Adam Glascow Cup Wanganui Camera Club
May 2012
Set of six digital images

3. Waterslide

No1

No2

No3

No4

No5

No6

Father and son going down a waterslide; a photography challenge full of possibilities: human emotion, bright colours, interesting lighting, a great technical challenge.

You captured this almost perfectly in image No4; the excitement of a baby being out of control but safe with dad, a nicely composed image, sharp focus, a well-lit subject in strong contrast.

In contrast, the other images are blurry and/or badly lit. And they add little to the story you are telling. They could have been discarded. Your camera was set at ISO 100 and f/4. Changing the setting to ISO 800 and f/6.3 would have given you much sharper images.

It would be great to see the whole exciting sequence here: father and son watching others coming out of the chute, then climbing the tower (caught from above, aiming down), getting into the chute at the top, then the best two of those tunnel images, well-focussed, and finally splashing into the exit pool.

You do have a great eye for low light action photography: people doing "the hard yards" are more difficult to photograph, but much more rewarding than static subjects. Get to know your camera's capabilities, look for a sequence of shots that tells a story, take dozens of pics and ruthlessly cull out most of them. Then get an honours grade next year.

Accepted.