A breathtaking flatland photo from France shot by Hadrien Picard graces the site this week for all to see. Tell me you aren’t blown away by the colors! I don’t think there’s one color missing (maybe violet (don’t be a dickhead)). The action is unmistakable, and I’m pretty sure this is perfect timing for whatever wild flatland trick this is. The lighting is about as good as it gets when you’re shooting fisheye. The best photos are shot on the edge of Golden Hour.
“I took this photo at the last Ninja Spin that Alex Jumelin organized in a beautiful village in the center of France. Some really good Japanese riders were there, it’s crazy to realize how far you can go for your little bike! Anyway, the end of the day was close & I ask one of my favourite flat rider Yohei “Uchie” Uchino to shoot a photo on the tennis court just in front of the contest. Flatlanders love tennis courts because they are flat and grippy and I loved the colors of this one! Time was running out and I knew we only had a couple of minutes before the sun would be down so I put a pretty simple set up : my lovely Nikkor 16mm AI 3.5 fisheye on my D700 and two flashes; an Einstein on one side and an Elinchrom on the other side. I think I put a diffuser on one flash. The difficulty with going fisheye is to hide the flashes enough so you don’t see them or their lights, but not too much otherwise you’re going to see your shadow and the lighting will be too flat. Another thing important in BMX photography are flashes: you need them to be powerful so you can underexpose the background & you need them to be fast, so they can freeze the actions. Little flashes like Vivitar are the perfect balance but bigger flashes are more powerful…and also more expensive and bigger. In any case, this moment of the day is the “golden hour”, the sun light is less powerful and the shadows are better. To finish the story, I remember we tried to shoot a couple of pictures before the sunset. After that we kept going but I wasn’t satisfied with how they came out. Like sometimes the best photo was the very first, everything on it was cool: the lighting, the colors, the speed and the trick! Thanks again to Uchie & Alex for organizing that perfect jam. For those interested : ISO 200-1/250th-F8″
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Push It A Stop 