Finding a new angle for a photo is a challenge for every photographer. When assigned to shoot at May’s Red Bull Art of Motion free running event in Vienna, Marcel Lämmerhirt decided to think inside the box.
By constructing a special wooden box with a clear acrylic dome to house a camera, Marcel was able to capture the athletes from below as they performed various moves.
“I got the idea from seeing Vernon Deck’s cover shot of a snowboarder on Pleasure magazine,” said Marcel. “I asked him if I could use the idea and he gave me the OK.
“I looked for a company that works with acrylic and ordered a special size. Then I built a wooden box with a hinge at the bottom to open up the box for the camera.”
Using a fisheye lens, he connected the camera to his laptop so he could view what the camera sees in real time.
“The athletes first looked at it and said, ‘what the hell is this?’ But they looked at it closely and then they were really up for it to get the shot.”
Since this was a pre-shooting before the event, Marcel had three athletes and two hours to do the photos. The concept was to capture a hand plant manoeuvre from underneath, to make it look as though the hand is floating above the camera.
“I thought it was going to be easier than it was. One time the athlete’s hand was in front of the body, next time the style wasn’t right, and so on.
“We had to clean the dome all the time because the flashes showed up every scratch and mark on it.
“It was really important to communicate with the athletes. I showed them each image on the laptop after it was taken so they knew exactly where they had to place their hand.
“I wanted to freeze the action with the flash so my settings were ISO 125, shutter speed 1/200s and aperture f9.0.”
The results are exciting but Marcel believes there is more potential.
“We didn’t have the time to test more locations or ideas. It’s not ideal to do such a shoot before a contest because the athletes are nervous and don’t want to risk anything.
“For example, I would like to try and show two guys in the same shot – one guy in the background, the other on the box.”
More information on the Red Bull Art of Motion can be found here, and Marcel’s website is here.
Equipment used for the shoot:
Camera:
Canon 5D Mark II
Lens:
15mm fisheye lens
Box:
Wooden construction with hinged lid and acrylic dome cover
Memory card:
SanDisk 16GB ExtremePro Flash Card
Additional equipment:
MacBook with connection to camera
Profoto Pro 7b generator
Elinchrom Ranger Q flash and battery pack
Pocket Wizard TT1 transmitter and Flex TT5 transceiver
Making Of: Art Of Motion
Making Of: Art Of Motion