Recent Sesh

Here's a few shots from a recent sesh that I was able to get to and shoot. The photographic conditions weren't the best by any stretch of the imagination and it was a bit on the grey side but there was good size surf so it was worth taking a few....

Wave Pics

When your photographing the surf, remember to keep your eyes open for the wave shots. It's one of my favourite shots and they can look very arty and atmospheric.

Photograph them with or without people near or on the wave. But if you do include people then they will give a sense of scale to the wave.

Try black and white and you could end up with something that your happy to hang up in your front room.

Look for nicely forming 'A' frames, or heavy, dark barrels. If the angle and the light is working for you get that offshore spray coming off the back off the wave.

Now I'm the first to admit that generally speaking the colour of the water in the North East is not the stuff of the exotic surf locations that frequent the covers of the surfing mags, and I reckon that they are unlikely to do so in the near future, but if you have an awareness of the wave shots and what can be achieved then the next time you have the opportunity in some exotic locale you'll be able to nail it.

Besides, who needs all that deep blue turquoise crap - give me rain and dark grey any day!!??
If you can get good shots here you can get them anywhere.

Point of Focus

You don't always have to focus on the wave for an interesting shot. Look at foreground details and use the wave as a backdrop. This can be handy if your restricted by your lenses, especially if you not shooting on a big 600mm!

Shoot at an aperture of around f4 or 5.6 to throw your background out but still keeping it identifiable but there's no hard and fast rule, so go for whatever effect you prefer.

Experiment with different angles to see what you can use as foreground interest. Depending on how busy it is where you are there will be many options if you look for them.

Wipeouts

It happens to everyone who surfs, and anyone who surfs regularly and says they have never had a heavy wipeout is lying to ya. It's part of the surfing game. Some are more spectacular than others but when photographing the action it's always worth keeping your lens trained on the surfer as he is either taking off or after his ride appears to be coming to an end.

If he creams in on the take off be prepared for it, alternatively if he has reached the end of his ride the surfer might decide to end it in a spectacular way by launching himself off the lip so keep following with your lens throughout.

Knowing that the take off is one of the more critical moves the surfer is going to perform try and pick up the surfer as he lines himself up and gets ready to start paddling for the wave and keep him in your view as he starts to paddle. This can be harder than it sounds depending on the break your photographing. Many of the breaks I have photographed are problematic because once the first couple of waves in the set have broken then the view of the remaining in the set can be restricted. Add to this a crowded line up and it becomes difficult.

But it's worth pursuing because wipeout shots are dramatic, especially on a heavy wave. I maintain a folder in my photo archive that I keep stocked with wipeout shots, surf magazines always like to see them so it's well worthwhile keeping one.

Also keep an eye out when it's a windy day because a strong offshore can catch the board after the wipeout and lift it right up to the full extent of the leash making a dramatic shot, just remember to leave space in your shot when your framing to ensure you get the board in.

People really do get into some weird positions when they're wiping out so try and capture that, don't be afraid to keep your camera on continuous shooting mode and 'hose' them down as the action happens and they go flying through the air, your almost guaranteed to get some good shots.

So, pick the surfer up early, follow them throughout their ride, right to the very end but remember, be prepared, when it happens it will happen very fast so be ready for it. Concentrate on your focussing, your more than likely going to be shooting on autofocus so keep the focus point on the surfer. This takes practice, you can almost put money on losing your focus as you follow the surfer just as he reaches the most critical part of the ride. But stick at it. You'll get some good stuff.

Vincent Laforet

Photographer and video maker Vincent Laforet has been following professional surfer Jamie O'Brien to produce a surf video with a difference. Filmed entirely on Canon 5 D DSLR, one of the first able to record hi def video and the 'RED' Canon (see this link for more on this camera...http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/2008/12/19/the-red-canon/ )

The 'First Look' at the project has been posted on Vincent's blog, check it out..... Make sure you follow the 'Smugmug' link to see it full screen, it's well worth it!

http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/2009/02/12/first-look-jamie-obrien/

Awesome!

Surf Image slideshow

A collection of some of my surfing images dropped into a quick slideshow...enjoy.

Shoot the waves

After a long day on Saturday of waiting to see if the surf would pick up at a local surf spot it eventually became surfable at about 4pm. The hardy souls who had waited all day with me went in for a surf I took a few photos, unfortunately, the light was dropping fast and it quickly became clear that the 'action' shots weren't working.

So what to do? No point in calling it a day and heading home, especially when I had hung around in the cold all day waiting to see if it was going to be on. I might as well get something for my trouble.

So the opportunity to get some wave shots was helped by the failing light, allowing me to drag my shutter and see what effects I could get.

As far as technique goes all of these were shot on a 300mm f2.8 on a monopod with a Nikon D2x, my shutter speed is a 15th of a second at f18 for all the shots apart from the first one below which was shot at 1/25 at f14. ISO was at 200.

As you can see you can get some good effects, each wave is obviously going to be different and keeping an eye out for these opportunities can provide some interesting results. Don't be afraid to take plenty of shots, for each one that works there will undoubtedly be many that fail but don't let that put you off.