I had done some research for figure skating shots and couldn’t find that much that I liked. What I forgot that in most cases these images are taken from the sidelines.
We were able to bring our gear onto the slippery ice..
Having access always makes such a difference.

One the night of the shoot, the figure skaters looked amazing and that was before I had even seen them perform such great figure skating and striking poses.

The sharing the lights was certainly a challenge. I ended up shooting the majority with “available light” and mainly capturing posing shots, where there was less need for fast shutter speeds.

For similar future shoots it might work to have the subject mark the spot in front of the softbox.
All photographers can then dial in the settings and then take tunes when the skaters do their amazing skating. They will then probably need to do this a few times in a row so we can capture that peak moment.
I always realise with a lot of photography, the photographer needs to take charge and be the director of the shoot, rather than letting things happen..
I always learn a lot from actually doing these shoots.

In closing, I always feel sorry that after organizing the entire event, you get to shoot so little during the actual shoot. It is a bit like at a party in your house, you are behind the BBQ and not really get to enjoy the other food and conversations.

For 2012 we have to think of some solution for that, maybe Max can handle the PR at the time of the shoot