Huntington Beach

Surf Photography in Huntington Beach – Part 1

Surf photography in Huntington Beach was not my primary focus when I first started shooting over 30 years ago. I first picked up a camera during my years in college at UC Santa Barbara in the early 1990’s. I had an old Nikon SLR that I purchased used and would photograph anything and anyone that would let me. In the past three decades, I’ve photographed just about everything from portraits, editorial, landscapes, to now surf photography. The sheer love of photography will guide you in one direction, and that’s how I embarked in my journey into surf photography in Huntington Beach.

Location is everything, or so they say. In my case it had a big factor in early 2010. I live in Orange County, home to Huntington Beach where surfing is a main pastime for many. And for others, surfing is life. On any day of the week, you can see hundreds of surfers up and down the coast. In the early 2010’s, the real estate bubble had just burst, people had lost homes, jobs and for the most part the economy was in a recession. Work was slow for me, so I would spend somedays visiting the Huntington Beach Pier enjoying the sun and fresh air.

Huntington Beach Pier with big waves
Windy and large waves on south side of Huntington Beach Pier

At that time I was shooting with a Nikon DSRL whenever I would get a photography project, but photography had been more of a side job, I had my own full time job. I had just purchased a new compact camera, a Canon G10, which was an advanced compact camera at that time. I took it out a few times and shot the pier, then began to notice the surfers. It was fun capturing a few shots of them in action or just heading out to the shore. But the G10 was not the correct camera for this type of surf photography, so next time I began to take my regular DSLR and at that time a Nikon 80-200 f/2.8 lens.

The 200mm range in that lens allowed me to get closer to the action. While the F/2.8 allowed me to capture it much better. Still needed something closer, maybe a 300mm or 400mm in that 2.8 range. However, that would mean much more money, which I wasn’t ready to spend at that time. Instead, I figured that if I shot off the midpoint of the Huntington Beach Pier, on the north or south side, I was able to get much closer where I wouldn’t need a 300mm lens.

Female Surfer
Random female surfer in the north side of the Huntington Beach Pier

In fact, this was better because I could walk up and down as the the waves broke closer to shore or further out. Plus, I had an aerial view! This was key, I was closer and it gave me mobility, something a 300mm lens could not have done. I loved it! You can see a full list of equipment that I currently use here.

The love of photography, in this new to me, category had hit and I was all in. Capturing the action or the period before the action was so much fun for me. I came from an advertising background, so I loved how everyday I could capture images that resembled a photo in an ad or article.

Surfboard that looks like a shark
Surfboard painted as a shark in Huntington Beach

Soon after, I went to my first surfing competition for the primary reason to shoot action shots and editorial shots. And this brought a new level of excitement. Since I had spent so much time shooting everyday surfers, by the time the US Open of Surfing started in the summer, I was ready for anything related to surf photography in Huntington Beach. Stay tuned for part two of my journey into Surf Photography in Huntington Beach in a later post here on OCPix.

Update: Read part two here.

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