Category Archives: sport

Surfers

The bay in Santa Cruz was not only filled with wildlife. It also had a fair number of surfers. Since I was looking at a calm surface of water, I was not entirely sure what they were hoping for. Then, all of a sudden and with no apparent warning, a wave blasted up the rock face below us sending spray above our level. I was a touch surprised! It seems that there are periodic waves that come in from offshore and funnel into the bay providing some surfable waves. The guys were hanging around waiting for these.

Since I was more focused on the wildlife, I wasn’t always paying attention to the surfers. However, periodically I did see one of them getting ready to try and catch a wave and I switched my attention to them. The angle often meant that they were getting obscured by the wave they were riding. Some of them weren’t being too successful at catching a wave at all. There were a few, though, who seemed to be a lot better at this and managed to get some decent rides in. One even helped me out with a spectacular dismount!

Kankakee Powerboat Nationals

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My friend Joel has introduced me to many things that are fun to shoot. One of them is powerboat racing and the Nationals at Kankakee are particularly good fun to watch. Taking place on the Kankakee River, it is a great location for spectators since you can be on either side of the river and still be close to the action. With the boats screaming up and down the river, they are close to you a lot of the time and you feel really involved with the action.

There are a variety of classes of boat taking part. The engines in use also determine the class so the same boat can race in different classes with different engines bolted on the back. Straight line speed of the boats is impressive but I find the cornering to be even better. They hit the corners at speed and then just turn. They seem to cut into the water and turn in no distance at all. They throw up some spray and then blast down the next straight.

The races are fast and furious and the action means that you can be shooting almost constantly. In fact, that was exactly what I was doing. So many shots. After a couple of races, I realized I needed to pace myself or I would end up running out of cards before the day was out. Even so, I still ended up with an awful lot of shots to go through. Combined with a bunch of other events shortly afterwards, it meant it took me quite a while to get through the whole shoot. However, I have managed to narrow it down a bit and these shots are hopefully a good summary of the day.

Some Older Skydiving

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Another trip back in time today. I seem to be coming across older shots when looking for something else and they trigger the idea that they would have been blog posts had I been writing a blog at that time. Today, it is a bit of skydiving. The Clow Cavalcade of Planes is a great event held by a local airfield southwest of Chicago. I wrote a piece about this year’s Cavalcade previously and you can find that here if you want to check back.

A couple of years ago, I was at the event and spent a bunch of time with the team that carry out skydiving demonstrations during the show. Clow is under the airspace leading into Midway and O’Hare so there is a limit of about 3,500’ on how high they can jump from but that is enough to get quickly under the canopy. When the weather cooperates (which it didn’t this year), they jump multiple times during the day. I got shots of them prepping their parachutes, under canopy and coming in to land. I also got to go up on a couple of the jumps. The first was a bit of an unusual one. They were jumping from Midwest Helicopters’ S-58T. I was in their normal jump ship, the Cessna 182. The helicopter had a far higher rate of climb than us so, while we were airborne ahead of them, it climbed up passed us and we had to catch up. Then we orbited them as they jumped. Quite an unusual thing to see.

I also rode up in the 182 when they were jumping from it. There was only one seat in the plan and that was occupied by the pilot. I sat on the floor with my back to the instrument panel with the straps across my legs and they sat in the back. Plenty of time for group shots as we climbed and then time to open the door. It was hinged at the top and the airflow held it open. When you are sitting on the floor and that door opens right next to you for the first time, it is an interesting experience seeing nothing between you and the ground. Funny how quickly you adapt though.

Then they took it in turns to jump. There was a step on the gear leg they could rest on and the wing strut was also something to hang from. A lot of good poses before letting go. Then we side-slipped to let the door close, latched it shut and descended as fast as we could. It was a fun shoot and something I would like to do again sometime. We shall see if the opportunity presents itself again.

Powerboats

My friend Joel is always a good source of interesting things to do. He recently came up with a great day out. Michigan City in Indiana plays host to an offshore power-boating race. The offshore boats are substantial boats that are capable of operating well out in the water. In this case, though, the course was set close in to shore so it was easy for spectators to watch.

Offshore powerboats are pretty impressive beasts. They are big boats and come in a variety of designs. The most obvious distinction is whether they are a monohull or a catamaran. That seemed to make a big difference on this course which had two straights with a pretty tight turn at each end. The cats seemed to be far better suited to making the turn than the monohulls and that advantage was not to be overcome in the races.

