St. Pete Boat Parade

This is one of those shots that would be tough to take from a boat; we captured the action at the St. Petersburg holiday boat parade this weekend with a tripod and a long exposure to get this cool motion effect. And don't be thrown by the non-PhotoBoat watermark; when we're shooting on shore, it's same photographer, different website. Aka www.PhotosbyClark.com.

PhotoBoat South

We had a great time photographing on Tampa Bay this past weekend. It was the first of what will be many Bay outings for us, as we've just moved into our winter headquarters in St. Petersburg. During our Florida stay, we'll be covering a number of events here on the west coast, but will also be photographing in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and the Keys. Look for us on the water, or get in touch soon to have us put your regatta on our calendar. It's filling up fast!

F18 North Americans

This photo says it all- we had a great time shooting the very photogenic Formula18 cats for a week in Nantucket Sound. We had sun, rain, fog, and all ranges of wind and sea conditions for this super technical, high speed fleet of boats to deal with. All competitors are enjoying our photos courtesy of title sponsor Siemasko + Verbridge. See the results here and the photos here.

IHYC Classic and IRC LIS Champs

The weekend of Sept 17th and 18th, Greenwich Harbor was hopping. Indian Harbor held their 2nd annual Classic Yacht Regatta, while Riverside in cooperation with Storm Trysail Club hosted the 2nd annual IRC LIS Champs and PHRF Fall Classic just outside the harbor.

The Classic Yacht Regatta, organized by Ted and Shelia Graves, owners of the gorgeous 1926 Q-Class yacht Nor’easter, debuted in 2010 to provide local classic yacht owners with a chance to race their boats on their home waters. Many of these boat owners normally race in Newport. But with the 31-boats fleet looking grand on Saturday, the group proved that Long Island Sound is home to a great group of classic yachts. See more photos here.

IRC LIS Champs and the PHRF Fall Classic reaped the benefits of being a two-day regatta on Sunday. A lumpy Easterly, bright sunshine, puffy clouds, and 15-20 knots of breeze provided some great conditions for sailing, and photography. It was one of those days when we hear screams of "who-hoo" as boats plane downwind past us, and we become more jealous than usual that we're not sailing instead of photographing. But we had a good day out there as well, especially loving the way our new VSR handled the conditions. See the photos here.

New York Architects' Regatta Challenge

The New York Architects' Regatta is a terrific charity event that provides New York City architecture firms with a chance to battle it out with each other on the race course, right on the Hudson off of lower Manhattan. Having the New York cityscape in the background is particularly fitting for this group of professionals that help to shape the look of the Big Apple.

This year, it was not a night for a sunset and cocktails on the water, like many of the spectators on Manhattan Sailing School's unique floating clubhouse would have likely expected to experience. Instead, it was blowing over 20 as a cold front slowly settled in with record low tempuratures for mid-September. Not to mention periodic rain showers. Not everybody had the kind of top quality foul weather gear we are used to seeing (and we were wearing ourselves), but that didn't hold anybody back. They sailed hard and had a good time! See more photos here.

Stamford Denmark Race

Stamford Yacht Club's Denmark Race is always one of our favorite events to photograph. This year, we had great coniditions for photos, and also had some interesting moments to capture- like a couple of close encounters with a couple of tug-and-barges that went through the course. Everybody was operating safely and responsibly, though! For more about the story behind the Denmark race, check out the boating lifestyle blog that Daniela co-writes for Westport News. See all of the Denmark Race photos here.

The 77th Vineyard Race

Last year's Vineyard Race was a sprint, which made it easy to forget what a Marathon the race usually is. This year's race took between just about 1 full day (Gadzooks, 1 day, 6 min - Cornfield Point Course) and nearly 2 full days (Letting Go, 1 day, 22 hours, 17 min - Vineyard Course). We had to be patient just like everybody else as we sat off of Norwalk for 8 hours yesterday, only seeing a boat every half an hour or so. But thank goodness for Kattack and an iPad, and the fact that our VSR has seats. The wind at the start was a bit light, but we enjoyed photographing a bunch of boats as they sailed toward the finish with a little bit more breeze. We'll be at the party displaying photos on our terminals and providing awards prints. But in the meantime, see the photos here. We got photos of 90% of the boats. Thanks to Rick Bannerot for helping with awards prints for the two boats we missed.

