Had a chance to shoot water skiing from a boat for the first time on Saturday. The biggest challenge (other than getting dizzy riding in a boat backwards, staring through a camera..) is the lack of fast auto focus from the 55-300. I went with setting the manual focus to about the spot the skier would be, luckily they stay almost the same distance from the boat the whole time, just zipping from left to right. All told, I am happy with the results of my first try. A friend of mine works at the ski lake and is more than happy to have picture taken, so I will be back...

[eaglem]

A very good capture....................

[tonver]

I love water ski slalom pictures with the water curtains, good catch.

Thanks for posting.

Tony V.

[Sailor]

Outstanding - back in my film days I did a lot of waterskiing and photographed others on skis as well. Getting a shot as good as yours is no easy task; I never came home with anything that was even close to this great photo.

Jer

[alamo5000]

I used to be a competitive waterskier. I am more than familiar with the sport to say the least. Haven't skied in years but injuries ended my career a long time ago.

A couple of tips for this kind of photography:

If the skier is good enough shorten the rope some. Do 15 or 22 off.
Crank up your ISO to 400 or 800
Stop down to f8 or so.
Get your shutter speed up. 1/500 is ok but for really fast moving subjects you need faster than that. Try 1/1000 or 1/2000 and just play around a bit.
Try not to have them drive the boat with the sun to the skier's back. (you didn't do this but just saying as a general rule)
Also just like anything early and late light is the best.

[dwalker19]

thanks for the kind words everybody.

Alamo5000 - thanks for the tips. I'm optimistic about getting some decent lighting this summer. The lake generally runs north-south, so the opportunity for nice morning / late afternoon light is there. My friend (not the skier pictured) also skis competitively and I think usually skis at 22 off in the course. thanks again