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Portfolio 11 of 80

Photographing Sports

Earlier in the year we drove a few hundred KM to Mojacar in southern Spain to see some friends. I always make a point of taking my camera gear with me wherever I go, even if the trip is non-photography related.

After we had met our friends and had lunch, we noticed a bunch of what appeared to be, experienced surfers. Even though the surf wasn't that big, they were certainly making the most of it.

I stood as close to the shoreline as possible and used the 20D set to 5 frames per second with the EF 70-200L F2.8 attached. Admittedly, I would have liked a longer reach but the surfers were fairly close to the shore.

I made sure to stick with each surfer to the end of his run and got some great shots as they finished or exited their boards in fashion. This particular guy seemed to enjoy hitting the breaks hard at the end of his run and in this shot he cut a huge groove out of the wave. You can see by the angle and displaced water just how much effort he put in.

Thanks to the fast shutter speed and quality "L" glass, the shots were all pin sharp with the fine spray of water frozen in time.

With sports photography it helps to use just the central focus point and set it to servo mode. Then keep this point firmly on the subject all the time they are in view. If the image needs cropping later on, do it in Photoshop so you don't need to worry about framing the subject whilst shooting...you won't have time!