About the Image(s)

Title: Skimmer with Cap

Last month’s skim boarder image by Andre reminded me that I haven’t shown a skim boarder image for quite some time, and I enjoy shooting skim boarding. My photos this month were all taken in one session of one skim boarder at Sandy Beach on the northeast shore of Oahu. I didn’t like the cap, because it shaded the skim boarder’s face. But he was skilled and his suit had nice colors, so I concentrated on him for a while. As some of the long-time members of the group may recall my description, most of the sand beach at Sandy Beach is about 10-12 feet above the level of the ocean, and the surf often breaks only about 10-20 feet from the shore, allowing me to shoot down slightly at skim boarders and eliminate the horizon.

Skim boarders at Sandy Beach glide over the thin sheet of water of the receding wave directly into the next oncoming wave. As they hit the oncoming wave, they make a sharp 180 degree turn and “ride” in on the oncoming wave. As shown in the Main image, when a skim boarder hits the wave just right, zooming back a little allows the spray from the board to become an important element of the composition.

Also, as shown in Original 1, the trailing splash adds interest to the composition. In Original 2, the skim boarder leans in, but the momentum of the wave allows the boarder to get back to the upright position. But when the skim boarder mistimes the wave, as in Original 3, his board goes over the top of the wave, and the board and the skimmer both go flying. This often creates the most dramatic photo opportunities. So, you don’t want to give up on a skilled skim boarder.

The waves were in the 5-6 feet range, and the “all-water” background works well in these photos. I’m able to sit in a beach chair, elbows on the arm rests, with a tripod in front of me. The tripod supports the weight of the camera and lens, but I leave the ball loose, so that I can easily swivel the lens to the right and left and up and down. It’s quite comfortable and fun to shoot here. And the skimmers are up close.

My camera is a Canon 7D Mark II (1.6 crop sensor), and the lens is my old EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II zoom lens at 160mm. I don’t need to use full extension of the 100-400 zoom for skim boarders at Sandy Beach. I use the full extension of the lens to photograph surfers, who are much further away from the shore at Sandy Beach. The settings of the Main image were f:9, ISO 400, at 1/3200 sec in bright sunlight.