ponzu The moment is well caught, the water spray is great, and the focus/sharpness is as good as can be hoped for in a fast moving action shot. I spend a lot of time shooting water sports, so I know that it's mostly about taking a lot of photos and looking for the one that shows the best emotion or dynamic. What I think we (action shooters) should concentrate more on is finding a clean frame with background that does not distract, and wait for the action to come into our chosen frame. It is difficult, fewer shots will be taken, but more of them will be admired.

In this case, there was an unsightly tower in the background, not to mention a second rider. The extra lines of the tower, which is bulky, and the second rider's rope, which is the same yellow color as your rider's all intersect and make for a pattern that is confusing and distracting. The rider appears impaled on the tower like a bug on a pin.

If this is the best shot you took, I would work on cloning out the distractions, which should not be hard because they are out of focus and surrounded by the leafy and watery textures that replicate easily. They you can start submitting it to magazines :)

On the other hand, seeing the tower and rider in the background makes me wonder about the specific nature of this variety of wakeboarding that I don't know anything about. There is no boat involved? How are the riders launched? Does this watersport have a name?

6yrs

EXIF data

Brand

NIKON CORPORATION

Model

NIKON D5200

Aperture

ƒ/4.8

Focal length

110mm

Shutter speed

1/1000s

ISO

800