It’s now February so we’re starting on the first SurfGirl of the year. It’s been a long winter but just we’re starting to think about warmer days and summer now that January’s over – wahoo!

So this is what we’re thinking, we had such a good response to last years DIY issue that this year we’re going to feature some of your work every issue. If you paint, photograph, make stuff – whatever it is you do we’d like to see it. Each issue we’ll run a couple of pages of your work and put it on the website and in the app too. Get involved, get your camera, pens, scissors out and surprise us with your creativity!

Below is a list of the things that we are featuring in each issue and the deadline date to get your work in by.

Issue 36 – Homemade crafts – anything beachy that looks cool and funky that you’ve made using fabric, paper, shells or whatever. Deadline 1st March.

Issue 37 – Surf art – inspired by the ocean. It can be art on surfboards too as well as canvas or paper. Deadline 1st April.

Issue 38 – Photos – that showcase at your local break. Deadline 25th April.

Issue 40 – Winter – send your pics and photos in of snow on the slopes or at the beach. Deadline 25th September.

How to send your work in.

This is the tricky bit! So email me and let me know what you’re sending louise@orcasurf.co.uk and then send your images by wetransfer only – sorry but this is the only way to send stuff to my computer! Also jpegs are the way to go. Say which issue your work is for and include your email address on the wetransfer notes bit. The images need to be hi res and 1MB otherwise they are too small for print. Make sure the photos are well lit and close up.

Good luck ladies and get creating!

Thanks to Gemma Louise Fryer for her piece of inspiration!

Hi Emilie, how cool does it feel being an up and coming photographer ?

Being able to do something you’ve wanted to do since you were little is the best feeling. I love how with photography there is no limitations or boundaries, I’m always learning new things and its great working with different clients  as it really makes you explore your own style and technique. Its great being to show people how I see the world through my camera.

Have you met some awesome people on your travels?

I’ve met so many awesome people, I’ve been lucky enough to shoot some pretty great rock bands and do UK tours with some of my favourite musicians from America, It was cool to work with bands I’d admired for such along time and then have them turn into friends, I also love doing fashion shoots as I use models from all over the UK, The girls I used for the surf girl editorial we’d all never met before the shoot and now we are all organising a camping/surfing weekend next month as we all got on so well.

The photos you take are really diverse in terms of the retro black and white shots of girls carrying longboards and bright colourful shots. What inspires you to take the photos?

I think I’m mainly inspired by fashion and my friends, I’ve always pushed myself as a stylist and its how all my work forms, I come up with a look and then base the whole shoot around it, and with my friends and people I love how each person has their own style and image and I love using it and creating my own view of  it in my work.

You were a finalist in the Professional Photographer of the Year awards 2010. How awesome was that?

It was awesome to see myself next to  professional/agency photographers when I was still at uni and learning, I was put it the best editorial category, I entered the work I shot for my first ever commissioned and published editorial  for a magazine in LA. so I was so proud to see it take me to a finalist in the competition from over 3,000 entries

What kind of surfboard do you ride?

I normally use my boyfriends Roger Coper Minimal.

What’s your fave place to surf?

I always go to Porthcawl, it’s my local break.

What sort of equipment do you use when doing your photography?

I shoot with a Canon 550D and normally stick with my 50mm 1..8 lens.

What would you say has been the best and funniest shoot so far and why?

I shot a lookbook for the clothing Brand Love at Topshop, I got to choose my own models and creative team and they gave us a cottage for the night for us all to stay in. We were all so excited  and rather than all staying in our separate bedrooms we all put the mattresses in one room and had a massive sleepover. The next day one of the designers from Love took us to a field they wanted us to shoot, we ended up getting chased out by a few angry, wild horses. It was a great day, shooting look books are always so much fun as the designers always have clear ideas of what they want so it great trying to turn there ideas into images

What is the most exciting place you’ve been to so far whilst doing your photography?

I’d have to say Antigua, I shot a series of images of my twin brother out there using 35mm black and white film and an old eos5 film camera. It’s some of my favourite work.

Last but not least. What advice would you give someone wanting to be in your position?

I think the best advice would be to just get yourself out there! I spend my time constantly emailing magazine’s, contacting designers, models etc you name it i’m emailing them. The internet is a great platform for photographers/creatives. It allows you to promote your work to an unlimited audience. Also by documenting everything you do is great as it give people a chance to learn from you and see how you work. It’s great to see how my youtube channel with videos from my shoots has over half a million hits and my fashion blog at 40,000 with a few thousand followers. I would also advise people to blog! It gives you  a chance to look back and see how far you’ve come and what you’ve learnt. I always get people emailing me asking if they can come help out on a shoot or saying how I’ve inspired them to want to be a photographer and its the best feeling in the world.

