Analyzing Action: A Closer Look at Wakeskating

Action sports can be ridiculously hard to shoot. You have to keep some main guidelines in play while still being creative enough to get something that didn't pop straight out of the cookie cutter. This is tough enough to do in the snow or on land but when it comes to water and shooting wake sports its a whole new world because you can't simply get up and move. I could really go into depth about why its difficult but I don't want to bore you so I'll just get to wakeskating.

Wakeskating is good because, from a photographers standpoint, you have a whole lot more options to shoot, you don't need a loaded down boat, cable park, or a super gnarly rail to get anything good. All you need is a jet ski and a little creativity and you can get some out of the ordinary shots. I usually don't analyze images on the blog but today we're going to look at some wakeskate shots and find out why one is better than the other.

First off, the barge acid drop:

So looking at the basics first everything looks good. You can see where he started, where he's going, and what trick he's doing. It meets the three most important guidelines so lets take a look at the rest of the photo. The composition... it works but it's definitely not interesting and it doesn't truly show the size of the feature. He's also too lost in the trees and the background is fairly cluttered. Bottom line is that the eye doesn't flow to the rider very well and it doesn't do the feature justice. Trash it, time to move onto a different angle.

Quite a bit different and in my mind a whole lot better. You know where he started, you have a pretty good idea where he's going(he wouldn't be jumping to concrete), and the trick is shown. The composition is much better, way less clutter and the eye moves to the rider almost immediately. The colors are good, the clouds add some depth to the sky, and the boxy type shapes frame the rider into the upper right. Most importantly its not your average wakeskate shot so I'm pretty happy with this photo. If I could have changed anything I would have moved left and shot a hair later so his arm would have been out of his face.

Next we have some strobed night wakeskating shots. I like the lighting in both but neither of them stands out more than the other to me so I'll give the good and the bad on both and let you be the judge of which is best.
Good action, difficult trick, and on point lighting. Thats that good, but thats all thats good with this one. I tend to loose myself in the darkness around him and because of that and the angle from above it gets me a little confused. I can't see his face which is also another big draw back about shooting this angle. It is different but it could be done a lot better.

Less action, similar lighting but better composition. I don't get as confused when I look at this photo, its really easy to see where he's going and where he's been plus the wake in the upper left hand corner lets you know he's getting towed on some type of water craft and that this isn't a winch shot. The downfall is that the action is lacking and once again you can't see his face.

There's the break down on a few wakeskate shots and here's a few more action shots that you can think about yourself: