One of the most frequent criticisms voiced for kite photographers is that they should try and get the kite and board into pictures. I’ve fielded this one a lot, and while it doesn’t surprise me that you get it from photographers who know shagall about kitesurfing, I am surprised that you get it from kitesurfers who know quite a lot about kitesurfing, albeit, not so much about photography. The key issue is a kitesurfing fact of life which impacts on photography. Kitelines are roughly 30 metres long.
We will put that into context. Kiteslines are 20% longer than your average swimming pool. So your chances of getting the kites into a photograph of a kitesurfer tends to come at the cost of detail at the kiteboarder level. Here are some examples.
and
and
(this guy by the way won a world championship title a few months later – just in passing I mention that)
These were all taken with a 500mm zoom lens and what they all have in common is that if I didn’t tell you, chances are you mightn’t recognise who the kitesurfers are (there are two here actually). They’re very nice guys but…you can’t really see them.
The answer to that problem is a wide angle lens. So I went off to a camera shop one day and acquired a 10-20mm wide angle after a lot of consideration. This then happened:
For me, this is not such a great photograph. It’s razor sharp, but it’s not especially interesting to me. So I went back and tried again and again and again. Kite and board in picture. Try to make it interesting.
and this
But it’s not really what I am looking for. This is closer:
There’s also this one which is beloved for some reason:
For me, the closest to what I wanted to achieve with that lens is this one:
which also taught me a lot of useful stuff. You need at least f8 which together with at least 1/800 for shutter speed means you need bright days also.
And you need the camera to be low relative to the kite. In line with the kitelines. Take a look at this:
We’d a go with this one too.
And this one too:
Getting these shots is difficult. You need kitesurfers to jump very near to you in the water and understandably they are nervous enough about doing it. The shot of Francois above, the closest one, he was less than 1 metre away from me in the water.
Until very recently, this was – somewhat unusually – probably the best of the wide angle kite+kiteboarder shots.
There are a bunch from Keel, shot under special circumstances, that are quite special.
To create these photographs takes guts, patience and luck. Lots of it. And a wide angle lens, and nerves of steel.
The kitesurfers are Martin Darrer, Bruno Sroca, Francois Colussi, Sean Murphy, Diarmuid Higgins, Ross Harte and Eamon Armstrong. Credit where it’s due.
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