Oh Oh....Here Comes Olympus - With Luke Thompson

Every so often Camera Electronic gets a hankering for a fun outing. We try to find one of the major equipment suppliers to go along with the idea and then we advertise it and see if the photographic public will get in on the game. We've been to zoos, race tracks, and country shows. Apparently yesterday we went to the skateboard park and then went mad.

That is the only conclusion I can draw from the set of images that Gavin Carvallho dropped on my desk. A few of them are shared here - the image of one of our senior management figures lying on his back on the ramp of the skateboard park while another person rockets over him on a board has to rank as one of the more unusual sights in recent years. We have the view of him from boot level, and also from under the jumper - Howard sat under there with an Olympus camera and a fish-eye lens. Nothing if not game, Howard...

The evening was organised by Olympus Australia and  helped along greatly by Luke Thompson, one of the experts of the sport. He is a former sales staff  member here at CE and a successful photographer and skate boarder in his own right. I cannot tell you whether he has broken anything over the years doing the jumps but I am willing to bet the odds for it. Nevertheless he knows the biz and knows how to capture it to the best advantage on  Olympus OM-D cameras - it would not be unrealistic to describe these cameras as perfect for this sort of light-weight and durable sport coverage. They are small enough to be easily handled in the flurry of activity and do not intrude. The files they generate are fully-professional.

Looks as thought the jumper did not hit Howard, and the other demonstrations down the ramp gave the assembled photographers some spectacular chances. Gavin noticed the edge of the ramp is reinforced and shaped with a steel edge. I was looking at that and calculating the sort of damage it would do to a set of teeth or cheekbones...hmm...perhaps I changed careers too soon. Money to be made there...

Note to photogrphers: Whenever Olympus need to really bring us the best advice about their products they sent Quent from the eastern states. If you need to know something, collar him at the next Olympus event - he won't steer you wrong.