Hey good morning. Corey Rich here, CreativeLive in conjunction with Red Bull photography and we are in beautiful Northstar, Lake Tahoe, California. You're looking at the Truckee meadows in the background behind me, it's an amazing day in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and we are going to be shooting with two incredible athletes today. We're in the Northstar Park, we have Cody LaPlante and we have Dylan Zellers. Cody's on skis, he's making a huge name for himself in this world at just 14 years old and Dylan Zellers, another stud from this area. He's kind of a big mountain guy but we talked him into working in the park today. Full day today, we're actually shooting pictures which is great. We had a wonderful day yesterday kind of talking more theory and concept in a cool cabin in Truckee. Definitely if you wanna learn about, if you're interested in what makes great action photograph, if you're interested in the methodology behind picking a location as well as working with props wardrobe and...

the equipment that you need to actually make pictures and then the workflow and then post processing, you should watch yesterday's segment, yesterday's class because it was really insightful and a ton of fun. I thought what I would do is start off by actually having a little dialogue first introducing Cody and Dylan, come on out guys. Both of these guys I've known for a long time. I used to say you know, they were like this tall. Now they're taller than me which, it's not that hard to do. One of the things that I think about when shooting photos is I wanna have an open dialogue with the athlete so that we're all on the same page about what we're actually trying to do. As an adventure/action sports photographer, this is not my specialty being in the park. They'll have spent you know 50, 100 days shooting in parks just like this. These guys are the experts. They spend a lot of time in these environments and so for me it's always the day starts by having a dialogue around what are we actually trying to accomplish and really trying to figure out, make certain that we're on the same page. What is possible on this feature guys? This looks like 30-35 feet to me. This feature, you know, it's big but it's not that big so you can't really throw some big tricks but you know what we're looking for is just some real stylish stuff that we can, you know, poke out grabs and really capture the moment in the shot. And what would be great for me Cody is if you guys could start by, you know, do something that's real styly and then let's look at the picture. Let us, let me review the image and actually just see what it's, how it looks on camera. For me, it's more about repetition of the same trick versus like mixing it up every time. I wanna keep the variables constant so that I'm working with the same light, the same tricks, and I can sort of refine the shot and then once I nail that shot, that trick, we can move on. It's also worth pointing out, it's 9 A.M., just after 9 A.M., the sun's still pretty low in the sky, it's beautiful light. So in segment one today, we're gonna be focusing on shooting with available light. I'm always a believer in work with what you have, take advantage of opportunities that presents themselves. It's beautiful light, often times you don't have the luxury of setting up strobes at a real event where it's you need more frames and so segment one we're gonna work with available light and you're gonna see that I'll sort of dissect the location and really move around, try to create visual diversity by changing my camera position. So I'll probably start by actually being somewhere right here near the lip, probably just a few feet to the left. Are you guys comfortable if I'm actually in this zone? I might even squat down, cool. Let's do this. Why don't when you guys get the gate, let's actually go ahead and we'll use the radio that I gave you. Let's communicate so that we're on the same page about when you guys are taking off. And Dylan what do you think you're gonna do? What are you comfortable with? Most likely it's gonna be threes, back ones, switch ones, maybe switch footies, switch five. Pretty mediocre tricks but really putting a lot of style and energy into those tricks and making 'em look good and yeah just doing like, doing a trick to the best of my ability with the most amount of style. And why don't you guys call the trick before you, so think about it, tell me what you wanna do and then call it on the radio so that I'm kind of prepared for what's gonna happen body position wise if you're spinning, if you're flipping. For me, it's less about complex tricks today and more about slow styly tricks that allow you to hang in the air where I have more opportunity to catch you in a compelling moment. Okay, sounds good. Cool, well I think what I'm gonna do is cut you guys loose. We're gonna try to avoid the guys hiking a lot so we're gonna send them on the chair. So we'll have a couple of 10 minutes or so, 10 to 12 minutes in between each cycle. So I'll let you guys take off and let's make it fun today. Cool. Thanks guys, yeah, right on.

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Corey Rich

Corey Rich has built a life and career around his passions for travel, adventure, and telling stories with his camera. With a background in rock climbing and photojournalism, Corey’s work spans a range of genres, from iconic still imagery for leading editorial publications, to television spots and films, to directing high-production-value commercial projects for Fortune 100 companies. 

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Commercial Adventure & Sports Digital Photography Digital Photography Digital Photography

Ratings and Reviews

Zoe Heimdal

I really enjoyed this class! I am not an "action sports photographer" -- just an avid photo enthusiast, and I found this class highly informative/interesting. Corey has a very down-to-earth quality in the way he presents information... a regular guy, who knows a ton, and is sharing his wisdom. Clearly many topics/tips were off-the-cuff as he ran into situations during his shoots -- it just felt very "real" -- like I was there with him, getting a private lesson. There was quite a bit of info dealing with camera cards/photos/apps that was ubiquitous to any photographer. And then it was interesting to hear about his travel bags and what he brings to shoots (a ridiculous amount of gear, but everything with a purpose). There are hours of on-site filming for an outdoor ski and an indoor bmx shot... with Cory trying/failing/succeeding in many attempts at things -- just like a real photo shoot would happen. His advice for capturing a good/workable shot from the get-go and then spending the time on the riskier/more-creative shots, was solid -- as far as keeping your clients happy no matter what. I was genuinely surprised at how interesting/useful I found this class (being that I rarely take action shots) -- and I'd encourage any photo enthusiast, or person in the earlier stages of any professional photography career, to check out this class. My one piece of constructive criticism for Cory/CreativeLive -- try to represent women? This class only had the briefest of inclusion of females, and left me with the impression (I'm hoping incorrectly), that the world of action sports photography, is a man's world.

a Creativelive Student

If you're looking to learn from one of the greats of action photography who also happens to be an incredible instructor, look no further! Corey Rich and his fantastic team will show you every facet of being a great action photographer and they share all of their insights from A to Z. Their instruction is heartfelt and they laid it all out there for everyone's benefit. A huge thank you to Creative Live and Red Bull Photography for bringing this to the world. This is a must have class in your library!

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Introduction to Snow Athletes

Introduction to Snow Athletes

Lesson Info

16. Introduction to Snow Athletes

Lessons

Class Introduction

What Makes A Great Action Photo

Conceptualize the Shoot

Research Location / Wardrobe / Props for Action Shoot

Safety Tips for Action Photographers

What Gear Do I Need? Packing and Prep

Workflow and Asset Management

Ingesting and Organizing Files

Editing Down Your Selects

Post Processing Overview

Working with Clients to Select Finals

Retouching & Post Processing: Image 1

Retouching & Post Processing: Image 2

Retouching & Post Processing: Image 3

Final Client Delivery