High Dive

The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is celebrating 100 years of amusement. I was looking forward to this assignment - lots of color and fun and action. I perused photo sites and photo blogs this morning to get even more inspired. I had high hopes of coming home with several great shots. The editor suggested I get photos of a special trampoline and high dive show that was in town for the summer-long party. I spent 30 minutes (a long time in photojournalist terms) shooting the acrobats. The photos had so much potential.
As I was trying to find the best angle I was reminded how difficult it is to get a great shot. There are so many things to think about - What is in the background? Is it clean? If there are things going on in the background do they help tell the story? Do you have enough in the view finder to tell the story? Is the composition interesting? Do you want to use a wide-open aperture to blur out everything behind the athlete or use the smallest opening to get everything in focus? What about the shutter speed? Don't forget to set your camera to stop the motion if that is what you want - or maybe you want to shoot slower to produce trails, showing movement. So many things to think about. In the end you may have made all the right decisions for a well exposed composition but without the moment, you don't have the great shot. This challenge is what keeps me coming back.