Some might pass judgement on just keeping the finger on the button…they’re the same ones who are displeased by photoshop….

Most expensive software and most expensive cameras….the shot very fast bursts and edit photographs to LOOK great for a reason.

Bi Marko, do you have any photos of your girlfriend?….I won’t be able to help until we’ve all seen her…if she’s anything like the Irish girls I’ve known behind is best!…..playboating of course p

I’ll add one tip to the discussion as well- bring lots of memory and shoot like there’s no tomorrow…. most cameras have a burst mode (continuous shooting)- use it! Your best shot may not happen at the moment you decide to release the shutter; it might be a quarter of a second later, and although it sounds crude it’s pretty much always best to shoot bursts of shots around the crunch moments on the river. That said, it is sometimes better to time the very first shot for a precise moment (such as the very split second someone makes a landing), but keep your finger down!

On a related note, if you are shooting with an SLR and have a good quality long lens (I mostly shoot with a Canon 70-200L) then servo focusing and the ability to follow your subject precisely are extremely useful- if you can track a subject moving towards you and take multiple sharp shots as they do their thing then you again increase the chances of getting that photo.

I have a Canon D10 as well- it has a nifty burst mode, so again that’s a recommendation, and there is also a very useable manual focus mode, so don’t be afraid to drop into that mode and prefocus on a bit of the river you need to be sharp That, and make sure other basic things are set such as your white balance etc.

To be honest I’d be lying if I said yes without spending a day on the river trying to work with one and part of an evening editing what I capture.

The things you do still have control over however, are: communication with your subject, composition of your image and editing ability.

With that in mind and a little experience of them; I’d say get close, pre-focus, tell your kayaking mates where to be and what to do…..and you’re half way there.

Hope that helps initially dude!

Thanks for the tips. Any tips for us waterproof point and shoot camera users i.e. Olympus Stylus 8000, Canon D-10? Appreciate your ideas and pics!.

Thanks,

Jay

With regard to my over use of the shaddow and highlight tool, I do of course refer that straight to the photograph of the chap holding a boat on his head. This of course does not look real.

However, with all of my ‘non-commercial’ photographs I edit them to please my eye. Not others.

If you also like my iamges, then great. Thank you!
If not please refer to the first paragraph and check out the last paragraph of Adrian’s blog post; some lovely images!

Cheers Adrian!

Ryan