[Edited by 542EAST on 3/18/2008 at 9:24 PM]
[Edited by 542EAST on 3/18/2008 at 9:25 PM]
[Edited by 542EAST on 3/18/2008 at 9:25 PM]

they are very interesting. could be better though. not bad!

yeah i had to resize some of them to fit them on here...if you click on the picture you can see them on my flickr page in all they're glory.

1st is the best. But B&W the sky is blown out like the tree tops and the guy looks out of focus.

hahaha everyone's a critic. Telling you shit you probably already can see for yourself.

Good work. Action sports are one of the hardest thing to shoot, i'd say you are doing pretty good, some great composition there, and it's only going to keep getting better and better. practice practice practice.

Practice makes perfect.

Pretty good composition, but you should try to clone stamp some people out of some pictures and learn how to use fill flash so that you can tone down the blown out skies.

yeah lighting and flashes is what i need help with the most...i know little to nothing about it...do you have any knowledge you can pass on to me?

Yeah, I work as an art director and spent a ton of time on photoshoots. First thing I'd say, you'll need equipment, not just a camera. Back lighting, screens, things like that. Head down to your local photography shop and ask some questions. Tell them what you're doing and what you're trying to achieve. You can end up throwin' down a lot of money in equipment, so start out small and build up. I would say you need to get some softboxes to help with the lighting. Get some diffusion screens to help soften the harsh light, and some reflector screens, too. And you're gonna want some stands for everything so you don't have to have people holding the shit. And considering your outdoors, you'll need portable stuff. Batteries, cords, etc... And get a good flash light as well. I'd also recommend checkin' out your local community college and take some photog classes if you're interested in it. One or two classes would help tremendously. If you can't throw down the money on some of the stuff, check out what it is, and see if you can make it yourself... at least until you can buy it.

Posted by Hyde13
1st is the best. But B&W the sky is blown out like the tree tops and the guy looks out of focus.

One thing I noticed was how close you were without a wide angle lens.  Getting up close and personal is super neato with snowboarding but you need to remember the importance of having the run-up/launch, object, and some kind of landing spot in the photo.  There are always exceptions to this rule but it's a good composition guide line to use when shooting extreme sports.  otherwise I liked them. Your focus seem to be pretty on point. For some reason thats hard for a lot of people to accomplish...not sure why.

[Edited by seanhunt3r on 4/8/2008 at 4:39 PM]

I really like the black and white one

edit,n/m

[Edited by effin_stoked on 5/1/2008 at 5:40 AM]

Right now these photos look like something you would see in a newspaper or something.  They are super close, and don't really give you a feeling of what's going on.  If that's what you were going for great!  If not, check out some snowboard magazines and see how they include the whole rail, jump, ect. to show exactly what's going on.  Cutting off parts of the thing being hit leaves you wondering how big the guy really is going.  You don't need flashes, and especially don't need backdrops (LOL!) for snowboarding if shooting on the mountain.  The snow reflects light really nicely back onto the rider, so if you're just gunna be shooting during the day you're good.  Try some long lens shots, fisheye photos get old really quick.  Read up on composition too, a few of these don't seem to have any.  Again though, if these are just "snapshots" than don't take this critique seriously.   If you truely are trying to refine your skills however, read up on photography.  Get into stuff like rules of thirds, leading lines, isolation.  You got your exposures basically dialed, not you gotta work on the more aesthetical side of photography to make your photos more pleasing to the eye.

A few of them look pretty sweet but a couple of the others are just whatever/bland. Nice job overall though.