Behind the Scenes: Shooting with a Remote Camera
As a photographer, I often wish I could be in multiple places at the same time to get imagery from a few angles. This specifically happens when shooting a jump where each rider might only take a couple tries.
When I first show up to a jump I usually try and do a full 360 around the jump. Checking out every angle to see where the feature looks best. Some jumps, based off the terrain they are built in are limited and might only look good from one side. Others have multiple angles, and one isn’t necessarily better than another.
Enter the remote camera. I don’t always set one up, but will sometimes position a second camera on a tripod to cover another angle. This camera is rigged with a Pocket Wizard and a remote cable to be able to fire the camera from a distance. I then put a second Pocket Wizard on the top of the camera I’m shooting with so it triggers the second camera every time the first camera shoots.
This can be helpful for a variety of reasons, you can cover multiple angles, or can get a camera in a location you might not be able to stand, so you don’t ruin other shots.
This step down looked really good in profile from both sides. One had blue sky behind and the other had the setting sun and the distant mountain range. Very different angles that didn’t even look like the same jump. It also had a pretty sniper landing so I knew there weren’t going to be a lot of hits. I made a priority to set up the remote camera to be able to cover both angles. I was up close to the jump with a wide angle and set up my second camera down on a lake.
Sean Miskiman hit the jump first and stomped his frontside 360. I was pretty stoked on my shot, but didn’t get a chance to check the remote camera right way. Once the other riders went I snowmobile around to check the second camera. As soon as I saw it I knew that was the angle, the jump looked huge. In the end King Snow ended up selecting the remote camera angle to run as the cover of the magazine the following fall.
After that hit Sean didn’t go again. Had I not set up the remote camera I wouldn’t have covered both angles. It’s hard to say which angle I would have shot if I only had one camera, but there is a chance I wouldn’t have shot the image to get the cover.
