You know . . . I'm sure eventually I will have photographic evidence of my skating "career" that I will want to show off . . . but I just saw the proofs of the winter show and, if you were just going strictly on those, I apparently skated the whole thing with my eyes shut and an expression that ranged from mildly annoyed to "goofy spin face." Ironically, my 11 y.o. son did take some awesome pics of me with my point and shoot, blurry, but the essence is there. (I really don't think this photographer is really *into* figure skating because the pictures are never taken at the right time - i.e. the height of a jump, the pulled in position of a spin, it's always some weird looking wonky part of the entrance or exit or something like that.)

Oh well.


(actually, I did have one of the "dads" tell me he had a disc with some photos of me. Not sure what sort of camera he has, but secretly hoping for a pleasant surprise . . . and if nothing else, maybe I can do some artsy stuff in Photoshop with the ones my DS took!).

How about you? are you satisfied . . or horrified! . . . when you see your pics from a comp or show?

Oh yeah - forgot to mention - a good portion of DS's pics are actually of his BACK . . . guess he was just too fast for the guy!!

Bummer no good pictures. I think it's really tough to photograph skating though, so it's good your son got a few okay ones for you to have. (Ever seen the awful "jump face" photos on getty images after a grand prix- yeesh, yuck!)

I skated in a show where my entire goal of the show was to never have a picture with me looking down.

Photographic evidence showed that my chin was higher than "level" the entire show- I never tilted it downwards.

However, my eyes were down the entire time, and therefore looked closed in almost every picture.

I'm okay with it. That way I know the ice is still there, but for the audience my head was up.

(I've also found that the faces I make, big open mouth smiles- are much more attractive on film when they don't last long and just look cheesy, then when caught in a still photo forever)

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

Sounds like the photographer took the photos with his eyes closed...

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It is very tough to photograph skating, & the photographer's skills are definitely put to the test! I've seen good and bad. Only 1 comp that I was universally horrified with, the rest has usually been a mix. I thought last year's AN photographers were quite good (at least for me!).

I always look serious and look like I'm going to vomit. The best ones the photographers get are the opening and closing poses...hehe

I DO sometimes see pictures of myself I actually like, but for the most part, I look through the photos with a face like Recently, I was looking through pictures looking horrified when the woman said to me, "Are you making those faces at your skating or at yourself, because you're a beautiful girl!" I was horrified by how I looked--facial expression, skating, all of it lol. I would have actually liked to see my pictures from regionals but you had to PRE-pay for them, and I did not want to pay in advance knowing A) I might skate a program that I would want NO photographic evidence of or B) the photographer might just not be that good.

Sometimes I think looking at the photos is worse than seeing the video!

Skittl--I actually find the jump face photos hilarious The skaters might not like them, but they're definitely entertaining.

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Sheesh, that's a dumb move on the photographer's part!! I bet they lost a lot of sales because of that.

I take video for skating comps and it is quite interesting to see that sometimes even looking through frame by frame, there are very few shots that would look all that good as a still photo, so I'm not surprised many photographers don't do it all that well.

The opening and closing poses are usually good as the skater is still and the photographer doesn't have to deal with speed and trying to follow where the skater is going next. It certainly helps to be a skater yourself when you are photographing/videoing as it makes it a lot easier to anticipate the skaters direction and whether they are about to jump or spin or whatever.

There are some very good skating photographers (they tend to take a lot of photos and weed out all the bad ones) but also some that are not great.

If you want good photos make sure you check out where the photographer is located before you skate and then you can make sure you are looking up with a big smile when you are facing him/her.

For some reason in photos I look short, with wide hips and sagging boobs. Yet in real life I'm 5'11 and model thin! It's a funny thing that happens...must be the photographer's fault...

That is weird about your reg pics. We had a great deal, a cd of both kids, 600 pics for 30.00! Some weird ones but overall great pics at a great price!

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The photos from my last competition made it look like I was on two feet for the entire time. They were all hideous. I wouldn't mind if I knew I was on two feet the entire time, but I was definitely doing a spiral at one point and I know for a fact that it's a bit tricky to do one of those on two feet!

Bunnyhop takes far and away the best skating photos of anybody in the UK, and the Harvaths take the best pix out of it!

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

I think it really depends on the photographer. I've been to competitions where in every single photo, I was going into/coming out of a jump or spin, they caught a spiral position as it was going up or down, my feet were cut off, etc. (Really? You couldn't just get a picture of the catch foot spiral I hold for at least 5 seconds when it's all the way up in position? Come on.) Then I have been to competitions where I wanted to buy literally every shot they took (ANs last year I bought CDs of 2 events because they weren't that expensive and there were some great shots, especially from solo dance).