The boats have two crew on board. For those that are not familiar with this type of power boating, one is the driver and the other is the throttle man. Driving seems pretty self explanatory but the throttle job is a lot more nuanced than you might guess. These boats have very big engines and deliver a huge amount of power to the props. If they were racing on a smooth surface, all might be okay and you could set your power and go. However, the water is not smooth and so the boat tends to jump around a lot. The trim of the boat can be set by flaps on the back but, every time the boat gets airborne (and they get airborne quite a lot), the props can come out of the water.

This is when the throttle man earns his cash. A powerful engine that suddenly goes from pushing against a propeller in water to pushing against air is liable to accelerate very rapidly. In days gone by, the outcome of this was a cooked engine. Apparently, the limiters on the engines now work pretty well but it is still an art to maintaining the power when in the water but pulling it back as the props come clear of the surface. There is a lot of cycling on the throttles during a race.

The part that the crew like the least is, conversely, the part that the spectator likes the most. As I go through images, the ones that look the most dynamic are the ones when the boat is out of the water. Look at a shot of a powerboat low in the water and it is hard to appreciate that it is really moving. See it in mid air as it launches off a wave with the props spinning in nothing much and you know that it isn’t hanging around. Being in the air is bad for the crew for more than one reason. With no prop in the water, there is no thrust. Admittedly, the air resistance is less than they get in water but, when up on the step and with the prop doing its work, they are best able to move on. Of course, the thump that is the return to the water is not comfortable, even with the shock absorbing seats they have, and it slows them down a bit too.

It would be remiss of me to not mention that there were some aviation themed opportunities at the races too. A helicopter was filming the races and a couple of planes were flying by during breaks in the racing. However, they will get their own posts another day. Thanks for the suggestion and the company Joel and it was good to meet Chris as well, an ex-pat Welshman with an aerospace background! We Brits get everywhere!

Century Link Field

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Just south of the station in Seattle is the pair of sports fields that house some of the cities franchises. Century Link Field is the home of the Seattle Seahawks and the Sounders MLS team. Beyond that is Safeco Field where the Mariners play. I had a quick look at Century Link Field while I was passing. Since the season was over, everything was very quiet. The field was gated so I couldn’t go in. There may have been tours available but I wasn’t there with enough time to look around properly.

The field was quite open next to a large parking lot so getting a full view of it was not tricky. The evening light was very directional with the harsh shadows but it was still not too bad. I also climbed up the steps to peer inside. You could see a good portion of the ground but the light was again quite harsh. Below I also include an aerial view taken when I was coming in to Seattle.

Windsurfing and Kiteboarding

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Being on the north side of the island of Maui, we were also able to see a bit of the watersport activity that people can get up to. The north shore is famous for surfing of course with Jaws being the most well known of the surfing locations. That is a little inaccessible and the surf is not huge at the time of year we were there. However, there are plenty of other ways to have fun.

With the steady, strong breeze, this is a great spot for windsurfing or kiteboarding. As we wandered along the shore near our lunch location, we could see plenty of people out having some fun. They were making great progress as a result of the strong winds and were great to watch. It is always fun to see someone who is good at something doing it well. I grabbed a few shots before we went on our (far more leisurely) way.

A Little Golden Knights Video

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In my previous post I talked about my trip up with the Golden Knights. It was a lot of fun and the primary goal was to get some images and information for the article. However, since I was there, I decided to grab some video too. I had a combination of the video capabilities of my SLRs as well as a GoPro I mounted on a wrist strap. I tried to make this point in roughly the right direction but it was a bit of a struggle when I was focused on shooting stills.

Anyway, excuses aside, I knocked together a short edit of some of the footage I got. Still not going to get the Emmy people excited but hopefully it gives a bit more of a feel for what it was like on the flight.

Some Minor League Fun

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A recent work trip took me to Indianapolis for a few days. A client was down there at a facility and I was meeting with them on a number of topics over a few days. Since we were all staying away from home, we had free time at the end of the day when we could go out and see what the local area had to offer. The first night I was there, the rest of the guys had already worked out what they wanted to do so I was happy to tag along.

Indianapolis has a minor league baseball team, the Indians. They are based at a nice ballpark close the the heart of downtown. For those that have been following this blog for a while, you will recall that Nancy and I had a weekend in Indianapolis last year when the baby elephant was first appearing in public at the zoo. The hotel we stayed in was very close to the ballpark and from one end of the building you got a great view of it from above.

This time I was going to get to see the inside of the park and enjoy an evening of baseball. It should be noted that I am not much of a baseball fan. I know some imports like me that are huge fans of the game but I have never really got into it. I used to think that it was something you had to grow up with but that is obviously not the case given the friends I have that have got into it. For me, it is another sport I am happy to watch but one that doesn’t get me passionate. As with many sports, though, seeing it in person is so much more fun than watching it on TV.

