A lemon shark silently glides through the shallows. The tip of its caudal making just the smallest of ripples on the surface of the water. A yellow pilot fish effortless mimics the movement just off the right pectoral fin. The texture of the sand is fine, ground up coral. It’s color is white, but reflects the green of the jungle just meters away. The moment passes quickly, but fortunately the image lasts forever. How was it captured?
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Readers, I am thrilled to share that I have been asked to do a solo photography exhibition on Nov 11. It will be held at the Emerald C Gallery in Coronado and I hope you can all attend. So what have I decided to show? I will share some previews here:
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One of the beauties of our modern, connected world is the access to all sorts of cool images. We see them every day on social media. Often, however, there is disconnect between photography and art. How many images do you see posted on Instagram that you immediately think would look good hanging in your home of office? Not many, I would venture to guess. But here is another way to think about it…
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Surf photography depends upon so much more than time and location. The best results come to those that know the sport well enough to anticipate the surfer’s moves before they are executed so they are ready to capture critical moments on the wave. To me, there is little worse than seeing an image of a surfer doing nothing on a wave. Here are my thoughts on the matter:
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Shooting surfers in the water or seeking the next cool wave shot is immensely fun and a heck of a workout. Our bodies, however, are warm blooded – that is we pump blood to keep warm. When we submerged in water that is colder than our body, our muscles and nerves start to cool and over time and this leads to loss of strength and coordination (not so wonderful)! Here in San Diego, our average ocean temperature is only 63. So what to do?
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The ocean: always changing; always beautiful. I have spent thousands of hours on the shore gazing through my lens at different aspects of the Pacific and I am drawn to the shapes and colors of incoming swells. To me, there is real art in the swell and it only depends on how you choose to capture it. A slow shutter blur is one method that creates beautiful images. Here’s how it is done:
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Shooting waves is one of my favorite types of photography. Over time, I’ve come to realize that it is surprisingly similar to playing golf. What, you may ask? Well, let me explain…
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So the next swell is starting to fill in; the sun is shining; and you want to give surf photography a spin. It sounds simple, but it is anything but! I can’t tell you how many people I’ve seen in the water floundering around just struggling in the elements. So before you burden yourself with a camera, take a spin with your hands free. Here’s what you need…
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Remember those summer days as a kid when you raced down the sand at low tide to the closest jetty to see if there were any tide pools? The most magical things awaited our inquisitive minds. Maybe it was because our heads were barely three feet away from our toes, but tide pooling was an all-encompassing endeavor. Think about it; we were actually encouraged to stick out our little finger and touch things – a wonderful interlude to the persistent instruction of “don’t;” which seemed to play on repeat during my early summers.
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By now, most of you know I love the colors of the ocean, particularly shades of blue. I was recently asked about shooting the ocean in black and white and whether that is worth the effort. I respond with a resounding YES! B&W photography is a powerful tool to creating a desired mood…
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One of the joys of being a photographer is the opportunity to create. I was recently commissioned to create an 11foot image for the conference room of a biotech company in Torrey Pines. The parameters were to create something relevant to the business, but give it a distinctively San Diego vibe. Hmmmm.
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I confess to having a life long affinity for the gangly pelican. Memories of my childhood include watching great flocks of pelicans swooping along the tops of the waves during vacations in Baja and beach days at Huntington Beach. One part prehistoric and the other part grace in motion, these giant birds usher in feelings of effortless freedom and it seems that my gaze is always pulled toward them when they soar by.
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We have all seen dozens of surf shots, ranging from the out-of-focus speck on the horizon to crystal clear action in the massive barrels of Teahupoo. Guess which ones we are drawn to? Of course, its the full-framed action shots with color and clarity. Alas, we can’t always be in Tahiti during a killer swell. Instead, 90% of the time we are shooting at the local break with waves that are typically too small to fill the frame themselves. So what can we do to make those shots enticing?
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There is something special about a surf trip to an exotic locale. It is even more special when your son calls you in the middle of winter and invites you to be the photographer on his surf trip to Panama! When such events occur, I’m all in. Having done a number of surf trips, I have learned a few things about traveling with photo gear. Here are some tips I have gathered along the way.
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The color blue has always resonated with me. When I was a little kid, a favorite question was “what is your favorite color?” It has always been Blue. Not a particular shade, just “blue.” As a photographer that spends the majority of the time in and around water, many of my images have blue as the dominate color. Is this coincidence? Is there an attraction to the ocean because of its color? I’m not really sure how to answer this. But ponder it, I do.
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As a photographer who has spent thousands of hours in the ocean, I most relish the time spent in the barrel when, amongst the chaos and churning, there is that idyllic moment when everything lines up just so. The inside of a wave as it curves up and launches over your head becomes smooth, translucent and flowing. The texture here is like glass, even if the rest of the ocean is churning in a wind-swept frenzy. Here, in the barrel, gravity and movement reshape and recolor your environment. It is often just a fleeting moment, but a moment in time so perfect, so special, that time slows just enough for nature to imprint this vista on your soul.
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