Backstory — Dave Wassel at massive Pipeline (Via GrindTV)

Dave Wassel at Pipeline on what photographer Scott Aichner calls “the biggest day I ever shot there.” Photo: Aichner

Dave Wassel at Pipeline, North Shore of Oahu
February, 2004
Photo by Scott Aichner
“This is Dave Wassel on the biggest wave at Pipeline I’ve ever shot. It was one of those epic, a-bit-too-big west swells back in February, 2004. I sat on the beach for an hour or so seeing if it was even doable. The first time around, I started the swim out and couldn’t make any headway. Bad timing. I had to turn tail and do the walk of shame with everyone watching [laughs]. The sets were bombing, but there were moments. … ‘Go!’ I said to myself. ‘Put your head down and go!’ This is back in the film days and I only had 36 frames, so I had to choose wisely,” says water photographer Scott Aichner.

Dave Wassel at Pipeline; photo Scott Aichner

“The afternoon glare was pretty bad. I’m not sure who was out; I think Jamie O’Brien, Kelly Slater, and a few more guys, but I was the only photographer out. The current was pretty swift, and I was drifting down the beach toward Gums when this wave came in with Liam MacNamara on it. I just snuck under… ‘The next one!’ I was tempted to just go under, ‘But, wait! I’m in the perfect spot. This thing is going to swing wide and focus on to Gums, and I’ve got six frames left!’ ‘Dave’s really deep, what the…’ Yeah, I was talking to myself out there. I had to really anchor myself so I wouldn’t get sucked over the falls. He was going so fast! It eventually closed out, and all I could think was, ‘Please, Dave, pop up out the back of the wave!’” adds Aichner.

Dave Wassel at Pipeline; photo Scott Aichner

“Dave had broken his back on a two-foot wave in Australia the year before, so I was worried. But there he was. ‘Thank you surf God!’ He said later that he whizzed by the reef really fast and got ejected out the back with his board. I looked down at my camera and saw one frame left. ‘Time for a selfie!’”

Dave Wassel at Pipeline; photo Scott Aichner

Dave Wassel at Pipeline; photo Scott Aichner

Dave Wassel at Pipeline; photo Scott Aichner

Dave Wassel and Scott Aichner celebrate with a selfie; photo Scott Aichner

For more of Scott Aichner’s work, go to bestsurfstockphotos

Photo Of The Day (via magicseaweed.com)

 Pipeline & Backdoor

Spot Location: Hawaii > Oahu > Pipeline & Backdoor

Date Taken: 12th April 2014. 2964 page views since 22nd April 2014.

Ernesto Borges

Reflections of Gold: Wave Photography by David Orias (Via topazlabs.com)

By Darcy Wheeler · April 30, 2013

Golden waves and other vibrant hues–Southern California native David Orias has unlocked the perfect mixture of location, lighting and photo-technique to capture the Pacific Ocean as it has never been seen before.

A Start in Surf Photography

Physician by day, Santa Barbara based David Orias became interested in photography in the late ’90s during the advent from film to the digital camera. With no formal education, Orias explains that he learned many fundamentals with the help of the Internet and feedback from other photographers . He would post his photos to sites such as photosig.com, where fellow members would provide criticisms of his work.

Around 2005, Orias took an interest in surf photography, where shots using a long lens were captured during international contests held in San Diego all the way to the Billabong Pipeline Masters in Oahu, Hawaii. With hundreds of photographers producing similar images, Orias decided to stand out from the crowd by using a slower shutter speed as well as panning the surfer, which created a blurred out background.

Admitting that it was a struggle to sell photos within this common genre of photography, the technique of panning and slower shutter speeds was brought over to photographing waves.  By 2007 people started to offer to purchase prints of his fine art wave photos.

A Spot Like No Other

One particular location on the coast of Ventura Beach, CA offers the perfect geography for capturing these images–a nearby mountain range hides the sun as it rises in the morning so that the ambient light is high, creating a proper exposure along with vivid colors in the water.

“There is a fifteen-minute period of time where the sun peaks over the mountain, creating bright, golden reflections. I have yet to find another area where the light hits the waves the right way.”

Not Everyday is a Potential Shooting Day

Before sunrise Orias will head to Ventura Beach to check for tide tables and wave heights.

“Fall and winter are ideal for capturing the best waves. In a typical photo session I might shoot 400-500 frames. Of those, thirty I might process and out of those I might find 1-10 that are interesting and different enough to add to my portfolio”

The Technique

A telephoto 600mm lens (standard surfing photog lens) is used, which allows Orias to shoot more parallel to the shore, adding curl and crest in the waves. He currently uses a Canon 5D Mark III along with an f4 1.4x teleconverter to capture these interesting shots.

The exposure in the initial image is brought all the way to the right on the meter so that the original Raw file appears bland and bright. The photos are then edited in Lightroom and Photoshop. Common adjustments include: dropped exposure, added contrast, increased white balance, saturation boost, and dodging of the wave mist.

Recently, Orias has been interested in adding pelicans into the mix:

 Check out more of Orias’s work here:

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