Hi All,

I did something, yesterday, that I haven’t been able to do for a while. I went to the beach and took photos of my son surfing. This wasn’t just any beach day, but a perfect surf day for our part of the East coast. –When the waves come after the storm, when the west wind is just right, when the swell is amazing, making the waves solid overhead and perfect for surfing.

You probably wonder how I know all these terms. It is solely due to the fact that I raised two surfer dudes and learned to distinguish between a wave and a wave for surfing. There is quite difference, in case you didn’t know. All those wonderful, beautiful waves we often see along the shore are not necessarily good surf waves.  You would probably want to know if I am a surfer, myself. If you count laying on one’s belly on a surfboard as a child and riding a wave into shore, watching the water pass by at 60 mph, it seemed, all the while screaming get me off–then yes, I am a surfer :). –And proud of it! My dad made my sister a surfboard MANY years ago–fiberglass, heavy as lead, it seemed, but that is how it was back then. The boards have come a loooong way, today. They are light as a feather and I have seen much snap theirs right in half. Not on purpose, of course.

I am going to share a few of the images I took yesterday. No weddings, or families, or children, today–well, somebody’s children (my own, for one)—just surf photos.

I am going to put a disclaimer right here and now, for all time. I KNOW the horizon should be straight. I tend to shoot a tad of a crooked horizon and not on purpose. I usually have to straighten it in post process. However, none on these images have been edited, at all. They are sooc, as they call it–straight out of camera. When I am photographing surfing, and anticipating moves and ‘reading’ the surfer, the least of my concern is getting a straight horizon. I know I can correct that later in my post processing. So…please look past that and enjoy the images and the amazing talent and skill and true athletic ability these surfers possess.

The first image is one that is an once-in-a-lifetime shot. I saw the helicopter approaching and zoomed in to take some photos, and then quickly thought to zoom out and turn the camera vertical to capture it in relation to the water–and surfers. I was hoping to get a surfer up, but not until I returned home to download the images, did I realize a surfer was up and that surfer was my son! I was so excited. No amount of choreography could ever create this shot. And…the good news is that I can straighten the horizon and still have him in the image :). This image was taken with a Nikon D4 and 70-200mm 2.8 lens at ISO 250 with shutter at 1/1600 and aperture at 6.3. The zoom was on 70mm.  

This last one of my son is taken on Reefer Road–as it is known by all the surfers.

Have a great day! Surf’s up!!!

–Blessings…