After my moms recent sudden passing, it seems all I want to do is photograph moving surf. There has always been something very special to me about the interaction of water and light. If I ever quit photography as a profession I think I might paint ocean waves instead. My mom was an artistic genius and painter and I think she would agree with the idea.
Have fun out there, and remember to tell those you love, how much! ❤️
Single shot/panned wave/intentional camera movement.
Mark Metternich wrote:
After my moms recent sudden passing, it seems all I want to do is photograph moving surf. There has always been something very special to me about the interaction of water and light. If I ever quit photography as a profession I think I might paint ocean waves instead. My mom was an artistic genius and painter and I think she would agree with the idea.
Have fun out there, and remember to tell those you love, how much! ❤️
Single shot/panned wave/intentional camera movement.
fabulous! I'd love to hear more about your technique (for example what direction do you pan), camera settings, etc. Thanks!
brick33308 wrote:
fabulous! I'd love to hear more about your technique (for example what direction do you pan), camera settings, etc. Thanks!
Honestly, I just experiment a lot and that is the real fun. I have shot maybe over 10,000 - 20,000 wave shots over the last couple of weeks and still I only have a few images that have that something "special" to me. That is what it is really about. Putting in the hard (but fun!) hours, days and tens of thousands of images. Then once in a while stumbling onto something that works well in the moment or just the right light. So far I have panned large and small waves in the storm surf, the calm, the twilight blue hour, sunset, sunrise, mid-day light (with 10 stop ND), zoomed up to 400mm or better, wider angle at waves close and waves far away, near the sun, away from the sun, different angles including straight on, from in front and behind and even above looking way down off of cliffs. I have tried shutter speeds from 1/60th of a second to a few seconds or more. It just really takes a lot of feedback and experimentation. Every lighting situation is different and also the speed of the water movement as well as the effect you are going after.
I might write an article or make a video tutorial about what I am learning eventually and send it out to all those on my newsletter. I'm not at my drive right now to check exact settings, but I am guessing about 1/2 second during raging pink light.