Adventure photographer Christian Pondella shares his top tips on how to take better action photographs.

Plan your work

Scout the landscape and plan your shots beforehand. Get the lay of the land and determine where you need to be in order to capture the best shots. Decide what angle you will shoot from and anticipate the sun's location once the athlete arrives at the destination; then shoot accordingly. A truly great photo requires more than just a split-second click of the shutter - it takes hours of preparation. 

Planning your work in advance will save you a lot of stress later on. Reaching the top of a mountain isn't easy, and you can't just ask the skier to re-do his run just because you blew a shot. You have one chance to get it right. Most importantly, only work with experienced people who have good judgment. A mistake can cost far more than a missed photo opportunity; it could prove fatal to you or the athlete.

Pack light

One of the best compliments you can receive from an athlete is how fast you move and that you're not slowing them down. Sure it's great to be a hardcore photographer and have all kinds of fancy lenses and equipment, but it's better to keep your camera equipment to a minimum so you can be light and fast. You'll be carrying climbing, skiing or other sporting equipment, so your camera gear needs to be spartan. Adopt the photojournalist approach-lean and ready to move on the fly.

I often ditch the big 10 frames per second camera body for a lighter, slower four frames per second body, and I'll carry only one lens, maybe two. I also use a SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash card with 64 gigabytes of storage space. The card is big, durable, super fast and guaranteed to perform in cold, hot or wet weather; it's a top-of-the-line workhorse that does everything I need it to, and I've yet to come across anything better.

Give it your all

Adventure sports photography gives you the opportunity to capture unforgettable images. Since you are an action sports fan yourself, it lets you pursue your passion and interact with some of the industry's greatest athletes. However, this isn't something that you can do halfheartedly; the athletes are going all out, and you need to as well. Constantly focus on learning new things, try out different techniques and discover better ways of advancing this wonderful profession.

Biography

Christian Pondella (www.christianpondella.com) is an exceptional photographer with the special talent of photographing ski and snow sports. A member of the SanDisk Extreme Team of professional photographers, Christian is also the head photographer for Red Bull USA, a contributor to Getty Images, a senior photographer for Powder Magazine, and has shot images for national magazines such as Outside, GQ, Men's Journal, Maxim, ESPN Magazine, FHM, Rock & Ice and Adventure.

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