Ben #3

The large size is worth a look on this one.

Shot this Saturday morning at Manini with a borrowed rig.

The waves were not quite as big as the previous afternoon, and I paddled out with Ben at the crack of dawn. I caught one wave, and passed on several more that were still a bit big for me. Then, the photographer in me noticed the clear sky over the eastern ridge, and I decided to paddle in to shoot instead of surf.

It turned out to be a good decision, I think, since a professional photographer friend of mine showed up a bit later, and offered me his second body with an amazing lens on loan to him from Canon. So, I shot this with a Canon 1Ds Mark II camera and 300mm f/2.8 IS lens. That lens looks more like a medium sized telescope than a camera lens, and weighs 6 pounds.

The fast lens let me use very high shutter speeds, which helped really freeze the action and define every single drop of water. Also, I was surpised by the incredibly bright view through the viewfinder, which helps when you're tracking a surfer across a wave. All in all, it was quite a rush shooting and then viewing the results once I got home.

This is probably one of the best frames I shot with the borrowed rig: Ben coming over the top at the end of a long ride.