Surf Diva Shoot

Surf Diva, a La Jolla business offering surf lessons for women

My denim jeans were soaked through on a recent photo shoot, but luckily I had planned for this ahead of time and mentally prepared for the shock of cold seawater.  The client was Surf Diva, a surf school and boutique in La Jolla oriented toward female clientele.  When I learned that they needed a photographer who could photograph a stand-up paddleboarding session, my 200mm lens suddenly felt very diminutive.  I knew my options were to either find a bigger lens or get wet.

I would stay high and dry.  At least, that’s what I thought after I talked to a friend of mine with access to Canon’s 300mm f/2.8 – a hefty lens that, despite being an ancient model sans image stabilization, can still go for thousands of dollars on ebay. Sadly, when I went to pick up the lens on the day of the shoot, the door was locked – the manager at my friend’s office hadn’t shown up to unlock the doors that early in the morning. The shoot would make me get dirty, and that was that.

The first half of the shoot was indoors at the Surf Diva Boutique shooting two Surf Diva instructors as they did a great job being models-for-the-day, browsing through rash guards, bikinis and surfboards.  I took advantage of the interior’s glossy white ceiling and bounced two wireless strobes off of it for clean, even light that kept my shutter speed high enough to maneuver around the models quickly.  It also helped keep the girls properly lit no matter where I shot them from or which way I needed them to turn.  I was able to try a variety of angles in a short amount of time, which I like to do when I don’t have a specific shot I need to tailor.

After the boutique it was a quick walk to the beach.  Once we got to La Jolla Shores, the Surf Diva instructors were nice enough to hold up their ginormous paddleboards just a few moments extra while I got the shots I wanted.  I let them paddle out before their arms fell off.

So now the instructors are in the waves, and I am on shore with my measly 70-200mm.  I take off my shoes and start wading deeper and deeper without a second thought; it is not my first time taking an unprotected, extremely expensive piece of equipment into churning waters.  It has taken several shoreline shoots to gain that courage.  I certainly used to shield my camera like a baby if my toes got an inch into the surf, but now I am comfortable enough to wade deep enough that I need to do a little hop when a wave comes to keep my undergarments dry.

The last step was to make sure my photos were tack sharp – I wanted them to withstand some cropping to get the action nice and tight in the frame if need be.  This was easy enough with the San Diego sun behind me. And in the sunshine, the water in my jeans felt so, so nice.