Night soccer on Copacabana beach

Night soccer on Copacabana beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS USM lens. Exposure Details: 1/320 seconds @ f2.8 ISO 4000.

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Quite possibly one of my favourite things about Rio de Janeiro is the awesome beach culture. From dawn till dusk the beaches are positively alive with action. Hawkers roam, beach bars abound, volleyball and soccer nuts send sand flying while swimmers, runners, bladers, boarders and surfers all also find their space.

Am I forgetting anything? Oh yes, ridiculously bootylicious babes are absolutely everywhere, and for the ladies a sculpted odonnis struts on every spare patch of beach. The vibe was like Sydney on steroids. But the action doesn’t stop when night falls, they just switch the lights on and a new crowd takes over the beach for nightly organised soccer and volleyball matches. The temperature is balmy and a beautiful sea breeze mingles with the frenetic street band music.

Though it is low light, photo opportunities still abound, just open up the aperture, crank the ISO and smash some action shots that turn nicely into gritty urban night sport scenes, case in point? See above.

Mark of excellence award received

Local carioca boy (local from Rio de Janeiro) cruises past the bat and ball nets on Copacabana beach. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS USM lens. Exposure Details: 1/800 seconds @ f3.2 ISO 1250.

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Occassionally I make a few forays into the shady world of online photography competitions. Often they appear to be thinly veiled money making schemes or fronts by companies to cheaply acquire imagery for marketing purposes. However, would I complain if I were to win a few thousand dollars in cash as a result of entering? …mmmm, no. This competition seems to run on a decent model where the money paid by entrants jackpots the prize, kind of like how the amount you win at poker depends on how much money is lost on the table by the other players. Here I lost my $10 entry fee, but I did receive this mark of excellence award. Was it worth it? Was I duped into parting with my money as a result of a wildly inflated self belief in my photography? You be the judge.

What would you do for a picture?

Local 'carretilleros' load their wheelbarrows straight from supply ships, Morro de Sao Paulo island, Bahia, Brazil. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Canon 24-105mm f4L IS USM lens. Exposure Details: 1/125 seconds @ f5 ISO 2500.

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Sometimes in the quest for a cool photo I find myself asking the following question:

Will this photo be worth putting myself in {insert unpleasant scenario here}?

For me those unpleasant scenarios normally involve various kinds of unsavoury filth, the path of dangerous oncoming objects, the ridicule of strangers, the risk of being mugged for my brick-like Canon 5D or the risk of damaging my camera in the process.

To get the silhouettes against the sunset in this image I had to lie down on my stomach amongst fish blood and scales left by local fisherman. While glamming it up amongst the entrails these guys all had a good laugh at my expense. My cause was probably not helped by the fact that I was wearing a Peru soccer guernsey at the time, an object of open ridicule in world-dominating-insanely-soccer-crazy Brazil.

I had to lie down on my stomach amongst fish blood and scales left by local fisherman

Probably the next most blog-worthy anecdote on this theme was an occassion at Thredbo ski resort when I had to literally hurdle an out of control ski racer as he slipped in icy conditions on a gate I was standing below to get the best angle. He slid directly towards me at maximum velocity and I had no time to do anything but jump directly into the air as he skidded underneath me, a lightning streak of skis and poles on his merry way down the mountain (no mean feat as I was wearing heavy ski boots). That day I decided it was not worth being pummelled by this guy to get that particular photo, but it was worth the risk of standing directly below the gate in icy conditions.

I had no time to do anything but jump directly into the air as he skidded underneath me, a lightning streak of skis and poles

So have you found yourself asking if it’s worth the filth, the humiliation or bone-crunching collision for a photo? What have you put yourself through to get the shot?

‘Whitsunday Sunset’ makes photo of the day in Light and Composition Magazine

Sunset at South Molle Island, Whitsunday Islands, Queensland, Australia. Taken on a Nikon D80 camera and Nikon 24-120mm f3.5 VR lens. Exposure Details: 30 seconds @ f9 ISO 100

Just thought I’d let you know that I’ve had another photo selected as the photo of the day in Light & Composition Magazine, today October 18th . This time it’s a long exposure ‘Whitsunday Sunset’, again from the sailing trip I did this time last year.  The photo automatically goes into a competition for the photo of the month, which will be selected based on the number of comments, tweets and re-tweets of the photo of the day. So head on over to the website, like it on facebook, leave a comment in the ‘leave a reply’ box and if you’re a twitterer, please tweet away.

Cheers,

Cam.