Wave Abstracts

Wave Abstracts, #41, Barcelona, 2021

It’s always a conundrum… how do you photograph a subject (waves, in this case) that has been photographed billions of times before by millions of people, yet do it in a slightly different, more personal, way?

What would be your “personal style” if you tried?

Is it even possible to “be different”?

Personally, I believe there are as many “personal styles” as there are human beans in the world. So, yes, it is possible to be different, no matter how many times a particular subject has been photographed.

There is hope!

Example: take a random selection of ten photographers out to the beach and have them photograph the exact same wave and all ten will come up with different interpretations–that is, if they all try to be true to themselves rather than simply attempting to copy images they have seen before in magazines, on Instagram, on the web (an easy trap to fall into!).

Why would the images be different? Because each photographer will answer the following questions very differently:

–What kind of camera to use?

–What lens to use?

–What perspective–from the side, from on high, or down low?

–What part of the wave to capture?

–How to compose the wave in the frame?

–What type of exposure–overexpose, underexpose, “true” exposure?

–What shutter speed, ISO, f-stop?

–Whether to freeze action or blur, or pan the wave.

–Whether to go for color, or black and white, or something in-between.

–How to post-process the image–something more conventional, or go for extreme abstract, or add special effects or layers?

My process

On this particular day, I decided to try a series of “wave portraits” with the goal of capturing in the camera something that the human eye never really sees–indeed, is not even able to see.

I also decided that my final product would be monochrome and that I would try to capture unusual patterns and textures–I wanted something abstract, but not outrageously so.

To accomplish what I was after, I experimented with different shutter speeds until I found the range that seemed to work for me, usually between 1/13 to 1/25 of a second (with a couple of exceptions). In order to get shutter speeds that slow, rather than add a filter (I was lazy), I just set the f-stop to f/22 and dialed down the ISO to 64 (base for my camera). In a couple of cases, I even used the Lo ISO setting (effectively, ISO 40 in the Nikon D850) to get an even slower shutter speed for the lighting conditions. Using a small aperture like f/22 negatively affects image sharpness–but since I was visualizing slightly blurred abstracts anyway, that kind of image “quality” didn’t concern me.

I also discovered that a slight panning motion, rather than holding the camera stationary, could have an interesting effect on the areas around the wave.

Then, it was just a matter of studying the wave cycles as they came in, framing, and shooting A LOT–it’s hard to really know how an image came out by looking at the tiny screen on your camera (I just confirm the histogram looks reasonable), so I shot probably 100 frames to get the dozen I am posting here. The more you shoot (the better you toot!), and the better chance you have of capturing something interesting.

With these photographs, in my mind’s eye, I see them as very large prints in a series–all, say, one meter wide by 2/3 of a meter tall… or bigger!

The Wave Photo Essay

Wave Abstracts, #2, Barcelona, 2021 (f/5.6, 1/400, ISO64, 200mm… action almost completely frozen… one of the first captures…)

Wave Abstracts, #4, Barcelona, 2021 (f/5.6, 1/320, ISO64, 145mm… still playing with faster shutter speeds…)

Wave Abstracts, #14, Barcelona, 2021 (f/22, 1/15, ISO64, 110mm… now I’ve found the look I like. I’m also panning left to right slightly as I follow the wave.)