philfell Posted November 22, 2006 Report Share Posted November 22, 2006 Kessler is making inserts near the edges of the boards to mount the plates on. Prior also put inserts for a plate on Berube's newest board. If I had to guess Jasey will be riding Coilers in PGS again very soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philfell Posted November 22, 2006 Report Share Posted November 22, 2006 Red in the pic you posted that board looks like a coiler to me, not a Kessler. I could be wrong though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wavechaser Posted November 22, 2006 Report Share Posted November 22, 2006 DJlepperI have the 2.8 AF Nikon 70 - 200, but did not shoot in manual. This setup shoots lacrosse on sunny days beautifully. But....a great example of where a high end camera/lens can not compensate for a rookie photographer. Time to find a class.... Oldkey...tip from a lifelong photographer. The trick with shooting on snow is to over expose. Look at your riders - not enough exposure so they look black. What is happening is that your light meter is set to expose 18% gray (middle gray on a gray scale) so it looks correct. So when the light meter reads the snow in the background it tries to make it appear gray, or with color shots a bluish gray in this case. If you over expose, the snow will look white AND as a bonus your riders will have some detail in there. A good mega-powerful fill flash would help too, if you are close enough and can do it without ditracting or blinding the riders. The reason your rig shoots sunny day lacrosse OK is the green grass (unless you at Boise State!) background, which the camera correctly exposes as close to a mid-tone. The other thing that helps with action shots is to frame tighter thasn you think you need to - look at almost any Sports Illustrated (or similar) cover action shot and I'd bet you'll see a good tight crop. Get a good fast (equiv. of f2.8 or better) tele lens if your current setup won't get in that tight. Another great technique is the one Sean used on the shot of Jasey. A slightly slower shutter speed and then panning the camera with the action to get that feeling of speed. Nice work Sean...and also nicely over-exposed for a pure white background and good detail on the subject. Hope this helps! -Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldkey Posted November 22, 2006 Report Share Posted November 22, 2006 ....I'll stay away from that "auto" button on the snow.....especially for those early morning prelims! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wavechaser Posted November 23, 2006 Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 ...forgot to metion that .75 to 1.5 f-stops over-exposure is considered standard for snow shots. Use 1.5 in bright sun and go down from there. Also, what you are doing is the same as shooting a "backlit" scene with the light source behind the subject and their face (for example) in shadow - like shooting a person against a bright sunrise or sunset, except the "light" is the snow. If you are not comfortable with shooting in manual and plating with f-stops, or use a camera that doesn't do that easily, you will usually have a "back light" auto-adjustment button or setting somewhere, which will do the same thing albeit with a little less fine control...try it! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patmoore Posted November 23, 2006 Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 Great photos! That really got me enthused about the upcoming season. I have to confess my ignorance about Kessler. From what I read, it must be a pretty good race board. In another thread I posted a shot of two racers from the Okemo Mountain School and the one in the foreground is on a Kessler. What sets them apart from the other GS boards? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djlepper Posted November 23, 2006 Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 oldkey, I just thought of one more thing. Shoot in RAW format if you can. You can do miracles with adjusting parameters after you shoot stuff. Ofcourse you can adjust levels in jpgs too in photoshop, but it's not comparable with what you can do with RAW. Good luck:) -matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_roboteye Posted November 23, 2006 Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 ....my D70 just did not cut it with the light. I don't think that it has anything to do with the exposure meter, or the light that day. The light metering system in the D70, D80, D200, D2H, D2X is the most sophisticated light metering and flash metering system on the planet. It divides the scene into 1005 segments and also takes the color of the objects in the scene into account when determining optimal exposure. Canons' best uses a 256 segment meter by comparison. Before taking the picture it also compares the shot to a 30,000 shot on board database to double check the exposure and if necessary make final adjustments. The likelihood of it being "fooled" by a backlit person on a white background is remote. It is more likely that the filter that you have (skylight or L37C) over the front element of your 70-200 2.8G / VR is confusing your white balance sensor and causing it to give you dark shots on snow. I know because I've had the same thing happen to me. Are you also sure that you have not inadvertantly set exposure compensation to underexpose? I'm only saying this because I have taken shots on snow quite a few times with film and a few with dig (film-f90x and dig-d200) with nikon equipment and have never had snow come up gray before. I hope the filter is all it is. If all else fails get a manual white balance reading off the snow. Snow's about as white as it gets. later, Dave R. lotsa white, some blue, and not much grey. All shots taken on Program Auto. If I feel nostalgic and want to shoot manual, I use my Rolleiflex TLR and a gossen. Bonus points for who can name the olympic gold medalist. PS. the snow is very dirty in the first pic. Summer on the glacier. She's from Sweden and that's all I know about her, honest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wavechaser Posted November 23, 2006 Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 The light metering system in the D70, D80, D200, D2H, D2X is the most sophisticated light metering and flash metering system on the planet. Roboteye - I had some issues with skylight filter and digitals too - good idea! Also check WHICH metering system you are using on the D70 - I believe you have a choice of several. I still stand by my "snow shooting" rules too, as a general photography law. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleaman Posted November 23, 2006 Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 Also note the body position in all these heelside positions. They all seem to be facing their stance and not the front of the board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_roboteye Posted November 23, 2006 Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 You're right, wavechaser. It's possible the camera is set to spot or centre-weighted, not multi-pattern, hence dark shots. Nice call. Sometimes it's so easy to knock it to the wrong setting without even knowing. Dave R. