Sweet Tantrum Pict

56k beware:
http://www.shoeish.com/images/IMG_0265.jpg

Behind the moomba XLV, 12 people onboard, no ballast being used.

Canon EOS 20D.

Looks out of focus to me.

The focus is on the middle of the body. Nevertheless I think it's a great shot because the blur shows the dynamics...

Markus
(Eos 20D and Moomba XLV too! ;-) )

Here's one for you from one of the Mid Week Wakeup's here in Illinois. Shot is with a 20D.

Thats a great shot John !

I like the pic but Pierce is right, it is out of focus.

Shoeish, I would be interested in hearing what your shutter/ f-stop were set on as well as your AF settings (AI servo or 1 shot & all AF points or single?). It appears the riders hand and left knee are the closest to being in focus but you've got just a wee bit of camera shake happening. It looks like you're zoomed to about 200mm or more so you might want to control your DOF a bit more to keep the entire rider in focus. I would have tried to shoot that at least at f8 at that zoom range and at least 1/1000th of a second and adjusted the ISO to expose properly. AF wise - I never felt the AI servo on the 20D was all that great but from the boat 1 shot AF works well because the distance stays relatively the same.

John's shot give a good motion blue effect with the water appearing to speed past and the board motion is evident. Some of that effect is probably due to DOF as well.

Whoa, wasn't going for critique on my photo taking skills, just wanted to show a pretty cool picture of a rather big tantrum. Heck, it wasn't even my camera or picture, just my boat and last weekend.

So, just to answers your questions on what settings were used:
Shutter: 1/1000
F-Stop: f/7.1
Iso: 200
Focal Length: 130.0mm

Shutter Priority

Rich, havent heard the term DOF? Enlighten me please.

Depth of field.

As Walt says. It's the amount of your image from foreground to background that is in focus. High f-stops (small apertures) give you more DOF (more of your image in focus) and small f stops (larger aperture) gives you less. That's why you'll see most of the Pros going for fast telephoto lens (f2.8 or less) Not only can they shoot at high shutter speeds in low light but it also gives them more control of the amount of background blur in any given shot. If you look at most of your great sports photos or portraits you'll normally see the subject in critical focus with a nice "bokeh" or background blur behind as to not distract the viewer from the principle subject.

Sorry for the disertation if you already knew all that!

http://www.mediacollege.com/video/camera/focus/depth-of-field.html

Thanks Walt. Rich, ya I know what depth of field is but couldnt figure the abbreviation.

I REALLY LIKE HIS WET SUIT

Here one of mine.... (unfortunately also a little blurry...)
http://www.mseidel.ch/pictures/displayimage.php?pos=-1522