Time to get into some sports photography and the best way is by making yourself sea sick.
So where do we start ?
“If you want to shoot sailing races leave your sea sickness at home put some waterproof clothes and lets get started”
I am not going to give you all the technical stuff in shooting sailing races. Instead I will be guiding you to the things no one will tell you.
First thing first.
Get the idea !!! Have you checked sailing magazines ? Have you done your research what a sailing race includes ? have you view photos from sailing races. Half the job done. Because you have checked to the above questions you will be in water in no time shooting like a pro.
Then get yourself the best place in the race. Be the first in the pit stop.
You may know your stuff about photography and your gear and you may be a guru in shooting star trails and what have you, but when it comes to sports and in particular sailing you need to know a few things about sailing itself. Most of all you need to position yourself in the best place to get those cracking shots that will make you stand out of the crowd.
Forget shooting for the shore. Your subject will be distant and unless you carry a state of art gear your shots wont have the wow factor.
Contact the Organizers beforehand and get yourself in one of the following boats.
- Race Committee Boat
- Instructor Boat
- Hired boat after obtaining license from the organizers
Equipment you will need
- Life jacket that is comfortable. Why ? Because your life won't be in your hands. You have someone else driving the boat.
- A hat. Getting on a boat as stated above will mean hours exposed in those weather conditions and with a sunny day apart from good photos will also obtain a sun burn.
- Insurance for your gear. And by the way, if you can afford to have a second camera and some basic entry level lenses by all means use those. You will still have great photos and your expensive gear intact from salt water.
- Waterproof equipment bag. You may need extra batteries, some more storage cards and maybe one more lens, so it will be a good idea to have a waterproof bag to have then in. Plus there will be times that there will be nothing happening and you will need to put your camera somewhere nice and warm for it to rest.
- A mid range DSLR camera and I have used an 18-300mm lens that covered all my needs.
- Lens hood. A must. Will all that sun coming towards your lens it will definitely be a great accessory to have with you.
- UV/Haze filter and a polarizing filter will be great to have but still even without them you can post process your photos and still have a good result.
Before getting all excited and start shooting consider this:
You will need to give away some of your photos to the organizers and participants. Have it in mind so that what you shoot may match one of the requirements below.
- Photographs for club, national class association or other magazine or web publication. For these, you will want to concentrate on the top finishers in the event.
- Photographs of all participants to encourage participation. If you get a serviceable photograph of the last place finisher, you will make this person’s year and probably earn a place as a screen saver photograph.
- Sequential photographs for instructional articles. Group and award presentation photos.
Exposure
With an image stabilized lens, ISO 200, 1/400 of a second and f5.6 to f11 has worked well. If your camera’s sensor has low noise at ISOs above 200, by all means use higher shutter speeds.
Autofocus Mode
This is counter-intuitive for sports photography, but single-shot autofocus mode generally works best. Although continuous focus works well for other moving action, it generally does not work well in sailing. Because the shooting platform is moving in three axes and the subject is moving in three axes, continuous mode will frequently lose it’s lock on the subject and go through the process of re-acquiring a focus lock. Since the subject is relatively slow-moving, a focus from a half-press of the shutter is good for several seconds, and is much more reliable.
Forget the horizon. Getting the horizon straight is a flexible Concept in Sailing Photography
Figuring out the orientation for sailing photos can be a challenge; the boat is almost never level. Since you will be shooting handheld and quickly from a platform that is bouncing around, is unlikely that many of your images will be perfectly level.
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