Details in Waves

Here are a series of photographs that I made on two consecutive cold winter days in South Florida. The weather was unusually cold for these parts with north west winds and clear atmospheric conditions. Furthermore short period swells were constantly coming on-shore. The effect of all this was crystal clear water, small waves and off-shore winds that smoothed the surface of the ocean.

The waves where beautiful but lacked energy and were too small to photograph in their entirety. However the conditions and light were almost perfect and there was something I needed to focus the camera on.

My first instinct was to photograph underwater with a wide angle lens--in this case a 14mm--which I did until it felt like I wasn't coming up with anything radically new. (The two above images.)

What I kept noticing, besides the crystalline nature of the water, was how vibrant the color of the water was and how golden streaks of light were streaking through the blue/green faces. I thus changed plans and swam in to swap lenses and go with a 50mm that I could use to focus in on the details.

On a technical side there was no way auto focus would work fast enough and consequently I pre-focus the lens at about one and a half feet. I had no idea how this would work though I was aware that there would be practically no depth of field to help me out; still I shot on aperture priority hoping to squeak out an inch or two.

As I mentioned above I shot on consecutive days, which meant I had a day to see my first attempt. I was pleased though I could tell how difficult it was to stop the action at such close focusing distant and to nail the focus. Nevertheless I was encouraged enough to try more of the same on a second day.

Did I learn and would I do things a bit different? Possibly yes though overall I'm pleased with the results and when looking at some of the images on a large computer monitor I become transfixed by the beauty in the details and the overall abstract effect of the images. In some instances it's hard to define the image of a wave and instead the photograph becomes one of color and light, which were the two elements that attracted me in the first place.

The Rush of Water

Beach Time

Seems like there's been plenty of reason to head to the beach these days (late fall/early winter in South Florida). The weather has cooled (trust me, it's no fun going to the beach when the air temperature is 98 degrees, the sand is 90 degrees and the water a balmy 88 degrees),
the surf is picking up again and the college girls and boys are back in town!






For me it's a time of two great choices; enjoy the water and surf or make use of some beautiful, crystal clear light with which to photograph. These photographs were shot on two separate occasions in one week. I love the mood of the beach and try making images that convey the rhythm of the moment. It's a time when walking around with one camera and the most two lenses is enough; no reason to draw attention to oneself. All one needs to do is slow down and enjoy yourself!

Picture of the Week, 5/24/10

5/24/10: So what makes a school of mullet swim at a frantic pace and jump out of the water? Well, I might have one answer.

It was a beautiful September afternoon at Reef Road in Palm Beach, Florida that saw glassy four foot waves rolling in and a plethora of surfers maneuvering to ride them. The conditions were excellent for water photography and with water housing in hand and fins on feet I swam out to capture some of the action.

As the afternoon rolled on I began to notice large black shadows moving underneath the surface of the water, which I immediately took to be large schools of fish. This is a common site along the shores of South Florida during the spring and fall as schools of fish migrate up and down the east coast of the United States. The point being, I wasn't worried.

Suddenly however the black shadows start moving erratically and quickly and then out of the depth of the shadow large numbers of fish (mullet in this case) begin jumping out of the water; this is something they're not normally known to do unless of course they're being chased by large predatory fish. It could be snook, tarpon, jacks and even sharks that are hungry for mullet. I had no clue what spooked the mullets but suddenly I was surrounded by this frenzy.

I called out to the surfers to come lend me a surfboard to float on but for some reason non came. It was literally raining mullets all around me and there was nothing I could do. Fortunately my instincts to photograph this spectacle took over and thus the shot you see here, which I must admit is rather rare. Still, I had no idea what was making the mullet behave so erratic. However at one point I submerged my camera completely under the water and pointed it downward beneath my legs and snapped a photograph expecting to see more mullets in the image.

That evening I downloaded the images to my computer and took a quick glance at them. It was then that the answer to the original question came to light. In the one frame where I poked the camera underneath me and snapped the shutter I saw a large school of mullet with a big hole in the middle of them and in that hole swam a six foot bull shark. He was no more than five feet away, totally unbeknownst to me but not to the mullets and obviously not to the surfers that fail to come and lend me a board!

Camera used was the Nikon D3 with the 14mm f/2.8D Nikkor Lens inside an SPL splash water housing. Exposure was 1/500 of a second at f/4.5 at an ISO setting of 200.

Picture of the Week, 5/17/10

5/17/10: Classic; Soulful; SOUL ARCH! That's Blair Markham during the epic "Halloween Swell" of 1991 at Wilderness, Puerto Rico. I'll never forget this swell nor will anyone else who witnessed it. The day before this photograph was taken I was in Palm Beach, Florida when the "Perfect Storm" formed off the northeast United States. Boats were sunk and people died but to surfers it was a time to witness ocean swells of giant proportions and for some a time to test their skills and strength at paddling into and riding seldom seen waves.

The waves off Palm Beach were simply too big and out of control for most but maybe a couple of surfers. The waves were so big that they closed off the island to motor vehicle traffic as pounding waves inundated beach side homes and roads. I knew that it would not take very long for the swell to make its way through the Bahamas and down to the Caribbean. Consequently I boarded a red-eye flight out of Miami and into San Juan, Puerto Rico. I arrived on the west coast of the island at 3:00 a.m. and within a few hours I was preparing to swim out at Wilderness.

Only a few surfers riding their big wave guns made it out that day. One of those, a little known Coast Guard cadet by the name of Blair Markham, was also able to paddle out at Wilderness except he did it on a classic long board; a board more apt for the soft rollers at Waikiki than the monsters hitting Wilderness. To see Blair take off on eight to twelve foot 'Wildo' was inspiring enough but to see him handle the waves with style, class and fearlessness was something totally unexpected and absolutely remarkable. This particular image epitomizes his entire session and will forever be equated, at least for me, with the Halloween Swell of 1991.

I used a Nikon FM2 camera body with an MD-12 motor drive and a 105mm lens attached to it that was all encased in a custom water housing made by Jim Bailey of Sea Research. Fuji Velvia film was used and most likely shot at 1/500 of a second with the aperture set at 5.6. The only other equipment needed was a pair of good swim fins.