Water work

[agriffiths]

Here are some pics taken over the weekend of two IRB candidates negotiating the surf. Lot's of excitement and fun had by all! At one stage we even had dolphins surfing the waves (According to locals it's the first time that dolphins have been sighted so close in at Lorne).

Sorry about the jpg quality. I have tried to keep file sizes below 160k and as a result the jpg quality has suffered. Wish there was a better way of doing it.

Anyway on with the show!
















I would be gratefull for any input

[Alpha_7]

I think this is a great series and really enjoy the action and expression on the girls faces. Also well done capturing the dolphin...

[Glen]

Spectacular images! What lens was used?

[agriffiths]

I used my trusty 80-200 AFS... hand held
It always gets a few looks on the beach, especially with the hood attached. The guys in my patrol say it's a phallic symbol.... I would have to agree
The Dolphin was really hard to get!! They were probably doing about 50km/h across the wave... like flashes of light. Very hard to capture when you're shaking with excitement.

[Mal]

Very nice, my favourties are number 1 and 6. Great expressions on the girls faces. Also well done actually getting the dolphine, not an easy task... I have many a wasted shot to prove it!!!!

[Jamie]

Looks like they are having way to much fun!

Great shots and the contrast of colours are fantastic, but if i were to pick a fault it would be that the horizons on most of them are a couple of degrees off, not a big deal i know.

[agriffiths]

Thanks Jamie,
Yep I agree with the horizon thing. Think the excitement of the moment must have given me vertigo
I thought about straightening up the first one but actually like the way it is in line with the boat, which is also on a slight angle. I'll have a go at lining up the others though.
Cheers!

[sirhc55]

Every picture tells a story

[Oneputt]

No need to apologise, there is nothing wrong with the quality. Very nice series.

[mitedo]

Yes all good shots love the girls faces

[BBJ]

Great shots, like them all good action and colour. Well done and looks like fun, last pic is a beauty as well.

[ozimax]

Like the 3rd one especially, BBJ would even be proud of these! Max

[Wocka]

Now if that isn't an incentive to go and join your local surf club and do patrols, I don't know what is.

Fantastic work.

Cheers

[radar]

Hi,

the expressions on their faces is certainly priceless, very well captured. Certainly looks like a lot of fun.

Sorry about the jpg quality. I have tried to keep file sizes below 160k and as a result the jpg quality has suffered. Wish there was a better way of doing it.

Actually you can. You can post the smaller image in pixspot with a link attached to it. Leek did a good tutorial here:

http://www.dslrusers.net/viewtopic.php?t=10816

That way you can have a higher quality image on pixspot but still only post a smaller version on dslrusers. Those that want to see larger size or better quality just click on the image. I used to use pixspot and it is done fairly easily. Feel free to PM me if you have questions. Note that there is a total space limit on pixspot for your album, from memory, it was 30Mb.

HTH,

cheers,

radar

[agriffiths]

Actually you can. You can post the smaller image in pixspot with a link attached to it. Leek did a good tutorial here:

http://www.dslrusers.net/viewtopic.php?t=10816

Thanks for the tip! I'll definately have to try this on the next series

.. and thanks for the kind comments everyone!

[Catcha]

Nice shots............looks like there having fun

[mudder]

Wow, sharp as! Great color and contrast, they look like they're having a ball, looks like great fun

[Geoff]

Awesome work!! Really enjoyed looking at these!!!

Thank you!

[big pix]

great series of shots.......... I like them all.....

[Dug]

Great shots! small wonder there are so many spinal injuries from IRB users.

[Zeeke]

*winces* know how they feel... 3hrs ride to a location 85kms offshore in a 4.4m tinny built and designed to look like a rubber ducky (alloy tubes around the sides) could almost say my ass lost its virginity to a 120litre esky...

Awesome shots tho, especially with the dolphin! better then the supposed shark picture that you see floating around of a surfer paddling with a big grey shape that everyone says is a shark but is actually a dolphin

Tim

[agriffiths]

*winces* know how they feel... 3hrs ride to a location 85kms offshore in a 4.4m tinny built and designed to look like a rubber ducky (alloy tubes around the sides) could almost say my ass lost its virginity to a 120litre esky...

!

I feel your pain. Everyone feels a little violated after a big day in the surf! We had a friend break her back a few years ago. Luckily she made a full recovery... and no esky removal procedures were required

On the upside, I train them hard to ensure that injuries are kept to a minimum. There's no avoiding the occasional bruise but if driven and crewed properly there should never be a serious injury. It's only when people start pushing the envelope that accidents occur.... Same as driving a car, only heeeeaps more fun

[Matt. K]

Nice images. You cracked that shutter at the right time for each shot. Have you done any PP to these. I detect a slight grey veil over the images.....may be my monitor, but may be result of Photoshop actions.

[agriffiths]

Yep, I applied small curve adjustment to each one and did the borders in CS2. Had to do a slight unsharp mask after reducing the images too. The original NEF's were converted to jpg using Nikon editor. I seem to get better results this way.
Not sure about the grey mask though. They seem to be ok on this monitor. Did anyone else notice this? Maybe my monitor need calibrating.