Tag Archives: sport

Crissy Field Windsurfers

wpid10508-C59F8577.jpgOne weekend afternoon, we ended a day out by heading down to Crissy Field in San Francisco. With the nice weather on the bay, plenty of people were out making the most of things. This included a bunch of kids paddling in the water and a lot more people out either windsurfing or kite-boarding. At this time of day, the sun is off to the west so backlights anything that is in the direction of the Golden Gate Bridge. However, this had a pretty pleasing effect with the bridge both backlit and also in the edge of some fog that was lingering out in the entrance to the bay. The backlight also worked well with the sails and kites that the people were using out on the water.

wpid10512-C59F8585.jpgI wasn’t shooting with the longest lens but it was enough to get a good view of the guys out there. One of the guys had a foil on his board which meant he was well out of the water when he had some speed. Others were getting plenty of air which always looks cool. Having so many of them zooming around at one time looked very nice. I might have to go back specifically to shoot this I a bit more detail. Shortly before we left, we even managed to get a Beaver on floats flying through the scene. I can always squeeze an aviation theme in if I try (as if getting air or foiling wasn’t enough).

Laguna Seca

wpid9934-AU0E6726.jpgWhen we lived in Chicago, I enjoyed taking trips to the various motor racing venues nearby. The move west has not taken away the options. There are two race tracks within easy reach. Sonoma Raceway is less than an hour from us and just over an hour and a half in the opposite direction is Laguna Seca. They were hosting a big race weekend and we decided to take in the final day.

wpid9920-AU0E6430.jpgThe main race was a combination of two classes from previous years. American Le Mans and GT cars were in a new format this year and this was to be the prime event of a weekend of racing. There were also other support races taking part. We arrived mid-morning and the racing was already underway. A lower class race involving prototype and GT cars was in full swing and we settled down to watch some of the action.

wpid9916-AU0E6275.jpgI had not gone primarily to take pictures but I had taken along some gear. Shooting at race tracks is a mixed business. The best spots are usually in areas that are restricted and only accredited media are allowed in there. However, you can find good angles but just need longer lenses to get the shots. Sun on race tracks does tend to lead to heat haze so there is a limit on what you can get.

wpid9909-AU0E6102.jpgAdd to this that the areas that get you closest to the track are well protected and you have fence to shoot through. There is nothing you can do about this. However, I did figure that going with as low a shutter speed as possible in these cases would tend to blur out a lot of the fencing and reduce its impact. However, a fence post will still be conspicuous in the shot and you have a low keeper rate given the shutter speeds and the pace with which they are passing you.

wpid9885-AU0E5485.jpgThe thing with shooting motor sports is to try and emphasize the speed. There are some angles that look dynamic anyway but a lot of time, if the car is frozen, there is no impact to the shot. At least the wheels have to be blurred and preferably the background. It is always a compromise but it does make for some good challenges.

wpid9889-C59F6326.jpgThere were some interesting cars to be seen. Even as we walked to the stands, there was a lineup of a couple of dozen Ferraris. Quite a lot of money stored in that line. One of them was an Enzo. I have only seen those a couple of times. There was also a cool looking prototype car called the Deltawing. For some reason it did not start the race with the other cars so it spent the entire race working its way up through the field. It was certainly a curious looking beast.

wpid9932-AU0E6617.jpgThe most famous part of the track is the Corkscrew. This is a ridge followed by a tight left-hander that drops down the side of the hill and cuts back right. It is a tricky turn and I imagine is quite something to do at speed. The layout of the hillside makes it a great place to watch the cars come by and we weren’t alone in stopping off there. A class of Lamborghinis was racing while there and they provided a lot of entertainment as there seemed to be some closely matched groups hounding each other around the circuit.

wpid9907-C59F6399.jpgThe place is great for watching racing and, even during a busy event, you never felt too crowded. Even walking through the paddock was a relaxed thing to do. They did open the hot pits ahead of the final race and that did look pretty jammed but we chose to head elsewhere ahead of the main race. I will definitely go back and would recommend it to anyone interested in motor racing and maybe even those who had not through they were. Our entire group had a great day.

More Fort Point

wpid9537-C59F3270.jpgContinuing my theme of return visits to take Mum to places, Fort Point was on the itinerary. Always a cool place to visit on a nice day and it benefited from the swell resulting in some great waves crashing up against the fort. Also, we saw some guys taking advantage of the swell to do some surfing alongside the fort. Very cool although they had to know what they were doing since, if you rode all the way in, a rocky wall awaited you! (This also meant that choosing your parking space was a big deal unless you wanted the car to be covered in salt water!)

Surfing Contest

wpid8915-AU0E1353.jpgI will freely admit that I am a lucky guy.  There are plenty of times when I can say that things have worked out well when there was no good reason for them to do so.  One such occurrence was a recent trip to Santa Cruz.  This was not intended to be a long stop but I was heading by en route to something else and I wanted to pay another visit to the overlook to Natural Bridges State Beach which has a large colony of pelicans.  I had been there before as described here and was hoping to get some better light for another chance to get some shots.  As it worked out, the weather was not to clear when I arrived and then I discovered that the pelicans were amazingly absent and the rocks were covered in cormorants instead.  (No bad thing if you like cormorants as I do but that wasn’t why I was there.)

wpid8901-AU0E1154.jpgSo, we turned and headed along the shore for a while and what should we come across?  A surfing competition.  We had watched the surfing here before but having a competition combined with a decent swell from recent offshore storms meant the there were a lot more surfers out and they were of a pretty high caliber.  The plan was not to be here too long but we couldn’t resist catching a bit of the action.  Finding a parking space was a bit harder due to the popularity of the event but we found a spot and walked along to catch some action.  Some of the juniors were competing while we were there.  The commentary from the event organizers was hilarious as they discussed the “squids” and some of them were surfing very well.  Meanwhile, a lot of the locals were also out enjoying the conditions.  I liked the idea that passersby could be in there with the competitors.  It seemed a bit like playing football on the side of an NFL game!

wpid8913-AU0E1341.jpgThe surfers could go either left or right the way the waves were breaking so we sometimes had them coming right at us which was cool.  Watching them all trying to catch the wave as it came through and seeing who actually got up was good fun.  One guy was out on his paddle board and he really did get some speed up as he surfed back in.  As a lucky add-on to the day, this was certainly worthwhile.

Surfers

wpid8310-C59F0336.jpgThe 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.

wpid8302-C59F0246.jpgSince 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

wpid8181-AU0E6147.jpgMy 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.

wpid8173-C59F8549.jpgThere 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.

wpid8183-AU0E6595.jpgThe 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

wpid7625-C59F5898.jpgAnother 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.

wpid7616-C59F5834.jpgA 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.

wpid7602-C59F5035.jpgI 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.

wpid7618-C59F5876.jpgThen 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.

Windsurfing and Kiteboarding

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

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.