Golf in British Columbia - Canada

[Darey]

Those AP members who have met me on some of the Sydney AP meets would know that I enjoy my golf as well as photography.

Recently I went on a Golf tour of Canada and Mexico and had a wonderful time playing some of the most beautiful and challenging courses in the world.

Following are a few shots of some of the holes I enjoyed most, because of their beauty and challenge.

Shot #1 My friend John teeing off on the 16th hole of Olympic View course on Victoria Island near Vancouver Canada. This hole is 365 meters with a sharp dog leg to the right and water all the way down the right side of the first half of the hole. The white dot at the end of the fairway is a player playing his second shot to the green, right of our view.
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Shot #2 Me teeing off on the 17th hole of Olympic View. This hole is 375 meters long and has a 140 foot waterfall just 10 feet behind the green. I teed off with a 3 iron and layed-up for an easy 9 iron shot to the green. I pared the hole. :th3:
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Shot #3 Hole 10 at Chateau Whistler which is a Par 3, 174 meter hole of beauty and terror.
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Shot #4 My mate Cliff playing his second shot from a fairway bunker on the 13th hole of Chateau Whistler. This is a 560 meter Par 5 hole that is both beautiful and a real challenge.
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Shot #5 Mark teeing off on hole 16 of Chateau Whistler. The snow skiers will recognise the Whistler Snow Fields in the background. This hole requires a good draw shot or you need to be a good Bunker player.
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[Mark L]

So is that you caddie in the last photo?:)
Like the first two the most.
My BIL would be jealous of the golf you played. I'd be jealous of the photo opportunities you had.

[jev]

I'm not jealous. No, not jealous. NOT jealous at all! (oops... very jealous!). Looks like some great courses, Whistler certainly is on my list of "want to play one day".

But we're here on a photo-, not a golf-forum. These images looks like you've pumped up the colors quite significantly. You used the AdobeRGB colorspace, not suitable for publication online really.

As for the images themselves:
#1: Not a very good follow-through but hey, that's his swing not the photo :D. Too bad the clubhead is not in the frame. If would cut of a substantial part of the left side of the photo - there's nothing there that adds anything

#2. Same thing: cut of more from the left so that the player is about at 1/3rd of the image. I usually don't like to mention the "rules of thirds", but in this case there's not much going on in the left and it makes things look a bit better. Bonus-points for having the ball in view there!

#3. Nice shot, but what is going on in the right? Bad cloning / cleaning in postprocessing? Otherwise, I like the layering and lines of the cartpaths leading the eye. Perhaps you could just cut of the guy and his cart from the right of the image.

#4. I would've chopped of the cart from the right side of the image and try to get the person a bit more prominent. It might change the impression of wideness a bit if you're not careful but give it a try! Perhaps if you waited for the sand-splash it would've created a bit more action.

#5. Great for the family-album. Horrible stance and a faulty swing ;).

Nah, just kidding of course. But perhaps wait for the follow-through to complete to get a better looking stance. What happened to those trees on the right of the teeing ground, why are they out of focus? Is that post-processing error too?

In general, when shooting golf it is often preferable to either wait for a good finishing stand (provided the player in question has a nice finish), click at the moment of impact (if you dare...) or shoot whilst in preparation. Half-in-the-followthrough stances often create awkward looking imagery that looks like the club dictates the swing instead of the player.

When shooting from the back, impact and finish usually provide the better picture.

When shooting from opposite, moment of impact often is the best image. Unless you have a player that turns his/her shoulders all the way through in the follow-through - that can create some very great pictures too!

[Mathy]

I'm not jealous. No, not jealous. NOT jealous at all! (oops... very jealous!). Looks like some great courses, Whistler certainly is on my list of "want to play one day".

But we're here on a photo-, not a golf-forum.

I feel that Jev failed to notice that these images are posted in NOT FOR CRITIQUE, I guess we can forgive him/her for that :D

I too am an avid golfer and love all of these very interesting holes. However, #1 looks like a cracker of a hole, wouldn't want to be off-line with any of your shots, by the look of it, thanks for sharing, cheers Deb

[Darey]

Mark,
The lady in the last shot (Jane) is the wife of the guy teeing off, she was a very good player and played much better than Mark did :)
I must admit it is hard to decide which activity I enjoyed most, taking photos or playing golf. I had a great time.

Joost,
Thanks for viewing and your detailed comments. The shots were posted to show the beauty of the scenery of the courses we played on so were not cropped.
I hope you get a chance to play Chateau Whistler because it is a challenging and beautiful course and I know you would enjoy it.

Deb,
Thanks for viewing and commenting. It's interesting that you liked the first hole because it was one of my favorite holes and I actually managed to par it. :)

[jev]

these images are posted in NOT FOR CRITIQUE
Oops - and I was pretty sure I checked for that - feel pretty stupid now. Sorry! :o :o

This side of the globe the golf season is coming to an end real soon now (just a month or so before Whistler will be covered in snow too). That plan just got put in the fridge :D

I pretty much feel like planning a trip to Portugal and Spain now to escape the next dark and cold months :cool:

[Darey]

Jev,
My friend Cliff (hitting out of bunker - shot 4) had a 3 week holiday in the Netherlands 2 weeks before we met in Canada and he never stopped raving about how much he liked the place, he loved it.
You could always go to Mexico, we had a great time in Carla San Luca, or better still Hawaii, we had a wonderful time there,

[Hawthy]

Nice. I was in Whistler and Vancouver in September. Great place but didn't get the chance to play golf, unfortunately.

[Darey]

Wow Hawthy,
We were playing golf at Chateau Whistler on the 13th September, we might have been near each other in Whistler and didn't even know it.
I should have worn my Australian Photography T shirt. :)