Slide Mag

Surf Photo 101- Take A Step Back And Get Some...

Next to the Line Up shot the pulled back or environmental action shot is the easiest to achieve without fancy camera gear. Any bog standard SLR with a kit lens can pull off this kind of image as can a compact with a decent zoom. It's all about the backdrop with these kind of shots which means you really need to think about angles and use your 'manual zoom' (as in your feet) to yomp about the place til you find what you're looking for. Then it's a case of waiting for the surfers to do something good. A big turn/aerial works best or tube shots if the waves are cooking. The sense of place these style of shots bring is what makes them winners. The magazines love them and would far rather run this kind of thing than a super tight action shot of the same move (currently anyway, the tight 600mm shot is so far out of vogue that it's probably due a revival).

Surf Photo 101- Line Ups...

Action shots featuring a surfer date. 
A good line up, however, is timeless. This pic from Ireland is over 10-years old and I never get bored of it. It's also sold well, featuring in countless magazines and as the main image for the Quiksilver Masters event in Bundoran.
To take a good line up you don't need fancy wide angle lenses or water housings, nor do you need a crazily expensive big lump of Canon glass. You just need a camera. Any camera. Even a compact...

Surf Photo 101- Sensors Explained Kind Of...

Got a good question from one reader- 
Can you explain for us ignoramuses what you mean when you say Full Frame Sensor? I'm not clear why say the Canon 5DMk2 is 'Full Frame' and the 7D isn't, and why some lenses suit the Full Frame well (e.g. 15mm) but not others? Thanks Professor. These are great tutorials....

Surf Photo 101- Gizmos, Putes, Etc...

A decent laptop is now an essential part of your armoury. Never used to be but times change and be glad you’re reading this now and didn’t have to deal with laptops like my Apple 180C ten years ago that had something like 8mb of RAM and found Internet Explorer a struggle… I’m a Mac geek -as are many photog’s and creative’s originally due to the Mac’s superior colour handling ability when it came to print work flows- but these days it doesn’t really matter what you have as long as it’s got a decent processor under the hood. The current MacBook Pro 13-inch would be my choice- it’s tough, good value, rock solid OS and with Photoshop CS4 on board will do all you need.

Surf Photo 101- Flash...

Surf photog’s are mainly available light photographers- meaning we work with what Mother Nature is throwing at us be it sun, overcast skies or rain. The environment we work in does not lend itself to being lit artificially with flashes and studio lights (unlike those jammy skate and snowboard photog’s). That’s not to say you shouldn’t be rolling with a flash or two in your gear bag. 

Surf Photo 101- Support...

A good tripod used to be one of the essentials in surf photography. In these image-stabilised times the good old three legged beast is not so essential anymore unless you are: a) Very weak b) Roll with a 400/500/600mm L series lens and a 1 series body. I haven't used one in years, sure I've still got the old girl (a Manfrotto 055 series with mid range head) but in these days of tight ass weight restrictions when traveling the tripod is just too big and too heavy to bother with.

Surf Photo 101- Water Accessories...

Got a mail the other day about what kind of swim fins are best for shooting in the water... Before I answer that a little bit of history- Leonardo Da Vinci had a concept of swimfins but never made any, Benjamin Franklin made some wooden ones when he was a boy but it was Owen Churchill that patented the fins that we know today in 1940.

Surf Photo' 101- Water Housings...

Shooting from the water is what makes surf photography so special. It's arguably the most challenging form of photography there is- anyone think of any another type of photography with a fatality count apart from combat photog’s?

Surf Photo' 101- Lenses...

Most photographers use a small range of lenses- sports types use long lenses, landscapers use wide angles and portraitists use mids. Us surf photographer types are that rare beast that use the whole gamut from the 15mm fisheye (seen as a useless novelty lens in most peoples eyes) right through to the exotic, big 600mm telephotos.
This is because to be a good surf photographer you need to be all the above.

Wanna Be A Photog?

There’s no reason to not start your surf photography career shooting print film with one of them antique film SLRs. That’s right, them funny ones with no screen on the back. Benefits being: a) a top-notch 2nd hand film body is cheap as chips compared to a top end digi (£150 for an EOS3), b) you can actually show your prints to your mates and c) you don’t need to drop the cashola for a computer/memory cards/hard drives to get going.

Surf Photo' 101- Getting Started...

So you've read up on the history of surf photography (if not click on the 101 category link>>> for the first posts in this series) and have some idea about how we got to today. So the next step is beginning. First things first- why do you want to be a surf photographer? If your answer is 'to make money' then I'd turn around walk out the door and pursue another avenue. A good surf photographer’s yearly take home can be achieved in a week by a top celebrity paparazzi shooter. The going day rate for a top London fashion photographer is ten times that of a top surf photographer; even though both can be working for large, stock-exchange-listed, billion-dollar turnover companies… and the fashion photographer only has to worry about getting the right kind of foamy head on his latte, he doesn’t have to worry about getting a double-overhead foamy wave on the head. If you're gonna get into the surf photography lark it HAS to be because you love it. Simple as that...

Surf Photography First Steps...

I get asked a lot how I 'got the job' of being  a surf photographer. It's not something you see on the card rack in the job centre that often. Truth is like 99% of my colleagues it's just a hobby that got a tad out of hand. I never had any intention or dreams of becoming a surf photog. Sure when I was younger I read and re-read battered copies of ASL until I was cross eyed, amazed at the photos by the likes of Sean Davey, Bill Alexander and Teddy Grambeau and chuckling at the wit of Rielly, DC Green and Tim Baker...

A Brief History of Surf Photography…

A new regular section on the site devoted to the art, equipment and technique of taking surf photos -building from the ground up- which I'll endeavour to post every Tuesday. (For Brit readers '101' is a common term in the rest of the world for elementary classes, and hey, it sounds cool)...

Before we even think about cameras, lenses and how-to's you gotta know your onions when it comes to where we come from so here's a compulsory Brief History of Surf Photography…