SurfGirl’s latest fashion shoot was shot by Emilie in Coney. Not Coney Island, N.Y but Coney Beach Theme Park, Porthcawl! We loved it, check it out in the latest issue.

“I’m just looking to capture a moment that speaks to me in hopes it will speak to those who see it…
I started traveling the world when I was 16 searching for waves and learning about the world. There are just so many interesting moments and people on the road. Of course you want to bring those memories back with you to share with your friends and family and to hold onto forever…So I started snapping away…”

And recently her work was on exhibit in the California House at the Roxy Pro in Biarritz.

Here Kassia explains how it all comes together, take a look it’s a lovely film.

Name: Liz May Age: 25
Home town: St Austell, Cornwall

Describe your designs? Colour with a mix of typography, image and doodles.

 

Where do you get your ideas from? Everywhere, I normally keep a mini note book with me, that I jot down anything from a sound I like to sketching a nice bit of typography. Past and present artists and graphic designers inspire the way I think, and I also cut out and keep anything from leaflets I pick up, to wonderful bits of design I find in magazines.

What inspires you? Mainly the sea, I have been lucky to have grown up in Cornwall, where I have always been able to go to the beach. In past projects I used the sea as my main focus for my graphics, getting ideas for patterns and illustrations from odd bits of washed up things I found on the shore.  People inspire me too, I have met some really interesting and random people so far, so I feel that different peoples personality often inspires me aswell.

 

Which painters do you admire? I absolutly love Patrick Heron, with his brilliant use of colour and shape and the same goes for the work of Terry Frost.  Graphic designers play a huge inspiration and admaration too, like Peter Saville, to name a few.

What’s your connection to the sea? I live in Cornwall, about 5 mins drive from the beach, so the sea is always a part of my life.

 

Describe your perfect day? Anytime that I can spend it on the beach, with the following to make it perfect…A lovely warm spring/summer day, get up early and watch the sunrise with my boyfriend and to have a big bbq on the beach, with friends, family and the dog, right until the evening, just having a good time.

Sum up your life in five words: Design, photography, smiling, doodling, beach.

View Liz’s work at www.designthoughts.co.uk

Anna Gronlund our fashion stylist on SurfGirl has hot tailed it over to Bali for a month in search of warm waves and sunshine. She hasn’t been there five minutes when she’s sending back photos of UK hotties in the shower. What’s she been up to – heaven knows but we think she’s having a great time!

Anyway as this photo of Bude surfer, Joss Ash, arrived in my inbox first thing back after the Easter break I felt it was my duty to share it with you girls. Keep on sending them through Anna – love your work, the lighting’s just perfect!

Candice O'Donnell, Watergate Bay

One question that gets asked a lot is “how do I become a surf photographer?” Of course everyone would love to combine their passion and their job, and the image of the job of surf photographer is totally glamorous and alluring: getting paid to travel to exotic locations and shoot stunning images. And you get to bask in the immense kudos of having them publshed in surf mags.

The reality is slightly different. For starters, the pay is woefully bad. The rates magazines pay for shots haven’t gone up in twenty years! Very few make a living from surf photography, in Europe anyway. And also, if you think it’ll mean you get to go surfing more, forget it. When the sun’s out and the surf is pumping you’ll either be swimming around with your housing getting bombs on the head or standing on the beach with your big lens getting the shots.

Having said that is great fun, so if you have a burning desire to unleash your creative vision on the surfing public, read on for some top tips.

1. Get shooting. There’s only one way to get your work published, and that’s to take great surf shots. Sounds kindof trite I know, but I’ve lost count of the number of people who email asking about getting in to surf photography and don’t attach a photo. So get out there. You don’t need a photography degree, you just need a camera, and some creative inspiration. Which brings me to…

2. Don’t go overboard with equipment. A lot of amature photographers think being a pro is all about the kit. It isn’t, well it is to an extent, if you’re a pro you will DSLR body like a Canon eos 1ds, plus a backup, loads of lenses including a big 500 or 600mm, water housing and so on: at least £10,000 worth of kit. But when you’re getting started all you need is a camera. You could even buy a cheap film camera to experiment with. One mistake a lot of people make is to shell out thousands on a DSLR pro body but buy cheap lenses. It’s much better to go for a cheaper body and better lenses.

