Surfing. Not the kind of sport or activity you would normally associate with Jamaica, but recently it seems to have been gaining some popularity judging from the increased frequency I see SUVs passing me on the road with surf boards on top. Last weekend they had the 2010 Makka Pro for Western Atlantic pro surf series and since I hardly need an excuse to grab a camera, I thought it would be fun to see what it was all about. I loaded up the car with gears (& friends with gears) and headed out.
It turned out to be very overcast with the occasional drizzle, but with darker clouds looming off in the distance, a serious burst of rain was never too far off. Not ideal for the spectators or us photographers, but not a bother for the surfers. More troubling for them was the lack of really big waves. This meant that they had to surf closer to the shore which ironically works out in the favour of us photographers, especially for ones like me that only had a 70-200mm f2.8. Ideally I think I should have a least a teleconverter or a 300mm.
Though the overcast sky served to help reduce the high contrast that would be typical, this also resulted in lower than desired light as well. I decided the open up to f4 to achieve desired exposure at the lowest ISO to freeze the action and hopefully end up with sharp results.
Since this was the first surf event I have ever been to, I had no real plan. I just screwed on a uv filter to protect the front element from any excess salts spray and started shooting when a surfer got up. My initial high burst rates had my friends joking that I sounded like I was at war and trying to shoot them off their boards. Admittedly I was shooting a lot earlier on, but it wasn’t long however that I got into a pattern of predicting when to shoot and catch the more dramatic stuff.
I have to say, apart from the occasional annoyance of having to retreat to the car because of the treat of rain, I really enjoyed the day. It’s a pretty good way to pass the time with family or friends and great for action photography. Even if you are a 1st timer like me.
Below are examples of the images I captured:
4 Comments
WICKED action shots!!
Fantastic photos Marc. You are truly talented!
That and a very quick accurate auto-focus system.
Looks like I missed a great opportunity. I think you did a great job of capturing the peak of action – 9 frames per second come in handy!