07-SEP-2010
Grace and style, Mission Beach, San Diego, California, 2010
Surfing photography is a specialized branch of sports photography. The most evocative surfing images combine the action of both the waves and the surfer. The waves on this beach are comparatively small – in some surfing images I’ve seen, the wave can dwarf the surfer. Instead of such incongruous scale relationships, I must instead use the body language of the surfer to express the story here. In this case, his gesture repeats the peak of the wave he rides. It is a study in grace, style, and skill.
10-SEP-2010
Surfing at Crystal Pier, Pacific Beach, San Diego, California, 2010
In this surfing image, the board rides below the surface, leaving the surfer looking as if he is incongruously walking on water. The pillars of the Crystal Pier frame him in silhouette, and are as important to this image as the surfer himself. Not only does the camera stop his movement – it also makes him seem as if he is being incongruously watched by a series of wooden spectators.
04-SEP-2010
Day's end, Mission Beach, San Diego, California, 2010
In this image, I was able to express a particular relationship between man and the ocean that defines this nature of this place. It is also an image that can define the relationship of mankind itself to the natural world. The sun, already partially below the horizon, becomes an elliptical shape, banded in vivid colors. The sky and ocean turn dark, and a darker yet silhouette of a surfer gently rides his board towards shore on the calm evening swells. It spoke to me of closure, the end of a day, a final run on the surf, as well as the final image in my photographic story of this place. We are so small, and the universe itself so large.
