Photographing surfers - Advice please.

liam08

liam08

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Liam
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I'd like your advice on photographing Surfers. Me and 3 friends are off to Newquay for the weekend and they all surf. As I don't, I thought it'd be the perfect opportunity to practice.

I don't have a huge kit, so I'd need to make use of what I have, which is :
EOS 1100D
18-55mm Kit
55-250mm Lens
Hoya CPL for the two lenses above
Possibly 50mm f/1.8 if it's back from repair
Hoya CPL for the 50mm lens

Not knowing an awful lot about photography yet, I assumed that the 55-250mm would be the best to use, please advise otherwise. \
I will be taking my tripod, but would rather not lug it to the beach unless really necessary, again, please advise accordingly.

Thanks in advance.
Liam
 
Hi Liam

I know nowt about sports togging but with your kit get some nice close ups off them running down the beach, and a couple of longer shots, as for on the surf youlll just have to watch for common happenings and try catch those at 250 and a nice angle a good wave in even in the shallow low down looking up for impact, dont take my though as is because I dont do spors but you asked me so Ive answered my thoughts
 
Running towards the see is a cracking idea. How would I go about getting silhouettes at sunset? I'd like on of the three of them.

Thanks Dave, you're a star. :)
 
Probably not all that helpful, given the op's kit, but here''s Dave Black shooting surfers...

[YOUTUBE]cP6a47BQA70[/YOUTUBE]
 
Don't drop camera in the sea!!! Well someone had to say it. :bonk::bonk:

Use the 55 - 250 and you'll more than likely be at the 250 most of the time. Becuase of the distance from you and the speed of the action, you'll more than likely be using f5.6 and 400iso. Although you may need to up the iso if the light is bad.

There's a few surfing pics on my website, I'm pretty sure they where all taken at f5.6 and all but one at 400iso, although on a longer lens.

Oh and clean the camera down once finshed the sea water and sand will play havoc with the camera.

If you watch the surfers you can predict which why they go along the surf, whcih will depends on the way the wave is breaking.
 
and get a waterproof cover or at least make one out of a ziploc bag - and put a skylight/UV filter on the 55-250 - shooting surfing with a lens that short you are going to have to be near the seas edge (as you don't have the reach to shoot from further up the beach) and that means you are going to encounter a shed load of salt spray
 
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