J105 North Americans

Because our business is weather-dependent, we have to admit we spend a lot of time

frustrated by the weather. However, for all of those days when there's not enough wind or not much light, days like the first day of J105 North Americans make up for it. It wasn't even that windy, but 10-15 knots of breeze and an incredibly high pressure day made for some terrific photography conditions off of Marblehead. And to top it off, the fleet raced a very long triangle course for the second race of the day. This course didn't turn out to be very popular with competitors (too long, difficult to find the marks, too much of a navigator race), but it was popular with photographers! We had 40 J105s sailing directly at us under spinnaker- on both downwind legs! See the photos here.

2011 Governor's Cup

"Whenever I print a Gov Cup order, I get a warm fuzzy feeling," Allen joked recently. It's true- Gov Cup is such a great event, with such enthusiastic participants, that we always love covering the race. This year's weather helped us create some especially good photos, as the wind picked up and the seas became lumpy as nearly 150 boats tacked their way down the Chesapeake. Add sunset lighting to the mix, and we're a couple of happy photographers.

Gov Cup was also special for PhotoBoat this year as it was our first event with our new VSR. We went through the entire 10-hour break-in period for our brand new Honda 60 during the race. We had no problem varying the throttle during the break-in period as we chased down more than 100 boats at full speed, then slowed down to photograph them! The VSR handled extremely well, as we knew it would, and moving forward we're extremely excited to use the boat in combination with our dinghies.

See the Gov Cup photos here.

2011 Screwpile Lighthouse Challenge

Screwpile is one of our favorite events to shoot. Solomons, MD is a beautiful area, the regatta is very well run both on shore and on the race course(s), and the participants are there to have a good time- and it shows.

Better yet, we had some good wind this year. Nothing crazy, but just a good steady 12 knots can make all the difference. See the photos here!

2011 Flying Scot North Americans

More than 70 boats competed in the Flying Scot North American Championship in Westport, CT this year. What a week! The wind was decidedly well above average for Long Island Sound in July. Thursday's Northwesterly created some memorable moments for participants with some pretty intense gusts.

The Flying Scots are a great bunch of sailors, especially with a lot of parent-child and husband-wife (or wife-husband, as they call it) teams in the mix. We happened to take a lot of photos at the finish line at this regatta, and we caught a shot of a celebratory kiss from a wife-husband team that just had a good race. Awww.

See the photos here.

The Law Trophy

This was our 5th time shooting the Law Trophy; this year, we mixed it up a bit by shooting both photos and video. We were pleasantly surprised by a high pressure system and the accompanying gusty Northwesterly breeze...what a great way for JSA to start off the season. Click here to see the photos.

Click here to see the video.

2011 Block Island Race Week

Block Island Race Week is one of the best regattas we cover. One of the primary reasons is the first two words: Block Island. It's like going to summer camp, all the way down to riding bikes for transportation. The island is large enough to host everybody, but small enough to keep everything, and everybody, close by. It's easy enough to get to the island via ferry, but hard enough to leave to get to work or family commitments during the week. So without any distractions from the real world, everybody is free to have a good time.

The wind this year was a little light on average, but we still had a great experience. The highlight, as always, is the Around the Island Race. It's our favorite race to photograph because of the natural beauty of Block Island's lighthouses and cliffs. They create a terrific backdrop for photos. This year, the wind picked up to create some nice dramatic conditions on the east side of the island, and it made all the difference for us. See the photos here.

