Water ski jump

Water Ski Jump

As I mentioned, yesterday, I really enjoyed my time taking photos at the European Water Ski Championships.  The best photos I took wher in the “Tricks” competition.  In the afternoon, we were entertained by the Women’s Ski Jump.  I found this a real challenge to photograph.

I had only taken one lens with me to the event, a 600mm focal length lens, which meant the only decent shot I could take was with the jumpers coming straight at me, with me a fair way down from the jump.  OK so it should be a good shot with the jumper coming through the air straight at me.  I even managed to frame it so that part of a funfare ride would frame the jumper from behind.

Unfortunately it wasn’t as straight forward as that; firstly the ramp blocked the view of the jumper before she took off, so the autofocus would have difficulty tracking the moving object, secondly, these jumpers go like at a bat out of hell, they need that speed to get the distance on their jump, and finally, they don’t hit the ramp in a straight line, they veer off to one side of the water, and then sweep back in to give themselves some acceleration into the jump.

All of these made it difficult to photograph.  Lesson learned was to take a shorter lens and photograph the waterskiers taking off from the ramp from the side.  Mind you, I was pleased with the couple of photos I took that came out.  Yes, I probably would photograph this sport again.

2010 European Water Ski Chamionships

I was very lucky to hear about this competition, and that it was taking place close to my home, and it free.  I have never photographed water skiing before, but I thought it should be straight forward:- long lens, fast shutterspeed.  Its not that easy at all to get an interesting picture.

In the morning we were entertained by the tricks cometition.  each competitor does two runs past the judges hut.  One run is a hand tow, the other a foot tow.  During each run the cometitor has 20 seconds to put in as many tricks as they can.  Here is one of the photos I took:-

Water Ski Tricks

In the afternoon, we had the ladies Water ski jumping competition.  After a while this became quite boring, but it was a challenge to capture a decent photograph, the speed of the jumper combined with trying to focus accurately was really hard.

What I am pleased about, though was actually going out and taking some photos, that were enjoyable.  mars bars, onions and bananas don’t really float my boat photogrphically.