On Friday I photographed the Eau Claire Ski Club’s Silver Mine Invitational Ski Jump Tournament. I was looking for an opportunity to try my $40 clunker 100-300mm lens in a real shooting scenario. The ski jump event turned out to be a perfect challenge.
Light was hard to come by, and the f5.0 maximum aperture on my lens didn’t help. There were huge lights set up on the course, but catching the fast moving skiers as they passed through the pools of light was difficult to say the least. I ended up shooting at ISO 6400 all night. Combine the high ISO with the natural graininess of my cheapo lens, and you get some pretty noisy photography. A little lens flare off of the huge lights was the icing on the cake.
I have never photographed a sports event before, so I did a little reading before hand. Most of what I read online about shooting a ski jump said that 300mm was the minimum lens length for this kind of event. As it turned out, I was able to get really close to the action. Most of the photos were taken with the lens at its widest position. I even put my 50mm prime on for a few shots right before I left, and I kind of regret not switching to it earlier. I got brighter, sharper pictures with the 50.
I also read that 1/1000th would be a minimum shutter speed to freeze the fast moving skiers. With so little light to work with on Friday night, I risked 1/500th for most of the night.
Shooting the Silver Mine Invitational was a lot of fun, despite the temperature being just two degrees that night. The nice thing about a ski jump is you can settle into a spot, and the skiers whiz by one after another. It is a perfect way to practice shooting a fast moving subject. I also had amazing access to just about any area I wanted to shoot from. I took full advantage, climbing to the top of the landing hill for most of the shots.
Overall I was really happy that I went to the Silver Mine Invitational, and I hope to go back next year.
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4 Comments
I’ve shot this event three years and learn something each time. At Silver MIne, one has such great access that I rarely use a big telephoto. Great place to practice panning and yes, you can shoot under 1/1000th and get a real blurred background when panning. Next time, take in the Saturday event and not have as much of a lighting problem. Shooting from under the slide during the day can provide some really great perspective. Good shooting.
Thanks for the compliment and the advice!
I’ve been shooting jumping photos for over 6 years – being a “Ski Jump Mom” and just an amateur photographer with no real schooling. I have taken so many shots at so many jumping tournaments around the US. Silvermine is by far my favorite one to shoot! So many great vantage points. I haven’t mastered night photography yet, so I am impressed with the shots you got – Enjoy! I use a Nikon D50 with a 18-200mm Nikkor VR lense and just the auto sport setting on the camera!
Thank you so much. I feel really lucky that the Silver Mine tournament is so close to where I live, and that it allows such great access to the sport. It certainly is fun to photograph.