North Coast Surfing rolls on

[Outdoorsman]

Here's one I forgot to post a few months ago- the ony good one from a typically horrible shoot at Point Saint George, the most northern point break in California
The best surfing in town is at The Point, as the local waveriders call it. But the best time of year to surf it is winter, or at least under stormy conditions. And in order to get close enough (even at 600mm) I have to traverse a big rock/tidepool field that's underwater during high tide (which is also the best time to surf) and covered with slippery slimy stuff and no place to be comfortable. This day was pouring rain and blowing wind and bitter cold. And it was July...
I kind of like this pic, however. It's not really a stunning action shot, but it has a certain appeal that I can't quite find the words for.

[natatbeach]

a smidgen more off the bottom and I love this...the details in the water and the fogginess...it really is a striking shot my two cents...

[Irish]

I like this shot Outdoorsman........I like the motion of the waves and the misty background. The relaxed pose of the surfer belies his skill..... not the usual pose I am used to seeing on surfing shots.

Andy S

[Clicker]

I really like the foggy look and blue sky, and how you can barely make out some land in the distance, It also struck me how this was so different ( as Irish said) from most surfing shots, we all see them - hands out knees bent - very typical, but yours is different and I like that, That's one of the things that makes an interesting shot - showing a subject as its not usually viewed, and you did an excellent job of conveying this. It makes all that time on that slippery slimey rock worthwhile!
One nitpick, and I feel bad about saying this, because its gonna change the way you view this photo...... The shadow of his left hand, as luck would have it....placement is pretty bad, Its jutting out from his pelvic ( mmm.... ) Region.

sorry, ( cringe) thats what i see....
don't hate me.

time for a cloning tool?

Rachel

[Elysian]

Beautiful waves and depth, but the surfer looks like a golfer who got lost on a surf board, sorry, but that's the way I see it. 'Unusual' can have its strength, but in this example it doesn't have a lot of impact on me. The fact that the strongest horizontal line is exactly in the middle (as is the surfer) has a negative influence on the strength of the composition in my view.

Just my $0,02 of course

[Outdoorsman]

Hey, thanks all for the comments! Especially Elysian- I like to hear what people don't like about my work just as much as I like to hear what they do like. I realize now that the composition is weak, regardless of the interesting subject matter. I knew there was something wrong, but it never occurred to me to think about his position in the frame. The reason being that I have a very hard time with AF when using my converter- the plane of focus is actually a little to the right of the surfer- the camera often picks the wrong AF point when set to servo AF, and if I set any specific point, AF won't work at all. As it is, I have to predict when the surfer is going to paddle for a wave and start AF then, because the lens will hunt all the way from inifinity to closest focusing distance and then settle on the subject, no matter what. By the time the lens is done with that, the surfer is usally on the wave. And with the conditions I was shooting in that day, AF was almost useless. But at 600mm, on a dim, foggy, rainy day like that one, manually focusing is just about impossible. Still, I can't blame equipment for lousy composition. I suppose this might have been a good time to think before hitting the button.
The pose he's in is kind of a "this wave sucks so I'm gonna just kind of slouch and ride it in" pose. And I never even noticed the obscene "appendage" until it was pointed out to me, thank you very much Clicker! ;) Yes, a little cloning is in order!
Great critiques, guys, thank you very much.