2014 ECSC - Old is New Again

7-days until I'll be heading back home to shoot the East Coast Surfing Championships with the ECSC360 crew. I love photographing surfing. It encompasses everything that I enjoy seeing through the lens of a camera - seascapes, action, beauty, people, and emotion. My first foray into surf photography was back in the 80's when Tony Bailey asked me to come down and shoot with him during an ECSC event. Sometimes I wish I had taken a queue from Aaron Chang and followed a dream of traveling to the world's most incredible surf breaks and photographing the sport's most talented athletes. Fear of the unknown left me lost in the safety net of a boring but steady office job only to occasionally ponder what might have been.

2014 East Coast Surfing Championships

Of course things were much more difficult then. The advent of continuos auto-focus (AI servo mode) and digital cameras revolutionized photography in all sports, especially surfing. Shooting wide-open left little margin for error when focusing on a fast moving surfer carving the face of a pitching wave. Manually focusing a long telephoto on an erratically moving high-speed object was not an easy task. We learned to practice predictive focusing based on both photography and personal surfing experience. The shape of a wave and speed of a wave coupled with the knowledge of the surfer's style enabled us to predict where the next big move would occur and react accordingly. I can only imagine how many hours of shooting that the likes of Don King, Chris Klopf, Jeff Divine, and Warren Bolster put in to develop the vision and split second reactions to capture the amazing images that they did.

2014 East Coast Surfing Championships

Unless you had a bulk film back, you were limited to 36-exposure max per roll. Nowadays it is not surprising to hear that a photographer fired off 36-frames on a single wave. During the first ECSC that I shot in the digital age, I logged close to 2500 photos in a single day. That would equate to 70 rolls of film. A roll of Kodak Elite Color costs approximate $3.00 and processing was another $8.00. 70 rolls would cost $770. Over 5-days, the cost would reach close to $4000. During my youth, I couldn't afford enough film to make it through a week-long contest.

2014 East Coast Surfing Championships

There is still a cost today although it is measured more in time and space as opposed to raw materials. As image files get bigger, the corresponding length of time to download and edit them increases. Likewise, multiple copies of the images must be stored on primary and secondary hard drives and offline storage sites. Add to that the catalog management software to be able to organize and retrieve the images plus the editing software to "develop" the images. From an equipment standpoint, cameras can only handle so many shutter actuations before needing replacement. On average most shutters last 100,000 actuations. It sounds like a lot until you realize that it is easy to shoot 10,000 photos in a week! You quickly realize it is not cheap by any means.

2014 East Coast Surfing Championships

This has led me to taking an old approach to shooting with modern gear. I have returned to the roots of the 36-exposure roll and predictive shooting. Instead of simply firing continually with every drop in, limit exposures to the critical point of action. Over the course of a contest or contests, you learn the styles of the individual surfers. You can determine which moves they are likely to perform based on their style and the wave type. Over the course of a normal day now, I will shoot a couple hundred images. I only need a handful for the news outlets and a few additional for my own portfolio. The key is that each time I depress the shutter button, it is at a decisive moment that will make for an intriguing story-telling image. Channeling the greats from my youth has drastically improved my current approach - better quality, faster delivery, and more efficient expense management.

Follow me on Twitter @TravisOwney or on Facebook.

Super Moon Eve

As I said in my last post, I missed the super moon for the second time this year. It was a tough choice with the heavy clouds moving in throughout the day. Do I stay on low ground and hope that the clouds break at moonrise or do I head up into the mountains to see if I can find any iota of a sunset? I decided to roll the dice on the latter which worked out well for the Sunday Sunset Challenge.

Even though I chose the sunset, I still positioned myself so that I could be in place to shoot the moonrise at an overlook that was only a half-mile away. The moonrise would start 15-minutes earlier than the sunset; however with the way that the clouds were setting up, the sunset would be over earlier and the mountains would delay the start of the moonrise for me. The first part played out according to plan. The moonrise, though, was completely blocked by cloud cover from the mountains. I was able to see it peak out of the clouds on the drive home once I was in the valley but without enough time to find a location and setup for a shot.

Super Moon Composite from my Backyard

This image is from the evening before the super moon. Comprised of three photos, it is a heavily edited rendition of what I kind of saw that night. It is definitely not the greatest moon image ever but it was fun to craft.

