Marc Salas, Nollie Back Tail to Fakie, Are, Sweden © Matt Georges

Our French senior photographer Matt Georges once again shares his thoughts, doubts and passion about snowboard photography. Not only do you get to fix your eyes on a banger, but hopefully you also learn how to take better photos yourself!

Marc SALAS – Nollie BackTail to Fakie – Are, Sweden

Aperture: f/4,5
Speed: 1/100th
ISO: 400
Camera: CANON EOS 1D MARK II N
Lens: Fisheye CANON 90mm Tilt-Shift

2 Flashes connected with Pocket Wizards Radioslave

I’m not so sure about the flash at the bottom right behind the car window…

THE TECH

When I go on a trip I try to think about a general feel or style I want to have for my photos. For this trip and because it’s only night time up north in Sweden at that period I knew we will only shoot with flashes and lights so I bought those “stars filters” to make obviously all the lights look like stars, wishing it won’t look too cheesy at the end. Well I was right because I really think it looks cheesy at some point, especially in colors with the flare added. It can work in Black and White thought so I shot a bunch for the rest of the trip. On this photo I had set up 2 flashes as backlights to get this silhouette feel and to had two more “stars” to the composition. I’m not so sure about the flash at the bottom right behind the car window. At first I thought it looks cool but the more I see the photos the less I like it. The rest of the stars are random lights. I have used a tilt-shift lens but as a normal 90mm which is really sharp. The composition itself is pretty simple and the photo is kind of cut in two parts from the top left to bottom right.

THE CONTEXT

That was the first trip of the season, beginning of december in cold and dark Are, up north in Sweden with the Euro Forum team 3 winters ago. I remember Gerben Verweij from Holland drove all the way up with his trailer full of lights, generators, shovels, winch etc. for a solid 48hrs, drinking at least 50 cans of energy shit and probably smoking 6 packs of cigs. Who said snowboarding is a healthy sport? Anyway, we started the trip with this very good looking but unfriendly wooden rail and had to freeze the wood with water before hitting it. Marc has this Spanish mellow touch and got this smooth skateboard south style when riding and nailed this tech trick pretty quickly. He even did it few times to get other angles. Thanks Pollo!

Check Matt’s website. And if you want to see the previous ‘Behind The Shot’ articles, here’s the tag.