Deadpoint Magazine - So How Does a Photographer End Up in His Own Photos?

Outdoor sports photographers differ from normal sports photographers in that most of them participate in the sports they cover on a high level. If you want to shoot rock climbing, you have to climb to get in place to get the shot. Ski photographers need to be able to keep up and ski into place. It’s much different than sideline sports shooting, a football photographer will never play in Cowboys Stadium or even practice with someone like Mark Sanchez but an outdoor sports photographer can play on the same terrain and participate in their sport alongside the stars.

This difference can bring opportunities that other sports shooters do not have. If a perfect photo shows itself you can take advantage of the opportunity even if you don’t have someone to get in the photo.

For this particular cover, inspired by a topo photo in the guide, we drove for an hour on winding mountain roads temporarily lost trying to find this wall. Once there, my climbing partner took one look at the bolt spacing on this one and refused to climb it. Light was fading and I did not want to waste the only day we had without rain, so I decided to climb it myself. I put a tripod on the hillside across from the climb, set up my camera and had my wife hit the shutter once I hit the upper section of the climb. Unfortunately I blew the onsight right before this and took a big ride, but we still got the shot I wanted.

Nathan Smith on Inshalla 8+/5.12a, Burg Rabenstein, Frankenjura, Germany

What if you are alone?

This photo was taken last fall the day after I rode in a 206 mile road bike race that finished in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Waking up early the next morning to take some sunrise photos, I found myself next to the river and all alone with an amazing background. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, I set up my tripod and set the frame. Most cameras have a short time limit on the self timer and even the 30 second timer would be too slow to get across the river and into place. I attached a Pocket Wizard along with a N90M3 cable and took a second Pocket Wizard across the river with me to trigger the camera. In order to make sure I was in the right spot, I had pre selected a zone between two tree stumps to hike between. Once in place I hid the remote in the hand furthest from the camera and pressed the remote shutter while I walked back and forth through the frame.



It’s not always ideal to photograph yourself as the results can be limited and even with direction, most of the time the person I hand the camera off to does not capture what I wanted, no offense to all those who have tried over the years. But in most cases, why not? If I don’t feel my equipment is at risk and I have enough memory, worst case you end up with a bunch of hi-res snapshots or best case, you end up with some publishable work of the rarely photographed action photographer participating in the sport they love.