Kayak or Pontoon Race, Hermosa Beach, CA

Not sure what these boats are called...pontoons? Kayaks? Dinghys? Either way, we went there for what we thought was a Surfing convetion, and stumbled across this event. Consisted of rowing from one side of the pier to the other side 2 times, running out to a flag in between. Heres some photos I took using my 100-400L. First time taking pictures of a sporting event, so C&C is welcome, and encouraged.

John

Excellent shots! I like how you can get up close and personal with people in action.

Just out of curiosity, I looked at your EXIF info, why do you use ISO800 with shutter 1/4000 and aperture wide open? Wasn't the subject in direct sunlight? Or is there a trick I don't know about?

Just wondering because I just shot the Blue Angels and kept the shutter speed around 1/1000 and there was no motion blur as far as I could tell anyways. With my sigma 28-300 I have to keep the aperture stopped down in the sun or I get into trouble. Maybe it's just my lens.

Thank you for the compliments.

As far as the ISO vs. SS 1/4000, I didn't realize the ISO was up so high. I was shooting a seagull on top of a light post, and bumped up the ISO to keep my SS above 1/400. Then when I went back to shooting the boaters, I put it in A-DEP and didn't adjust my ISO.