August Sunset Challenge

My friend Kevin Keyser over at Keyser Images has been posting challenges periodically on Facebook with last night's being the August Sunday #PostYourSunset challenge. It provides some motivation to get out and shoot as well as inspiration from some of the great images being posted. Last night the focus for most was the #supermoon.

This is the second super moon this year and I was looking forward to photographing this rare event; however for the second time, cloud cover hid the moon from my lens. All day long the sky was heavily covered in clouds. I drove up to Skyline without great expectations that I would see either the moon or a decent sunset. Much to my surprise, the sky opened up to the west about a hour before sunset. More clouds were building along the horizon but for a brief moment, there was potential. I opted for the Rockytop overlook as it had the cleanest westerly view. The clouds moving in from the  west dampened what could have been a spectacular scene. I can't complain as I did get a couple of good images out of it including the one posted below.

Rockytop - Shenandoah Valley, VA

Although I missed last night's super moon, I did take a few of the night before warmup. I haven't checked them yet. If there is something worth viewing, I'll add it to another post.

ECSC - More Than Surfing

If you think the East Coast Surfing Championships is just surfing, think again. There is so much more.  In 2013 3-time Olympic gold medal winner and one of the greatest volleyball players of all-time Misty May-Treanor hosted the Dream in Gold Juniors clinic on the beach for the volleyball stars of the future.

Misty May-Treanor - 2013 ECSC - 3-Time Olympic Gold Medalist

Dream in Gold Juniors Clinic

2014 East Coast Surfing Championships Preview

I'm excited to say that this will be my third year teaming up with ECSC360 to photograph the East Coast Surfing Championships in Virginia Beach since Lee Rosenberg of East Beach Photography drafted me over lunch one afternoon. ECSC360 has done an incredible job providing media coverage for all of the activities that occur during the championships while promoting the individuals that make up the media team.

I'll be arriving in town Tuesday night, August 19 and will be on the beach Wednesday morning for the start of the main event. If you are coming down to join the festivities please stop by to say hi. You should be able to find me somewhere along the water's edge wearing a ECSC360 t-shirt and draped in camera gear. Here is a sampling from the 2013 contest:

I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing you there. Follow me on Twitter @TravisOwney for updates throughout the competition and view photos on either Facebook (follow Travis Owney) or on Travis Owney Photography. Oh...if you are coming to the oceanfront or not, please pray for waves!

Chasing Light

It seems lately that I have mainly been shooting or assisting with portrait sessions. While I love my clients and photographing people, it is nice to take a break every now and then to create fine art landscapes. There is something about being alone in a dark, deserted location with only a camera, tripod, and your thoughts that is somewhat cathartic to the crazy hustle and bustle of everyday life. With the Stockley Gardens Fall Art Festival coming up in a few weeks, I took a weekend off and headed to the Outer Banks to find a few more images for the show.

I left late Friday afternoon with no real destination, no hotel reservations, or concrete plans. I just started driving while keeping an eye out for great light. It is not often that you get the opportunity to just let the light dictate where you will land. Client shoots are generally timeboxed and though you try to schedule when the best light is available, you usually find yourself having to attempt to mold whatever conditions are present to get a good image. It is anything but natural - reflectors, strobes, assistants, dreadfully boring skies, gale force winds, etc. leading to more mechanical photography. It is a fun challenge to overcome but it is work. The benefit is that when executed correctly, the images are incredibly satisfying; however, the effort involved is sometimes draining.

Being able to hit the unknown road and leaving it up to it mother nature to drive the scene is refreshing. You just let your mind explore whatever is presented to you. Sure there are technical details that you need to consider when you actually setup the photo but for the most part you are the passenger on a delightful journey. When I arrived in Nags Head, the sun was still fairly high over the horizon. I kept driving, passing the hotel where I usually stay when in the OBX. I found myself wondering past Oregon Inlet and over the Bonner Bridge. My initial intentions where actually to go north up to Duck; however, the light kept pulling me further south. Just north of Salvo I stopped at the refuge visitor's center drawn by a thin strip of clouds stretching across the sound. The light changed dramatically, bathing the marsh in a brilliant golden glow. It only lasted for a few minutes before fading to darkness but a few clicks of the shutter captured its brilliance forever. It would have been entirely missed had I forced a location.

