chrishewgill

surfed out (1 of 1)

Autumn weather on the North Coast of Australia is beautiful, the weather and water is still warm with light offshore wind and good surf...I wanted to get the su...
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Autumn weather on the North Coast of Australia is beautiful, the weather and water is still warm with light offshore wind and good surf...I wanted to get the surfed out feeling, with a surfer leaving the ocean after a morning surf whilst others enter, on a beach south of Coffs Harbour...
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PENTAX K-3

settings

Aperture f/9.0 ISO 100 Shutter 1/1000 Focal Length 5000/100

upload_date

Apr, 2015

Views

725

Likes

+79

Awards

Creative Winter Award

Legendary Award

Featured

Contest Finalist in Your Summer Photo Contest

Peer Award

+46

Superb Composition

+11

Top Choice

Absolute Masterpiece

Outstanding Creativity

All Star

Magnificent Capture

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Top 20 rank

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Behind The Lens

Location

I took this photo at my local beach on the Australian North Coast, it's Valla Beach a remote beautiful surf beach where I take surf photos of local surfers for my surf site http://www.hewysurf.com/. It's a typical Aussie north coast sub-tropical summers day hot and humid with warm clear blue ocean and blue clear skies...

Time

"I'm usually up before dawn in summer to get photos of the best waves, before the offshore breeze turns onshore ruining the surf". This morning the wind stayed away so I stayed to shoot longer, protected under a big hat. I use the app The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE) to chart the direction of the sun for the place to set up and take surf and beach shots, this was around mid-morning 815am, my last shot of the day.

Lighting

After working out my location with the sun direction using the TPE app, I set up the tripod, camera, zoom and umbrella to take surf photos, this morning I noticed the beautiful summer tropical colour and light with the beach and sky, noting to get some beach mood shots when surfers enter or leave the ocean.

Equipment

I use a Pentax K3, Sigma 50-500mm F/4 Lens and Manfrotto Tripod 055X...all weather sealed.

Inspiration

I love taking surf photos, particularly as I put on regular surf slideshow for local surfers, but a pulled back image recording the beach really life tells a story. This day an older surfer I know had taken his brand new red board out for a surf after long illness. I'm also recovering from life event, so I was inspired to take some shots for his family. I waited until he left the water using the tropical back drop of the headland, beach, other surfers and dunes to balance and frame the surfer in the shot. I quickly changed from my surf settings, using a short zoom range of 73mm 1/800 and f10 on manual shot taking one shot, not perfect but I didn't want a pose shot. It now sits in a frame in his downstair bar!

Editing

I do not do a lot of post processing on my surf shots but for this I used Lightroom CC to fix up brightness and contrast, with some vibrance, noise reduction and sharpening. A bit of grad filter to bring out the sky.

In my camera bag

Going to the beach in summer means taking minimal gear, with sand, salt and sun a killer for photography gear. I take my Pentax K3, Sigma 50-500mm and Tripod with the camera gear in a esky to protect from the heat. I also take my Pentax K5 with Pentax 10-17mm fish eye lens that I put in a Dave Kelly custom water housing (another esky), I use this gear for "in the surf" photography in the surf zone. I clean all my gear down thoroughly after every surf shoot.

Feedback

This type of seascapes and beach mood shots I've found to be about light, colour and framing. I think you should not be afraid of bright light, just find ways around it with early morning shots, interesting subjects, even using clouds or filters. Sometimes like in this case the shot has to be taken quickly, so remembering settings that have worked in the past or just capturing a mood or feeling that you have pictured in your mind. Sometimes you just turn around and shoot..

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chrishewgill

chrishewgill

surfed out (1 of 1)

Autumn weather on the North Coast of Australia is beautiful, the weather and water is still warm with light offshore wind and good surf...I wanted to get the su... Read more

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow chrishewgill

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Autumn weather on the North Coast of Australia is beautiful, the weather and water is still warm with light offshore wind and good surf...I wanted to get the su...
Read more

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes.
Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.