Freestyle kayak championships

sarasphotos

Here in Augsburg we have a world class kayak course - built for the 72 Olympics and used constantly since then. When we're out bike riding we often stop by to watch the kayakers practicing on the white-water rapids course. On one particular weekend last spring it happened to be the German Freestyle championships and we got a spot next to the run and I shot away like a maniac.
Each competitor had 3 runs at the course, where they had two stops of 30 seconds each in two different types of turbulent water to show their stuff - flips, barrel rolls, etc. It was lots of fun to watch and I hope that I came up with a couple of decent shots for an non-sports photographer.

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

8)

10)

11)

12)

13)

14)

15)

16)

kurzvorzwoelf

I never tried sports shooting myself, and I'm already struggling at action shots of other fast moving subjects (focusing can be a b****). However, I think you froze the action here quite well.

I like the pictures most where the face of the sportsmen can be seen, that's #5, #8, #10 (where is #9?) and #15 - because their facial expressions truly show the effort they put into fighting with this waters.

But every single picture is indeed looking like a lot of fun. And that last one could almost be used as a motivational poster :-)

torags

Nice Sara...

I've shot the championships in Santa Cruz CA and you did a great job (of stopping the suds... )

sarasphotos

@kurzvorzwoelf , @torags Can, Rags, thanks so much for commenting. It was interesting to shoot - since there were basically two spots where the action took place I pointed my camera at each spot, got the frame big enough to capture something, set the autofocus area where I though the paddler might be, set the camera to burst mode and hoped for the best. It was an enjoyable shoot and I think I learned something from it but it took a while to sort through the hundreds of photos to find the keepers. I'm pretty sure I'll never be an action/sports photographer but is was certainly a fun experience.

moose135

Nicely done, Sara! We have the US National Whitewater Center not far from me near Charlotte. I've been there for one competition, and it is a challenge to get good shots of them on the course. I think you've done well here!

sarasphotos

@moose135 Thanks moose! For this particular event there weren't many people in attendance, so I could get right up on the rail and shoot. Lucky me!

OutdoorsAddict2

These are great photos, especially considering sports photography isn't your forte. Freestyle kayaking is really hard to photograph. Light can be a real issue, and some of the moves are so quick you've got to be good at anticipation. Good job!

sarasphotos

@OutdoorsAddict2 said:
These are great photos, especially considering sports photography isn't your forte. Freestyle kayaking is really hard to photograph. Light can be a real issue, and some of the moves are so quick you've got to be good at anticipation. Good job!

Thanks so much! It was not exactly easy but fun - and as you can imagine MANY outtakes.

OutdoorsAddict2

I'm trying to post my own photos from the weekend of a similar event, but the system won't let me (I lost the ability to reset my original Dgrin account due to a change of email, so had to create a new one)