Action Sports Cartel

So you’ve been reading the forums and keep reading about flash durations and how it is so important, but you don’t fully grasp why. This short article is my attempt to clarify what flash durations are, how come certain flashes are better than others and what you should look for in a flash.

Why is flash duration important?

An action sports photographer shooting without flashes relies on a high shutter speed to freeze the action of an athlete. If you’ve been shooting sports, you’ll know that if you drop your shutter speed too low, the action becomes a little bit blurry, often called motion blur. When flashes are introduced to the equation, the photographer is limited by his cameras sync speed, often in the range of 1/200th - 1/500th of a second. To compensate for shooting with this slower shutter speed, the flashes must output more light than the ambient (or available light) and must do so in a very short burst.

Lets start with the basics, how old are you and where do you live?

I'm 27 and live in Salt Lake City

When did you pick up your first camera?

I grew up in New Hampshire and bought a N90 after I graduated High School in '99. I was going on a summer long road trip with a bunch of friends. I didn't have enough money for much else, so I borrowed a lens and was given a bunch of expired slide film. My goal was to document our road trip and do a slide show when I got back home.

Well being broke and on the road sucked, we weren't running the AC because we thought we could save money on gas, we ate buttered bagels from Einstein's for under a dollar, and would poach hotel swimming pools for 'showers'... but I shot lots of photos, they sucked too I guess, in retrospect, but I was learning and I came back with a slideshow to go with all my stories.

Lets start with the basics, what’s your name, age and where do you live?

My name is Owen Woytowich. I’m twenty-five and I currently am kicking it in Toronto, Ontario.

Do you have a blog, website?

I have my one blogspot one, which is http://shutterdopes.blogspot.com . I also was enlisted to contribute one to the http://bneeth.com community, so I post on that too from time to time.

How long have you been shooting skating, and how did you get started?

I have been shooting skateboard photos for about ten years now. I actually started out with a camcorder though bro-filming my brothers and friends. Then one day there was this snowboard/skateboard contest thingy in Saskatoon where I somehow scammed a media pass that got me all access. I borrowed a high school Pentax K-1000 and nabbed a few shots that had me stoked. My high school graphic arts teacher Cam Sikorsy was super supportive and let me display all these horrible photos in an exhibit and just encouraged me to keep at it. Gave me all the darkroom time in the world to make prints, and do other things… and I just kept at ‘er. My parents gave me a manual Pentax camera for grad and I just kept snapping away. No training, just trial and error with film…which I swear is the best way to learn. I used to tag along and study a local photographer too, Darrin Langhorst for any crumbs of information he might have dropped while he shot skating, but was always to afraid to ask. Ha-ha. Working at a camera shop helped a lot too. Aside from that, just submitting and hopefully getting lucky enough to have my work printed.