hooking it!

sick one all the way!!

I woud appreciate some feedback on this image.

 

Thakns,

 

David

Where were you???

Love it! how'd you get it? Hope you still have a camera! :)

Great shot!

I actually like the horizon line tilted like that. I think it makes the shot a little extra dynamic. Good work.

This is what I call spectacular!!! Great use of fisheye!

Excellent composition and timing... A great shot!!!

I hope you had a waterproof camera! One of the most interesting pictures I've seen in a long time because of the vintage point. Congratulations!

How in the world did you take it?!!!!

prefer the straight processing. blown out sky doesn't bother me at all.

Sensational shot. Captured the fundamental bottom hand turn perfectly. I love this shot!!

Ah wow man I love this.. so sweet with the wide angle. Man.... AWESOME!!!!!! 7/7!

The bend in the horizon makes it look as though he's surfing from the edge of the earth! Absolutely facinating perspective.

Being a surf photographer myself I can appreciate the difficulty in getting a shot like this as you get sucked up the face and over the falls.Good feeling that, when you know your going to get slammed into the reef.

 

The main problem I have with this is that even though your only about 4 meters from the surfer your still to far away using a fisheye. You have to put yourself almost directly up the face of the wave from where he is doing the bottom turn if you don't the surfer look really small and out of perspective. Comments about blown out sky I wouldn't worry about seeing that we shoot in the most difficult of lighting conditions.

(I had to post a comment in order to get access to mark seven)

great shot. I like how the wave seems to be far more powerful than the surfer, very dramatic. the titled/curved horizon adds to the feeling of being there.

 

the very blown out section.... doesn't seem like you have much choice there- almost makes the surfer seems to be shooting out of an explosion or something certainly not too distracting to ruin a great catch. I since you are shooting w/ fisheye (virtually infinite depth of field), could you open up the lens more and use a slower film to get a little less contrasty image?

I love the reflections of both the surfer and the wave visible in the smooth water, absolutely top-class! Also the halo at the top of the wave is great.

Awesome shot. Please tell us: How did you keep your expensive camera and (more expensive?) fisheye dry? And how did you get the shot -- camera mounted on board, some kind of boat?

Thomas, The camera is inside a custom made water housing that I built my self out of acrylic and fiberglass. I am swimming with fins on.

Very nice action shot. Must be tough to avoid colliding into the surfer, survive the big waves and still point and shoot right (although with 15 mm the entire world is on your photo)

This is an excellent shot, David. I think the blown out sky adds drama. The reflection of the surfer is interesting: it seems calm in the face of the wave that's sucking it in.

 

One thought I have is to try cropping the left side. Doing so tightly contains the sort of circular motion and drama of the scene. Compositionally, the position of the surfer to the frame gives it a different feel, as well.

 

In the original, the dark blue calm on the left provides a dramatic contrast to the white turbulance on the right. You obviously lose that in the cropped version.

 

What do you think?

 

P.S., I hope you don't mind me altering your image like this. If you do, let me know and I'll remove it.

Bruce,

I don't mind at all. Constructive criticisim is ALWAYS good! Some people I know hate it but I like it because you can always learn from another point of view. I used the fisheye to get that broad perspective of the glassy part of the wave. To get the cropped version you showed me I probably would have used a 24mm, and then would have had a strait horizon as well.

I think this is just a great angle. I like the way that the wave constitutes the right side of the frame. My two gripes are the blown out right, and the fact that the wave is perhaps too far to the right.

I know at this point surf photography is a pretty prevalent, but to think at the inception of the medium would the original inventors ever have imagined taking shots of the inside of a wave!

Amazing.