daring.
I recently setup the strobes to capture young cheerleaders at a
competition and challenged them do their best stunt for the camera. To
capture this image I had the performer face directly into the primary
strobe, set 45 degrees on the left of my position. A secondary strobe
was set to the right and about 10 feet in the air in order to light the
subject from above as they jumped. I also removed the camera from the
tripod in order to be more flexible in framing the shot.
AIM…having the camera off the tripos was great for framing but
requires some practice getting the proper aim. The movement is dynamic
and each jump is slightly different. To offset this a little I tried to
get as close as possible with the shortest focal length and still give
me room in the frame to be off a little, fixing the framing in post
production.
BREATH CONTROL…really this is just having YOU amped-up and ready to
shoot, totally focused on the subject and every sense poised to react
when you need to.
TRIGGER SQUEEZE…since the camera is off the tripod your movement
combined with the movement of the subject creates the potential for
blurry images. I recommend using the strap wrapped around your arm or
bracing your elbows, forearms, or even your body against a support
structure to limit any movement of the camera.
TIMING…as the subject of this article, IS EVERYTHING. For this I had
the subject give me a countdown and conduct a few practice jumps in
order for me to understand the tempo of the maneuver. As the subject
counted, that breath control came into play and mentally had to
anticipate the action in order to hit the mark. To make things just a
little more complicated, the trigger responds just a split second after
you want it to so I had the button depressed half-way (also sets the
focus ahead of time) during the count and fully depressed the button
just a fraction of a second before the height of the stunt.
The shutter speed was set at 1/320, above the recommended 1/250 for
strobe photography. For me it was worth losing some of the bottom of
the image (due to the curtain-synch on the camera) in order to get a
sharper image. Oddly, it didn’t affect the image at all. Who knew!?
And yes, you get that same rush when you get a decent shot combining
all the elements mentioned above as you do when you see your target go
down on the range, smell the powder and feel the concussion of the
rifle.
