We look at a lot of photographs, and every so often we see some work that is just simply amazing.  Roy Lockwood’s photographs of competition Paintball for the New England Paintball League is all that and have earned him the first feature for new Shoot Profile series.  

These shots are what sports photography is all about: seeing the shot, knowing where to be and what to expect.  You want to give the viewer the experience of not only seeing the action, but the feeling that they’re in the action, and in the case of paintball, that means you’re going to have to take some hits yourself.  

Lockwood uses primarily Olympus gear, but with a notable addition: an Olympus E-620 with Zuiko 14-54 and 70-300, and the
Olympus E-3 with Zuiko 12-60 SWD and 50-200 SWD.  He also totes a
Casio EX-F1.  “The Casio EX-F1 is very specialized and can take stills up to 60 FPS and shoot video up to 1200FPS. I shoot some break-outs (start of the games) with this and I have been able to capture images that I would normally have missed, such as hit-shots and other action that could be lost if shooting less than 30-60 FPS.   That, and the players have been extremely enthusiastic about the results as they were able to see some of their moves in slow-motion when viewing the shots sequentially.”

His choice of Olympus is mainly about the 4/3 format and Autofocus speeds, but also about the weather (in this case, paint) resistance: “I favor Olympus equipment because I like the advantages of the Four-Thirds lens system, also because the SWD lenses coupled with the Olympus E-3 have an extremely fast auto-focus.  The E-620 is packed with features and is very economical in terms of value for the dollar.  The E-3 is a weather-resistant system (as are the Zuiko SWD lenses) and can take being hit by paintballs, and is easily cleaned since it’s sealed against water.”

Take a look at the photographs and read our complete interview with Roy after the jump.