We’re doing the third pass through the Beach folder, but this actually came from the same day as our first pass, back in part 3. My brother and I watched as a pair of kite surfers brought the sail, or the kite, or the chute, or whatever, slowly down to ground level to pack it up, and I happened to catch this dramatic angle.
This had, in fact, been in the gallery for a little while, until I decided that it wasn’t really showing off my work or style (what there is of it) very well. And I still occasionally look at it and think I should have tripped the shutter just a little sooner, before the canopy had ‘touched’ the horizon – it would have had a stronger impact being clearly in the air. It also could have been stronger if the closer guy had a hand raised, or if he’d been carefully centered in the mouth of the Pac-Man notch of the shadow. Maybe this is being nitpicky, maybe this is bringing things to your attention that you might not have noticed otherwise (or not consciously been aware of anyway,) but it’s sometimes the little details that can make a significant difference.
I am not a sports person, and while kite-surfing looks like fun, it’s definitely something that was always well beyond my condition or skills, and would have taken months of work to actually reap the rewards of. However, while shooting one wedding I saw someone tooling down the beach in a little 3-wheeled cart pulled by the same kind of kite, and that I would have gotten into in a heartbeat. Look up “kite buggy” if you want.
It’s funny; for two years I lived within about 10 kilometers of the ocean in Florida, could even ride my bike there (though it took surmounting that causeway,) but really didn’t go to the beach much. Mostly, I think, this is because that area was pretty distinctly developed, lined with high-rises and a bit too crowded; I had gotten used to the Outer Banks of NC, which are about as unspoiled as it’s possible to get in this country, and so the appeal paled in comparison. And now, I’m not getting there enough. Gotta find a way to strike that balance…