Surfers

[GlenM]

Some shots of surfers taken with my new 55-250 lens.
Even at 250, the surfers were quite some way out, so some cropping has been applied.
Comments welcome
Thanks
Glen

[stevewe88]

Hi Glen
I like the last two but the colour cast is a shame in both images. It would look better to me if the orange sky was combined with the blue water from images 3 and 4. Or just try the whole thing in B&W?

Cheers
Steve

[Donald]

Yes, #3 and #4 (particularly #4) from the point of view of composition. Also very well exposed.

[GlenM]

Thanks for the comments.
I wasn't sure about the colours, but the sky was changing rapidly as the sun went down, so I pretty much left them as they were.

I initially did a b&W version, but then thought I would post the colour versions as I seem to mainly post b&w!

Here is a mono of #3

[Donald]

Here is a mono of #3

Mmm! Not sure.

It's left the surf looking a bit sludgy and grey. Maybe if you were to lift the levels just on the whites on that wave behind the surfer and on the front of the small wave in front of him? Or you could do it by a lightly dodging that area. But, having seen it, not sure that it produces a better result that the colour version.

Have to say that I don't mind the colour cast in #4. In fact, I like the effect.

[stevewe88]

Mmm! B&W doesn't really do it.

Having had another look at #4, if you cropped the very bottom piece of water away it might make all the difference as the colour isn't anywhere near as strong in the rest of the water.

[GlenM]

Agreed that the b&w just isn't right... More like grey&grey.
I quite like the colour cast as well, but I can't help thinking that it make it look a bit unrealistic, rather than a proper Cornish sunset.

[spngr311]

1, 2, and 3 aren't doing it for me. 1 and 2 are cropped too tight. Also, they aren't doing anything particularly interesting, just riding what looks like mushy messy waves. Exposure and color are good though.

The color cast is too strong on #3 to me. Although, it looks like the water is cold, so maybe the blue kind of works! Also, I'd have cropped it a little different, like put the guy more to the left and show more of the unbroken section/face of the wave. Oh, and the B&W doesn't work on that picture, there's too much whitewater.

The last one works for me. The colors kind of reminds me of a framed picture I have in my TV room (Taylor Knox at Todos Santos). Also, the cropping kind of conveys the distance he is from shore. Unfortunately, either his timing was off or you were a hair too early catching him before he finished his roundhouse cutback. Kind of like this (though the wave your guy is on looks bigger):



I find that even in the relatively close surf around here, I need a 300 or even my wife's 400 to get a lot of the action.

[GlenM]

I see what you mean about the close cropping, it doesn't seem to give the surfer any room to move.

To be honest, none of the surfers were great. Most were being taught, and so were not pulling any good moves! (not that I would necessarily captured any of the good moves anyway!)

Shots 3 and 4 (if I remember correctly) were taken early evening, and it is only spring in the UK so it was a cold day.

The irony is that on the last day of our hoiday, there was a local surf contest but we left before it started. So I missed the chance to practice with some better surfers.

Excellent picture you posted BTW. Really shows the action off well.

[spngr311]

Beginners are very hard to get good shots of. Sucks that you missed out on getting the competitive surfers! That would've been great practice, almost every wave would've given you a chance to get your timing down!

Thanks for the compliment - I live in one of the surfing hotspots in the US, so there is plenty of subject matter. Warm weather all year round and lots of coast line helps a lot, too.