Because I was already halfway to Buxton, I figured I would continue heading south. This is the nice thing about being free to travel randomly. Would there be a room available when I got there? I didn't know nor did I really care. If there wasn't I'd either head back north or sleep a few hours in my truck. Luckily the Island Inn had rooms and as a bonus, they were running a special discount for drop-ins. While walking back to my room after grabbing a quick bite at Diamond Shoals Restaurant (one of my favorites!!!), I noticed the glowing light of the 3/4 moon radiating through the clouds. I looked at the direction and immediately thought of the lighthouse. It is funny that the Cape Hatteras Light has always been one of my most desired subjects yet every time I have been in the area, the conditions never materialized for a really good photo of it; either the light was wrong or the sky lacked the drama needed for something different than every other shot taken of it. Back when it was located closer to shoreline, the ocean provided a great backdrop but in its current location, it is difficult to capture esthetically. Standing in that parking lot, it hit me that I had an opportunity for which I have been waiting for years.

I raced back to the hotel room, grabbed my camera bag and a flashlight. Passing several deer on the entrance road to the light, I pulled into a very dark, very deserted parking lot. The only light was that from the moon itself and the only sound was that of the waves crashing on the other side of dunes. The moon's trajectory was perfect. As it descended toward the horizon, it was moving on a path that would intersect the lighthouse at its midpoint. Most people do not realize how fast the moon, or any of the celestial bodies, move or, technically, how fast the Earth spins. There is not a lot of time to setup and get the capture right before the image is gone. This is especially challenging in the dark. I set the camera up for a portrait composition. The exposure and focus were set for the moon, the brightest part of the scene. A second longer exposure was taken as well. Later in Photoshop I merged the two to bring out some detail in the lighthouse without blowing out the moon. That all belongs to the technical side. The real message is that I ended up here by simply following the light that was available, a glow from the heavens as seen from a nondescript parking lot. The result was an image of the famed Hatteras Light that I have never seen anywhere else.

Another oddity about adventures like this is that the normal concept of sleep and time seem to naturally shift. Although I tend not to sleep a lot, I am horrible when I am at home at getting up early enough to make the drive down to the oceanfront for a good sunrise shoot. On the road, though, is a different story. I returned to my hotel room around midnight and was easily back up at 4:00 a.m.  With the moon long having set, the beach was beyond dark. Having scouted the location before, I knew the basic area where I wanted to shoot. Care has to taken when setting up because it is hard to judge how far water will push in on a large breaking wave. I set up my outfit on the edge of the highest watermark I could determine but always kept one hand ready to grab the tripod in the event that I heard a loud rush of water pouring toward me.

What seems like total darkness is never total darkness. There is always light even when undetectable to the eye. This is my favorite time to shoot. There are a lot of technical fundamentals combined with an equal amount of guesswork. Because exposures can range from 10 - 30 minutes or even longer, you only get so many tries before you have to plan a return trip. The good thing is that using modern technology like the Photographer's Ephemeris application, you know where the sun will be rising. This is also the spot where there will be the most light leakage on the horizon. By making a long exposure, your camera sensor collects the available light and some amazing colors that you will never see by eye. What is black to you renders in burst of yellows, greens, and magentas when recorded. The water turns ethereal as waves repeatedly wash over the beach. It is an incredible experience to stand in darkness and look down at an LCD image that looks unworldly. Again, it is all about the light and its location, intensity, and quality. I could have tried something similar elsewhere on the island and came up with nothing worth viewing.

I hung around a little while to get the classic sunrise shot before packing up to drive north to shoot some photos of the Eastern Surfing Association Championships finals. The wonderful thing about trips like this is that you seldom really know what you got until you get home and see them on your monitor.  So take weekend and set off on your own unplanned adventure just following the light and see what you end up capturing. I think that you will find that you end up with something amazing. Happy adventures...

Independence Day in Small Town USA

I absolutely love small towns.  Maybe it is the slight introvert in me but I generally feel lost in big cities. Large expanses of buildings and concrete were never quite my game. It is one reason that I loved growing up in Virginia Beach so much. While it is becoming an increasingly large city, it will always have that small town feel that beach communities seem to maintain. It is also the reason that I like to get away to truly small towns. When I lived in NC, I used to pick a direction on the map every Friday afternoon and drive until I found a place of interest. I usually ended up in a spot not often travelled to by others en route to more bustling vacation spots. The people I encountered were almost always generous in their hospitality and I had the opportunity to see and do things most don't get the chance to experience. It was amazing to arrive back in the office on Monday with stories of kayaking around Core Banks, hiking to the base of a little known waterfall in Nantahala, or seeing the world's largest frying pan. My friends and coworkers had no idea that such treasures were within driving distance of their home.

