How Do These Look?

TheNevadanStig · May 15, 2014

I've been putting together sets to show to the Kayakers from the weekend. Here's some from the latest one:

202 by TheNevadanStig, on Flickr

216 by TheNevadanStig, on Flickr

235 by TheNevadanStig, on Flickr

445 by TheNevadanStig, on Flickr

689 by TheNevadanStig, on Flickr

Not extraordinary action shots, but since this competitor is fairly young, I've mostly been communicating with Mom, and I figured she might like these:

424 by TheNevadanStig, on Flickr

425 by TheNevadanStig, on Flickr

BillM · May 15, 2014

Those are better than you think they are Stig, they will love them :thumbup:

TheNevadanStig · May 15, 2014

BillM said:
Those are better than you think they are Stig, they will love them :thumbup:

Thanks Bill! It feels very strange to go from not even knowing what the rule of thirds was 2 months ago to actually talking to pro athletes and having them tell me how much they like what I did. And I went to this whole thing on a whim after picking my wife up from work. It's been a trip that's for sure!

manaheim · May 15, 2014

They look pretty solid. The first one of the dude flipped is not as good, IMO, because it took me more than a few seconds to figure out what I was looking at.

I like the ones where I can see both parts of the paddle.

Some nice action shots.

Mind you... I've NEVER tried this and have NO clue... looks really hard!

imagemaker46 · May 15, 2014

Another great series of images, from everything I've been seeing you really nailed this whole event.

runnah · May 15, 2014

Much better that some of the shots show more of the environment they are paddling in.

TheNevadanStig · May 15, 2014

imagemaker46 said:
Another great series of images, from everything I've been seeing you really nailed this whole event.

Thanks! I really wish I could have stayed for more of the freestyle portion, but my wife gets sea sick so easily, she actually got sea sick just looking at the rushing river :lol:

I went alone the second day.

vintagesnaps · May 16, 2014

They look great - don't blow it! With these photos I think you might be kicking yourself later if you give them away. But being new at this, you also might need to be sure you can do this consistently with other events before you get too far into deciding what to do with your photos. I think it's necessary to be confident that you can produce good photos every time.

I'd just think about the framing with ones like #424 and 425, you'll get other participants in the background of course, but think about where you're cutting them off so you don't have someone's hand not connected to a body!, or a part of something sticking into the edge or a corner of a photo, etc.

TheNevadanStig · May 16, 2014

vintagesnaps said:
They look great - don't blow it! With these photos I think you might be kicking yourself later if you give them away. But being new at this, you also might need to be sure you can do this consistently with other events before you get too far into deciding what to do with your photos. I think it's necessary to be confident that you can produce good photos every time.

I'd just think about the framing with ones like #424 and 425, you'll get other participants in the background of course, but think about where you're cutting them off so you don't have someone's hand not connected to a body!, or a part of something sticking into the edge or a corner of a photo, etc.

Thanks Vintage!
The last two were tough to do. There is actually a pretty big crowd behind them just on the shore, so there really wasn't a way to NOT cut off the parts of someone. So I just went for it and did the best I could to highlight the subject and not worry about it, since even if I half the crop, somebody will still be chopped up.

Msteelio91 · May 16, 2014

TheNevadanStig said:

[h=3]WHARRGARBL[/h]
Great shots!!!!

TheNevadanStig · May 16, 2014

vintagesnaps said:
They look great - don't blow it! With these photos I think you might be kicking yourself later if you give them away. But being new at this, you also might need to be sure you can do this consistently with other events before you get too far into deciding what to do with your photos. I think it's necessary to be confident that you can produce good photos every time.

How would any of you suggest I go about this then? Should I make a folder for each rider in flickr, send them the link, and tell them they can order prints if I'm not going to give them away? Most of them are not local, with some living in places like the UK and New Zealand even, so communication has been strictly online through email and Facebook.

I am 100% confident I could go out right now and reproduce this work. Actually, I'm confident I could improve these shots now that I've done this and know what I could do better next time.