Shimmering Sunrise

Giving a look into this image is the same as taking a look into how I got into surf photography at all. For the longest time I talked about how I never wanted to take surf photos. “I surf all the time, I do not want to take surf photos. I would rather go surf when there is waves and keep my hobbies separate.” I would always tell people. Maybe that was just me coming up for an excuse for not being able to afford an Aquatech camera dome on my surf shop salary lol.

I once came across an advertisement for something called a DicaPac, essentially it’s a waterproof bag for your camera. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I figured $50 couldn’t possibly be the end of the world. When I finally got it, I was ecstatic. I was thinking about all the different ways it could be used, I wanted nothing but to take it into the ocean that moment. So what did I do? I promptly put it directly into a drawer and never used it. I was too afraid, this thing looked like it would turn my camera into a camera’s closest impression of the Titanic. I looked at the bag all the time, but I could never bring myself to take it out.

Fast forward roughly two years, it was just about new camera time for me. For whatever reason, I couldn’t seem to escape all these wave photos coming across my Instagram feed. Clark Little, Ben Thouard, and Chris Burkard to name a few. I decided it was time to give it a chance. After all I would be getting a new camera soon and if this one flooded, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. “Price to pay for creative masterpieces” I thought, standing on the shoreline ready to take a $400 dip into the ocean.

First wave coming through, I go ahead underneath and take the risk. I come up out from under the surf and behold! The most out of focus, terribly composed image you could have ever seen. Regardless, that was not my concern. All I am thinking about while I am underwater is my dry camera, which is exactly what I see when I broke the surface. A perfectly dry camera. Now my excited feelings creep in, this works. All morning I spend chasing the next wave, trying to compose the perfect image. Unbeknown to me, the perfect image was captured when there was a lull between sets, with an amazing sunray shining along the morning sea.

Culling through, that’s searching through and selecting the best photos from a session for you non-photographers, the photos I was imagining my favorite images would be the ones of waves and barrels. When I came across this image above, I knew it was an instant favorite. This was an image that got me started on taking more and more ocean and surf photos. Branching me out of my place of landscapes only, I have been given one more thing to take photos of, and I want to go take the next one right now.