Portfolio Development – Indoor Gym Climbing

A couple of weeks ago I took the opportunity to work on another group of images I have had in my head for some time–artificially lit indoor gym climbing. Thanks to the help of a couple of strong athletes, my assistant, Tony, and Jeff, one of the owners of Momentum Climbing Gym, I was able to create some images that were a bit outside the realm of what I normally shoot.

Like the swim shoot described in a post back in early April, I wanted to use small Nikon SB-800 off camera flashes to light the climbers. For this shoot they were more than powerful enough to over power the ambient light which allowed me to create the drama I was after.

For both of the action shots in this post post I used 3 SB-800s. One flash was held on a boom pole to act as the primary light on the subject while the other two speed lights were used to illuminate parts of the bouldering cave or wall. In the image at the top of the post I kept all three speedlights as close to the wall as possible to help define the muscles and strength of the climber.

If you are a climber in the Salt Lake Valley and are looking for a place to train consider checking out Momentum. Their facilities are top notch.

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