Full Frame: The Story Behind the Image

©Ray Demski; Athlete: Jonas Reckermann

Jump Shot
Ray Demski captured this dramatic image sequence of Olympic Beach Volleyball gold medalist Jonas Reckermann in the Canary Islands for Red Bull.

“I wanted to show the entire movement of Jonas Reckermann’s jump serve in a single image,” Demski told Shutterbug. “In addition to the technique of layering action into a sequence, I also stitched several images into a panorama and exaggerated the distance of the movement in order to avoid any overlap of the action.”

See a larger version of the image here.

Demski used three Nikon Speedlights at a low power setting (around 1/64th power) in order to get the fast recycle times needed to keep up with the high frame rate of his Nikon D3.

“The Speedlights were triggered by PocketWizard Plus IIs. Shooting at dusk and overpowering the ambient light gave us the moody atmosphere and allowed me to use a rather low flash power. But we had to work fast to catch the last light and probably took 20 minutes from starting setup to the last shot.” He paired his D3 with an AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 ED lens and shot the image at 42mm, f/4, 1/250 second, ISO 200.

You can see more of Demski's work at www.raydemski.com. He is represented by Upfront.

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