[Leica] Admiration for Ted and many others!

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant)]

Gerry walden said:
Subject: [Leica] Admiration for Ted and many others!


> Yesterday I had a solo photocall with Olympic diving silver medallist 
> Peter Waterfield at the local pool, and I have never shot diving before. 
> <<<<<<<

Hi Gerry,
Well mon ami I see it was quite a surprise! ;-)

> I was using a Nikon D1X and a 70-200 image stabilization lens shooting at 
> 640iso. Peter was diving for me from the 10 metre board, and I was able to 
> get about 6 shots in on 'continuous' mode before he hit the water.<<<<

Gerry the problem is, it depends where you're shooting from.  If it's 
possible find a point where you are absolutely inline with the board and 
shoot his first move off the board, don't bother shooting anything as he 
falls through the air.......... no matter how good it looks to your eye. 
99.9999999% of the time shooting as he spins to water you'll throw them 
away! The spot may mean using a 300 or 400mm lens, Or if you can get close 
enough shoot it with your 200.  And I might move up to 1600 or 3200 for as 
much shutter speed stopped action you can get.

After all you only want one good one! ;-)  Each dive! ;-)

A point where you are absolutely inline with the board. Focus on the end of 
the board before he gets there, as soon as he steps to the end, check focus. 
He'll begin to move his arms for lift off, your finger is on the release, he 
lifts away, you go click!!! One shot! And that's it. :-) Trust me would I 
lie to a nice guy like you?  ;-)

If you're using autofocus you can be in trouble if the "sensor goes off the 
diver for a split second." I'd use manual and to hell with all the whiz bang 
gadgets. Rely on your ability to re-act quickly. Besides it's only one shot 
right off the board! Or if you want to use the auto-focus use it to lock on 
the end of the board, then immediately turn it off before he does his dive.

>Framing was fine (checked on LCD) and I was really pleased with the way the 
>shoot went until I saw the results on the computer - not a single sharp 
>shot amongst them!! The poolside shots, and the static shots on the end of 
>the board were razor sharp, but the action shots were virtually 
>unusable.<<<<<,,

Get the first one off the board... forget all the other stuff simply because 
they rarely look good! Motor drive, whizo autofocus or any other electronic 
stuff.. it's one shot manual off the board.... click! Or if you use the 
motor drive just bang off a couple of frames as he leaves the board...... do 
not waste time shooting as he falls away from you, they're going to be throw 
aways most of the time.

> I wanted to say that I now have even more admiration for people like Ted 
> who shot this type of thing regularly with manual focus, guess the 
> exposure type gear on film (probably initially 400iso) and got stunning 
> images time after time.<<<<<<<,

Gerry when we shot diving out doors, always the best location. :-)  it was 
ASA KODAK 100. Indoors as high an ASA as we could get.

>The best gear, and loads of photographic experience coupled with no 
>pressure and I still don't cut it! I felt like asking Peter to spin slowly, 
>or to take his time falling (if only) but the only thing I can do is hold 
>my hand up and ask for another chance!<<

OK look at it like this. Now you have a second chance with a little 
direction you'll do just fine. I'd suggest go to the pool the day before the 
shoot and case the building to find a "shoot from spot" before he arrives. 
Then when he's ready you'll just have to go click! And do not bother with 
the falling to the water stuff... forget it! It doesn't  work!  It may look 
good to the eye or on the tele but from a still photography point of view 
it's the pits! Been there done it for longer than I've got left and never 
did it work with any super fantastic diving pictures!

I trust this helps.

ted