Tips for the extreme summer games.

Any tips for shooting BMX (Flatland,Vert & Street), skate ( Vert and

Street) and FMX.

Telephoto lens, I use a 80-200 f2,8 Nikon, Polarizer filter is also handy.

I suggest reducing depth of field to make your swubject pop-out from the crowd. If your shooting digital bring plenty of memory cards and just keep shooting. If shooting film bring lots!

Here is a link to some of my efforts from the X-games in Philly

<a href="http://www.michaelkocher.com/photo/XGamesIndex.html">

X-Games Philadelphia PA<br>

<img src="http://www.michaelkocher.com/photo/XGames/Bike04.jpg" width="553" height="810" border="0">

</a>

Telephoto lens, I use a 80-200 f2,8 Nikon, Polarizer filter is also handy.

I suggest reducing depth of field to make your subject pop-out from the crowd. If your shooting digital bring plenty of memory cards and just keep shooting. If shooting film bring lots!

Here is a link to some of my efforts from the X-games in Philly

<br>

<a href="http://www.michaelkocher.com/photo/XGamesIndex.html">

X-Games Philadelphia PA<br>

<img src="http://www.michaelkocher.com/photo/XGames/Bike04.jpg" width="553" height="810" border="0">

</a><br>

Thanks, nice photo's. what shutter speeds are you using to freeze the fmx riders, and the vert guys?

that was a nice picture micheal. i believe thats called a half-packer. i dont do flatland much any more, but i still ride park and a little trails to stay in shape. i dont take too many pictures of riding for some reason even though its been a part of my life for so long ( 29 yrs. old and usually called " dad" by all the youngsters).

 

my experaince with these type of shots is limited to trails or skatepark where im fairly close and using wide angle lenses (preferably a fisheye) with one to two flashes (if i can borrow it). for shots like these a low angle slightly to one side shot is nice. most any lense wider that 28mm will give you some distortion( like a fisheye) whitch in turn makes some tricks look as if they where higher or tweaked a little further.

 

if you cant get get in close, i 2nd micheal's choice of a longer lense. as micheal said, shoot it at around 1.8- 3.5 f-stop to seperate the person from the background. this also helps to nuetralize the compression of the background that comes with telescopic lenses.

 

try picking up a bmx-plus or a ride magazine for some ideas. anouther thing you might want to check out is props video. its a dvd type magazine very good camera work and editing.

I shoot in aperture priority mode with speed at least 400. I spot meter. The photo above is on Fuji slide film, either velvia or sensia.