Chasing Surfers

My Day Chasing Surfers;

I have  never been a big sports photographer but  certainly enjoy the genre.   I’ve never made it the main focus of my portfolio however, I like action photography whether it be sports, dance, or motocross racing. I love a photograph that captures a moment by freezing the action on a very fast shutter speed or by “panning” and having the main subject in focus and the background blurred and out of focus.

So I decide to tackle some surfing photography as I want surfing photos as part of my portfolio. After some hurricane research I find that Tues. Sept. 11th at noon is the highest swells and I decide to head to  Lawrencetown Beach at 12:15 pm. Lawrencetown is known for its big waves and a lot of local surfers spend a great deal of time there.

When I get there I see my friend and great sports photographer Scott Kirkpatrick with his camera equipment in hand. He's not looking too happy as he starts telling me that the waves are just not surfer-friendly and there are no surfers around to speak of. Scott decides to follow a car that pulled up with surfing boards on top but leaves shortly after for another location after they see the wave conditions as not favorable at Lawrencetown Beach. I decide to get my gear and take a walk up the Hill that overlooks the beach and on the way up I meet another photographer. He tells me of a place 5 kms down the road where all the surfers have gone because it has  better surfing conditions than Lawrencetown beach at this time. I still decide to go up the hill where the Kannon Beach Wind and Surf shop resides which has a café and art gallery and a very picturesque walk overlooking the North Atlantic Ocean. On top of the hill I see two surfers heading out and one captures a wave and gets a decent ride. My photograph of this action is the first picture on this blog.

Because the shot wasn't a real interesting picture taken from afar, I decide to apply some “lens blur” from Photoshop and then remove some of the blur on a layer mask. Basically I am trying to create a Tilt Shift photography effect. I think it is one of my best shots from this days excursion.

I ended up heading out to where the other photographer suggested and was delighted to see more surfers catching decent waves. There I park my truck and head out on the rocky beach where there are other spectators and photographers. Finally I’m getting some shots but the surfers are not doing too much complicated stuff which I hoped to capture. I notice some other surfers further down a rocky beach and I quickly decide that I came this far so I might as well pick up and try my luck “shooting” down the beach.

A long walk over rocky terrain and passed by a grumpy land owner who wasn't pleased I was walking down near his property. I started getting the photos that I want, big waves, surfer guys and girls riding bigger swells. I notice down the beach another surfer dude coming with his board and he's interested in who I’m shooting for. He tells me that “down here” they don't like photographers coming on their land and I ensure him that I was not on anyone's private land walking down the beach. I certainly didn't feel welcome in this particular area.

I continue getting shots of these more experienced surfers (pictures I uploaded) but wrap up kinda quickly as the tide is coming in and I am out on a point of land where I am not sure how far the water would come to shore. All in all this wasn't a bad day as it was good to get out and shoot on a warm sunny day on the Nova Scotia coastline. I enjoyed the challenge of photographing surfers and I hope to get out and try getting better shots another time and hopefully this fall. As stated above, my favourite photo was the one where I used the Tilt Shift effect. One of the things I like best about photography is trying to make a photo better by manipulating it in Photoshop or another image editing software program.