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Posted November 23, 2006 Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 Red in the pic you posted that board looks like a coiler to me, not a Kessler. I could be wrong though. The boards were brandless, heard people talk about him riding brandless kesslers instead of coilers. The question I asked myself was, why on earth would he ride brandless coilers.....? Must say it was a great experience to be able to train with the Canadian team the weekend before the world cup, what a great group of people! They made 17 year old Mirjam feel so welcome and at home during the week leading up to the race that her first WC race became icing on the cake instead of a nerveracking experience! Congratulations to Jasey, Caroline, Kimiko and Tyler with the outcome of the race to the cup event at Copper! Look forward to seeing the complete results on the FIS site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philfell Posted November 23, 2006 Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 Like I said I could be wrong, but I put money on that board being a Coiler, weather brandless or not. Kessler is actually really had to get to do a brandless board. The nose shape and pattern on the titinal look like what Bruce does. The nose shape of the new Kesslers is very different than the board in the pic. On a different note you are right about the Canidians being a great group of people to hang out with. Glad your friend had a good first world cup experience, not everyone has that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donek Posted November 23, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 Wavechaser is recommending what I did. I do tend to shoot +.7 to +1.3 on snow. I always view my images in the blinky mode. One thing to also remember is that mode tells you if any color is blown out. It doesn't necessarily indicate every chanel is overexposed. The lighting on that particular course is very challenging compared to shooting a wide open run. As a result, I tend to really look at the rider and the snow surrounding him. Blown highlights in the background and in the snow is rarely a problem. I also shoot in RAW (one of the reasons post procesing all those images will take me a lot longer) It gives me a huge amount of room to move if I need to. I am getting closer with experience and find that 90% of the shots I'm getting these days could have been shot in jpg, but until I hit 100% confidence in my ability, I'll continue to use raw as a crutch. I was shooting with a d200 and the 70-200mm (sometimes had a 2X Teleconverter behind it). The motion blur images were shot with the 24-120mm stopped down a bit to achieve a shutter speed between 1/250 and 1/60. This was my first time playing with the technique, so I don't know what's optimal. Most of the other shots were wide open (aperature priority) to provide the highest shutter speed I could get. I spent a bit of time talking with the Army guys shooting Ryan McDonald. He was shooting at f10 (he wanted a crisp background) at iso 400 and trying to keep his shutter speed around 1/1000. I'm still working on the other shots. I should have them up by tomorrow. I'll make high res images available to those who want them. Just ask by e-mail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donek Posted November 23, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 Sean, in the fifth photo, is that Adam? Adam Gibney on the Copper team. I have some shots of Adam SMith as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donek Posted November 23, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 Funny that all the team suits have Burton logos and Burton got out of the alpine game. I understand that it could just as easily say "Campbell's Soup", but I still find it strange. ! Burton sponsors the US national team across the board. As a result all the US team athletes are given a speed suite the says Burton. I'm not sure if you have to be A, B or C team though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wavechaser Posted November 23, 2006 Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 Burton sponsors the US national team across the board. As a result all the US team athletes are given a speed suite the says Burton. I'm not sure if you have to be A, B or C team though. Thanks Sean - sometimes I forget that there are "those other" disciplines on the US team...makes more sense to me now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeeW Posted November 24, 2006 Report Share Posted November 24, 2006 Adam Gibney on the Copper team. I have some shots of Adam SMith as well. Yeah, I figured that when I saw his sideburns. He's my teammate, too. :) Good shot! Im gonna rub it in Adam's face tmw when I see him out at Copper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordy Posted November 24, 2006 Report Share Posted November 24, 2006 Great photos! That really got me enthused about the upcoming season. I have to confess my ignorance about Kessler. From what I read, it must be a pretty good race board. In another thread I posted a shot of two racers from the Okemo Mountain School and the one in the foreground is on a Kessler. What sets them apart from the other GS boards? Not okemo Kids... Back ground is Phillipian rider Eden Serina. Forground Is US team rider Erica Muller. Her Parents do however own Okemo, She trains with The steamboat team. Titinal is the answer. Kesslers are the best board ever. It will be a while intill everyone else catches up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philfell Posted November 24, 2006 Report Share Posted November 24, 2006 Erica is OMS alumni though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin A. Posted November 24, 2006 Report Share Posted November 24, 2006 The last shot that Sean posted (#20 racer) is riding on AF700s . Good to know that you don't need the newest goodies to compete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willywhit Posted November 24, 2006 Report Share Posted November 24, 2006 The last shot that Sean posted (#20 racer) is riding on AF700s . Good to know that you don't need the newest goodies to compete. phil, who IS #20 ?? adam somebody ?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donek Posted November 24, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 24, 2006 Got the editing done. Here's a couple from the GS race: You can find the GS gallery at: http://donek.smugmug.com/gallery/2166230 Here's a couple from the SL race: You can find the SL gallery here: http://donek.smugmug.com/gallery/2166289 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gecko Posted November 24, 2006 Report Share Posted November 24, 2006 Love this photo.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Posted November 25, 2006 Report Share Posted November 25, 2006 Seems the UPZ (Virus) boot is the racers choice these days... Sean, great photos!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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