A trip to the ballpark is a social experience for me. You get to hang out in a (usually) good-natured crowd, watch some sport, eat some food that you wouldn’t normally bother with and drink some beer. On a warm evening, there really isn’t much to complain about with that. If you don’t know either of the teams, you tend to root for the home guys and, in this case, that worked out pretty well since they won convincingly.

I took my camera along because I knew that we were heading to the game before I left home. It was an evening game and the stand was blocking the sun from the west so light was always going to be an issue. As the game wore on, the ISO settings went higher and higher. Looking at the shots at full zoom, they really show the impact of the noise. However, since these are small versions of the shots, they shouldn’t look too bad. They were never intended for publication so it is far better to have clarity of the shot than to have a lot of blurry shots with low noise!

I was shooting with the 100-400 which is not a great low light lens at the best of times but it did reasonably well. I also took along the fisheye zoom since a sports stadium is an interesting shape for that type of lens. The park allowed you to walk all around the perimeter so I did take a stroll at one point to see what everything looked like from other parts of the ground. It was nice to see the different perspectives.

I did try shooting from directly behind the batter’s position as the pitcher faced me. The netting is a problem here, of course. A faster lens may have better allowed me to take the net out of focus but it was already pretty dark by then so I was fighting on a few fronts. It didn’t really matter of course. I was doing this for fun and if the shots are not quite Sports Illustrated standard, I am not going to lose too much sleep.

A fun night out and a win for “our” team. In the end, that was enough and getting to take a few pictures along the way only made it better. Thanks for the idea guys.

Skating Action

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Some time last year I wrote a blog post about photographing some guys jumping bikes in a park here in Chicago. If you want to check that out, this is the post. I had been inspired by a great book by Syl Arena on flash photography and what can be achieved to freeze fast action and to add drama to the shots. This has also got me interested in trying another sport, skating (the skateboard variety, not ice). They are a couple of skate parks along Lakeshore Drive in Chicago, one north of us and one south. I had never before managed to time it right to get to one of them but finally I have done it.

I got the park and a few people were skating around. I watched for a while to see who was a more comfortable skater before asking whether anyone would let me take their picture. One guy, Konrad, was kind of okay with the idea but seemed a bit skeptical. Most other people were not keen. Konrad had one location he had been making some good moves on so we set up there. We grabbed a few shots from different angles with me mainly using a single light triggered by cable rather than IR. This is tough stuff to do so you can’t just have them do it over again until you are happy. They get worn out.

We grabbed a few shots and then Konrad went off to skate some other parts of the park. When I got back, the shots were not too bad. The use of a single light was not ideal as, with the deck in front you get quite a shadow cast. Also, it reflected strongly which tended to limit the light on him. Two lights will definitely be better. Fortunately, a little work in Lightroom managed to enhance the balance on him a bit. A first time out and not too bad. Plenty to improve on next time though.

Snocross in Short Sleeves

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March in Wisconsin seems like a pretty good time to schedule a snowmobile race. Unfortunately, that would mean that you didn’t know this year was going to be particularly mild all winter and especially so in March. So it was that the final round of the AMSOil ISOC Snocross race was scheduled for the Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva WI in mid-March.

Just because it was warm, didn’t mean there wouldn’t be racing though. Congratulations to the organizers who made good use of their snow cannons to put a base of snow down on a basic course. Apparently, it was a bit truncated compared to previous years but there was a course. Moreover, the course managed to hold together as the air temperature made its way up to the high 70s (if not creeping into the 80s!). I wondered whether this great job of combating the conditions extended to the clothing the racers wore. I doubt too much snowmobile racing clothing is designed for the high 70s. I suspect it is more about staying warm. They were probably pretty toasty!

I hadn’t applied for media credentials for this event so was only shooting from the public areas. With the course laid out the way it was, this really didn’t prove to be too limiting. There were a few shots I would like to have got but it really didn’t make too much of a difference. The action is close to the people most of the time and they come by pretty frequently so there is usually plenty to see.

I was pretty happy with the outcome to be honest. It was a fun day out and I spent it with a good bunch of guys as well. We would split up at times but end up back at similar locations before too long so it worked well. One of those disappointing things about shooting an action sport like this is that you find yourself focusing on a particular rider and hear a groan from the crowd. This is a sign that someone has wiped out quite dramatically but all you see is them getting up and retrieving their machine unless you get lucky – certainly luckier than the racer!

Now I just have to work out what the real name is for the machine. I always thought they were snowmobiles but then I watched some stuff from Alaska that said the people in the know call them snowmachines. The announcers at this event didn’t seem to be aware of that so I am just as in the dark as I was beforehand. Anyone know the right term?