This photo of Nathan Sykes ran on the Jan/Feb cover of Ride BMX, but that’s not what I like most about this photo.
There are a lot of photographers out there shooting amazing photos. However, I think there's a difference between photographers shooting in ambient light, then opening up the shadows in Photoshop afterward, and those who use strobes.
I too find myself at points deciding if I should bring out the strobes. This was one of those instances where I decided to shoot without flashes, utilizing a shallow depth of field and high shutter speed. The photo looked good and we were both satisfied.
Then as I sat looked at the photo on the back of my camera, I decided to put the effort in. Nathan, of course, was down to do another 360 lookback so the strobes came out and we shot it again. The resulting photo is far better than what I originally shot.
I can’t speak for Nathan, but I believe this photo holds a special spot for him. Not only did this photo become his first cover, but also the park he’s shredding in is the very same one he grew up learning to ride as a kid.
This photo was shot on a Canon 1DX with a Canon 70-200mm 2.8L and two Einstein 640 strobes. I knew Nathan would be in the top half of the frame, so I pushed the flash sync to 1/500th exposure to help freeze the action and shot it at F4.5 at ISO125.