Japan's National Sailing Team, Day Two

I felt I had usable photos after the first day, but I learned from some of my mistakes and wanted to take another shot at getting some real sailing pictures.  On day one, we stopped following the boats once they went outside into the big swells, but since we didn't have the FUJI television crew with us on day two, we ventured a bit further.

The last shot I wanted was a portrait of the team in their official [casual] wear.  I had a canceled shoot with them on Tuesday (after I was all set up) so my only shot was to be Thursday night in the few minutes preceding their going-away party at the community center.  Not the beach backdrop I wanted, but I'd take it.  This is the first shoot I've ever had where I had a small time window (~4 minutes) to get my shot.  I read some photo blogs of NY photographers who regularly encounter this issue with famous people, so I had a good idea of what to do (be prepared for everything and have a plan).  Fortunately they were really easy to work with and I got all the shots I wanted with still a minute to spare.

Immediately after the party I went home and began processing and printing the images.  I finished around midnight and the next morning I passed them to a woman who is associated with their group and asked her to get the photos signed.  I had to leave for Tokyo that afternoon, so I didn't get them back until this Monday, but they look fantastic.  Definitely a prize photo for the exhibition!