One of photographer Patrick Hall's favorite things about living in Charleston, South Carolina is being close to the ocean. He loves being in and around the water, and although he confesses he's not very good at it, he also enjoys wakeboarding. Charleston has become a pretty big hub for sports like kiteboarding and wakeboarding over the last few years, and this city is not short on talented athletes. |
The Background Story As a photographer, shooting wakeboarders from an inner tube is an amazing experience. But we have all seen the images that are a result of a shoot like this. [figure 1] I wanted to take things to the next level and really push my portfolio and decided to put together a shoot that has never been done before. |
Figure 1 |
Figure 2 | The next question you want to address is where will you be located in relation to the boat and the rider. You really have two choices: 1. Between the boat and the rider 2. Behind both the rider and the boat The first position will allow you to fill the frame with the rider facing you, while the second position lets you capture both the rider and the boat in photo. I’d recommend shooting from both positions if the wakeboarder is comfortable with crossing your tow line. Just a note about safety here: placing yourself in harm’s way often produces some stunning images but don’t put more responsibility on yourself, the rider, or the boat captain than what you know everyone can handle. If the rider is clearing the wake and crashes, usually they will not hit the photographer. If they don’t clear the wake, there may be trouble. |
Here are a few tips that might make your life easier that I have found while on the water: * Make sure you are close enough to the wakeboarder that you can get dramatic shots with them filling the frame, but not too close that you aren’t also able to capture the horizon and scenery. Most wakeboarders don't like images of themselves in the air with no reference point. * Don’t place yourself too far from the rider or else your images will start to look like they were taken from the boat, which defeats the whole point of shooting close on a tube. * Be prepared to have a lot of spray hitting your face and the camera. My approach to keeping the lens clean is to use saliva (I know, gross, but it works!) on the lens which helps repel water. Rain-X and other chemicals will actually create beads of water that will ruin your shots. It also helps to keep little Silica Packages in your housing to prevent moisture build up and fogging. |
Figure 3 |
The setup for this shoot was pretty complex. The first thing with which I had to test and experiment was the suspension of the riders. I was able to use a simple climbing harness fitted backwards and a few climbing ropes to hoist each rider up off the ground. [figure 4] Most of the harness was hidden under the riders’ swim trunks, which greatly minimized the amount of editing I had to do in post. I also had a second rope attached to the wakeboard itself to help keep the riders in balanced horizontal positions. Holding these poses requires a lot of strength and is actually more tiring than doing the jumps in real time behind a boat. |
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Figure 5 | For lighting, I used two Photoflex® HalfDome® SoftBoxes behind the wakeboarders firing back towards the camera. These two lights allowed me to light the water and also the side of each rider. I also used a gridded strobe with a reflector behind and above the black backdrop to add even more back lighting and allow for some separation of the riders’ board and hair. The main key light was a small beauty dish on a boom stand camera right and I used a large 7 foot Photoflex® OctoDome® almost on camera axis for just the slightest amount of fill. [figure 5] |
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