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Snowboard Photography

There is a reason why someone will label himself as a snowboard photographer, and not a sports photographer. Sport photographers have one thing in common when it comes to Snowboard photography, and that is that they think it's just as taking pictures of downhill skiing, or any other sport. It is not, I`ve seen snowboard pictures taken by famous sports photographers, and they are simply awful. There are certain rules when it comes to snowboard photography. And the main rule is, leave some ground in the picture, so you can tell how high up the rider is.

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Picture 1.(simple crop of picture # 2)

This is how a typical sports photographer would take the picture(picture 1) the dreadful blue sky close up type picture. Same picture but this time you can actually tell how high up the rider is (picture 2) . Picture # 1 would not be printed in a snowboard magazine, picture # 2 has been used. Also try and leave the jump itself in the picture so you can see which direction the rider is going.

If you want to do any kind of photography, research. at least buy a magazine and see how the pro`s does it.

Just avoid the close up blue-sky rider pictures, and you will be on your way to become a better snowboard photographer.

What lenses to use?

The lenses I bring to a snowboard shoot is as follows:

Nikon AF Fisheye-Nikkor 16mm f/2.8D

Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8D

Nikon AF 50mm f/1.4G

Nikon AF-S 80-200mm f/2.8D

I find that these lenses covers most scenarios. In short, i try to bring as little gear as possible, but still enough to get the job done.

What cameras do I use?

Nikon D3

Nikon F5 (BW)

What kind of backpack to use?

I use the Burton Zoom backpack, its the best backpack i have tried so far.
Before that i used various Lowepro backpacks, only thing that came out of that was a sore back, and a couple of broken lenses.

Picture of my backpack, and how its usually packed

Sequences

For doing sequences you need a camera capable of doing at least 5 FPS, and a buffer of at least 20 pictures.

I have made a tutorial on creating sequences in photoshop which can be accessed by clicking the link above.

For more snowboard pictures check out my portfolio

Picture 2.

Gian simmen Trysil
Gian Simmen, TAC Trysil Norway.

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Unknown, TAC Trysil Norway.

Ståle Lien, Folgefonna Norway.