woodward skateboarding camp

[seerskater]

These are some pictures I took at Camp Woodward in Pennsylvania. Its great! You wake up at 8:00 in the morning and skate till 10:00 at night. Its also a camp for inline skating, BMXing, and gymnastics. These pictures were taken with a Canon Powersho A40.

1 http://a885.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...0350529bfc.jpg
2 http://a954.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...6463e9ec01.jpg
3 http://a25.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/74/l_9b8647bd6558d76118fd08cbea371120.jpg">
4 http://a860.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/92/l_edbec0d26a2463ce0377a7a3cb720d33.jpg">
This is a picture of pro skateboarder Malcom Watson
5http://a796.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/113/l_33378d4911ee91ee21d327f9fe97d24b.jpg">
6http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=100647 814&albumID=1209673&imageID=11113674">
7 http://a460.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/117/l_1cebd3eb17f993ab7db5a8619befe663.jpg">
8 http://a325.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/72/l_3c2878bbb2a322dd07fc1363ce23292c.jpg">
9 http://a21.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/119/l_b0020b3cb55f3d58a23d0e006ab6dbf4.jpg">

thanks for looking!

[JohnG]

Welcome to the sports forum!!

Looks like you captured some nice action here.

If there was one area where you could use some improvement it's that you're too far away. You have a lot of uninteresting dead space and I can't make out any details of the skaters.

Now, I shoot a lot of sports but I don't shoot skateboarding. But, of the shots I've seen that I like - they are typically short focal length but close to the subject - often shot from very low perspective -laying down. And, flash is not uncommon. The key being to see details - details of the board and the rider. Like most sports involving humans, faces are important - being able to see the eyes and expression is very beneficial. But perspective is critical too. This is why I think it's important to be close and using a short focal length rather than a long focal length - you want to be shooting UP at the subject. The further away you are the less the angle and the less you capture the concept of height.

Sorry I can't give you specific suggestions since I don't shoot the sport - I can only offer comments based on other shots I've viewed.

[Mark1616]

Dude, sounds like a class time, you must have been worn out!!

You have captured the action well but pretty much close up andwide angle is key. As a rider you are likely to be able to get close to the action at a lot of parks so give it a go.

Like John I'm a sports shooter but don't do much skate work although have done a little. Here is one I took a month or so ago of a friends son.... nothing special, just pulling an ollie, but as you can see getting the angle wide really enhances the move. Now this was at the extreme, I'm only about 2' away from him and laying on the floor with a super wide angle lens.

Hope it helps and keep up the good work.

[seerskater]

JohnG wrote:

Welcome to the sports forum!!

Looks like you captured some nice action here.

If there was one area where you could use some improvement it's that you're too far away. You have a lot of uninteresting dead space and I can't make out any details of the skaters.

Now, I shoot a lot of sports but I don't shoot skateboarding. But, of the shots I've seen that I like - they are typically short focal length but close to the subject - often shot from very low perspective -laying down. And, flash is not uncommon. The key being to see details - details of the board and the rider. Like most sports involving humans, faces are important - being able to see the eyes and expression is very beneficial. But perspective is critical too. This is why I think it's important to be close and using a short focal length rather than a long focal length - you want to be shooting UP at the subject. The further away you are the less the angle and the less you capture the concept of height.

Sorry I can't give you specific suggestions since I don't shoot the sport - I can only offer comments based on other shots I've viewed.

Thanks for the advice! looking back, I definately see what you mean by the "uninteresting dead space". I don't know what I was thinking when i posted some of these!

for most of these, Ishot with theshortest focal length my camera had, andwas as close as i could get without getting in the way of a lot of people ( Its a popular camp, and most of the parks are packed).

as for the flash, that may be true for lots of other sports (if you're in a stadium, a flash probably won't reach the field), but in skateboarding i see it all the time! especially as lots of skating is done at night, since many of the spots that we skate at are, how you say, "less that legal":sad: