How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall? Practice!

As anyone who has checked out my blog before will know, I shoot for the Belfast Roller Derby team. Thus far I've been relying on shooting using ambient light during bouts, but have also been jealously eyeing up other derby photographers' work (mainly from the USA) and particularly those who shoot using a variety of off-camera lighting set-ups. I recently took the plunge and invested in a couple of Nikon SB-700 speedlights to compliment my existing two older and cheaper flash units and decided it was time to try out these in the derby setting.

I was thankful for the advice I have been given by a number of other more experienced shooters, which set me on roughly the right track. Last night was my first attempt.

The last shot is probably my pick of the bunch since it is the shot where it all came together. I had two slave flashguns shooting at roughly 45 degrees to the track, both of which were being triggered by another flash on the camera in master mode. The off-camera flashes were set to 1/2 power with the on-camera flash set to 1/8 power to provide some fill light. Shutter speed was set to 1/250 at f 4 and ISO sat comfortably at 400. The shots were generally pretty sharp and I was starting to get shots where the skaters are starting to "pop" from the background.

I still have some issues with this type of set-up. It's too static for my liking and seems to only give a fairly narrow coverage in terms of the track - maybe about 20ft. In the past and using my 70-200 f2.8 lens I could cover the whole of one of the straights on the track and part of two corners. I can't move around as much as I'm used to, although there is the possibility of using my second camera body to take candid/portrait shots in between jams. Being more static and relying on flash also meant I couldn't use continuous shooting mode - timing is more of an issue and I shot fewer frames than I would normally do. My lights were almost wiped out on at least one occasion by a wayward skater flying off the track. Don't think this is covered by my household insurance. I also found that my non-nikon flash was less than reliable and didn't fire in around 25% of shots - this would be a concern for me, although I haven't tried using my wireless triggers with it. All in all, I'm pretty happy with what I got

2013 365-1

Titling this post made me think for some reason of George Lucas's debut film THX 1138. A wee bit expressionless and cold.

I stopped my picture-a-day project on my birthday in November 2012 and took 6 weeks away from the commitment of taking a shot every day and posting updates every week. It felt weird and I really didn't like it - I missed the demands, the discipline and the commitment. It was a chore sometimes but it gave more back to me that it took. So, take a 6 week break and then kick off again, this time with a year long 365 project to document 2013 in all it's ups and downs. Lets rock and roll.

01/01/13

Not a tremendous shot to start off with, but I found myself standing at the top of Victoria Square with a hangover and a camera. Tried to frame the H&W cranes through the triangular windows of the viewing gallery and sort of succeeded. Pity about the dirty glass.

2/01/13

I was tidying up the junk room in my house and came across this old telephone handset. It sparked off a few ideas for the wee men and this was maybe the pick of the bunch. I entitled it "Ralph had a tough decision to make" but when I posted it on my Facebook page i inadvertently typed "touch" instead of "tough." No one corrected me - I'll assume anyone who saw it was either too polite or thought I was being cleverer than I actually am.

03/01/13

By day three I was getting into the habit of carrying a camera with me when i went out. This was a late afternoon walk through Stormont, taken at around 4.30pm. I was trying to capture the shadow here but the dogs add something.

 04/01/13

First wire wool burn of the year at the Twelve Arches bridge near Newcastle. It's OK but there's a lot wrong with it. It's way too soft for one thing and I'd have liked to have seen more the bridge/arches. A return visit at a later date; different lens maybe and a few more attempts at it may be in order.

05/01/13

Thanks to the ever-so-inventive Debbie, I ended up shooting at the Belfry indoor skate park in Newcastle this afternoon. Two off-camera flashes working remotely from my camera and some very impressive skaters and boarders made this a really fun session. The two skaters were fantastic and I think I might have pushed them a wee bit to get the shots I wanted. Plenty of interest from the people and kids present.
This is part of me continuing to try to figure out using off-camera flash to freeze action with the ultimate aim of starting shooting roller derby with strobes. I've now got three flashes that can all be triggered and adjusted from my camera, so may visit roller derby training some time soon and start working out the practical aspects of lighting for bouts.

06/01/13

More flag protest in Belfast yesterday, two days of violence and unrest, shots fired at the police, police using baton rounds and water canons. Everyone blaming everyone else. It saddens me to see how little has changed in Northern Ireland when an issue like this crops up and how polarised this society can still be. I'll let this one speak for itself.