I don’t know how I missed this one a few weeks ago when it went up, This 16 minute documentary on legendary surf photographer Brian Bielmann on vimeo is a real treat for anyone learning surf photography, it’s directed by Joey Maiocco and Scott Nichols.
Bielmann: Straight Up the Man – Full Length Documentary from Scott Nichols on Vimeo.
There’s some really interesting history, great background info from Brian himself, and some fantastic and relevant interviews with other photographers, surfers and magazine staff.
One photo that they spend a bit of time on is the crazy image of Nathan Fletcher during the code red swell at Teahupoo, he describes how the other guys in his boat shot it too tight, he had the presence of mind to get a more pulled back angle incorporating the spray bouncing up from the reef as well as the surfer, I guess that comes from over 30 years of experience in shooting surf photo’s.
I love how he’s mic’d up on the beach shooting photo’s and talking to the other photographers, the motor drive of his camera (Canon 1DX) is purring away in bursts capturing 12 frames a second, at one point he even says how embarrassing it is having taken so many shots and not getting a good one, the editing process after a long session shooting on the North Shore must get pretty tedious.
There’s all sorts of good stuff in there, I won’t list it all here, just watch the video above a couple of times, then you can watch the TEDx talk that he did, and look at his recently re-launched website: brianbielmann.com.