It has been a while since I last shot anything, primarily due my current workload. I finally had the time to go away for a climbing trip to the Grampians over the weekend, so along came the camera. My friend Steve had also brought his camera along. I usually don’t pack my speedlights along for these outings, but for some strange reason I had my SB-900 with me this time. Funnily enough, Steve had also brought his spanking new SB-700 with him. Couldn’t resist some strobing action then! Didn’t actually do any shooting on the first day because we were all so psyched to just go out and climb.
I had the pleasure of meeting Dave Graham, one of the biggest names in the climbing world. He was up there with Nalle Hukkataival and Ian Dory, presumably trying to smash all the Grampians climbs as well as to shoot a new climbing film. Also had the pleasure of meeting Keith Ladzinski, who is an awesome adventure photographer. It was great being finally able to put a face behind some of the most amazing climbing photos that I have seen in climbing magazines and websites.
This was probably what made me do a lot more shooting on the second day. It was probably also due to the fact that I was so buggered after the first day of climbing that I really couldn’t be pulling much harder on the second day. Did manage to squeeze in a couple of good new climbs though! For the photos, Steve and I were basically just playing around with our own speedlights. Mine was typically off camera and he was shooting on camera flash. When we got to this area where we were all trying to do some of the overhanging crimpy problems, Steve took his speedlight off the camera and I decided “Hey, why not use 2 speedlights?”. The results were better than what I had expected!
I think I’m definitely going to bring a couple of speedlights up next time. Probably even an umbrella and a light stand. I want to try experimenting with soft light instead of the hard bare light that I have seen in a lot of climbing photos. Trouble is definitely the fact that I will have to lug all this gear up the mountain to get to the bouldering areas, but hey, I’m willing to give it a go, so bring it on!
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