BMFin

I think there are a lot of sports that are more dangerous than tandem skydiving. I think on this topic many people fall into the same fallacy that happens with airtravel for example. Most people seem to think that travelling in an airplane is more dangerous than driving a car (which we know is not true). Flying in general is just considered so unnatural. Let's not fall into the same fallacy here..

Yes. Minors cannot sign waivers. I know this also, and this we agree on. However, it is not true that minors couldnt be a part of any kind of contracts like Andy said. This is my point. There are many occasions where a minor can make some small less significant contracts. Such as buying a candybar from a shop. But like I said, this is a little off topic. About the topic at hand, I wouldnt see this tandem jump any different than allowing your 5 year old start driving motocross or participating on some other "risky" sport.

As a grad student in law school, for the sake of your clients I hope in reality you know better and your just being provocative..

Well, I was moreless asking this question from Andy since he has a law degree. As a lawyer Andy most likely understands my question. There are many actions in everyday life the general public doesnt see as contracts, but anyone who understands the basics in contract law will know better. Buying milk from a shop is a contract. It is a sales contract.

Exactly, thats my point !

How did you come to this conclusion ? Are you saying there is a specific minimum age for a contract in the US ? This may be a bit off topic, but how do you see everyday life contracts such as a kid going to a grocery store to buy some milk ? Basicly, when the kid hands out the money, there is a contract between the kid and the grocery store. Do you think this contract is null and void ?

Seems nice. How does the transmitter look like ? How long is the range ? What frequency does the system use ?

I also think a fast lens is a must. I recommend you spend some time looking at some pro wedding photographers portfolios to get some idea what you want from your photos. I dont mean one should copy someone, but getting ideas here and there helps a lot. Also remember that post processing plays big role on the final outcome. Personally I like Oka Morikawa´s style a lot. http://okamorikawa.com/ Normally he has 2-3 Full frame bodies. One with wide angle 16-35mm, and the other two with prime lenses like 24mm, 35mm or 50mm. (he likes the wider end more) He NEVER uses a flash. With your setup you will have to bring up the ISO quite high, but with this kind of photos its not a big problem IMO. Lots of times wedding photos need extra noise to add more "soul" in to the pics. I think Oka always adds quite a bit extra noise in his photos in post processing. Good luck ! Also, if you want to learn how to make good B&W conversions search "Russel brown" and "black and white teqhnicues" (a great podcast tutorial)

Coming from a competition swooper like you, I just want make sure I read this right: Do you honestly think a stiletto is a great canopy to start learning how to swoop ?

And it seems to be your home DZ too ? Never noticed ? Do a search here, you should find info on the subject. If I remember right, Jeffro also wrote on the subject some time ago..

Dubai = Swooping playground Eloy = Swooping forbidden For a pro swooper, must have been an easy decision ?

Here you go! Sorry, couldnt resist..

I was wondering what is the biggest differences of the sonic tunnel suit compared to the V2 competition suit ?

Thanks! I looked at your flickr site and it seems you have some exellent work there! You need to start shootin freefall more, since you obviously know what you are doing..

Put a gyro on it and shoot it hand held through the view finder. Have seen it done and it works.

You can always give your flash to an assistant. Indirect light may improve your photos substatially. Personally I dont always want to kill the shadows with a fill flash. In some situations, e.g. shooting against the light, I do use direct flash. However, Im trying to learn place my self in the right angle with the sunlight rather than always shoot with fill flash. Shadows are not my enemy, they are my friend. I consider light as the most important part of taking a photo. Its like the paint, to a painter. The way the paint is applied to the canvas makes the biggest difference.

Well this is where we think differently. Try telling some professional sport photographer "how he has no knowledge of photography what so ever and is relying on automatic features" when he is shooting fast bursts with 500mm lens at superbowl. If you think you have the ability to pick and choose the fraction of a second moment from the action, I wish you good luck. For example the 108 way had 5 photographers and only one of them managed to get the complete formation into frame. It was Brian Buckland. The formation flew about 1/3 seconds. Brian´s 5DmarkII shoots 3,9 fps and it was just barely fast enough. Norman Kent and the other photographers didnt manage to get the frame. This applies to lots of other scenarios also. When shooting fast VFS/FS, the formations wont fly more than a fraction of a second. You either get a frame or you dont..

Sigma 15mm 609$ (B&H photo) Canon 10-22mm 739$ (B&H photo) Sigma 330g Canon 385g Yes, the price is a little higher. The weight is also 55grams more. However differences are so small that neither of these attributes makes a real difference to way or another IMO.

Dual processor will allow 8fps. Comes in very handy when shooting sports.

What I ment to say is that 15mm fisheye on a cropped sensor makes no sense. Reasons: No.1 The projection image is weird. The result looks like a lot of barrel distortion which looks bad on image shot at this field of view. Sure barrel distortion may look nice when the image is shot with the focal lenght of a fisheye with a ~180 degree Field of view. However shooting 15mm Fisheye IMO is pretty much the same as shooting 24mm on full frame and adding a lot of barrel distortion to every photo you take. Would you deliberatly want to add barrel distortion on the images you shot 24mm on Full frame ? I wouldnt.. 2. Rectangular lenses such as the 10-22 are sharper. 3. Zoom lenses are more versatile. Summarum: You get a lot of distortion and softer image with the 15mm when you use it on APS-C. If you want to shoot 15mm, why not get a better lens ? For the full frame however, it is a real fisheye and a good choise in its class.

Canon 10-22 @ 15mm sharper than than the either 15mm fisheyes. Personally I wouldnt use the 15mm fisheye on APS-C. If I want a fisheye for cropped sensor, I would buy the tokina zoom fisheye or an 8mm fisheye of some sort. If you have the kit lens. Use it first and then decide which focal length you want to use the most.

Who needs protection? I dropped my helmet from 500 meters and my 400D 8mm lens and everything else survived without any damage. Some photos of the camera after it landed,here

From the canon lineup, 7D would be my choice for skydive photography. Everyone always says its too heavy, but the actual difference with the T2i is only 290 grams. Gimme two and I jump them both.

If twitchy means potential for off heading, then I concur. However I dont think this is a problem at all. My snivel is always smooth. Sometimes the very last bit of the opening gives a little snap. Nothing serious. Over all excellent openings! The neos seems like a strange animal. I have only one jump on a 104 neos. Opening was soft enough, but imo very sensitive for off heading. Once under canopy I much preferred the NEOS over crossfire2. I think Neos would be my next canopy, but I hear all these stories about hard openings which is keeping me from buying one..

I have to disagree on this. I think lot of the other high performance canopies i have flown like velo or neos do benefit from a rear riser plane out. They simply have longer recovery arcs. IMO the XF2 however has a relatively short recovery arc and therefore no rears needed really. Thats the way I think of it...