Burnt out bouldering

mushy

We all went to one of our small but local bouldering spots, which has had all the bush and scrub burnt away about a month back. I thought it'd be bad for photo's but it turned out quite a good bacdrop.

The walk in, much easier with very little plants in your way :wink


The light was pretty harsh to begin with, but softened up as the afternoon wore on





This was a mix of shadow and highlight recovery and I'm a little undecided on the result


We were climbing the boulders just over the back from these


Later on we checked out an area further down the hill for one last problem




PS'd in some depth of field, too much maybe?:dunno


Final shot after the sun had pretty much left us


Thanks for loking, feel free to comment and or critique :thumb

Van Isle

I think bouldering shots are the toughest to get: usually scattered light (in the trees) and not generally much aesthectic stuff going on to make them worthwhile to a non-climber who doesn't know his Gaston's from his sidepulls

I try and capture more the angle of the body against the rock, and some interesting details if I can: rock shoe smearing HARD, or a nasty crimp. I think unless the shot is really good, only climbers will care about the latest V8 send...know what I mean?

For a technique note, try going with a faster shutter speed to freeze the action more, and consider a bit of fill flash to help that along as well as opening up the shadows.

rockclimbing dot com has some good shots occaisionally, as do the climber mags on line.


I really like seeing you post up the climbing pics! Keep at it!

VI

SitterS

Corey Rich is a photographer and one area he specializes in is taking photos of rock climbers. He climbs right along with them. I just completed a sports photography workshop this past week and he was there and we were able to join him out at Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs for instruction. Take a look at his site. www.CoreyRich.com. He is not only a great photographer but a great guy.

Shane

ian408

Some good stuff but I think the lighting makes it tough.

mushy

Thanks all for the comments
VI, most of the time I really am just shooting for climbers, hence the shots are a little less artistic and maybe a bit more story telling (showing the height or maybe the size of a hold). Rather than the closeup of a particular feature.
I do see your point though, to make them more appealing to those who know very little about the sport.
Plus like yourself and Ian said, its time i bought a flash!
Cheers for the link Sitters, he definitely has some great photo's there.

ian408

Keep posting Mushy! I really dig seeing these.