Nick Heaney zooms across Lake Jessamine
Subject: Nick Heaney
Photo: Joey Meddock
TSQ Location: Book 1.3, Critique section, Page 93
Zooma zoom zoom and a boom what? Nick Heaney flying past me at high speed.
Nick and I used to shoot quite often back in the day. He was always up for experiment when it came to shooting wakeboarding. I think this shot is about 3-4 years old. It was right at the time when I bought a new waterhousing for my 16mm fisheye lens.
I had an idea to float in the water with my housing in hand. I wanted him to edge past me as close and as safely as possible. He wasn’t understanding what the shot might look like but once I explained that there was a chance of seeing the bottom of the board, he really laid into it.
Focusing this was tricky. While on the back of the boat, I guessed where I thought Nick might be, by zeroing in on something still and about two feet away. Using auto-focus isn’t an option for these types of scenarios because it’s too easy to trick the camera, get water on the housing port, or it’s just flat out not fast enough to keep up with the action. I’ve wasted too many good photo ops by relying on auto, and the damn thing adjusts at all the wrong moments. Manual focusing is usually always a safer bet.
So, there I sat…waiting…wondering. Wondering if I’m gonna be a hood ornament on the nose of his board. Once he set his edge, I kinda held my breath and prayed I didn’t get pin-balled. He definitely kept it within two feet, I’ll say that.
After he did it a few times, I could relax a little. Because of his proximity, I caught this shot before I was doused with water. Once the housing lens port is wet, you can see the drops in the image…which I didn’t want.
What attracts me to this photo is being able to see how the water channels off the bottom of the boards shape, fins, and contour. It’s just something not seen too often.
- Meddock
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