It’s easy to find a good spot when photographing a surf session and plant yourself there for the entire time. Many times what you get are a lot of great photos, but all of them tend to be very similar in composition.
Yes, you can shoot long lenses and short (still recommended), shoot high and low, but the vantage point remains the same. I like to move around a bit and see what I can get. or me it keeps the day exciting, because I never know what I might find.
Let’s take a recent day at Pipeline for example.
1. I started down the beach at Rocky Point, first setting up a nice line-up shot (above)
2. Then, while still shooting from down the beach, I pulled it in a bit to capture a guy in the barrel.
3. I moved close to the Volcom house, and shot wide for a different perspective.
4. From the same vantage point, I zoomed in tight to get a nice cropped empty barrel shot.
5. I then moved to the Beach Park area to capture some spectators in the foreground.
Finally, while the sun was setting, I sat front-row on the beach to get a nice moody shot of a surfer opting out of a close-out.
Words and Photos by Matt Kurvin, buy his work here or read more about his People’s Choice award and SWELL catalog feature here