Blueberry festival Skateboard competition 2013

We visited the Plymouth Indiana for the annual Blueberry festival. And one of the events in the festival that I always go to is the Skateboard/BMX competition. It was rainy last year so I wasn't really sure if they had the competition or not so I wasn't able to check it out. So when we came this year I was really happy to be there when the competition was about to start.

The competition is for beginners and advanced competitors. It was started off with two boys that were about 9 or 10 years old. These beginners were pretty good considering how your they were. They both went back and forth to the route of the skate park, and after that, the intermediate competition began.

The intermediate skaters were great. It was fun to see them during the warmups and they were even better during the actual competition. During the competition, you can actually take better photos because it's basically just one skater going around the skate park. No distracting skaters in the background or going in front of your camera.

In events like this it is really a no brainer that I used my Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS USM lens. The 70-200's fast and crisp USM focusing captures every jump and tumble of the skaters. Paired with the Canon 6D's somewhat fast fps burst and you got yourself an awesome setup for skateboard shots. I'm sure I can use a 1D for events like this...only if I had 6 thousand dollars to spend on it.

So I set my focusing mode to AI servo and set the burst mode on. I then set my camera to shutter priority so I can set my shutter speed to whatever I want. I think for these shots I set it to around 500/sec. I set the speed high to capture fast motion and also for the camera to set the aperture at a wider aperture automatically. Having a wide aperture for shots like this isolates your subjects more from the background...and also eliminates the visibility of the fence I was shooting behind from...yes all these shots were done behind a fence. As long as the sun doesn't shine directly into the fence you'll be fine shooting scenes behind it.

I felt bad I wasn't able to hang around for the BMX competition. But hopefully I will be able to do it next year! Enjoy the rest of the shots!

BMX and skate competition and the AI servo mode

Today I was at Plymouth Indiana for the blueberry festival. A ton of things were going on in the fairgrounds like arm wrestling, cheer competitions, craft fairs etc. Though the thing that captured my attention was the BMX/skateboarding competitions.

Too bad I cannot actually get inside the ramp area, but I have my trusty 70-200 2.8 IS lens with me! I can stay outside the fence and take shots from there. The 70-200 is perfect for tracking high speed subjects. I set up my speed at 320th/sec and my focus to AI servo. This mode would let the camera track the high speed subject without locking into a particular focus point. This gives you the flexibility to track fast moving subjects without the delay if ever the camera locks on a focus point. Set your camera to burst mode for better results.

Shooting behind the fence isn't bad at all. The wires are so close to the lens that they will almost not appear in the picture because it'll be out of focus. As long as a light source is not hitting the fence, it'll not be so obvious in the shot.


























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