Shooting freestyle football in Nijmegen

Last Sunday, I went out on a shoot with assistant Ivo van Roij and three time Dutch freestyle football champion Maarten van Luit. We had wanted to go to an interior industrial location near Amsterdam, but weren't able to get permission, so we went to the Honigcomplex in Nijmegen instead. Ivo and I drove up together, and Maarten met us there. While we waited for Maarten to arrive, Ivo and I scouted the area.

I had shot at the Honigcomplex before, so I wanted new locations. As we walked around, it became apparent that the nearby Oversteek bridge might be accessible and that it could support multiple shots: looking across the river, under the bridge, and on the steps leading to the top. The were a few spots at the Honigcomplex as well, but we decided on focusing on the bridge, and then going back to the Honigcomplex if time and light allowed.

I shot everything with my standard portrait gear: A Phase One XF camera, Phase One IQ3-100 digital back, two Profoto B1 500w/s flash heads, a couple of light stands, and an Indura tripod. I wanted to use a long lens on this shoot, intending to use a wide aperture to get a narrow depth of field and as much natural light as possible. Up until recently, I had been shooting tethered to a Mac Book Pro, running Phase One's Capture One software. However, I have had several problems with communication loss between camera and computer on recent shoots, so I brought an iPad Pro instead, running Capture Pilot.

In both cases, the iPad and MacBook allow a check of exposure and focus, but the tools on Capture One are more extensive than what is available on Capture Pilot. This means that Capture One is more desirable as tether software, but the iPad is more desirable for the quality of the connection. For me, what this meant was that I had freedom to walk around with the iPad controlling the camera wirelessly, but that focus was only approximate because the iPad doesn't seem capable of displaying a full resolution image, as is the case with the MacBook Pro. We brought the MacBook just in case, but it wasn't needed.

Another issue was that the Profoto batteries may need to be replaced. I've had them for three years, but I'm not too keen on buying new ones because they are about $300 each. During the shoot, we managed to get the flash units to operate when needed, but there were a few missed shots, so I'll be testing them this week to see how many are bad, and then will order new ones.

After scouting the area, Ivo and I waited by the car I rented for the weekend (a very cool bright red Hyundai Kona SUV). Maarten showed up a few minutes later, and we got to work. First stop: under the bridge. All I wanted from these shots were the big graphic angles provided by the bridge combined with Maarten's tricks.

For this shot, Maarten climbed down onto one of the bridge's piers. It's hard to tell in the photo, but the surface Maarten is standing on is sloped about thirty degrees. I only expected to get a shot of him standing there, but he went and put the ball on his foot. Good thing he didn't drop it in the water, because he only had the one ball.

Next, we went up the stairs to the top of the bridge. Maarten did a number of handstand-related tricks at the top step, including some on only one hand! The only issue we encountered there were frequent interruptions by people walking or riding by the bridge. Whenever that happened, we had to wait for them to pass before continuing.

After the top of the bridge shots, we went below to get a couple of shots of some new moves that will be revealed later. One however, can be shown now.

After the shots under the bridge, we had what we came for so we wrapped for the day.