Extreme Action Sports

In September 2008 I went to Hamburg, Germany, for the Red Bull Cliff Diving event, which was at three different locations over four days. The first spot was Speicherstadt, the largest warehouse complex in the world, built on oak pile foundations.

It wasn’t easy to get permission to shoot there because the buildings are protected as they are historically important. For a safe dive the organizers needed to dig out a bit of the canal bed to get the four meters of water the divers needed for the high dives. We had just one hour of high tide to get as many shots as possible.

I used 2 cameras, one overhead above the platform connected with flashes, and the second on the opposite bank for the sequences. Just before the session was over I changed my position to a bridge over the canal to get this angle. It was 4pm and I shot against the sun. Because of the bad light conditions I decided to shoot in HDR to get more information in the picture. In order to avoid the typical HDR look, I manually put the five single exposures together.

Photo Info

Photographer: Marcel Lämmerhirt
Athlete: José Eber Pava Ordoñez
Location: Hamburg, Germany

Tech Info

Camera: Canon EOS-1D Mark III
Lens: EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM
ISO: 125
F-Stop: f 8,0
Shutter Speed: 1/1600

Photographed by THOMAS P. PESCHAK

When this photograph was first published in Africa Geographic, BBC Wildlife and later in Paris Match and the Daily Mail (London) it resulted in a flurry of e-mails, phone calls and letters from around the world asking if the image was a fake. The image became the most talked about of shark photograph ever.

To capture this image I tied myself to the tower of the research boat Lamnidae and leaned into the void, precariously hanging over the ocean while waiting patiently for a white shark to come along. I wanted to shot a photograph that would tell the story of our research efforts to track white sharks using kayaks. When the first shark of the day came across our sea kayak it dove to the seabed and inspected it from below. I quickly trained my camera on the dark shadow which slowly transformed from diffuse shape into the sleek outline of a large great white. When the shark’s dorsal fin broke the surface I thought I had the shot, but hesitated a fraction of a second and was rewarded with marine biologist Trey Snow in the kayak turning around to look behind him. I pressed the shutter and the rest was history. Throughout the day I shot many more images, most showing the kayak following the shark, but all lacked the power of that first image of the great white tracking the kayak. 

Photographer Mauricio Ramos

Mauricio has a good style and his lighting is quite unique. We haven’t see a lot of his photography however this one shot caught our eye and we thought it would be worth sharing. You can check out more of his photos here.

Photographer: Erik Boomer courtesy of Red Bull illume

On April 21, 2009, Tyler Bradt set the world record for the highest waterfall ever run in a kayak, the 198.5ft high Palouse Falls in eastern Washington.

Tyler held the previous record at 107ft off Canada’s Alexandria Falls, but his descent of Palouse Falls was a major step up from any previous waterfall descents and a journey into the unknown.

Despite many other artistic possibilities, I decided to shoot the drop from a distance and as tight and straightforward as I possibly could, to show Tyler paddling with the sheer power and majesty of Palouse Falls. To accomplish my goal, I had to set up a considerable distance from the falls itself.

Technical Info