Photography Tips And Tricks

Quick video tip – Fast tilt

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Everyone who shoots with DSLRs for video knows the problems with high speed panning, the dreaded “jello vision” or rolling-shutter effect. This is caused by the way the camera’s sensor records the information, top to bottom. As you pan, the image that the sensor starts to record at the top, is shifted slightly to one side by the time the sensor has finished recording the data at the bottom so the subjects appear to bend to one side. But this does not really effect your video if you want to perform a tilt at high speed because relative to the …

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Geotagging in Aperture 3

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This sort of follows on from the review I did a few days ago of the Gisteq PhotoTrackr. I was not overly enamored with the software that came in the box with the PhotoTrackr but it did allow you to export the GPS track to a .gpx file and that meant you can upload it to other software. With the introduction of Aperture 3.0, Apple added compatibility with geotagging to the popular photographic organizational tool. The new “places” tool in Aperture 3 lets you sort and view your photos by location, and also lets you geotag your photos either by …

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10 Things you will need to be a ski photographer

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If you are looking to become a ski or snowboard photographer then get ready for a long shopping list of gear you are going to need. Every time I pack my gear for a trip I’m amazed at the amount of gear I have amassed over the last few years. Some of it is fairly specialized and only necessary for people that shoot full time for a living, and some of it I would recommend for everyone looking to get into the business. In no particular order here is my top ten list of things you will need to get …

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Snow Photos 101 – Part 3 – Introduction to flash photography

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Flash photography can seem like something of a dark art to begin with. Pop-up, hot-shoe mounted, remote, fill and bounce; there are many ways a photographer can use flash to control the exposure and look of a photo. It is more complicated than ambient light photography so before you begin experimenting, make sure you have a good understanding of all the basics of exposure; shutter speed, aperture and ISO. In ski photography, flash is used in two key ways. Firstly, as a substitute for ambient light for instance shooting rails at night, or tree skiing on a cloudy day. And …

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Snow Photos 101 – Part 2 – Which Camera and Lenses Should I get?

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Continuing on with my Snow photos 101 section, by far the most common question in my in-box is “what camera or lens should i get?”. You can view the equipment that I use HERE, but this doesn’t mean that you need all of this to make some great ski or snowboard photos. Lenses A professional ski photographer will own lenses that range from a 15mm fisheye all the way up to a 300mm telephoto lens. Different shooting situations require different setups and they aren’t necessarily all carried at the same time. By far my most used lens is my 70-200mm …

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Snow Photos 101 – Part 1 – Exposure basics & Composition

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Readers of SBC Skier in Canada this year will have seen my series of ski photography tips. I have decided to put together a new section on my blog which initially starts off with the beginner tips featured in SBC Skier and then moves on further to more advanced information for readers looking for a a little more in-depth info. Every few weeks I will add a new section to the tips until I have covered the things that most people ask me about. Hopefully by the end there will be a good collection of information for people to reference. …

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External monitor use with the Canon 5dMKII, 7d and 1dmkIV

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This post is sort of a prelude to a review that i’ll be writing in the next couple of weeks. Recently the folks at IKAN sent me one of there v5600 to test out while I have been shooting some video with my 7d and 5d. When I started to take down some notes I realized that there are a few things to be said about using external monitors with these cameras and some of them are characteristics of the cameras and therefore independent of the type of monitor you are using. I found myself trying to figure out what …

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Shooting video with the Canon 5dMKII – Part 3

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When I decided I needed to get this video stuff dialed, I needed something to shoot. There’s no point trying to figure this all out unless you have a purpose and some footage to play with. Leigh Powis, a local skier from Whistler, told about his crazy plan to put a trampoline on top of a cliff to help him practice a few new tricks before the winter. This was the perfect chance to try filming some action AND some lifestyle. So below is my very first ever video with the 5dMKII. We shot it on 3 different days for …

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Ultra Portable lightstand. 386B Nano Clamp

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Ever find yourself skiing,snowboarding or biking with a 40lb pack? Chances are your bag is full of speedlights, cameras and lenses with 4 lightstands hanging off the side just waiting to crack you in the side of the head at every turn. This winter when I started to slimline my gear a bit in an effort to save my back, I decided that i needed to find some super lightweight lightstand solutions. I tried out some $10 tripods from ebay, you know the ones, shiny and silver , made from 1/2 mm think aluminum. Lightweight they are, but they are …

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A note on remote camera shooting.

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Ever looked at something and wished you could shoot 2 different angles? Any working photog these days is going to own more than one camera. If one of your cameras fails, you need to be able to finnish the job you are being paid for. But other than having the camera just as a backup, you can put that camera to good use too. Remote cameras are nothing new in sports photography. Take a look around any major sporting event and you will often see hundreds of remote cameras. Photographers for some large agencies will capture anything up to 10 …

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Anatomy of a jib shoot.

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A couple of days ago we took some time off sledding here in Whistler with the PBP crew to shoot a jib setup that I had found before the season started. The setup was a double bomb drop, one drop followed immediately by another one into some trees. I thought i’d take a bit of time to go over my thought processes when i’m shooting something like this. Unfortunately I can’t show you the final shot from the shoot but you’ll see it soon enough…. One of the first things you want to remember with this stuff is to try …

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Backup Backup Backup.

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I thought I should wirte a quick post on the importance of backing up your files and photos from your computer. I’m writing this from an internet cafe, the hard drive from my computer has terminally failed for the second time in less that 12 months. Hard disks are mechanical, all mechanical things will eventually fail, theres no question of that. Its just a matter of time. When will they fail? For the most part you can never tell, but they will, trust me. Now, im not panicking about this, I am very careful about backing up my files so …

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