Surfing at Steamer Lane

NeilCam · Mar 16, 2005

Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz is a world-renowned surfing spot and there were some nice sets coming through there this afternoon.

There were about 6 photographers lined up shooting this afternoon and I was the only one using a Nikon. Even worse, there were two of 'em with 500mm lenses so I had to suffer lens inferiority as well. :lol:

Anyway, I'm reasonably pleased with the results. However, I did make a mistake of using center-weighted metering for many of the shots. I'd read someone on DPR some time ago complaining/suggesting that center-weighted often resulted in underexposed shots and that's also what seemed to happen to me today. Oh well, push the EV up in NC and they're okayish.

Funny thing is when I got home, Ron's ebook had arrived and was waiting for me. Now I'll just have to immerse myself in it, but I couldn't resist processing these shots quickly in my usual fashion, just to see what they looked like.

But that's enough rabbiting on, you didn't come here to read my drivel, you came here to see my drivel, ummm no, that's not right, I hope...

Hmmm, well while I sort that out here's some shots:

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Oh and the first and last ones weren't cropped at all. That's the great advantage of Steamer Lane - the cliff basically overlooks the surfers.

All comments and suggestions welcome as always. Thanks for lasting to the end of this post.

Neil

greyflash · Mar 16, 2005

You might not have had a 500mm lens but you don't have to take a back seat to any of them with your results. Nicely taken images Neil, I especially like the third one.

PhotoDawg · Mar 16, 2005

AWESOME!!! Some real great action caught there Neil!!!

NeilCam · Mar 16, 2005

Thanks guys - it was fun. And I'm now determined to stop processing shots until I've read Ron's ebook. It will be interesting to see how different my post becoomes then.

Neil

JerseyJay · Mar 16, 2005

Neil,

Those are great. #2 looks like you were in the water taking pictures.

StuSimmo · Mar 17, 2005

Very nice shots Neil, the third is my fave although no1 would have been if the whole board was in. I knwo how difficult these are to get as I have tried myself from the beach.

Stu

NeilCam · Mar 17, 2005

Cheers Stu and Jay - thanks for the comments. They're much appreciated.

Neil

Retief · Mar 18, 2005

One of the things that I want to do up here in Washington is to go and photograph the surfers out on the coast. There is supposed to be a long pier where you can get right out near the break and shoot them parellel. Frankly with the water temp at barely 50 degrees I think these guys are bonkers. But then we were on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, the town of Tofino, a couple of years ago and saw large numbers of surfers as well. I think these guys wear dry suits with portable heaters :lol:.

Neil, these are great. Next time I am down in the Bay Area I'll try to look you up and you can show me the ropes of shooting, oops, "photographing" surfing. Back in my wayward youth, and I mean WAY back, those were 8-10 foot boards and I was one of the yo-ho's getting wet. The best thing to say about that is "The Older I Get, the Better I Was" :lol:. See, I was 26 years in the Los Angeles area, and it still hasn't worn off, not even after 14 years up here......

Cool stuff again, Neil. I want to try to get some Kite Surfers up here this summer as well.

These are grand, now you just need a waterproof housing so you can be bobbing around getting "nose hair" shots. That will show those guys with the 500mm lenses. Of course the housing will set you back about the same dollars, but you will sure look cool.

Hey, aren't you close to the M. Jackson trial? How about keeping us informed? I mean California is 1 for 2 recently, fry Scott and let Robert Blake go :lol: :lol:

Clivegriff · Mar 18, 2005

Hi Neil

I get the dreaded red x on your pix so I went to web link to be greeted by..."The page cannot be displayed".

Therefore I'm going to comment on your pictures without actually having seen them...

er...no, I'm not, but I am going to comment on your centre weighted remarks.

I forget which camera you shoot, but the D70 allows you tweak the centre weighting area. I moved mine from 6mm to 8mm and got much better results. This weekend I'm going to set it 10mm and compare again.

Perhaps you might find some value in similar experiments.

NeilCam · Mar 20, 2005

Bill:

Would be great to hook up with you if you're down this way at any time. However, I doubt I'd have much in the way of pointers for shooting surfers - this was the first time I'd ever done it.

As to Michael Jackson and all the other celebrity bs - don't know, don't care.

Clive:

Shame you got the red Xs - host must have be down at the time. Thanks for the advice on centre-weighting though. I'll look at the manual and see if the D100 allows the same tweak, but I don't think it does.

Thanks again for looking and as a bonus (???) here's one list pic:

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The rest are here http://www.motifwebs.com/gallery/surfing (Still slowly processing my way through them)

Thanks again for the feedback!

Neil