Hans-Werner Griepentrog, MPSA, EFIAP  


Waterfight by Hans-Werner Griepentrog, MPSA, EFIAP

December 2020 - Waterfight

About the Image(s)

Title: Waterfight

Since we have the Covid 19 lockdown again in Germany, and I can't take any current sports photos, I took a look at my slide archive. I noticed this photo. It was taken on September 25th, 1999 on the Oker, a small river in the Harz mountains. Once a day the turbines of the hydroelectric power station Okertal are feeding water into the Oker for 2 hours at a flow rate of 8 meters per second. The route is 2 km long and has a difficulty level four (highest level is 6), and is the most demanding kayak and canoe route in Lower Saxony.

In 1992 I was able to have my analog slides digitized by Kodak for the first time. Up to 100 slides could be transferred to a Kodak photo CD. These were stored in Kodak's own PCD format in the resolution of 3072 x 2048 pixels, which corresponded to a 6 megapixel camera, which did not exist at that time with that resolution. In 1999 I also had my whitewater canoe photos transferred to a Kodak photo CD.

The photo was taken with an analog Canon EOS 3 eye control autofocus-system with powerdrive booster PB-E2 and the lens EF 70-200mm f2.8 L on slide film Fujichrome Sensia II 400. Since there was no Exif data available at that time, I manually entered the most important data in my database, f:5.6, ISO 400, at 1/640 sec. motordrive high with 7 frames per second.


This round’s discussion is now closed!
6 comments posted




Bruce Benson   Bruce Benson
Hans, You image is interesting, even without any details showing of the person. Your composition leaves room for movement through the frame. I never shot slides and only started doing photography when digital came out. I can really appreciate your skill to capture this . Bruce   Posted: 12/07/2020 19:42:38



Gerald Emmerich Jr   Gerald Emmerich Jr
During these Covid times, I've been looking at my old photos, too, both film slides and older digital images. There's lots of action and movement in this photo, and I like the splash around the kayaker and the slight diagonal of the paddle.

In most kayaking photos, I usually give high scores for the combination of three items -- visibility of the paddle, the kayaker's face, and the kayak itself. I think this photo would be improved if at least part of the front of the kayak were above the water and clearly visible.

Also, I tried cropping a bit from the bottom and right side of the frame. And I rotated the image slightly to give the paddle more of an angle. I think this rotation and crop improves the composition.   Posted: 12/25/2020 11:37:35
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Hans-Werner Griepentrog   Hans-Werner Griepentrog
Hi Gerry, your tighter neckline and the rotation of the diagonal of the kayak I also like better than my original.   Posted: 12/25/2020 12:16:54



Hans-Werner Griepentrog   Hans-Werner Griepentrog
Here I have another photo of the kayak taken 0.2 seconds later.   Posted: 12/25/2020 14:51:47
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Bruce Benson   Bruce Benson
Hans, I actually like the way the Kayak is totally submerged, because it adds to the tension. Bruce   Posted: 12/31/2020 11:42:43



Hans-Werner Griepentrog   Hans-Werner Griepentrog
Thanks Bruce, there you see how opinions differ, I also like my first photo better, it has more dynamics.   Posted: 12/31/2020 13:14:03