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So there I was, too late for the first race. I missed the USA win and the near disaster for the Kiwis.
Time got away from me this morning. "No problem" I say to myself. There is a second race and I have a good spot in mind. And all day parking is only $5 - a huge bargain for San Francisco.
So I head up to the entrance of the Golden Gate Bridge, where people who are going to walk across park their cars. I find a spot after a short wait for someone to leave and walk down to set up my tripod.
I am a lot closer than last time but I can only really get good shots around the Windward Gate. There is a bush kind of in the way, but I can work around it.
I see them drifting around getting into position. I take a few shots, but the shots I want are of the boats up off the water going full speed, and then other shots where they are tacking around the gates. So I don't waste much time shooting what I am not interested in, in particular.
The race starts, they head down to the Leeward gate, I am ready to shoot them approaching and rounding the turn.... I am waiting, and waiting and waiting. All of a sudden the boats head to the finish line! What the ????
Keep in mind that I am up on a hill and I am in shirtsleeves. The wind is steady but not blowing hard. Yet they cancel a sailboat race on account of TOO MUCH WIND?????? All I can say is that 22.6 knots is not as hard a wind as I thought it would take to cancel a race. I was severely disappointed. I never even put on my windbreaker like I did last Sunday.
There are lots of boats sailing all over that bay that cost a tiny fraction of what those racing boats cost, and they seem to be able to speed around all over the bay. Oh well. There is always tomorrow. I will get there earlier next time.
Craig,
I gave autofocus a run today. It is tough when the subject is small, and a lot of them don't look right. They look slightly double exposed. But when the subject was closer it came out pretty good.
I also did a better job at staying off of the lowest two f/stops on the lens, and at keeping the shutter speed fast enough.
In any case, if this guy can sail around, why can't a Billion Dollar boat? Are they that fragile?
Craig,
I promised my wife I would take her out to dinner.
This should hold you until I get back to post the rest.
I hope thats from one we won!
Nope! That was from the first race today.
Here are a bunch of pics. I had a good day. For the first race I had to shoot up and over a short guy with a long lens. but for the second race, the guy right next to us had to leave so I grabbed the corner of the dock. Not a bad place at all.
I did my best to be fair when I was shooting. I didn't want to have to explain why I didn't have many shots of Craig's team.
This next one is right in front of Alcatraz Island. It never occurred to me that taking an Alcatraz tour at just the right time of day might be a really good idea. See all the folks up there?
The shot I said I wanted was the one where I could see air between the bay and the boat. I would say that this shot qualifies.
I love the shots where they cross going opposite directions
I thought that Craig might enjoy a shot of his team leading...
I don't know much about sailboat racing, but I would be willing to bet that if they spent more time in situations like this, more people would watch!
You might think these guys were in a hurry to get someplace. Are these boats or planes? Are those sails or wings?
Notice the ever preset helicopter?
Steven - beware of "chimping".
No time to chimp with boats going by really fast. And the best shots are when they are going by really fast.
For those playing along at home that are not photographers, chimping is when you look at the picture on the back of your cameras and say "Ooo! Ooo! Ooo!" sounding like a chimpanzee.
After the first race, when the guy in the corner got out of the way and I moved to to take over the spot, I booted up the laptop I carry for this purpose and sat down on the dock to look at the pictures from the first race to see if I could make any improvements in my settings or methods. Of course, being a bright sunny day and having no shade on the entire pier, I took my windbreaker (light jacket - do you call them that?) and put it over my head and over the laptop in a similar fashion to Rod's picture from another thread. I was able to see that I had some decent shots.
I have figured out how to use autofocus on the boats, by the way. I start with the bow, and by the time the stern goes by that point the camera has focused. Then I just recompose while still holding the button halfway down. That is better than trying to track a boat a few hundred meters away. I hope you can see the improvements in the photos from Sunday. And, of course, it helps that they were generally closer than in any of my other shots.
....but I envy that he is actually there.
While I am having fun shooting the race, having an audience for the pictures makes a huge difference. It helps provide a purpose.
This thing aint over yet!
I am sure Larry Ellison agrees with you, but I am just hoping to get out there one more time and if the Kiwis wrap it up on Tuesday I might end up missing it. I can usually schedule my work to have some reason to go into San Francisco on Tuesday. We'll see. If I combine my morning break, Lunch hour, and afternoon break all in one big block I will have enough time to park, get set up, shoot, take down and get back into the van and back to work. Parking is easier with a commercial vehicle because there are special parking meters designed just for us.
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