Splash SurfBlog

Yep we made it, only 5 days into 2009 which isn’t bad to say we’ve been hindered with this god awful flu virus, I’ve spent the last 2 weeks with a bloody headache and Leanne says well done she’s spent the last 15 years with one

Well the new site launch will take place today and finally we’ll be able to get back to other things after spending all the spare hours (spare???) working on the new layout.  Hopefully everythings is better laid out for easier access for everyone, no doubt peeps will soon let us know if not lol.

Those of you who know me well also know that it takes more than a bit of illness to get me off my feet since I managed to get back on them.. so I’ve been out and about even in the throngs of flu grabbing images in crap light, glary sunlight and windy conditions right through the beginnings of the new year.. so here’s a quick round up of the start of Twa thoosand annine….

Those of you who were out and about will remember the first day of the new year was B**dy freezing, and a bit windy.. enough for a few of the sailors to rig up and get out on the water at Marazion..
Here’s a couple from the day:

Justin leaving the water for a better look

All was planned for a second day with the winds increasing overnight, or maybe not.. on arrival At mazza, everyone was there but the wind kind of wasn’t.. for me I could see a lot more swell moving than yesterday so I figured and early out and up to Praa Sands for these results…

 Wasn’t supposed to be twilight but it seemed that way all day with probably one of the lowest light days  of all… High ISO (Film Speed) Slow exposure and even the better beamer flash extender couldn’t counterbalance most but at least there was some kind of record of the day…

armageddon wave?

Back home to Godgers on Saturday for a few Big waves in better conditions

And still time for a little reflective meditation pre session..

and so to yesterday, was on my way to Gwithian for a chill out and chicken club sandwich from sunset..(well worth a try) when the phone bleeped to life with messages saying it was on at Perranuthnoe.. well there were a lot there for a tiny wave and yet it was a very pleasant afternoons shooting for a change…Light was crap again but we’ve got used to that now..

Taz cruising Nicely down the line

Always nice to see our ladies out there...

Orange

A Cry I should have heard much sooner to save myself a lot of anguish and time and money.. I’d been experiencing so many focus issues lately and tried every test under the sun to find the cause of this.
Nothiung amazingly serious by most standards but to the trained eye, every image had a slight focus problem and it was driving me mad.
I enlisted the help of friend and fellow photographer Bob Sharples to see if he had any idea’s as the swell started to roll in at Godrevy.

After the initial Nervous approach to this alien Being called Nikon, Bob condescended to shoot a couple of shots and to my surprise and His Jubilant elation they were tack sharp..

Well Bugger me I retorted, to which Bob said he’d rather not and I shot the next 4 or 5 out of focus.. and then Bob’s turn and more tack sharp shots… Powerful magnetic field from me I thought… probably not that far out but Bob suddenly pointed out that I shoot with My arm draped over the lens.. a habit formed by reading Moose’s blog for steadying long lenses when shooting in lower light… BUT.. under the cover of the splash mat which protects the camera and lens from penetrating spray I was rolling the Focus ring unbeknown to me… OR!! the bloody powerful magnet I wear on my left wrist was doing it for me with the HYperSonicMotor.. Either way a shift of hand and Bingo.. Tack sharp shots for the rest of the afternoon…and a Big smile on my Mug

Cheers Bob for spotting and correcting the errors of my ways… you’d have thought I’d have learned about Magnetic fields after spending a fortune recording some tracks in the studio to come home and put the Metal tape on top of the tv where it sat for a few days and then revealed to me that the tracks were no longfer there after the bloody magnet in the TV erased the magnetic tape of all its goodies… thank F&*K for backups even then lol.

Ah well s’pose I’d best show ya some of the ultra sharpy low light High ISO images from today.. so here y’are

Well they’re saying there’s a damned good swell arriving amidst the peeying weather so we’ll see what the weather holds and what we get…  Cya

Mel

Another delightful afternoons surf at Praa sands brought a lot of the Newquay North Coasters down and presented some spectacular surfing in the head to head and a half waves.
As Usual the sun was smack bang in front of the lens and after getting as far down as I could I just managed to shoot a few in the dropping tide in the shade of the wave.

All in all there was good surf all afternoon and some surfers got a bit carried away rushing into the sea only to find they’d whacked a nice big Yellow Clamp on their shiny vans on their returns… Costly Business eh Jason

Mind you Leanne did tell you they clamped Togs too lol.. hope your friend got a few good shots to compensate.. 

Checkout the rest of tyhe images on the site.. we’ll keep ya up to speed with whats happening next over the weekend somewhere.

Mel

Well it seemed like an eclipse at times today, I’d be shooting at 160ISO at 500th sec at F8 and within 3 shots was down to 20th sec at 400 ISO F5.6  Now to those who that all sounds like gobbledeegook thats Photo Speak for (F**k what happened to the Light!) and it can make all the difference to a shot..

Take this for example, here’s dan whacking one over  at 200th second

Stops the image quite nicely thanks, albeit a bit more light would’ve made the whole thing a bit brighter and sharper.. but as the rainclouds pass over the sun the light drops rtight off the scale and leaves you with a shot like this at 20th Sec

Couldn’t stop a pig in a passage as the saying goes, the action is faster than the shutter and a nice Blur Occurs… However!! if you can actually track the subject,(Like this border running past) then the blur can be in the right place at the right time and become quite effective…

we call that Motion Blur.. but I suppose the question is, when its crap light why don’t I just shoot collie’s running past instead of windsurfers somersaulting.. the answer is basically there’s not many collie members of Splashography and they Don’t Buy Pics!!!!

well all in all it was a pretty successful day, check out the rest of the image thumbnails if you’re not a member tsk tsk! or jump into the members gallery if you are and enjoy the larger images in luxury

More of the same tomorrow all being well
cya there

Mel

When its shining straight into the lens at Praa Sands like yesterday and almost every image is a silhouette…

Mind you its nice to see a little winter sunshine it just makes the Post Processing job a little harder and a lot longer.. when you’re working on 300+ images and have to spend 10 mins on each shot converting and processing  from the RAW image it gets a pain by about 3am
Having said that it kinda feels worthwhile when you see the romance it can create like the offshore breeze blowing into the sun all backlit…

SUP and Surfers enjoy a Winters afternoon in Overhead waves at Praa

Gotta Love those greens in the waves at praa when they’re backlit, I’ve no doubt at all that Levy would have been spectacular but it was nice to stroll along the beach at Praa and capture some good images of the locals.
Was also nice to see Ben Skinner out there having fun and throwing nice reverse 360’s like this

5 to 11 with Ben Skinner

Well its orf to the dentist for me today and then hopefully down to Mazarion to catch the last of the windsurfing from today.. Have fun wherever you are

Welcome to  the Splash SurfBlog.. we’ll soon be updating you on a regular basis of the whats ons and wassups of Splashography and the team