Wow, what a nail-biting week this has been. The first vote I received was a 3 and I immediately thought about all of those other kiteboarding challenge entries of mine that scored lower than expected. This time, however, it seems to be in the right challenge, not a Free study where they are not appreciated quite as much. I've never seen a score climb so consistently all week long before. At about 25 votes the score was at around 6.5 but it just kept climbing day after day. The problem was that every time that it climbed to the score that MattO had most recently posted, Matt would update his score to between 3/100ths to 5/100ths of a point higher than mine. It seemed like I never could catch him.
I approached this challenge with the mindset to arrange something beautiful that would hopefully appeal to voters. Expecting a ton of closeup action shots, I decided to incorporate action into a pretty scene that I expected would bring a few higher votes. This is pretty much the shot that I had in mind when I called my friend Ken and asked him if he needed any more shots of his products for his distribution company, Fuacata Sports. I imagined the clear shallow water along with a few clouds and I told him that it was important for me to include the kite in the picture. That is not easy to do when the kite is on 25 meter lines. Usually I ask the kiteboarders that I shoot to jump over me so that I can aim the lens upward and get them with the kite above them, but the wind was very light the entire week and at times Ken found it difficult to keep moving at all, much less to pull off a jump.
I do all of the product photography for Ken's company which is the sole distributor for Jimmy Lewis products (surfboards, kiteboards, and standup paddleboards) for North and South America. I also do all of the action shots for their promotional needs and catalogues. Here's their website where a lot of my photos are featured: Jimmy Lewis U.S.
I asked Ken to meet me at Crandon Park on Key Biscayne because this beach's proximity to the gulfstream means crystal clear water over it's white sand and sea grasses. That's where the turquoise and emerald colors of the water come from. He is not really over the reef in this shot. The first reef is actually about 3/4 of a mile out. I didn't want South Miami Beach's buildings in the background but the combination of the wind direction and the sun meant that this was the only direction that I could shoot and get good results. The problem was that I couldn't get a good shot of Ken from the front and get the kite in the shot at the same time. Coming back towards me the kite would be too far in front of him (to my left) to get it in the frame.
For shots like this I love to use the Tokina 12-24. It gives the viewer the feeling of being there in the area...and was I really there! Ken is passing so close by me that he could reach out and grab the camera if he wanted to. On one return pass going the other way I was intent on getting a closeup of the board cutting through the water for him to use in an upcoming catalog. I need to get one of those signs on side view mirrors that is customized for my use: "Objects in wide angle lens are closer than they appear" WHAM!!! I leaned over to get the closeup just as Ken was passing by and his shoulder collided with my head. The force of the collision knocked both of us down and I am lucky that I didn't drop my camera in the water. I don't like to use my underwater housing because it is so cumbersome and I can't change focal lengths with it, so I am really lucky that I didn't drown it.
I, again, have to thank my teammates on Team Arabasque for their never ending support and critiques of my daft draft entries. They were pretty much unanimous that this was the right choice from this shoot.
For those who are interested, here are a few more of my favorite kiteboarding shots and some that have been in a few magazines:
Statistics
Place: 5 out of 171 Avg (all users): 7.0335 Avg (commenters): 8.0000 Avg (participants): 6.8788 Avg (non-participants): 7.1239 Views since voting: 3462 Views during voting: 391 Votes: 179 Comments: 21 Favorites: 6 (view)
The hand dragging in the water strikes some emotional chord in me though I've never wind surfed. I think it makes a person want to be the wind surfer somehow. Just looks fun!
As for processing, I think you did a great job with that too. Nothing is too bold.
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