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Last fall Derek Cook was in Orlando for Surf Expo and the Less Than 5 contest. One morning he and fellow Delta Force member (and DogDayz shooter) Trever Maur were gonna ride with Danny Harf and Jeff House, so I tagged along to take some pictures. When I’m shooting a crew with that many different riders I try to mix up the look of my shots for each rider. For example, if I shoot one guy with a longer lens with the chase boat a bit farther away, I might shoot with a wider lens and closer up for another guy. The reason behind this, for me, is twofold. One, it keeps it fun for me to mess around with different angles, framing, and tricks a rider is trying. Two, it ensures that if multiple shots from that day of shooting make the pages of the magazine they won’t look too similar.

Derek rode third that morning and I hadn’t shot with a wide angle lens yet. I’d recently been messing around with shooting from the bow of the chase boat in the trough of the wake the rider was taking off from and really liking the results. I asked Derek if he was game to try some stuff and we started firing away. Shots like this take a lot of coordination and trust between the rider, the photographer, and especially the chase boat driver. Please don’t attempt shooting photos or video (or just watching your buddy ride if you’re into chase watching…?) at home. Chase driving duties fell to Jeff as Danny was driving his boat and Trever was shooting video next to me. To line up the spot for the chase boat Derek stands in the trough so Jeff could judge where he needed to keep the chase boat. What actually helped keep us in good position was for Jeff to hang back and outside of the trough just a bit and then bring the boat forward and in toward the wake as Derek was cutting in. In order to ensure keeping the chase boat in the same spot and to get a rhythm going for getting photos, Derek was only jumping from that side of the boat. After he would land he’d cut back across the wake and cut out for another trick. This kept Derek and Jeff in sync and allowed me and Trever to get some great shots.

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Derek’s first trick from this angle: the classic method

The first shot was better than I expected. Props to Jeff for getting me in a solid position. To get this actual angle I was leaning out over the bow of the chase boat so I could get my camera a little lower to the water. One advantage to shooting this specific angle is that there isn’t a ton of spray, so I didn’t need to use a water housing. Of course there is definitely some spray, but I kept a hand towel with me to wipe off anything that hit the camera after Derek did a trick. With these shots I really wanted to try to capture the blast of the takeoff spray, which this shot shows, but I felt like we could get closer and make the photos that much more impactful.

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Take 2: wrapped frontside 3

Props again to Jeff for the chase driving. On Derek’s second hit he got me right where I was envisioning the sweet spot would be. Lots of spray from the takeoff in the foreground, Derek up in the air mid trick, and the towboat in the background. This shot was solid, but it was at an awkward moment of the trick. As Derek cut back across the wakes I told him to try it again.

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Behold the aquatic karate kick

On the third try we had a winner. Jeff again had me in the perfect spot and I shot a sequence of this one thinking that the earlier part of the trick might look better. First, the spray would be bigger and more impactful; second, Derek would be closer to the camera, and therefore bigger; and third, he wouldn’t be as corked out and the grab would still be more visible. It helps a ton when you shoot with a rider like Derek who thinks about where the camera is in relation to the trick he wants to do and the grabs he’s doing. It also helps that Derek can tweak his grabs and make them look awesome. Cook knew from the hooting and hollering coming out of me and Trever in the chase boat that the shots were looking good, so he kept going.

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This time with a crail grab

The crail grab version of the same trick also looked sweet, but I accidentally kept the camera a bit too high and missed most of the takeoff spray.

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Crail 3, take 2

This time with better spray, but not as good of a spot in the trick as compared to the first. Ultimately it was the wrapped indy 3 that won out, but we got a lot of really cool looking photos from the session. The shot ran as the alliancewake.com ad in the 2015 Photo Annual issue. Thanks again to Derek for shredding, Danny for pulling, and Jeff for driving some awesome chase boat. It takes a team for shots like this to happen in wakeboarding and the guys behind the scenes don’t always get the credit they deserve. Stay tuned for the release of DogDayz which will have some of the shots from this morning mission in Orlando on display.

The Settings
Camera: Canon 5D Mark III
Lens: Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 L
Shutter Speed: 1/4000
Aperture: f/4.5
ISO: 320