Can you use a smartphone to get windsurfing photos – the answer is yes. The photos may produce what you can with a DSLR but if you happen to at the beach with your family and people are windsurfing, why not use you smartphone to grab a few photos.
Sailing photos from a different angle
Not everyone can spend the money on a helicopter to achieve aerial sailing photos. I needed an alternative for a regatta that was happening in my local area, so the idea came to climb the mast of a yacht and spend the day up the mast to achieve a different angle for sailing photos. Not quite looking straight down like you could in a helicopter but enough that the photos don’t show the background on a tight photo of a boat.
The event was the 2012/2013 Cherub National Titles held on Lake Macquarie, hosted by the Belmont 16ft Skiff Club.
This is the view from a GoPro camera mounted on my head while i’m shooting the event.
It was quite a challenging angle to shoot from, the yacht was motoring but the waves still made the boat move around quite a bit, this movement gets exaggerated the further up the mast you get so I needed to hang on and was using my legs to wrap around the spare halyards (ropes) to try and steady myself.
Camera settings were very similar to shooting from a boat, high shutter speed in the range on 1/2500 second to stop the action and keep the images sharp from me moving around.
Overall I am happy with the results from the DSLR. It achieved a different angle that made the boats stand out instead of being lost in the background when shooting from water level. Next I just need to keep the GoPro clean so the images are not hazy.
Cherub Nationals 2012 – Day 3
Day 3 of the 2012 Cherub National titles saw a very good NE sea breeze blowing across Belmont Bay on Lake Macquarie. Todays images below.
On a side note : To the official from the host club – Thanks for telling us what you think (hold back on the language next time) and threats to ban us from the course…. stop power tripping, look behind you and get out of the way of the boats.
2012 Cherub National Titles – Day 2
All images taken from the slip at Belmont, tomorrows forecast for strong NE breeze, should be much better than todays lighter SE breeze. Planning on getting out on the water to shot so should get a few closer images. More to come tomorrow…
Favourite images from 2012
A couple of favourite images from 2012.