Marion to Bermuda Race Start

The Marion to Bermuda Race is run every two years opposite the Newport to Bermuda Race. In both '08 and '10, the Newport to Bermuda sailors (and photographers) lucked out at the start with beautiful, sunny weather and moderate but steady breeze. The Marion to Bermuda Race start in recent years is another story; in both '09 and '11, the conditions were just about exactly the same: nasty. This year a squall came through just after the start. We were taking photos in more than 30 knots...and rain. We got soaked, but were able to go to shore afterwards and dry out before heading to Block Island the next day. The race participants had to get their foul weather gear wet right from the start! Hope they had a second set. See the photos here.

Outside of the Box

When we’re hard at work doing our event photography, we take a lot of shots each day; while photographing a regatta like Charleston or Key West Race Week (200 boats or more), or even a smaller local regatta (75 boats), we click the shutter over a thousand of times each day. We strive to get a sizable and diverse collection of photos of each boat each day: upwind, downwind, crew close-ups, etc. 200 boats x 20 photos…you can do the math and understand how it gives our trigger finger a workout. Over the years we’ve heard comments like “I bet you go out and take thousands of photos to get one good one.” However, that’s not the case at all; we have developed a consistency that not only gives us a great yield of good photos, but allows us to display our photos on site immediately after the day’s racing.

But sometimes the wind doesn’t blow and we just can’t keep pressing the trigger. During a postponement due to lack of wind during Key West Race Week, I was frustrated that there was nothing to shoot. I knew that our normal customers would not enjoy buying photos when sailing in less than 10kts of breeze. So I changed my attitude and got an idea. Once the wind picked up to 6kts, I figured the race committee would try to start a race. I called Daniela who was on shore, and asked her to deliver (by bicycle) my 10.5mm fisheye lens and an old camera body to the end of a pier on the southern shore of Key West. I picked it up and raced back to the course where the IRC 1 boats were half way up the windward leg. I navigated my dinghy to about 3ft leeward of this boat’s starboard gunwale, put the camera over the side of my boat less than a foot off the surface of the water, and clicked off a shot. It has become one of my favorite shots and made this cover. While very light wind can put a damper on sales for photos of every boat, thinking outside of the box here helped me create a profitable day.

NYYC Annual Regatta

The NYYC Annual regatta in Newport this weekend was lumpy and rainy. We ended up taking our cameras out in the rain and got some cool shots. All the photos are posted, sorted by boat name in our online gallery. Enjoy.

2011 CPYC One Design Regatta

The Cedar Point One Design Regatta has been on the PhotoBoat calendar since 2006. This was our 6th year covering the regatta, but since 2010 it's been in the care of our associate photographer Michael Bagley as we've been on another assignment in Virginia. Mike covered the action again this year, capturing the nearly 40 boats from multiple angles. The One Design regatta has hosted a variety of fleets over the years, with some rotating in and out. Always present are the J30s and J105s. This year, there was a nice group of First 36.7s and Viper640s to round out the group. See the photos at PhotoBoat.com .

Southern Bay Race Week 2011

It was another great year for Southern Bay Race Week. 98 boats competed off of Hampton and Norfolk VA this past weekend. Friday’s weather was sunny with a 10-20kt breeze. All boats raced inside with a nice backdrop of docked navy ships. Saturday, the competitors saw light conditions but got off three races. Racing was very tight; see the results here: http://www.hamptonyc.com/2011_Raceresults/sbrw_standings.htm

Sunday was rainy with scattered thunderstorms, so racing was abandoned and the kegs were tapped early.

Yet again southern hospitality and expert sailing combined for an unforgettable experience for everyone.

All of our photos are posted online in our gallery. Click here to view the photos

2011 Block Island Race: Summer's Here

The 2011 Block Island Race kicked off the LIS summer season this weekend with some sunny warm weather and light wind- how appropriate! We had a great day on the water, especially after the breeze clocked around to turn a slow upwind sail into a swift spinnaker run. It was like photographing two different events in one day. We enjoyed shooting with both a wide angle and a zoom from the VSR to create a nice collection of images for each boat. See the photos here.

Boat Names: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The BoatUS list of top ten (a.k.a. cheesiest) boat names for 2010 gave me- well, a feeling of nausea- but also some motivation to step back and think about all of the boat names I see every year. In my post on WaterViews, I discuss the meaning of some of the names I see on the race course all the time but never stopped to look up.

