Recently I spent a few days at ‘Buffels Bay’ in the Western Cape. Driving along the coast I spotted this large driftwood at the edge of the water. While sharing this final image, it was suggested that I should share the many variations that I had shot of the subject which should all be interesting. The truth, which an audience often does not see, is the hundreds and hundreds of other shots of the subject that were taken that are dull, boring and uninteresting. For this shot I went out to shoot the subject on four different occasions and only two images were captured with the correct balance of colour, sky details, water movement and a pleasing composition. On the other occasions the sky was an overcast dull grey and all the images of that shoot are for deleting. Getting the shutter speed as I wanted it to show rough, gritty lines of water movement, was a matter of trial and error, and very few of the hundreds of images show this effectively. So when you see the final image, it’s rarely as a result of one technically and well timed capture.
It is also worth sharing just how unpredictable the ocean can be. On the second day at sunrise I picked this location (below) and got to work to create an interesting image with this composition. For over 15 minutes I was comfortable with my positioning as the waves broke in front of me and the water trickled at my feet. The effort did not yield anything special. Then, in defiance with all the laws of predictability, a huge swell suddenly exploded against the rocks. Within seconds I was drenched from my neck down. I looked down at the now soaking Nikon D800 and 16-35 lens mounted on a soaking tripod and hoped for the best. After a quick wipe down, everything functioned perfectly fine. Always be cautious when shooting near water and never forget the unpredictability of the ocean!
