Surf photography…and aspirations.

I don’t specialise in surf photography. In Irish terms, the surf photographer of choice would almost definitely be Paudie Scanlon. I do the odd shot here and there but since I don’t spend much time in the water, it’s almost academic.

This is one of my favourite surf shots that I did take and it’s not really a surf photograph at all. It was shot on film about 6 years ago I guess, not absolutely sure. I was shooting full film at the time, it was well prior to the switch to digital. If I took it now, with the sort of standards you expect from digital image production I’d probably reject it because of the grain and the white balance issues. I think this was run through Photoshop after scanning but since that was done so long ago, I’m not sure of that either. I suppose I could check…but why would I?

Today I came across a photographer that somehow I’d never heard of but William Milne describes him as the best surf photographer in the world. William himself is one of the best kite guys so that’s fairly high praise indeed. The guy’s name was Clark Little; he’s just released a very expensive book, but you know what, it’s almost definitely worth it. His website is here. His photographs blew my mind.

I don’t often say that. There are some utterly fantastic photographers in the world, like Art Wolfe, Philippe Plisson, Vincent Munier, Peter Lik, Ric Steiniger, all of whom do something quite above normal. But I’ve never seen anything like Clark Little’s work. I used to love David P’uu’s surf work but it doesn’t get to me quite like this. It is amazing.  If you’re a member of FaceBook, it’s worth having a look at this. And this. And this.

I really can’t praise it highly enough. It’s inspired me in a way that few other things have this year.