Wave Exploration

This project entailed hours of wave watching without a camera and repeated trips to the ocean with my equipment. I wanted a different view of a wave breaking in a moment in time - something that the eye alone can not hold. I used a 20mm wide angle lens to expand the perspective to make the wave appear large and intimate as if it was almost breaking on the viewer. I pre-focused about a foot away using high depth of field, high ISO and a fast shutter of 4000th of a second and higher. It was challenging to see the Live View screen through water-proof housing in full sun while shooting in awkward positions. I rendered the final images into B&W for texture and impact. This a digital process, but there's no digital manipulation. My workflow is much the same as traditional darkroom printing. I use density, contrast and dodging and burning, often in great detail to make the print look as natural as possible so that it expresses what I see and feel. Photographer Christopher Rauschenberg described the signature image as a mixture of art and science and that the camera recorded something of a true description of the world. I feel fortunate to have captured these images and in being in the right place, at the right time and with the right equipment