The Yesteryear Regatta in San Diego is an annual event that brings together all the classic boats in the region. Its organized by the Ancient Mariners Sailing Society which was founded in 1975 to support classic vessels as living museums. This was the 45th annual regatta.
The day began very foggy and quite cool but warmed up by race time into the 60's even though the marine layer had a hard time breaking up. It wasn't just a solid thick layer. This dynamic made for some excellent light to do what I came to do - take photos!
When shooting boats, like any sports, you need to have a fast shutter. This is compounded by the need to use as big a telephoto lens as you can. My big gun is an older Canon 400mm f5.6. Shooting it at less than 1/200 nearly guarantees a soft shot. I stick to as close to 1/1000 as I can. That means I have to turn up the ISO. I try to keep under 400. 250 is ideal from a noise standpoint. I focus on the boat as it moves. lock the focus and then move forward and let the boat come into the frame and fire off several to get one good shot. Today I also used a tripod after my last outing, handheld, produced so many fails!
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