Buffalo Bill Downhill

Last Sunday was Mothers Day and the race day for the Buffalo Bill Downhill Skateboarding event. There was no pretty flowers or sundresses here. Only serious racers in helmets and leathers.



The week leading up to the event was beautiful 70 degree Colorado days. Unfortunately, the day of the race the rain and the fog moved in.



There was and hour delay while riders swapped out for rain wheels or carved grooves into the wheels they brought. The fog provided about 20 feet of visibility at the top and as the day moved on it lifted. The course on the final run actually had lots of dry pavement.




Here's some of the shoots from that day. click any of the photos to see the rest.

Befriending the light.

Several weeks ago I had coffee & conversation with Rob from Rob Hammer Photography. We talked about making it in these hard times. Lately Rob's been shooting a lot for Denver Magazine. Go Rob!



Tonight we hung out at his place drank some PBR and worked on lighting techniques. Rob has a personal project of goofy faces. So I lent my goatee & look to the project.

I in turn got to shot rob on his white seamless & started using some of the light modifiers and crazy ideas I've had running through my noodle.



Here I used my DarkSphere (a lightsphere wrapped in Cinefoil with a 20 degree grid) as a spot. Plus Rob had a nice cardboard snoot that only lit his eyes.

Rob & Emily are great people & I appreciate them opening up their home & Rob sharing his equipment with me.

My DarkSphere

Recently Zach wrote up a post about the group photo he took at GPP. He also posted about how he altered his Lightsphere to become what he calls the "DarkSphere".



This got me thinking and I quickly looked into finding the grids that would work for my lightsphere. I found them here at BH. Then I wrapped some Cinefoil around it. Then with a small bungee cord I strapped it to my SB-26 and off I went.



Here's what it looks like with the Cinefoil half way unrolled.





Here's the shots I made with it. (I also used a small snoot to high lite the eyes.).