I took some photos of the Exe SC winter series racing this afternoon, from my Kayak, so it was a double first. I have done wildlife shoots from the kayak, but not yet dinghy racing. Weather was sunny but cold, with about 12 knots of breeze from the North over an incoming tide, kicking up quite a chop. The only option for photography was to spot a convenient mooring, paddle over to it and clip on. The advantage is the nice low viewpoint, about as close to the water as you can get without swimming. A disadvantage is the relatively narrow angle of view - I daren't swing round too far too quickly, for fear of ending up in the water. Getting the camera in and out of the bag (Watershed Ocoee) isn't too bad. I keep a small towel in the front pocket of my buoyancy aid to dry the hands before grabbing the camera and drying off any splashes.
And the results - not too bad. The lighting was tricky at times; very low sun, and wind opposite sun so in all the upwind shots the sailors are in shadow. I eventually positioned myself on a buoy they were passing close downwind and got some better lit shots. The autofocus seemed to have problems at times with moving boats but this did not result in too many out-of-focus shots. General sharpness and image quality is adequate but essentially limited by the quality of the lens. No problem at all with the camera controls, even with (wet) gloves on.
Will post a link to the rest of the shots soon.
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