When Men Go Down to the Sea

[FootLoose]

There was a large-ish swell last weekend and I took a few snaps of surfers jumping off the rocks to reach a small reef break. All shots taken facing almost directly into the sun, so it is a bit harsh but there was really no other perspective.

#1. The Approach




#2. Facing Up to It




#3. Discretionary Retreat



#4. Next Up...



#5.


#6. Calmer Days

[Karm Redland]

Greg, two is a neat shot. if it occurs on some regular basis I would keep playing with this composition.

karm

[Donald]

Good stuff with, I think, pretty challenging lighting conditions. Captures the drama of it very well.

[FootLoose]

Karm and Donald, thank you for the comments. The seas do come up like this several times per year, but I had never thought to shoot the guys trying to enter the water before. I was pleasantly surprised by the 2nd shot, and will definitely be trying that angle again when the weather obliges.

The real difficulty was that when the waves hit the rocks sprayed into the air, the guys were suddenly cast into shadow. So I couldn't meter off the white water because everything else was getting lost. My solution was to spot meter off the white of the boards they were holding and hold onto the shutter button until the wave hit. It seems to have worked reasonably well, but I still had to raise the shadow/midtones a little to show the surfers.