Just thought I’d post an update from the south Pacific. I am back on the north shore shooting surfing yet again – yes, I know it is a rough life. As luck would have it I showed up just in time to shoot the 2010 Billabong Pipeline Masters surfing competition the last few days along...
[…] Nikon wanted images of action sports where the sport was obviously far away so they could show off the incredible zoom capabilities of this camera. Naturally surfing was a perfect fit. Hence, a few weeks after I got the call for this assignment I headed out to Hawaii and shot with two amazing surfers, Kalani Chapman and Jesse-Merle Jones, at Pipeline, Off the Wall and Rocky Point. The P500 was easily able to keep up with the surfers but I had to use the camera on a tripod just to keep them in the frame since the lens zooms out so far it was hard to keep things steady. Think of using an 800mm lens on a DSLR – it would be the same issue of trying to keep the subject in the viewfinder. The image below of Jesse Merle-Jones at Off the Wall was shot on the first day I arrived during the 2010 Pipeline Masters Competition. The competition was happening at Pipeline just up the beach and lot of surfers, Jesse included, were taking advantage of the swell. The waves were in the five to seven foot range that day, nothing enormous but still plenty big for the surfers to catch some serious air. You can see more images of the Pipeline Masters Competition on my blog here. […]