See you at the Boat Shows

I’ll be at the Annapolis and Ft. Lauderdale Boat Shows in October. Hopefully I’ll see you there.

Volvo Boston: light winds, little sun, rain and fog

The Volvo Ocean Race held its in-port race in Boston yesterday and the weather had a little bit of everything in store, except good wind. It started out cloudy and rainy, brought out the sun for about a half hour, most of it before the start, then switched to fog for the second race. The start of the first race was delayed for a half hour, but in the end the race committee sent the boats off on a very small and constrained course. The course had an interesting twist. The standard upwind/downwind course had a bottleneck gate in the middle through which the boats had to pass upwind and downwind, which forced them to mix it up. Not that they needed it, because there was plenty of yelling at the upwind mark. Telefonica Blue won both races and gained 4 points in the standings. The boats leave for leg 7 to Galway, Ireland on May 16. Light conditions and wind were not conducive to great photography, but here are my favorites.

From the archives

Going through some old digital files I crossed paths with this fog photo I shot from my kayak in Maine a few summers ago. Wishing I was there.

Deja Vu All Over

Just when I thought I’d left newspapers behind, I received a copy of this clip in my inbox from the St. Maarten Daily Herald in the Caribbean.

You can see clearly when you shoot with the 5D Mark II

Many of the 2009 International Rolex Regatta photos I shot in St. Thomas were made with Canon’s 5D Mark II camera.

Much has been made of the 5D Mark IIs high definition video capability, which is wonderful, but the camera’s still capabilities have been given less press. That’s a shame, because the 5d Mark II produces very large and extremely detailed still images.

A 5D Mark II still image is 60.5 megabytes when it comes out of the camera. That’s HUGE.

It means you can make enlargements that can easily go to 24X36 inches and far larger. It also means you can make extreme crops and still make a beautiful 20X30. That’s important in shooting sailing, surfing and other action sports where you may not always be able to perfectly frame the shot in the camera or get as close as you’d like.

But one of the coolest aspects of those large files is that you can see incredible detail.

I cropped this shot of Barra, a Morris 48, to correct the tilted horizon, which took the image down from 60.5 to 48.8 megabytes.

I did not know the boat’s name, but I simply zoomed in on the stern, and there it was. Plus I could even read the homeport, South Bristol, Maine. And not that this is important, but there is so much detail that I could see that one of the crew members was wearing a Boston College tee shirt.

Having spent 15 years as a photo editor I have a habit of looking for photos inside photos, and in this shot of an IC24 called Red Dog, I saw the bowman’s arms creating a cool shadow on the jib when he grabbed the spinnaker pole.

Red Dog’s captain might like the original photo.

But I like the shadow of the bowman, so I cropped it for my own purposes. Even after this extreme crop it’s still a 9 megabyte file, which is still a larger file than professional digital cameras created 7 or 8 years ago, and it will still make a beautiful 8X10 print.

Mind you, I used less than a sixth of the photo to make the shadow shot. I couldn’t have done that a few years ago, even if I’d spent $10,000 for a camera.

And that’s why I love the 5D Mark IIs, which are a bargain at $2,700.

Fun in the (sometimes) Sun

Today was the first day of the 2009 International Rolex Regatta in St. Thomas, USVI. It was a long day, going on 17 hours now, and the morning was tough with rough seas, fluky winds, strong tides and a cloud cover that seemed to wreck the light wherever the boats went. However, by afternoon boat driver Dean and I had a better handle on things. The light improved and we got in better positions. Here’s one of my favorite shots of the day. Beach cats are a blast to watch, photograph and as you can see, to sail. You have to have strong nerves though and be in good shape. These guys were out there for about 5 hours straight.

Winter is nearly over and soon I will be heading off to St. Thomas, USVI to cover the Rolex Regatta. Come back on March 27 to see more photos.

After I returned from Key West the folks at the America II foundation invited me for the last sail of the season from Greenwich, CT to the winter yard in Mamaroneck, NY. There was little or no wind, so the shots I took before we left were more interesting than the ones I shot on Long Island Sound.

So I spent a week sailing a beautiful schooner called Adirondack II from Beaufort, NC to Key West, FL. I shot this from the bowsprit right before we arrived in Key West.

If you want to see more go to http://pimvanhemmen.zenfolio.com/p842359301

Sometimes you step on a boat and it’s just a blast. Today was one of those days. I spent the afternoon racing on Imagine, one of the schooners built by the Scarano Brothers of Albany, NY, during New York Classic Week.

We raced against Pride of Baltimore II, America II, When and If, Black Watch and Adirondack, another Scarano boat, which won the race.

OK. So you’re on America 2 (foreground right) and you’re trying to get your genoa up before the race and you look to port and you see this mother bearing down on you. That’s got to be a little unsettling.
I love the Pride of Baltimore II crew members in the rigging. Those guys (and gals) have major cajones. It’s gotta be like a roller coaster up there in such a blow.

When and If and Pride of Baltimore II going upwind. Note the guy at the end of the bowsprit of Pride. That’s gotta be a kick.

It’s always a bummer if you can’t show the boat you’re on, but when it has a bowsprit and you have a wide angle lens you can sometimes do this, which isn’t half bad. Imagine is a pretty boat. Schooners usually are. The Scarano Brothers have good taste. That’s one of them in the shorts looking up at the head sails.