Thawing Shorelines
Pollen is rolling in the rip-tide.
The beach is really casual this time of year.
A month before Memorial Day and if the weather cooperates you can have a summer-ish day on the sand. The ocean is still pretty chilly, no badges or food inspection, easy parking, bikes on the boardwalk and a handful of dogs meandering about; it really changes the pace and feel of the shore.
The thing I have found tricky about shooting the ocean is that I have to toggle between a pair of forecasts: the light and the tide.
Sometimes the light is awesome, but there’s no movement in the ocean and the sands are empty. Other days there’s lots of activity in the waves and beach, but the light is very bleh.
Since I’ve never really managed to get photos of surfers I decided to follow the wave forecast instead of the light to at least get some practice shoots in.
Using a telephoto zoom lens has really been a game changer for the beach and has changed the framing options I have to capture a shot. I had been using a fixed lens for the past couple years but really wanted to get the feel for a zoom especially since I have been running into instances where an image was just out of my reach due to some sort of barrier.
I stood on the shoreline for this series, I don’t think I could get all that closer to the action on the waves.
I maybe could have ventured into the water mid-calf, but didn’t want to be soaked for the remainder of my walk and also didn’t want to risk any water damage. While I really like the images I have gotten zoom lenses tend to be bulky making it more difficult to blend into the landscape to get candid photos.
But even with that caveat the telephoto zoom is becoming one of my favorites.
