Wendi Palmer

 

Kite Board Lift Off  by  D. Ude

 

Avid kite boarder Wendi Palmer, “lives, breathes and dreams about kite boarding constantly” she says.  “There is no feeling as free as being pulled into perfect wave by a kite and being able to shut the kite off and surf the wave, then pull out and do it all over again”.  Wendi practices her art around Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, on both ocean and sound side, where the heritage of pirates, shipwrecks, and violent storms segues into the present summertime warm lusty winds and choppy waters.

37 thoughts on “d. ude – kite board lift off”

  1. Great shot!
    Never looked at kite boarding this way. I still have a gift token for a kite board training. Hm, I guess I should give it a try.
    Best
    Reimar

  2. Crop out the person holding the flash and it is a nice image. Mindblowing? not so much…

    BODO: I just checked out your website…. you have some really nice images there. Great color!

  3. Jim powers. GET YOUR EYES CHECKED DUDE.
    Not my cup of tea visually, but a neat exposure job. Maybe could have dicked around with second curtain/shutter timing to get a bit of a movement feel in as well.
    Mr D.UDE…..Really??? :)

    John

  4. It makes me think of a detail/scene zoomed out of one of LaChapelle’s giant allegorical tableau.

    As I look at it, I naturally re-format it in less of a squarsish format, where the energy would be less trapped and the sail not cropped out (why not take out the little bit of flash outfit visible, to really make of the flashing, the Sheperd’ star?).

    Fun shot, all the same.

  5. I don’t get what I’m seeing
    —————————

    Jim, maybe stop seeing and look…Duh! :-))))

    Take your time, BURN is no stages race, there are no prizes for constantly being one of the 3 first commenters (though you’d snap it, no contest, if there was…)! :-))))

  6. jesus guys. left hand side on the horizon line. Check the arm angle to follow to the kites. All four fit.
    so either they are figments of my imagination, random blobs, or WINDSURFER Silhouettes. I will go with the latter.
    john

  7. Nice strobist job, although I agree with Pete and would crop out the girl holding the flash.

  8. PETE…

    sorry mate, but either your eyes ain’t fine or you do not know where to look…try again…laughing…take out the strobe girl??? oh no….i would have no interest in this picture whatsoever without the strobe girl…..

    cheers, david

  9. Thanks for the comments. JIM, no photoshop here. If you look closely you can see the kiteboarders under their kites – the arrangement of kites is just luck. And PETE, in my opinion, the mermaid holding the flash is kinda what makes the shot interesting, though I must admit it was not my original plan. It wasnt until after I got her to wade out there in the mud to hold my flash – with that dress and everything – I just decided that she had to be framed in the photo. Anyway, just a fun shot.

  10. I like the idea of the girl with the flash but I also think the shot would be more successful without hern unfortunatley because its an interesting idea. I think it would be better without because the circle of splash is beautiful in the composition but is overshadowed by the presence of the girl. Also I think the girl unbalances the composition from left to right. Its left side heavy.

  11. Gosh I need an editing option. Its right side heavy, not left and its her, not her comma. Is there a preview mode?

  12. DAH

    My point is that it is not important to me to “see” the other surfers. Yes of course they are there. I do not readily assume that someone photoshopped elements in or out of a photo. I figure the others are just too small in the frame to notice. And I don’t think it matters.

    As an advertisement for a strobe company, leave the girl in. Otherwise she is a distraction. My eye goes straight to the light.

  13. Really great shot… I’d leave it just as it is and yep I can see four little figures on the horizon…

    Just leads me to wonder if the Dude is the younger of Dah?

    Mwwahahahahaha….

  14. I find the shot interesting because of the girl withe the flash – but I don’t think it’s actually a good shot. Just interesting….

    Without the flash, it’s a pretty average sports shot. Am I missing something?

  15. PETE…JARROD…

    everyone just sees things differently of course…Jarrod says “without the flash, it’s a pretty average sports shot”..yes Jarrod, but it does have the flash!! Pete, there is no right or wrong to this, but to me without the girl with strobe , there is nothing…again, eye of the beholder…in any case, this is just what i would call a fun picture as Daniel wrote…

    cheers, david

  16. This looks like a really fun experiment, and hopefully no one and no equipment was injured! Yes the flash is there. This was the photographer’s conscious choice, It’s sort of an illustration on lighting.

    My only suggestion would be, turn up the camera EV 2/3 (closer to 0) and the off camera flash down 2/3 to 1 1/3 stop, and the on camera flash down 2 full EV stops. I think a better blending of light with the background would be achieved.

    That’s a roughtimate guess.

  17. PETER, thanks for the link to Maderer. Cool stuff. I sent this photo to Burn because I thought it had and interesting mix of spontaneity and the unexpected – this one’s definitely not as “perfect” as Maderer’s remote flash shots. If you want to see my version of that, check out some of my other shots from the same session. And TOM, if you want to see the full moon version, yes there was a full moon that night. Here it is.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/33715082@N06/3818233695/

  18. Im torn about this. I both like and dislike it. But about the Maderer stuff, its so slick, and perfect…that it ends up being boring. I wouldn’t give it a second look again.

  19. Dude, yes, I liked the moon shot the first time I saw it you may remember :)) And I agree Rafal, it’s a paradox how perfection most often results in soulless imperfection.

  20. I’ve been staring at this photo since it’s been up…and I still don’t know what to think of it. It just looks so fabricated, so digital to me…but that’s also the reason I can’t stop looking at it. It does remind me of LaChappelle, but I feel like his angle would have been more sinister, sexual, or erotic. This is a very interesting grab, and I do agree that the flash girl makes the picture, but, there’s still something that bothers me. The angle is quite perfect with Wendi situated so that all the other kites are surrounding her in the perspective, and the flash chic seems undaunted by the fact that she could have been flattened by the oncoming surfboard launch…I guess what bothers me is that the foreground looks so one dimensional, but I can’t stop looking at it, dammit! I think that what makes this photo successful for me is that I cannot remove my curious eyes from the frame…

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