Imperial Beach - US National Sandcastle Competition

[Chris Dodkin]

Wifey, myself, and 300,000 other people decided to head to the beach today, and check out the US National Sandcastle Competition.

To say it was busy is an understatement - it was completely blagged!

Any way, managed to snap a few shots as I fought through the crowds:

Young girl steals surfboard....

Lifeguards working hard... on the blonde!

Did I mention it was busy!

'The real sea monster is BP...'

Stay out of the water...

Sandcastles

5D MKII and 28-70 f2.8L

 

[Laurie Parker]

woah thats some crowd!! Fab Sandcastles though works of art that sea monster is fantastic!

 

[Graeme Harvey]

You're a brave man mate. I'd have given up with the camera and probably have gone home if I'd seen that many people there! Good shots, and you managed to capture just how busy it was. Good storytelling!

 

[Hamish Gill]

I really like those sand castles in the shapes of creatures, we saw some on holiday in the canaries when I was young, amazing things that looked like they were climbing off the beach onto the path that runs along side it... Very impresive considering how crumbly sand is!

 

[Chris Dodkin]

You're a brave man mate. I'd have given up with the camera and probably have gone home if I'd seen that many people there! Good shots, and you managed to capture just how busy it was. Good storytelling!

If I'd thought, I would have taken a monopod, stuck the camera on it with a fisheye lens, and held it over the crowd to get that top down shot - would have been nice.

The amount of camera gear in the crowd was amazing - everything from snappy cams to full pro rigs - there was even a film crew there with a full flying crane rig, flying their camera over the sand castles above the crowds!

The other reason for staying were the large number of visual distractions walking around on the beach

 

[Graeme Harvey]

If I'd thought, I would have taken a monopod, stuck the camera on it with a fisheye lens, and held it over the crowd to get that top down shot - would have been nice.

The amount of camera gear in the crowd was amazing - everything from snappy cams to full pro rigs - there was even a film crew there with a full flying crane rig, flying their camera over the sand castles above the crowds!

The other reason for staying were the large number of visual distractions walking around on the beach

Monopod/fisheye idea is superb! Other visual distractions... I don't know what you mean!

 

[Vic Shaw]

These are neat, theres a couple of guys that do this at the weekend at a spot on the Thames if the tides good, they have a little bucket out to catch the money people throw at them for their efforts. I have often wondered how to capture them in a dramatic way, but that would involve going down on the foreshore where they are and no doubt getting some ribbing as they play to the crowds.