Wooden Boat at High Speed

This is from a recent shoot of an antique, wooden Gar Wood boat. The boat is a nicely restored 1936 28' triple-cockpit runabout and we were photographing it shortly after sunrise on Lake St. Clair. The intent was to photograph some high speed turns and the driver was following a course that would bring the boat away from the shoreline before turning sharply toward me. The plan worked well and we got nice shots of the boat in action with nothing but the lake on the horizon.

This particular shot was not really part of the plan. I was tracking the boat and waiting for it to get away from shore and closer to me when I noticed the stark contrast. The boat is brightly lit and shows well against the dark water and the dark trees. It turned out to be one of my favorite shots from the morning.

I was standing in the water and the waves prevented me from standing very still. I compensated with a relatively fast shutter speed. This was shot at 1/1000 at 5.6, ISO 400, lens at 400mm.