One of the bigger challenges for photographers is skateboarding. It’s fast and every shot has to be perfect. You’ll only get one chance.

Finding your setup, without testing

It’s like model-photography without being able to test your setup. You won’t get the time to focus so you have to focus in advance. Your light-setup has to be perfect, your focus has to be done up front and you must choose your location in advance too. You have to be in perfect control of your setup.

Timing

And then there’s timing. You can have everything setup perfectly, but when the skateboarder makes his/her trick you have to capture it exactly on the right moment. This is the biggest challenge of all.

Understanding the skater

What is more demotivational than performing what you’re good at, over and over again… and some-one asks “oh can you do that one more time? It’s no biggie, right?”. Nothing.

As a photographer you have to understand a skater. You must know what you’re asking from a skateboarder. The tricks look simple but many tricks take years of practice. Also, many moves are extremely exhausting both physically and mentally. Jumping 3 meters down isn’t something you want to do 40 times. Every jump is also a chance to break bones or worse (my camera). I have skateboarding experience myself so when I see a skater is tired we just have a chat how things are going. A skater will know his/her limits and push them, not me.