Surf Photography in 2009: What’s Hot & Not

Comments by Peter Taras, photo editor Surfing Magazine

http://www.surfingthemag.com/surfing-photo…r-taras-100908/ After reading this article, I’ve already heard of a few guys selling off their 600mm’s for 300mm’s.

Longer lenses are apparently cooler in the water (ex. 35mm, 50mm, etc.), but not on land (ex. 500 or 600mm).

On camera flash in the water is out? Remote flash with pocket wizards is so 2005.

Sounds like the photo editors are tired of seeing fisheye photos taken from on the shoulder of the wave, I sure am. I agree with a lot of stuff Peter wrote, but also think some of the shooting styles are trendy right now and will fade away.

So the logical thing was to go try out Peter’s suggestions. I went with a pulled-back look with a 70-200mm lens and got a moody sunset vibe instead of a closely cropped 600mm super-telephoto. Good stock imagery candidates, and I’m happy with the results. It’s always good to keep your photography fresh with a variety of lenses in the bag.

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Also, a big congrats to my friend Todd Glaser for winning the Follow the Light surf photography grant. We often swim together in big waves at various spots around the world. Check out his portfolio here:

http://www.tglaser.com