Leighton’s Blog

What a great night for a race. Nice wind, flat seas, great weather and plenty of boats. The season is winding down and I'm not looking forward to another long, cold New England winter. At least I have the Key West Regatta to look forward to in January!! Here is a link to the photos of Wednesday's nights race... http://leightonoc.smugmug.com/Sports/605069

Had a nice night out on Wednesday shooting one of the last Jubilee Yacht Club races of the season. The light drops quick this time of year so you have to shoot quick and get creative. It was a little bit of a wet night. :) Seems somebody forgot to put the water drain plug back in. (That somebody was me!) I found my error half way through the race. Luckily is was only our feet that got wet. You can see the photos at the link below. http://leightonoc.smugmug.com/Sports

What fun I had yesterday! I was going to shoot the Schooner race off of Gloucester but I have tons of schooner shots already and the thought of shooting it again did nothing for me. So instead I shot the MRA (Marblehead Race Association) Labor Day Regatta. When I first left the house the wind was blowing pretty good. I thought it may be little bit much for my little boat but what the heck. You only live once. The trick to getting excellent racing shots is taking a few chances. It turned out to be a great day!!! A little bit wet...but a great day and I got great shots. I only shot one line which included J24's, Rhodes, Sonars & Vipers. You can see the shots at the link below. http://leightonoc.smugmug.com/gallery/5846221_QV3RN You can see all of the races I shot this season in Marblehead (so far) here... http://leightonoc.smugmug.com/sports The Marblehead Reporter used some of these images in this weeks paper and Doyle Sail may use some of these images on their web s...

Last month I volunteered some time to photograph kids taking part in the Salem Community Boating. The kids I saw when I was out shooting were having an absolute blast! It was nice to see kids enjoying something new and really getting into it. From what I heard, it was a very successful first season for the organization . As well as donating photography services, I'm also donating 5% of my prints sales from any 2008 Marblehead race I have photographed.

I spent last weekend bouncing around in my chaseboat off of Marblehead photographing the PHRF Regatta. Great races but lots of chop. Over 750 photos of the races can be seen on my SmugMug gallery.... http://www.leightonoconnor.com/sailing

I spent a few days photographing the NOOD Sailing Regatta off Marblehead. The event was sponsored by Sperry Topsiders. I think I got some pretty cool shots. The weather was ideal for sailing and shooting. A links to the gallery is below.... July 25 & 26, 2008 - Friday & Saturday's Races: http://leightonoc.smugmug.com/Sports

Last Sunday the Friendship of Salem headed out to sea for a visit to Boothbay Harbor. I was shooting a J24 sailboat race earlier in the day and I was going to shoot the Friendship from my chase boat as it head out to sea. The skies weren't looking so great so I hitch a ride with a film crew on my friend Dave's lobster boat. He was shuttling a film crew around to shoot the Friendship for a documentary they are shooting for the Navy. Producer/Director David Bellino was bouncing around the back of Dave's boat getting some great shoots.