I went out with my friend Joe today so that I could challenge myself to some action still and motion footage, his challenge was to land some skateboarding tricks.  There are plenty of variables involved in getting quality extreme sports shots, so I was happy to come home with a few that I liked it.

Joe popping a skateboard trick off a hip at the skatepark.

Above is a capture of a frontside popshuvit.  I like the frame because you get a nice view of the board in rotation and it’s good some good elevation too!

I was using the Tamron SP 70-200mm VC F/2.8 lens mounted on my Canon EOS 50D.  This combination gives me a fast focusing telephoto lens on a reliable camera with a fast motor drive.  I decided to shoot this frame in a vertical (portrait) orientation, because I think that put more emphasis on the subject in this case.  Other camera settings:  1/1000 shutter with an aperture of F/5.6 and an ISO speed of 200.  I opted for a medium aperture of F/5.6 to get a decent amount of depth of field on Joe but to also provide some separation from the background.  An ISO value of 200 gave me a fast shutter speed, but also provided a nice grain-free image.  The exposure was dialed in manually to give me full control over the ambient lighting.  Tamron’s VC (Vibration Compensation) helped steady the viewfinder for the photo and reduce instances of camera shake.