3. Learn your craft. Assuming you’ve got a basic grounding in the technical side of photography you need find your inspiration. Buy loads of magazines, not just surfing ones. Find images that inspire you, and analyse what makes them great. Plough through online photo sites like flickr.com and collect images you love. Don’t forget, it’s not just about action. To win assignments you’ll have to be able to shoot lineups, portraits, lifestyle, landscapes even reportage.

4. Get feedback. Once you’ve captured some images upload them to flickr and get networking. It’s an ideal place to get feedback on your shots and find out what works.

5. Study composition. The difference between an average shot and a great one is very often compostion. That’s why the late great photo editor of Surfing Larry “Flame” Moore used to advise budding surf photogs to take art classes and learn about composotion, rather than take photography classes. (By the wayYou can read about Larry Moore here. He was one of the greats of surfing photography). I’ve given a few basic tips about composition in a previous post, but there are many others online. One of the best books about photographic composition is The Photographer’s Eye by Michael Freeman.

6. Contact editors. Once you’ve got some good shots and you’re confident that they good enough to be published, start to cultivate relationships with the magazine editors. If you can get through to them give them a call and see what kind of thing they’re after. As a rule magazines are looking for action shots of known surfers, great lineups and unusual angles. It helps if the images haven’t been before, so think twice about uploading them to social media sites.

Good luck and get shooting!

You can see some more of my work here

Here are some tips to get you started.

1. Decide what you want to convey.Great photos create emotion in the viewer: think what you want to message you want to convey: a sense of awe, wonder, happiness, sadness, gloom even. The picture needs to tell a story: is it a secret spot in the middle of nowhere, or a crowded lineup. Contradition creates interest and tension. So maybe shoot a normally crowded lineup looking empty, or a crowded secret spot (don’t give away the location though!). Tim McKenna shot a great lineup of Pipeline with one surfer taking off, with nobody else in sight, a very rare occurrance at Pipe.

Winter at Porthtowan

2. Have patience

What surfers want to see in a lineup shot is the perfect wave, an image which transports them to the spot and they can imagine themselves surfing it. They want to see flawless A-frames – symmetrical point breaks and grinding barrels. Wait for the best conditions, find your spot and then wait for the biggest waves to come through.

3. Find the angle

Don’t stay in one place: move around to find more interesting angles, especially ones that no-one else has used.

Creating a frame within a frame.

4. Use the foreground

Although the subject is usually the wave, use elements in the forefround to create a sense of scale and depth, and to tell your story. Think of it as creating a frame within the frame which helps to focus the eye of the viewer on the main subject. Bushes, trees, fences, dunes and even people are all good for this, but they usully need to blurred, so you will need to…

5. Use a telephoto

If you’re using a digital SLR a lens or zoom with focal length of 80 to 200mm is ideal. Keep the aperture fairly wide to keep the foreground blurred.

6. Use the rule of thirds

What separates an average shot from a great one is composition. The rule of thirds simply means dividing the image into thirds, with two horizontal lines and two vertical lines. Your main subject should be roughly at the intersection of one of these lines. Don’t have the horizon bisecting the image either, and make sure it’s straight.

Happy shooting, don’t forget to post any lovely lineups to our flickr group.

You can see some more of my work here

Sarah Beardmore surfing South Fistral

Hello and welcome to my surf photography (mostly, I’ll also be talking about portraits, seascapes and so on too) blog. If you’re interested in taking better photos of waves, surfers, people and seascapes, this is the place for you.

Today I’ve been experimenting with adding texture and frames to my images to give them more depth and interest. Here’s a shot I took last year of Sarah Beardmore at Fistral. It was shot on a Canon eos 40d using my trusty 600mm f4L lens.

The border comes from collection I bought on disc many years ago, back when you had to buy such things. Do people buy stuff anymore? It’s all free on the internet I guess? A quick search found something similar here with a tutorial on how to make an alpha channel in Photoshop -¬†this is how you get the image into the frame.

The next stage is to get the texture over the image. There are same great free textures available over on Flickr. The one I used is here. All you need to do to download it is to click on all sizes and download the size you want. The original size¬†is probably best. Then you re-size it the same size as your image, copy and paste it into your surfing image. Here’s the texture I downloaded from Flickr.

Next you need to adjust the layer in the layers pallet in photoshop. “Soft Light” works quite well. “Multiply” is sometimes good, although it will darken the image. You can play around with the opacity and even invert the layer or change the hue and saturation until you get the look you want. It’s great fun and brings out your creative juices. Here’s a portrait of Sarah Beardmore, along with the original as it came straight out of the camera.

You can see some more of my work here