Wakefest 2006

Our photogs here always complained that we (as in me) took all the prime assignments for ourselves - like shooting Wakefest. So I gave Gary, our award-winner photog who has a penchant for taking pictures of scantily clad women (usually young ones. And I mean teen young), the chance to go out in the boat during the media day, and get the kind of shots that you see in the magazines: tack-sharp, dynamic action shots. And it's not that hard to do - the riders are at a fixed distance from the boat (they're at the end of a rope, fer chrissake) and you know that they're going to take basically the same path through the air when they hit the wake. It's not rocket science.
Anyways, he came back with a bunch of soft, poorly composed pics. They were mediocre, at best. At worst, they were garbage. The second day, shooting from shore, it was more of the same thing. But this time, I had learned my lesson, and took a camera with me. I got a bunch of half-decent shots (by that, I mean they were IN FOCUS), which we ran the next day in a photo page. I didn't use any of Gary's, which, of course, he took exception to.
I'm not sure what irritated him more: the fact we didn't run his shots, or the fact mine (an amateur) looked a billion times better. Meh. Whatever.


(For comparison's sake, an example. A shot from gary from Day 2. Excellent work: Note the hand over the face, the bottom of the board being cut off ... a classic action shot. And, in true Gary fashion, he didn't get his name, so we couldn't run it, anyways.)



And then, my shots...

Brett Eisenhauer



Alex Brown



Chad Sharpe



Trevor Hansen



Phillip (Don't Call Me Froggy) Soven



2006 Wakefest champ Danny Harf