The pair of images below are among the very first ones I took of surfers. They are not the best. In fact I’m not a fan. I include them here as much for me as for you because I think I understand now what I was trying to do back then and why these don’t “work” for me. And the fact that they are kind of bad and the more recent ones aren’t quite as terrible means that somehow I learned something.

Keep in mind shooting action/sports was not what I thought I’d ever be doing, and now suddenly here I was. Further I had no idea what the vocabulary of surfing was yet. It took quite a lot of time to get used to how fast people moved on water, how waves could behave, how many times people missed popping up, body movement on the board, wind, the way light could be right where you didn’t want it to be the moment you pushed the trigger, asshole wildlife, humans walking in front of me, and so on. I spent a lot more time looking than taking pictures, just trying to make sense of it all.

In these first tries I was happy to be able to track and guess where a surfer might end up so that I got something usable in the frame. Just barely. And I think that is why the rest of the picture is kind of dead.

The other big lesson on this first day was that the optimal time to surf and the best time to take pictures don’t always line up. In fact far less often than one would hope. The lighting in this first pair is pretty much the worst as far as interesting photos are concerned. And composition I’d say wasn’t happening. It’s dull and that’s what I’d have expected not knowing yet how to move around to different vantage points that were not exactly close together. Learning curve right here.

One of my really great attributes, sometimes, is that I can be stubborn/persistent. I knew something was wrong and I needed to stop and review. But I also wanted to see what a difference waiting it out a little longer might make.

relativity software breaking mind

Windansea Surfers

The Art and Craft of Making Boards