Sometimes you just have to press your shutter and hope. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. With wave action coming in fast I had to be quick on my feet and steady with my hands so as to avoid any kind of camera tragedy of the saltwater kind. All the while operating blind. Let me explain:
With my lens hyperfocal distance set just left of infinity I knew any objects a hair over a foot away from the back of my camera ALL the way to the horizon would be tack sharp and in focus. What I didn’t know was my composition. Left to aim in a general direction of jetty rock and lapping ocean, I kept firing off exposures while retreating from the wave action. Wash, rinse, repeat for a good 15 minutes—I’m certain the fine family and surf fishermen nearby thought me nuts. Under ideal circumstances I would have laid in the sand and eyed up the shot in my viewfinder like any proper photographer would. But that position would have put my equipment in too much peril; I wouldn’t have been able to pop up and escape the waves quick enough. That was not a risk I was willing to take.
So I was stuck hoping for the best. And while I do like this shot, the prior Next time?
If this photo tickled your fancy check out my other one from Sunday—I timed the waves crashing on a piece of jetty rock just right.
Leave a Reply