John Bean, Winter Westerlies Wind Surfers (TRAVEL 2020)

South East Queensland winters are pleasantly cool, that is until the cold winter westerlies blow in from the South to South West. Whilst most of locals retreat to their beanies and blankets, there is a special breed of surfer who comes alive on the waters of Moreton Bay particularly Waterloo Bay near Wellington Point. These are the wind surfers who with skill and excitement skim across the waters behind a single sail attached to their board. Others harness the wind via a kite which flies high, occasionally hoisting them and their board metres above the surface. Moreton Bay is shallow and sufficiently sheltered to be free of heavy surf, so it offers the best of conditions for wind surfers who range from the highly skilled to those in training. Photographing wind surfers can be challenging as they move quickly, one minute close to the on-shore camera, the next minute gliding swiftly towards the distant horizon. So I find my Sigma 50-500mm lens the most adaptive to the situation as it enables the camera to stay close to the action. The light is highly reflective on the waters, especially when the sun is behind the surfers. This allows high shutter speeds and ‘sweet spot’ aperture settings, to maximise depth-of-field and manage the lens’s resolution limitations. The glare also grants wonderful opportunity to produce black silhouetted surfers against the glossy waters, and glossy kites against clear blue skies that are classic South East Queensland winters.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.