Sports Page

Living in Florida has its advantages. Lots of good weather conducive to all sorts of sports. Deland Airport has a sky diving club operating from the far end of the field. There is sky diving on a daily basis and over a weekend there its lots of activity from the morning hours to sunset. A few months earlier I had purchased a Canon 75-300 MM IS (Gyro controlled image stabilized) lens for my Canon Elan 7e. This lens eliminates use-camera-shake but not movement of the subject. I was dying to try the new lens and focused on sky diving to test the lens. I did not realize that shooting pictures of sky divers was that intense. In the movies they

come down gently. In real live they come down much faster than I had anticipated which took some adjusting on my part. Because of the speed and the angle the divers are descending, panning and keeping the image in the center of the view finder was tricky and an oncoming subject was easier to photograph than ones moving laterally. The lens performed well as you can see from the shroud lines and the lens AF responded instantly. SP-31 was taken from a considerable distance noting a good exposure (set for evaluative metering = default) in spite of a semi-backlit situation. All landing shots are taken within a 180 Ft.

to 250 Ft range. I used Kodak Royal Gold 200 Canon Elan 7e, 75-300 mm IS zoom lens.The three skiers had just come off a ski jump at Cypress Gardens FL., when one of them failed the landing. The center

jumper instinctively offers help. Nikkormat/Mdrive 75-205 Vivitar Ektachrome 100. To the right, the Donzi Supercat Offshore Power boat. Off-shore Power Boat Racing is divided into 6 classes the Super Cat being the largest (36-40 feet) with dual Sterling 510 c/i blue printed engines capable of pushing the boat to 140 MPH. After a days racing, the engines and out-drives are completely rebuild with new rings and bearings while crank shafts and cam shafts are re-balanced and gearing examined for minute cracks and imperfections. The cost of one engine is about $35,000 while rebuilding usually runs about $15,000.

Engines are installed in a staggered configuration in order to minimize rotational engine torque which can influence the balance of the craft. Hydraulic controlled rear trim tabs and up front ballast tank(s) can be filled or drained almost instantly to prevent flipping or going airborne. The 7 layer 1.25 inch thick hull boats cost as much as $500,000 or more are driven by two drivers one being the helmsman who navigates and a throttle man who controls all mechanical gadgets. Most Super Cats and Super Vee boats are transported in special build trucks and can be as spectacular as the boats themselves. Canon Elan 7e, 28/135mm IS zoom, fill flash. Kodak Ektachrome E100.

SP-5 Super Vee on trailer

SP-21 Super Vee Rig

SP-22 Wet pit area - St-Pete FL.

The above images are 72 DPI only. However, when ordered, they are custom printed @ 1440 DPI using Epson UltraChrome art inks guaranteeing an eighty year lightfast product on Epson luster photo stock.

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