How to scare the living bejaysus out of 1) other photographers and 2) yourself

Calina

This is especially for Rymus' attention. I'm slowly getting through some of the photos...

Sometime on Wednesday, one of the younger kitesurfers came to me and said "I reckon I could clear you if you stand on that sandbank there". I looked at the sandbank doubtfully but since the same kitesurfer is terrified of ever harming one molecule on the plastic case of my camera, I figured that if he said he could clear me, he probably could. Pity I didn't have a helmet though.

I told him to go off and get the other young kitesurfer who was likely to also have a shot and we went taking photographs. Well they went jumping over me, and i went trying not to get wet. This is one of the photographs. It is far from being technically the best because it was shot straight into the sun so the highlights are blown beyond recovery, pretty much. The photograph is at 53mm I think, and is not cropped. In part, that is why, despite the technical inadequacies, I love the photograph and spent some time trying to extricate something out of the blownout mess that it is in colour. For those of you interested it was not shot in RAW for various reasons which I won't go over in any detail but they involve 1gig cards and 1 off chances to do stuff like this and finding a balance etc etc etc.

The photograph was shot with the kitlens on av at f8 which is the minimum I'll use for stuff like this. I'm in two minds as to whether I should have gone with teh 18-55 or the 10-20. By the time I had started wondering about the 10-20 I had sent it back to civilisation with someone else and it would have taken 20 minutes to get it back.

In terms of postprocessing, it was done in ACDPro which I like a lot (not many people have heard it). The contrast, curves and levels were all tweaked insofar as I could get away with and then the channel converter used for a black and white conversion. I used their sepia filter which is pretty much untweakable. I'm actually very pleased with the result...I have no idea what it would look like printable.

If I were going to do something like this again, I'd wear wet gear.

5uspect

The story really makes that a special shot.
The surfers rather calm expression almost would make you think it was taken in a studio with you up on a stepladder! Almost...

By the way have you seen the ad for some Sony DVD recorder with the kitesurfer in the papers? I'll see if I can't find it online somewhere.

City-Exile

You managed to get enough detail in his face to make the picture work.

nilhg

What really strikes me is the expression on his face, you would think he was doing the most normal thing in the world.

Pity about not having it in RAW, but as you say, life is never as simple as we would like, maybe thats another reason for the upgrade you posted about before.;)

whyulittle

I wouldn't mind the sun. Gives it a good sense of elevation I think.

Calina

I had similar problems with blown highlights a while ago and having talked about it here, the consensus was that even with RAW files, if they were really badly blown, there wasn't a huge amount you can do about it.

One of the biggest problems I had down there was the lack of electricity so moving stuff from cards to the laptop became a major hassle...I took more than 2000 photographs so if they were in RAW I think it would have been unworkable for a data storage point of view. I know that there are those little card storage things that cost a serious amount of money and I'm starting to think that it might be a good idea.

The upgrade I'm looking into is a 40D. I don't think it would have made any difference at all. Possibly I should have shifted up the aperture a bit but the light was a bit difficult to work with where you weren't shooting straight into it.



This is the kitesurfer whose idea the whole jumping over me was. What was great about the whole thing is that because we'd never done something like this before, we had no idea how it would shape up when push came to shove. the only shot that compositionally worked out the way we were aiming for was this one - of the lot of them, it's the only one that got the kite in. It too is not without problems. Most of the others will wind up on flickr over the coming days.

We learned a load about this sort of stuff. Realistically, if i want to do it in Ireland, I will absolutely have to get a waterproof casing. You get rained on something serious when people are jumping over you - far more than I expected. Also you have zero time to react when the guys are going over your head with maybe a metre clearance. I have to say it was terrific fun even if we blew a load of the photos for various reasons, because what we did get out of it was rather special now that I have a chance to look at some of them.

templeathea

I love the first one. Sure there is problems with it but the kid's expression makes it totally great.

Cabaal

the expression just makes the photo work as already mentioned, just looks like he's some lad walking down the street doing something normal,

sineadw

Treasa thats a really fabulous shot. I'd be very very pleased if I were you. Looks like he's just walking by... a classic. And I wouldn't be too worried about the blow out - gives it a good feel IMHO.

Yes! Waterproof casing and a helmet! I'd imagine a wallop of one of those to the forehead would leave quite the little bruise.

rymus

I do hope santa brings you a wetsuit, helmet and erm.. maybe a waterproof case for the camera?!?

Calina

Santa's on a promise of a 40D for February sometime. I have the wetsuit, helmet and all that stuff. I just didn't happen to be wearing it at the time. I know. Very bold of me. As for the waterproof casing...I'm thinking of getting one for the 350D and not taking the 40D into the water.

Sinead, thanks a million...the feedback for this is reassuringly positive.

I really appreciate it.

Borderfox

Nice shots Calina and as was said before the story going along with the first shot really makes it even more special. It must have been a great trip...

bigeoino

Next time you need to get someone to take a picture of you taking a picture!!

mikeanywhere

Cracking shot Treasa!!

m_stan

I think thats a great shot Treasa. I actually like the effect that the light has in it. The story really adds to it. Nicely done

Cabaal

bigeoino wrote: »

Next time you need to get someone to take a picture of you taking a picture!!

That would actually look bloody brilliant if you got the timing just right

Calina wrote: »

Santa's on a promise of a 40D for February

But..but..but, Santa only visits in December

Calina

He's leaving me an IOU. He was kind enough to pack me off to Morocco for a week a bit before Christmas, like....

Calina

Cabaal wrote: »

That would actually look bloody brilliant if you got the timing just right

the one to get was the one where I got absolutely soaked because the take off was so late...

Cabaal

Calina wrote: »

the one to get was the one where I got absolutely soaked because the take off was so late...

that'll do too
lol

Alun

A bit off-topic, but I had a look at your flickr page out of curiosity, and saw some pictures of BKSA members, one of which I immediately recognised as my nephew!! This one ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/windsandbreezes/260075906/in/set-72157594311579460/ ) is him .. he goes under the name of Ali Barrett, and by all accounts is an up and coming star on the UK kitesurfing scene.