Raw Transcripts
if you’re shooting with a longer lens in the water now I’d say probably beyond the normal zoom range so maybe an 85 male equivalent or telephoto like 70 to 200 something like that then generally you want to be sitting on something in the water that keeps you afloat so I personally use a body board and they’re easily accessible they’ve got the right amount of buoyancy and they’re designed to be in the water so there are no brainer if you have to you can duck dive it under a wave you’ve got it’s got a leash on it so you can just attach it to you and chuck it if you need to never do that in front of anyone or to get under a wave I’d much rather try and duck dive but if you if if you need to get a lower angle you just chuck it and it will hover around behind you on your leash so grab a body board and sit on it you might need to practice this if you’re not a body boarder if you haven’t ever taken a body board out with swim fins before this might mean a bit of practice but you can sit on it like you would a surfboard like straddle it and you’ll be bobbing around it’ll be completely underwater you’re fairly stable like that especially with swim fins you can you can kind of balance yourself fairly easily so I find if I’m shooting with say a 70 200 mil I’m sitting on my body board first of all you can have a look at the line up you’re gonna work out where to sit generally speaking if I’m shooting with a longer lens like that it’s because there’s a big channel to sit in so that’s where I’m going to sit so I position myself in a the best position to get shots into the wave usually cuz I I want to see the way barreling and someone in there in an ideal world so position yourself sit on your board you watch out for any current and wind especially is going to catch you quite a lot more than it would do when you haven’t got you’re not sitting on a board so just keep an eye on where you are in the lineup at all times you don’t have these getting brought in too close to the impact zone that’s gonna be a nightmare you want to be drifting away or too far out car you’re gonna miss the shot so get you in your position get some markers to line up on the cliff or the beach if you can because you’re not miles out to sea that shouldn’t be a problem so you know roughly where you are and other people can see you and they know roughly way – that’s quite important so sit on your board again as the wave comes quite often especially if you’re I tend to be shooting like this if it’s like a long period groundswell and I’m going to a reef break that I know really well and that has a channel so I’m sitting in the channel I know where the waves are going to break I know that it’s I’m not going to get caught by a really big one I might get caught massive sneaker set I’m off so far away from the main break that I’m not gonna get hurt I’m just gonna have to deal with there so I’m sitting down quite often in those big long period swells there’ll be a pulse come through and there’ll be a little lump of swell in front of the wave that you want to photograph that happens so often it seems to be like it seems to be a curse that whenever the bests that wave comes through there’s a lump in front of it so you can’t necessarily get a really good shot so the way one way I found to kind of combat that is when you say when you’re bored you you’ll notice because you’re kind of probably underwater your chest is above water but below that you’re underwater when you breathe in then you’ll be more buoyant and you’ll float up quite a bit higher and breathe out and the opposite happens so when a set comes take a nice big deep breath in and then hold it with the camera while the actions happening and you’ll be hopefully those few inches high enough that can make a real difference to whether you can see the surf a bottom turning or whether you can see them getting into the barrel or something like that hold it take your photos and then you can breathe out and go past the wave as it comes past but it sounds like pretty trivial but it is something that I think once you once you figure out your balance on the body board and you know that breathing trick that is going to help you it’s definitely helped me get a handful of really good shots I’m really proud of that I probably wouldn’t have got otherwise if I’ve been trying to Bob tread water though I would win no chance and if I hadn’t in a little breathing trick then I might have just missed it so something to bear in mind when you’re shooting with a longer lens in the water grab a floatation device some surf photographers use it’s like a an impact vest which i think is like a term from wakeboarding and and kitesurfing maybe but i think the idea of it is it protects you a little bit if you do smash into the water really quick if you being towed behind a boat I suppose that’s a big issue but it also gives you a bit of buoyancy so that if you’ve got the wind knocked out of you from some wakeboarding wipeout then at least you’re going to be bobbing around on the surface not slowing your sinking I suppose so they’re called flotation vests there’s lots of companies that make them like O’Neil I think do a few so I’ve seen some photos of surf photography wear them and because they’re not proper buoyancy aids or lifejackets or anything you’re going to be able to swim under waves with them still but it does give you that bit of protection so something to consider if you’re not 100% I don’t say you know hunting confident cuz I don’t think you should be out there if you’re not interesting confident but it’s something to consider if you need that extra buoyancy I think it would help get it getting a slightly better shot with your longer lens so yeah gram body board I would think about an impact vest if if it’s going to be suitable you