On Shooting Water

Most surf photography is too sharp. Frozen lips, frozen spray, frozen everything. I started shooting much slower — 1/15s, sometimes 1/8 — partly out of curiosity, partly because the dawn light at Maroubra simply doesn't allow anything else.

What surprised me was the surfer's response when I showed them. Posture relaxes. The wave looks like itself again, not like a still life. There's a small negotiation between the camera and the water: don't try to keep up.

Half the frames are unusable. The other half are the best surf photos I've made.