Waterski tournament Lacanau France

Was training and then competing at Lacanau (near Bordeaux). Shots taken with the 70-200mm f2.8 at 100 ISO raw some cropping and tweaking in Lightroom.

After taking the first few I showed my wife how the AI servo worked to follow the skier and she took the rest. She was getting about 10% keeper rate at the beginning but by the time she was getting to the end of the
series she was getting nearer 80%. very impressive as she doesn't use the camera much. I would like to think it was the high quality instruction.

For those of you that dont know how waterski slalom course skiing works you have 6 bouys to get around, 3 on each side of the course as the boat follows a straight line. Boat goes at 36mph 58km/h and skier accelerates between the bouys and is therefore much faster than the boat. Anyway here are a few.

cheers
Ali

1. Florence Tribe

Man that looks tough to cover, I guess when they are swinging out about to accelerate to the next bouy is the best opportunity. Too bad you cant shoot from the boat

Nice set of action shots, your wife is certainly a fast learner.

Dave.

eigga wrote in post #3966598
Man that looks tough to cover, I guess when they are swinging out about to accelerate to the next bouy is the best opportunity. Too bad you cant shoot from the boat

I like the ones with the boat in the shot and the skier on the other side. The classic shots of waterskiing are the one-handed turns round the buoy. I have shot a lot from the boat and for the good skiers it is hard to pan with them as they pick up a lot of speed as they cross the wakes.

Here is one of the top women's waterskiers, Geraldine Jamin, from the boat ,sigma 17-70 at 70mm cropped and lightroomed.

cheers
Ali

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Davy OBrien wrote in post #3968855
=Davy O'Brien;3968855]Nice set of action shots, your wife is certainly a fast learner.

Dave.

thanks Dave, I was pleasantly surprised at the results she got. I think the quality of the 70-200mm f2.8 helps when you get it right but the high level of keepers was impressive.

Forgot to add here is the full series.

http://picasaweb.googl​e.com/alistairksmith/L​acanau2007


cheers
Ali

alistairksmith wrote in post #3969143
I like the ones with the boat in the shot and the skier on the other side. The classic shots of waterskiing are the one-handed turns round the buoy. I have shot a lot from the boat and for the good skiers it is hard to pan with them as they pick up a lot of speed as they cross the wakes.

Here is one of the top women's waterskiers, Geraldine Jamin, from the boat ,sigma 17-70 at 70mm cropped and lightroomed.

cheers
Ali

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Me too... from a local tournament (for me) at Okeeheelee Park in West Palm Beach:
1Dmk2N, 300mm f/4.0 IS L