Kite Surfers C&C please

[matman4u]

While driving down a beachside road in Florida, I noticed some kite surfers. While never shooting any action sports or anything like this before, I decided to give it a try.

I have seen several threads hear lately on shooting kite surfers. The first thing that always mentioned is the challenge of capturing the kite and the surfer in the same shot, due to the length of the kite strings. This became extemely apparent to me from the second that I stepped onto the beach.

The other challenges for me were definelty the speed that the surfers move at and the fact that they are always at a different distance with every pass of the beach. I switched to manual focus, got as close as I could without getting wet and hoped for the best.

Your C&C would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Matt

[FrankMi]

It looks like you did fairly well Matt. These are great images that capture the action. I can see where the full scene as in #1 is important to a collection of images to get the perspective of what is happening; the dynamics of the action in the last shot is where it really comes together. Nice job!

[matman4u]

Thanks Frank. Like you said, in the beginning all of my shots were of both the kite and the surfer. I soon came to realize the the real action was the surfer. Not to mention, that once they noticed me, they started coming a little closer and "hamming" it up a little.

[Donald]

I soon came to realize the the real action was the surfer.

I think that's true, but there's still a case to be made for a shot with both kite and surfer being able to make an impact and I think the evidence of that comes with ............

I think it's really good image and much stronger than the first or second in the series, which also feature kite and surfer. And I think that's down solely to composition.

The first and second are okay .... but maybe a bit boring. This third one, on the other hand and in my opinion, has got a lot more energy about it. I think that's due in part to the fact that the relative positions of the kite and the person work well. They make for a very strong diagonal from top left to bottom right (just the way we in the west read a book). There seems to be a higher vantage point which, although it places the horizon nearer the centre line, works for me because it gives us a better sense of the vastness of the ocean.

So, I don't disagree with the point about getting close in on the surfer, but I think this one is good.

[matman4u]

I agree Donald.I think that one may be my favorite too.
Here are 2 more, 1 up close and 1 with the kite.