I've had the same thing happens with synchro. One year we had to pre-order if we wanted photo CDs before a smaller competition ($200 for the team, we could make as many copies as they wanted, so it came out to about $11/person). The photos were AWFUL! They were all taken vertically so most of them were only parts of formations, and they were just all at the wrong time (during transitions, etc). We were the top adult synchro team in North America that year, we should have been easy to photograph. People in the stands at competitions with regular cameras took better photos of us all year, and the photographer at Nationals almost made me go broke because I wanted so many of the pictures. The boyfriend of a skater on another team taking photos for fun posted some gorgeous ones of us online afterward, too. And of course Paul has always taken some amazing shots of us.

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That is a REALLY good deal. I've never done an individual competition where photos were offered, but synchro competitions they charge more than wedding photographers do! I guess they know it will immediatly be copied and split 12 ways.

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

The photographer at ANs last year was actually pretty reasonable for CDs. I think I paid $60 for a photo CD from 2 events (it was $40 for the first event, $20 for the second). I was going to order some prints, but for what it was going to end up costing me for just a few prints it was a better deal to get the CDs. I mostly use the photos for posting online, emailing to friends/family, and that type of stuff anyway, and the CDs came with the right to reproduce/post online and use however we want so I'm not braking any copyrights (like I would normally do if I bought/scanned a photo). One of them is actually going to be the photo for my trading card for my roller derby league (yes, we have trading cards). My roller derby name is Dorothy Slamill, my jersey number is 6.0, and my team colors are black/red and I'm wearing a black/red dress in the photo I'm using, so it seems appropriate.

They always hike up the prices for synchro photos/videos, I hate it. If they would just make them reasonable, everyone would just buy them and not bother waiting for teammates to make copies and splitting costs. A few years ago at Ann Arbor a DVD of an entire event was only $20. No fancy CD case or label on the CD, and they just burned them and handed them out on site. Everyone just bought their own for that price, and they probably made much more money than when they charge $60-90 each.

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

Aww - thanks Mrs Redboots! (Is there a modestly blushing smilie available?)

For the sake of marital harmony I should point out that I was only half of the photographic team at that particular competitioin, though I did take all of your shots.

I went into photographic training for a couple of months prior to the event in order to get my eye in, and to learn to anticipate when I needed to press the shutter. I'm sure Batikat, who was one of my photographic guinea pigs, got tired of seeing me standing behind the barrier at the rink, holding my husband's camera!

Which is something that should be mentioned in this context actually. You need a really good SLR camera and, even more importantly, a good lens, to even begin to think about taking decent skating photos. Then it's a matter of practice, anticipating when the skater is going to make a nice looking move, and taking LOTS of photos, in the knowledge you'll end up ditching a large percentage of them. It is difficult, but it's a skill that can be learned if you're willing to put in the time (a bit like skating itself, really!)

Most of the photographers at competitions are using pro-grade SLRs and the "sports" lenses (200mm+ at the long end, F2.8 or bigger aperture), at least from what I've seen. Those lenses are a bit expensive (say $1800 and up), so the pros know that most parents will have difficulties in matching them, which seems to give them the impression they can squeeze the prices a bit. They don't usually actively anticipate; most of the sets I've looked through (mine and my son's) look like they put it on continuous fire mode and just follow you around. I've taken some fair pictures of my son with my obsolete equipment (manual film SLR, no autofocus, very basic exposure meter) by being familiar enough with his program to be able to anticipate, but it does give one an appreciation for the difficulties.

If one were to wish to take better rink pictures, one would wish to have a basic handle on how photographic exposure meters work, since the white ice will tend to underexpose the skater without compensation if left to the automatic functions, and might wish to work on pre-focussing and letting the action come to the photographer, since many lenses aren't bright enough (i.e. low aperture number) to allow the autofocus to work quickly enough.

Rob

Well, as I know you took my shots (I was competing against your husband at the time, so he wasn't exactly available), is why I said. And I will say publicly you're the only photographer except Michelle H (Icepurr, although I don't think she's on these forums) who has ever got a snap when we are leaning into the curve, and you even managed to get me with my foot off the ice on the STF in the Swing Dance, where my coaches, husband, and even I am convinced I'm two-footed. Any photographer who makes me look better than I actually am is a genius!!!!

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!