#658. Airborne

I ended up at Texas City Dike this past weekend. It's been a while since I was down there photographing the wind surfers so it took me a little while to remember how to do it. It pretty much requires the AI Servo focus mode and focusing set on as many points as your camera will do! In the summer I've been known to go out into the water for my shots but in wet suit weather I think I'll have to stay on dry land! Some said the water temp was in the low 50s!

Title: "Airborne"


Shot data: 1/500s f/8.0 at 400.0mm iso125
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 100-400mm L zoom
Post-processing: Adobe Camera Raw > Photoshop CS4 > Topaz Adjust plugin > texture from flypapertextures.blogspot.com

Back to Kitesurfing

Here are the remaining kitesurfing shots from last weekend that I plan to post. I really enjoy the whole experience of photographing the kitesurfers at Texas City Dike a lot. I could easily return to the Dike this weekend for more but I want to keep my photography (and the posts to my blog) fresh so my plan is to move on to something different for a while. Anyway, I hope you enjoy these pics!



I have noticed that I have at least one photo of every kitesurfer I have photographed in this exact pose. I assume that this position is somewhat restful, at least for the off arm. :-)



I love this shot because of the matching angles of the kitesurfer's board and the windsurfer's sail in the background.

A note about location: All of the kitesurfing shot's I have posted are taken from the levee rather than the Dike itself (it all makes up the Texas City Dike Recreational Area). The very distant buildings you see in the background of this shot are located on Galveston Island. The dike itself is between me and Galveston Island but is very difficult to see in this low resolution photo.

More Trapeze Work!

Same kitesurfer as in yesterday's post but doing a different trick!

Trapeze Artist

I don't know the official name of the part of a kitesurfing rig you hold on to but this shot made me think that "trapeze" might be appropriate! I'll have to ask one of the surfers next time I'm at Texas City Dike.

Big Fish

Yesterday I posted photos of two fairly common sights one might see at the Texas City Dike. Today's photos, from the same trip to the Dike this past weekend, are of a less common site. This guy is a 676 pound Tiger Shark! Although this is the by far the biggest fish I have ever seen I understand that it is no where near the Texas record which is over 1,000 pounds. The shark was caught during a week long fishing tournament based at the Texas City Dike. I asked the guy updating the tournament's leader board where it was caught and he said "in the water!". I might as well have asked the shark!

Photos taken with a Canon 40D, 100-400mm zoom lens. HDR conversion was made using the most excellent Photomatix!

Get Close!

This past weekend the photo club I belong to had a field trip to the Kemah Boardwalk and the Texas City Dike. It never fails that I look forward to our club's field trips with a very high level of anticipation. I imagine taking great photos that will change the world and make me rich and famous. It is no wonder that I usually end up being mostly disappointed when I return home and examine my day's shots on the computer screen. Howerver since I almost always learn something new and valuable about photography on the field trips and since I really enjoy the company of the other club members and the shared photography experience, I know at the end of the day I will be just as excited about the next field trip as I was the last.

On windy days the Texas City Dike is home to sailing, wind surfing, and kite boarding. Regardless of wind conditions there are always folks fishing, either wade fishing from the bay side of the dike or fishing from the bank on the ship channel side. Campers, swimmers, and picnickers round out the typical cast of characters.

I ended up with a lot of shots like these:




I'm happy enough with these two shots but on the vast majority of shots I took I either wasn't in a good position to shoot from in the first place or wasn't close enough. As a result I ended up with a lot of shots of people's backsides and of litte tiny figures in the distance. Sometimes I combined these mistakes and ended up with tiny shots of people's backsides. Oh well, next time I'll remember what I did wrong and hopefully correct for it.

Main lesson learned from the weekend: GET CLOSE