I don’t post all covers but this one is special in that it may move me into a different line for my photography. I had the idea for a while to shoot some of the title contenders for this year’s Dusi (2012) in and around the valley, different locations with different themes. Anyway, easier said than done because the guys and girls are focused on what they doing and not all of them are available. Thanks to Claire from SA Paddler, she managed to get two of the ladies top title contenders (in fact, Robin Kyme and Abbey Ulansky won – they are the two on the right, and Alex Adie and Abby Adie came second) to agree to join us on the top of the Valley of a Thousand Hills. The weather played along by providing us with some evil looking clouds and the valley was actually clear as well. So all lined up and ready to fire … got some great shots.

Thanks Robin, Abbey, Alex and Abby for giving us your time before the race and thanks SA Paddler for using the photo! Always great to see a photo appreciated (as this one has) after putting in some thought and planning, and then shooting it! Hopefully some more to come in the future ….

SA Paddler Cover

Another cracking Dusi Canoe Marathon with excitement from the start in Pietermaritzburg until the finsh in Durban. Plenty of action from the top paddlers jostling for positions on day 1, but finally put to bed by the defending champs, Andrew Birkett and Jason Graham. Awesome paddling from all the top paddlers, including the woman paddlers, all of whom showed their class, and how incredibly fit they are. Chasing them through the valley makes me realise that it probably is quicker to go by canoe than it is to go by car! I do not think there is a single straight road in the valley, and driving at 60km/hr from a portage to a rapid to get the shots is hectic, especially when it is just a dirt track through the bush – hope and pray!

Action there was aplenty, from swimmers to broken legs, twisted ankles and near drownings. Getting sprayed by flippen helicopters hovering overhead was also irritating (no consideration when they know there are other photographers below), but on the whole it was a cracker. Always difficult to try portray the race in a different light, but hopefully I managed to get some different angles.

The home page gallery shows off some of the action, tears, tragedy and splashes. Enjoy til next year …

Dusi Canoe Marathon 2012

Got the news that Billy Harker was organizing an Ultimate Waterman series to generate some lively competition between the lifesaving circles. Decided to go venture into the waves sand see what angles I could generate as this was an ideal place to get the action, splashes and water movement at it best. Unfortunately the light disappeared fast due to cloud overhead, so decide to pump up the ISO to get a real grainy look. Then, with the help of some lightroom presents, pushed them into a unsaturated, black & white look for something different.

Looking at the pix afterwards, I got some of the images I had visualized, and others that were shot on the fly were pretty cool! Here are some samples …

Underwater fashion photography seems to be growing in popularity and more and more companies are using it in one way or another for advertising or simply for shop windows etc. It has never been something I have been too interested in shooting until I realized the popularity and figured it would be something fun to play around with. So I dropped a line to Olivia Symcox, who, like a true champion she is, agreed straight away to work with me on something in the pool.

I gathered numerous ideas together on what I wanted to shoot, but like all things underwater, they proved to be a little out of the scope of my pool. We bashed away at some shots, shivering and shaking while I shot from various angles trying to achieve what my minds eye had envisioned. Ultimately I wanted some shots which I could play around with in photoshop just to add a different touch to it rather than just plain shots.

It was a fun evening despite the fact that I did not really get the shots I had in mind but never-the-less got something to work with. Definitely a side to underwater photography that needs planning, the right environment and conditions, and a model that is capable underwater like Olivia (thanks to Olivia for being so keen to assist).

Check the Gallery for all the shots …

Watch this space for future ideas … got some in the pipeline!

A quick visit down ALiwal saw us playing with some Blacktip Reef Sharks again. Always fun and exciting fiddling with these creatures on the surface. No manners – pushing and barging in and out in order to get in the action. Stobes get bumped, dome ports get knocked and every now and then we get a good shot worth keeping amongst all the splash and bubbles.

Aliwal Shoal is well known for their sharks! We first dropped down into Cathedral to see what Ragged Tooth Sharks we could find. We were lucky enough to have 3 in Cathedral which stuck around for a while and then moved off as they got tired of our bubbles.

After that, we flirted with some deep water looking for some other action! We had perfect blue water but nothing else … that was frustrating!

Blacktip Reef Shark with wide open jaws