To continue

To continue

I see my last blog was on 3rd Feb, so much for trying to post regularly. I thought I would try to break down what I shoot and why by activity so am starting by discussing the activity that tends to occupy much of my time and produces by far the most images, recording the wind and kite surfing activities off our local Avon Beach.

After randomly shooting water sports of various kinds over the years I got linked into the Avon Beach Surfers website some while ago (and am now in fact one of their moderators) which has resulted in me being part of a small team of photographers who try to provide images for the riders who sail off the beach whenever there is a strong wind with a bit of South in it. We also have some big formal events that take place at times during the year.

A good session (usually during a "Named Storm") can see anything up to 60 out and my challenge is to capture the activities of all out, ideally doing something interesting and as we have some of the top professional and amateur windsurfers in the world sailing off the beach things can get very interesting indeed

The challenges are that its a South facing aspect so often shooting contre-jour, the action can be anywhere from a few yards off shore to over half a mile out and the wave / wind pattern is constantly changing so that it can be necessary to watch a strip of sea over a mile wide to spot where the next action is taking place.

This can result in over 6k shots (in sequences of 6-12 shots) during a 4 hour session, which need to be processed that evening or by the next morning latest

Add to that the fact that most of the time there will be sand, salt-spray and seaweed blowing about, with the risk of being hit by a rogue wave, being blown off my feet (both of which do happen now and then) and the risk of being hit by an out of control kiter or windsurf plank I sometimes wonder why at my advanced age and state of decrepitude I do it!

I guess the main reason that I've always been passionate about the sea, as a teenager loving to swim in the heavy surf off Hastings beach, then moving on to competitive dinghy racing and having moved back to the coast on retirement it seemed natural to take it up as a photographic subject.

Its also provided me with a large number of friends and acquaintances who are involved in the sport and lets me give them something back as they use the images in a variety of ways, including checking technique, producing images for their own use, website / sponsor use and probably most importantly, laughing at the mishaps of their fellow sailors

In my next section I will cover the kit I use, why I use it and techniques that I have found work for me

(I'm new to blogging so if you have any suggestions on how to improve, questions to ask or need clarification on anything please let me know)

A few pics to show what they get up to out there: