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May 23, 2005
Surf photography 101
Sunday 15th May 2005, it was the beginning of the week long swell that pounded Sydney, at its height it was producing 2.5m waves around Sydney’s beaches. I knew about the surf condition beforehand, however I had a bit of hope that on that Sunday the condition will calm down and the swell will fade. It didn’t. On Sunday morning I checked out the surf report and all reported 3-5 ft waves along the beaches. Checking out the photos I quickly concluded that it was out of my league. Being optimistic dude, I still went out, took my board with me just in case. This time though I brought my digicam along, I thought it’s going to be a good photo opportunity!
Arriving at the beach I surveyed the condition and yep it’s definitely out of my league. If I went out there I will either a) got my self killed or b) killed someone (my board flying out of control). I decided that discretion is the better part of the valour, kept my board on my trusty red Mitsubishi Mirage and took my Canon A70 instead.
There was a contest at Nth. Steyne and there was a professional photographer (well at least I thought he was professional with a professional looking camera and equipment) on the beach. I took about 50 or so pictures along Nth. Steyne - Queenscliff stretch. I wasn’t very happy with the result. Surf photography turned out quite difficult there’s a couple of interesting thing that I discovered:
1) Giving the impression of size is hard. Yep it’s really hard to show how big a wave is without anyone surfing in it. Taking a picture of a surfer is even hard because of:
2) Surf is always moving. It’s different than taking a photo of a landscape. The surf constantly moving and this is even harder on beach breaks where peak is always shifting.
3) Now you see it now you don’t! It’s fast fast fast fast. You have to concentrate watching the spot that you’d think will produce the best photo and keep watching it. Focus the camera early and wait. This can be frustating, no wonder all the pro are using tripod (or some sort) to help them when taking photo from the land.
4) Action photo is hard. You’d think you found a good peak, and a bunch of competent surfer on it now it’s time to take some action shot. It’s bloody hard. They may or may not turn where you point your camera and you have to follow it with your finger itchy to press that button on your camera.
5) LCD screen is totally useless. Use the viewfinder it’s much easier on this circumstances.
So that’s only a couple of things I found out from my last photo outings. Like I said I wasn’t happy so I drove up to Dee Why hoping to be able to get better photo there since it’s a point break so at least I know where the wave is going to break and it’s closer to action than Manly stretch. So up to Dee Why and with a couple of lessons learned from Manly I took a couple more shots there. The result was a bit better, too bad the best location to shoot a photo is obstructed by a telegraph pole :) On my way home I did a quick stop at Curl Curl and Freshie took a couple more shots.
OK time to stop yapping and show the result, it’s on my photo album!
Posted by vhadiant at May 23, 2005 09:03 PM
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