Kite Boarding

[jacobovs]

I went down to Crissy field and caught some snaps of a Kite boarding race. You can see Alcatraz in the background.

I like the shot of the skull juxtaposed in front of Alcatraz

[NoKnees]

The first shot is great, the second is pretty good (although it needs to be leveled to the horizon), but the third, although I see what you were trying to do, just didn't do anything for me...

That first shot would make a great poster... Would love to see that BIG.. ;)

[jacobovs]

The first shot is great, the second is pretty good (although it needs to be leveled to the horizon), but the third, although I see what you were trying to do, just didn't do anything for me...

That first shot would make a great poster... Would love to see that BIG.. ;)

Thanks for the feedback. Amazing about the second shot, I looked at that shot many times and never noticed the horizon. Some times the most obvious eludes us!

On your comment about the first shot as potential for a poster. Do you think the haze would make it less appealing as a poster. I always imagine that posters need to be almost perfect in terms of clarity.

[NoKnees]

Well, I think the haze helps keep the background from being distracting... You see that it's Alcatraz, but with it being hazy and soft back there, the water, rider and kite still pops out at you as the subject of the photo. Some might still think there is too much detail in the background for their taste, but I like it as is...

The only thing that is at all distracting is the red buoy, but that would be tough to clone out and isn't that big of a deal... I don't do much PP work, so I'm not sure what can be done about it...

[cm_mtb]

The first shot is awesome... congratulations on the feature!
I don't think the buoy would present much of a problem in ps. The water behind the wave that partially obscures the buoy is pretty uniform. I hadn't noticed the buoy until NoKnees mentioned it, but if you decided to turn this into a poster, I think it would be worth the small amount of effort to clone the buoy out.

[jacobovs]

The first shot is awesome... congratulations on the feature!
I don't think the buoy would present much of a problem in ps. The water behind the wave that partially obscures the buoy is pretty uniform. I hadn't noticed the buoy until NoKnees mentioned it, but if you decided to turn this into a poster, I think it would be worth the small amount of effort to clone the buoy out.

Thanks I appreciate the feedback.

[Photo-John]

Yeah, that first shot is the winner for me - hands down. I love the way you put the kit boarded right back against Alcatraz. What a great backdrop!

Can you give us some technical details? What lens did you use? And even more importantly, since this is a sports photography forum - how did you get accurate focus?

Thanks for sharing these. I posted a link to this one on our Twitter page.

[jacobovs]

Yeah, that first shot is the winner for me - hands down. I love the way you put the kit boarded right back against Alcatraz. What a great backdrop!

Can you give us some technical details? What lens did you use? And even more importantly, since this is a sports photography forum - how did you get accurate focus?

Thanks for sharing these. I posted a link to this one on our Twitter page.

Thanks,

It was the Nikkor 200-400 f4 iso 200 on my D3 with the TC 1.7X. The focus was not easy. I fired off at 9fps in bursts and most were in focus. I used the continuous focus to improve my chances .

[Photo-John]

Thanks,

It was the Nikkor 200-400 f4 iso 200 on my D3 with the TC 1.7X. The focus was not easy. I fired off at 9fps in bursts and most were in focus. I used the continuous focus to improve my chances .

Cool - thanks for the details. I was wondering more about the focus point strategy you were using. I almost only use the center point because it's usually the most accurate for high-speed subjects. But in this case, it obviously wouldn't work. So were using all of the focus points and letting the camera identify the subject? That's something I haven't really learned to trust yet. But if it worked for this photo, I'm impressed

Have you posted a review for your D3 yet? I am sure we don't have many reviews for the D3. If you haven't posted a review yet, please do. We need your reviews!

[jacobovs]

Cool - thanks for the details. I was wondering more about the focus point strategy you were using. I almost only use the center point because it's usually the most accurate for high-speed subjects. But in this case, it obviously wouldn't work. So were using all of the focus points and letting the camera identify the subject? That's something I haven't really learned to trust yet. But if it worked for this photo, I'm impressed

Have you posted a review for your D3 yet? I am sure we don't have many reviews for the D3. If you haven't posted a review yet, please do. We need your reviews!

Now that you mention it, I actually did shift the focus box all the way to the bottom right to maintain the rider in focus. It can get quite confusing because I was at times following different riders and had to furiously shift the box. Also on the D3 , I had the pic review on so at times I tried to shift the box and the screen in the back was engaged and I was shifting views on the screen instead of shifting the focus box. I later had to turn off the pic review.

About posting a review of the D3, I'm still learning about some of the cool features of this camera, and don't feel qualified to give a meaningful review.