Spring Sailing with NKHSST
Late March... it's technically spring but days like these would probably fool you into thinking it was winter. High School sailing is almost a month into its short season and my alma mater and local team from North Kingstown was out making the best of a particularly chilly March afternoon. No warm sun but luckily no snow or freezing rain either. This team was already undefeated in the few events it had sailed and the rest of the season was looking up! Even though they lost several great seniors from last year, there was plenty of young talent to fill the void.
On the photography side of things, it was time for me to knock of the winter blues and get back into sailing photography. I had come across a 24–135mm f3.5 Tamron lens I had completely forgotten about and decided to bring a second body and lens out on the water for a trial run. I have to say it performed beautifully! While I still had my trusty 70–200mm Nikon plus teleconverter for the tight shots, it was terrific to have the mid-range zoom for a variety of situations. For portraits of everyone on committee boat with me, at the starting line, and during gate-roundings close by it performed wonderfully, and was a great alternative to my wide angle 16–35mm Nikon.
I had purchased this Tamron as a mid-range fill-in until I could afford the higher quality Nikon equivalent, but for the time being it will certainly fill the Nikon's shoes nicely! Clarity was great, bokeh was decent, it was a little laggy on the Autofocus and the overall color needed a little adjustment to match what came out of my telephoto, but all in all it was great to have aboard. Expect more use out of this lens for regattas to come!
Photos at www.catebrownphoto.com
Leave a comment
Comments will be approved before showing up.
Also in Photography Journal
Warm Getaways
I had been eagerly awaiting this winter season. Here in New England, the winter months can be rather frigid, but for those of us who don’t mind the exhaustive work of climbing into 6 mil wetsuits or ice-cream-headache cold waters, it’s the eagerly anticipated winter months that bring the biggest swells. We had snow before the New Year and water temps quickly started approaching 40°F. But in typical fashion, as soon as the long awaited winter months arrived, I was craving a break from the cold gray in favor of a warm water reprieve.
Board Portraits // Experiments
I've been wanting to shoot more portraits lately, but in combination with the surf community that I've been so involved with the past year. My good friend, Kevin Tanner, behind Soudnings Surf Co creates some gorgeous handcrafted boards. He does all his own shaping, resin work, and glassing, and I wanted to photograph some beautiful boards to highlight his craftsmanship as well as portraits of my friends who ride them. I decided to do board portraits.
Snowy Surf Sessions
A lot of us enjoy the warm weather, but a select few of us still enjoy (or perhaps tolerate) the cold weather. And nothing quite says winter like a fresh snowfall! On the rare occasion Rhode Island experiences more than one inch of snow while there's swell in the water, you can find a select few of dedicated riders on the shore eager to have a snow session.