The latest Surfer magazine cover is pretty unique, featuring a birds eye view of a wave that’s pitched and broken with no surfer or even a mind surfable wave to look at.
Photographer Ray Collins explains the story behind it on the Surfer website here:
http://www.surfermag.com/blogs/photo-blog/behind-the-cover-ray-collins/
It’s obviously a great shot and the use of it on the cover of a magazine called Surfer is a bold move, but if you’ve read the article you’ll know it was the Ocean issue so it’s actually pretty apt.
My favourite quote from the interview is:
I have been a big advocate for using short/medium telephoto and prime lenses in the water—but keeping the same positioning as if I were shooting fisheye. It’s really challenging, and thus really rewarding.
That is definitely something I’m going to try, I’m loving the 28mm lens in the water still but I’ve finally got around to getting my 70-200 f4 lens in my housing with my new port and the results were really good.
The waves weren’t up to much so I had a quick session on the 9 foot foam board and then dived back in for 20 minutes to shoot with the new port.
I’m looking forward to trying out Ray’s tip and getting nice and close in with the big lens at a hollow wave or two, I just might have to wait for a while for some waves, so far it works pretty well in the small shifty beach break waves that I wanted it for, and now I have another use for it once the swell picks up too.