Walls of Waves at Waimea

Here are some of my favorite shots from Waimea Bay on Election Day! Swells were up 15-20 feet, and there were plenty of surfers hitting up the waves. Most of these photos were taken from the cliff near the church. I like this particular shot because 1: it shows how big the waves were (this is a shot of the high shoreline at Waimea) 2: you can still have fun even if you don't surf.

spectators came streaming in. It was hard to find spots to shoot photos after a while.

You see those white specks in the air? That's salt spray. There was so much of it that day that Waimea Bay was draped in a thick fog, making it hard to shoot photos across the bay without losing contrast and color. I had my 80-200 and D300 in a Op/Tech rainsleeve. It works really well for bad weather conditions...I've used it to shoot Lacrosse and Soccer matches in pouring Oregon rain, and it's always come through for me. The beauty of this cover is that it's freaking cheap!

Sometimes, waves make the coolest textures :) For the photographers viewing this blog, here were my general settings on my camera: Aperture priority, AF single focus. Shot my 80-200 2.8 lens at f4 to f5, shutter speeds were around 1/4000 sec. For the surf sequences, I used the burst fire on my camera which can shoot 6 frames per second.

timing his entry...

80-200 @ 200mm and cropped. Surf photography makes me wish I had longer glass to use!

sometimes the nicest waves don't have a surfer in them...

This guy was a lot closer to shore so I was able to get in tighter with my lens.

The cliff side was stacked with photographers like this guy. Maybe he shoots for Free Surf?

Too many Canon shooters lol

This is what happens when Pipeline closes down...

At least he fell behind the wave!

This guy wasn't so lucky.

tracks

Nikon D3+Nikon 200-400mm f4= $11,000 at the beach.

some shooters will do anything to get the shot...

a little close eh?

this was taken right as my dad and I were leaving the bay. Tons of people.