Caption:
La connexion pelirroja (F8a) at El Triangulo
Commentary:
All photogs need to understand the ‘rules’ of their game, be it general photograhic composition or sport etiquette. However, once the various rules have been dialled, then it’s time to think outside the box and challenge the norm. For example, one of the modern genres of climbing photography is the close-up, action shot for which it is generally held that the photographer needs to get off the deck and above the climber. This usually means getting up on a rope.
It doesn’t always have to be so however; every once in a while it is possible to shoot from the deck and get something which stands-up. Mooching around on the deck between red-points is a case in point; whack a tele lens on and see what pops into view. That’s exactly what I did during a recent visit to Desplomilandia and I captured this shot of a Norwegian climber on La connexion pelirroja (F8a).
El Triangulo at Desplomilandia isn’t a massive crag but its overhanging walls are nicely streaked with contrasting colours. Using a tele zoom wide open at f2.8 I got the immediate foreground and mid to far background nicely out of focus to accentuate the action and to draw the eye onto the main subject, the climber who s is sharp focus. Perhaps unusually for a shot from the ground, I’ve also managed to get the climber’s face in shot, including his eyes, and a full complement of legs and arms. OK he’s clipping a bolt rather than pulling a desperate mono move, but he’s clearly concentrating flippin’ hard and I’ve nicely anticipated the ‘peak of action’ as I’ve squeezed the shutter just as he’s dropping the binner into the hanger.
I would never expect to nail a rack of wicked shots off the deck but every once in a while I get some decent keepers and it shows what you can achieve if you are switched on and have a bit luck too. BTW, it’s worth remembering when you select your focus point that more (two thirds) of the depth of field falls behind the focus point that in front of it. In this case, I focused on a point just in front of the climber. The net effect is only a short section of the image which is in focus. I'd also say at this point that this shot would go nicely as a DPS (double page spread) in a mag with perhaps some text on the left-hand area of the image.
Worth the effort I’d say – though if I was being real fussy, I’d be asking the gardener to get his finger out and be done with those weeds – though perhaps that’s why Adobe have given us the clone tool!
Capture Notes:
Nikon D300, 70-200mm AFS f2.8G VRII, 1/800 secs @ f2.8, ISO 200, matrix metering, exposure compensation -0.3EV
Keywords:
La connexion pelirroja (F8a), El Chorro, Desplomilandia, El Triangulo, rock climbing, climbing photography, photography