Keep up the creativity, racing sailors.

Speaking of the APS Catalog

We came across an interesting post on the APS website, celebrating their 20th year in business. Check out all of the catalog covers they've had over the years.

2011 APS Catalog Photos

As you flip through your 2011 APS catalog this season, you might notice that our photos are used exclusively. Take a look- you may even find yourself! This is our 4th year working with APS.

Also check out the Annapolis Performance Sailing website at APSLTD.com

Charleston Race Week 2011

Charleston Race Week provided another long weekend full of activity and great sailing this year. This is our 5th year photographing the regatta, and the participation has more than doubled across the years. In fact, it has nearly tripled. We had our hands full with more than 250 boats to photograph this year, but we came prepared with years of experience and help from associate photographer Michael Bagley. We enjoyed Friday's 15-20 knots and lumpy seas on the offshore courses. Saturday, the weather threw us a curveball and racing was cancelled due to high winds. We did enjoy photographing a handful of Melges 24s that decided to practice- and show off for photographers- anyway. Sunday's weak high pressure system made inshore racing a little bit dull, but the offshore fleets were able to wait for the sea breeze to fill in and enjoy some good racing. But racing is only part of a regatta experience for most people; the race village on the sandy beach at Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina was full of action. We enjoyed having our booth with display terminals set up right in the middle of it all, and participants enjoyed viewing their photos as always. See the photos here. We look forward to coming back to Charleston again- this event is always a success!

2011 Prosser Trophy Team Race Championship

Who would expect a weekend in early April in Ithaca, NY to be sunny and 65 degrees? To be fair, today was overcast, but still not too cold. Lake Cayuga's water is still in the 30s, and there are still traces of snow in the hills in upstate New York, but as far as we're concerned, it was a great weekend in Ithaca. Thanks to Cornell Sailing for hosting us. Even with generally light breeze, the college sailors competing for the Prosser Trophy know how to make slow sailing look good. See the photos here. The series consisted of more than 60 races sailed by 8 teams across two days. Daniela was pleased to secretly cheer on her alma mater's team, Georgetown, as they won the regatta and their place in the National Championship at the Gorge in Oregon. If only we could fit a trip to Oregon into our busy Spring schedule...

Another stock photo put to good use

The folks at Tyler Yacht Club in Texas used one of our J80 Worlds photos and some creativity to make this cool t-shirt design.

Don't delete that shot...

Everybody has their own taste when it comes to photos. Some people like full-boat shots that show the sails; others like close-ups with facial expressions. Some like a serene sailing scene, others like epic action. Some like to see boats in the background (especially boats behind theirs), others prefer a solo shot. We've learned to take enough shots to cover all the angles, and to keep everything, but we still get a kick out of unusual requests.

For commercial and editorial photos, we never know what will be useful- we've sold capsize shots to positive flotation manufacturers, countless sail shots to sailmakers, and photos of lobster pot buoys showing current. We had another somewhat unusual request from WindCheck recently, but given our past experiences, we weren't surprised.

We inadvertently take "dirty bottom" shots all the time, especially in late summer when the water's warm and the boats have been in it for a few months. Usually these dirty bottom shots lead to a conversation about whether we'll offer photoshopping services, and they may occasionally lead to a fired bottom-cleaner. But we got a kick out of sending this shot to WindCheck for their latest article on selecting a bottom paint.

2011 Key West Race Week presented by Nautica

2011's Key West Race Week was a warm and sunny one. In Key West in January, this can be a blessing, as we've seen all sorts of conditions in the 5 years we've covered Key West, including 50 degrees and rainy. Though we didn't have any days with epic conditions for photography, the sun and green water were plentiful and we were very pleased with our coverage. We were really impressed yet again with the handling of the VSR we chartered. We used it and a wide angle lens to get this shot right alongside Oracle Racing.

See all the 2011 Key West Race Week photos here.