I’m about two years deep in my outdoor bouldering journey, starting from a gym rat into a full outdoor maniac. My photography hobby has developed into a welcome obsession. I love giving buddies photos of them pulling hard on outdoor problems, I feel like I’m giving them little presents of pure psych!
Most of the time I’m capturing the moment someone is trying their absolute hardest. Their goal is clear, all their mental focus and physical might is aimed in a single beam of 'try hard' energy. These are my favourite scenes to shoot. I love it. It’s a constant reminder of how badass people can be when we try dead bloody hard.
I have a lot to learn within the wide world of outdoor photography, But in case you’re interested here are 10 thoughts on bouldering photography from a distinctly average photographer & climber.
1 - Be Ready
There has been hundreds of moments I wished I had managed to capture whilst out bouldering. If you want the crazy shot of your mate cutting loose or popping off that tiny crimp you need to be ready. When I arrive at a crag the first thing I will do is adjust my camera settings to the current light conditions. Make sure burst mode is on so you don’t miss anything and keep your camera close by so you’re ready to grab it.
2 - Context is Key
Look at the situation, if your buddy is climbing an enormous crazy looking boulder, take a few steps back and give the photo more context. On the flip side if the climber is on outrageously small crimps, punch in a little and emphasise how hard he/she is pulling. It’s about story telling, give your photos context.
3 - Look at Nature - It’s Cool
Most of the time, we are climbing in some pretty remarkable places, look at the location you’re in and see what it’s offering. If you’re climbing in a forest get some blurry tree action in the foreground. Think about how to show off both the climber and the location.
4 - Faces
This is a biggie, if you can position yourself to capture the climber’s face your photo is instantly more engaging. We all pull insane faces when trying hard or relieved faces when pulling through a scary move. Faces convey emotion and help tell a story within your photo. The problem is, most of the time climbers are looking directly at the wall, so I'll leave it up to you to get creative with this one.
5 - Lazy Composure
I too often see photos of climbers way too zoomed in. I hate it when a photo has a foot or a hand cropped out, I want to see what they are holding onto. Don't be lazy. Move your feet. Get into a better position. I’ve got a theory that it’s because the photographer is in climbing shoes and doesn’t want to jump off the clean pads and get muddy shoes.
6 - Clean Up the Crag
This one is simple, messy crag means messy photos. Litter is obviously a big no no and ruins a photo, when you’re in a big group there also ends up being a lot of stuff lying around.
7 - Safety Third
Take this with a pinch of salt… but tell those spotters to shift it. Often you will have a gang of spotters on a climb or climber that only needs one or two. Most of them aren’t even spotting! Just politely tell them to shift to the side a little. They will thank you for it when you have a banging photo of them doing a cool thing.
8 - Study the Climb
Before you go to a crag it’s often good to YouTube the crag name and watch some of the crag classics, this gives you an idea of what the rock, location and climbs look like and what body positions you expect people to get into. Whilst people are climbing look for interesting shapes and angles. Most of the time people don’t get a climb the first try, so if you’re paying attention you will normally get another chance to take the photo.
9 - Get Mates with Colourful Clothes
It just looks better.
10 - The Battle Between Climbing and Photography
I’m both a passionate climber and photographer and often I’m battling between trying to work on a problem and take photos. I’ve spoken to other friends about this and they have the same struggle as well. It’s hard to do both well at the same time. Just do what you’re feeling in the moment, take a step back the worst thing you can do is get annoyed at yourself for not climbing enough or taking enough photos. It takes the fun out of everything, or… When arriving at a new boulder hold back for a little while and focus on photography, let your buddies do the hard work figuring out the Beta. Get some great photos of them. Then when they get the climb put your shoes on and go in for the sneaky flash. Wins all round! - Sneaky Pete
