Another photographer I have taken inspiration from towards my close to home project is Ricky Adam, I have looked at his work due to the unusual, closeup compositions that he uses. To tell a story with my images I aim to include a few closeup photos similar to these in my project I feel they are abstract and reflects the individuality you can have in in BMX.
The image below shows a BMX rider doing an air out of a bowl, rather than framing it how you would imagine, looking up at the subject doing the trick. He has gotten the camera as high as he could get it and pointed it back into the bowl and taken the photo on the riders way back in to the ramp. By shooting this way you get to clearly see the ramp he's doing the trick on as well as his shadow which I think works really well for this image. The image was taken in bright natural light with an extremely wider, fisheye lens. The image has been overexposed but does not appear soft or lacking in contrast however personally I would like to see more punchy shadows. He has used a slower shutter speed which starts to introduce a bit of motion blur into the image which shows speed and movement within the image.
The next image I looked at is another photo taken using a fisheye lens in natural light. You see a close up of the front wheel of a bike as someone is doing a trick, the only part of the rider that you can see are their legs and feet. Ricky Adam has gone really close up for this image completely filling the left half of the frame with the wheel, and has shot with a large aperture which has made the wheel appear soft, through the wheel you can see a street. In the centre of the frame you see the riders legs and the obstacle the trick is being done on. and on the right side of the frame you see the rest of the skatepark. The image has been overexposed, blowing out the highlights however due to not playing any role in the image this worked well to bring detail back into the bike which is the most obvious part. The horizon is not straight for this image which gives the image a very different and more extreme feel making the viewer feel a part of the image. I like the effect shooting wide and close up gives the image as it allows you to fill large parts of the frame whilst still having visible background details, this gives the viewer the context that this was taken in a skatepark.
Lastly I have looked at this image due to the lack of a background and how unique the angle is. The image was taken with a shallow depth of field in natural light with fish eye lens. The camera is low down pointing up at the riders feet from below and behind the bike. On the left you see the pedal and foot, the centre shows the bike frame and on the right you can see the wheel. The image was taken with a slower shutter speed to introduce motion blur into the wheel, I think that this makes the image a lot more interesting as its hard to imagine how the photographer got the photo that close as it shows the viewer that the bike is in motion. Adam has exposed for the darker foreground blowing out the background and creating nice separation between the bike parts as well as introducing lots of nice contrast.
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