Miles Manning at Chapoquoit beach, April 27, 2019.
I could say that I photograph the kiteboarders because I like the action. I like stopping, or "freezing," moments that are too short for our senses to appreciate in real time. This moment was captured at 1/1000th of a second; you'd never see it if you were just watching from the beach. I didn't see it when I pressed the shutter button. I can anticipate from the movement of the kiteboarder that he/she is about to do something. It is then that I press the shutter button and the camera begins taking shots at 10 frames per second, each one at 1/1000th of a second. The trick is to keep the subject inside the frame during this brief episode of frenetic firing.
The act of photographing the kiteboarders requires my full attention, just like they are devoting their full attention to riding the wind and the waves. And that gets more to the heart of why I photograph the kiteboarders: it's not just that I like the action. I need the distraction of focusing intensely on just one thing to help me forget, for a little while, the stress of our turbulent times. Get the picture. That's all that matters when I'm standing on a windy beach, chasing the action with a camera.
Monte