Like pretty much every aspiring photographer, I loved learning how to make better images the more I shot. Books, articles, videos - anything that explained the craft, I devoured. Until, that is, I began learning about flash. Wasn't it enough that I had begun to master all of the functions of my camera? Why did some new device have to come into play?
But then, while reading Joe McNally's "
The Moment it Clicks," everything (wait for the terrible pun)... clicked. Flash isn't something scary. It is light. Light is EVERYTHING. Light is what you're capturing. Sometimes it even looks pretty cool when you capture it! That understanding of what flash photography actually means, plus the incredible resource that is David Hobby's
Strobist blog got me to experimenting.
Since I love being outside and doing things like hurtling down hills on thin sticks in the snow and ice, I thought that trying out these lighting ideas might work well in such a simple environment. One homemade jump into a gully of fresh powder at the base of a hilly driveway, and I had my chance. Before I get to the photos, let me just say that I learned some VERY important lessons here.
1) Plan what the heck is going to happen before you get out there. The guys doing the tricks had it all set, including the landing area. I got people next to the jump to get my focus preset. I did this ALL on manual focus. In the dark, there is no way you're going to get auto-focus tracking. Also, knowing where they will land is a good way to make sure you're not there.
2) Set your gear up BEFORE you're set to shoot. I played with my Cactus V5 triggers inside so that I wouldn't be fumbling about with gloves on in single digit temperatures. But this lesson is just as important even if environmental conditions were ugly - the more pre-planning, the more time you have to deal with what you want to shoot!
Note, when you want to fire multiple flashes with the Cactus V5's, the unit attached to your camera is the commander and must be on Channel 1. The other receiving units can then occupy any of the "blue" channels (1-5). Pretty awesome stuff when you consider that these all cost less than a single PocketWizard - and one PocketWizard won't do you much good.
Here is what we set up. The arrow is the direction the skiers and boarders came from. I was shooting from below the jump and just towards the main light side of things. One thing that you'll notice in a set up like this is that you get a narrow window of good lighting in the pitch black. When you miss that window? Well, cool things can still happen - like this.
Oh, and it doesn't hurt to get big fluffy flakes coming down when you shoot something like this. All of those flakes getting caught in the strobes are just tasty!
Equipment Used
Nikon D7100 Camera
2 x SB-600 (used gear from solid resellers like B&H or Adorama, amongst others, is awesome)
3 x Cactus V5 Wireless Triggers
Images