For the 4th of July this year, I decided at the last minute to bypass the elaborate fireworks display on the Norfolk waterfront and opted instead to go to Edenton, NC; a small tight-knit community on the Chowan River. Life is definitely different there. In place of big overstated celebratory events, there was a single gathering in town park with a local fair type feel to it.  Ice cream, BBQ, and funnel cakes filled the air with wonderful smells. The kids took turns riding in a little replica train that circled the park while the parents spent time escaping the 98 degree heat under large tents as they listened to old school music and caught up with neighbors. It was an interesting dichotomy to Virginia Beach where every restaurant and bar views the 4th as a profit opportunity. In Edenton all of the restaurants closed for dinner on Independence Day to give their employees a chance to enjoy the holiday and to avoid the craziness that such events inspire. Life is a little slower but definitely not less enjoyed than in their larger population cousins.

Manual, BULB, Mirror Lockup, 4 sec, f/11, 34mm, ISO 200

One thing about a small town is that there is no sneaking into it. I wasn't in town for 30-minutes before I heard my name being called by a friend that I had just recently caught with at our 25th high school reunion. Not that I was trying to be covert; I just didn't want her and her husband to feel obligated to house me for the night. I knew they had plans to head out of town in the afternoon to a baseball game. It is funny because I can spend days going all over Virginia Beach and not run into someone I know and in this little section of NC Americana, I'm caught immediately. Katy gave me a nice improptu tour of the town and it's history. You just don't see that very often in larger cities where getting around is difficult and people are too busy to share a few minutes of their time with an old friend. It was refreshing and much appreciated.

Manual, BULB, Mirror Lockup, 1.6 sec, f/14, ISO 200

Although Katy provided me the access codes to a private plantation to view the fireworks, I found that a better vantage point was had with water in the foreground. This was of course the same location from which the entire town was going to view the show. So even though the heat was unbearable, I staked out my spot on the water's edge at 7:00 and proceeded to bake for 2-hours waiting for the show to start, giving me plenty of time to make small talk with locals. They were graciousness enough to give me room to shoot with tripod and all. I'm not sure that I would have received the same consideration on the Portsmouth seawall.

Manual, BULB, Mirror Lockup, 2.6 sec, f/14, ISO 200

The fireworks show in size is nothing to compare to those like NY, DC, or even Norfolk. Most were single or double burst and it was over in what seemed like 15-minutes although I didn't check the time. What it lacked in size, though, was made up in the quaintness of the moment. This is how the 4th is to be celebrated. There were no sponsored by x-corporation signs, celebrity guest speakers, or a full orchestra for the backdrop. It was simplicity of Edenton celebrating our freedom the way it should.

Manual, BULB, Mirror Lockup, 9.6 sec, f/14, ISO 200

There is no mystery to photographing fireworks. A DSLR helps but many of today's point and shoots have enough features to allow you to get great images. Equipment-wise, you just need a camera that allows you to take long exposures and a stable platform (tripod) to mount it on. To avoid camera shake, I used a cable release and Mirror Lockup; a feature that allows you to open the mirror prior to releasing the shutter thus minimizing vibrations from the mirror slap. I set the shutter speed to BULB which means that the shutter will remain open until I depressed trigger again to close it. This allows you vary the shutter speed without having to fiddle with the camera settings. f/11 to f/14 enabled longer exposures while maintaining a large depth of field. I generally open the shutter when I hear the shell launch and then close it when I think I have the image captured. It takes a little practice but not at all difficult or too technical.

Manual, Aperture Priority, Mirror Lockup, 8 sec, f/11, -1 EV, 36mm, ISO 200

The one disappointment I had was that the full moon did not rise until after the fireworks show had ended. I was hoping to get the moon in the frame behind the streaming blast of colored light but it wasn't meant to be. With that in mind, I couldn't let the opportunity go to waste. When I got back to the hotel room I set the alarm clock for 3:30 a.m. to be in place by 4:00 to capture the moon over the waterfront. Something about being out there alone, capturing a beautiful scenic of the moonlit waterfront is magical. I'm looking forward to my next small town adventure.