Summary: Online sales are a good time to buy low-mid price essentials. Have a shopping list and don’t get sucked in Amazon are launching a huge range of deals over the next 48 hours, there are going to be a lot of photography related deals, but which items are worth buying? Trying to keep up […]
Here’s an interesting interview on Riptide magazines website with Paulo Barcellos, ex world champion bodyboarder who now makes a living taking photo’s and shooting video of surfing. http://riptidemag.com.au/news/1715-life-after-bodyboarding-with-paulo-barcellos As always I’m fascinated by the photo of all his gear, although in the interview the idea that gear is definitely not everything comes across clearly, experience […]
Winter has set in for the Northern Hemisphere, I love it, less traffic, less crowds and more waves. We had an awesome winter for surf last year in the South West and it’s already got off to a great start this year too, to get you in the spirit I’ve produced this practical guide to […]
This isn’t really a budget option, with the professional Canon 1DX body starting at about £5,000 and the 1DC body about £10,000, they’re not in hobbyist territory. But what interests me is one of the new features on this housing, a zoom control built into the housing rather than the lens port. Information is typically […]
I’m kind of obsessed with seeing what gear pro surf photographers use, so whenever I see a photo of someone’s kit I bookmark it and make a note to check it out in detail. This photo shoes Sacha Specker with a lot of his gear laid out too, he takes some awesome photo’s and is […]
Check out this post on the Surf Photographers United forum from Philippe Chevodian of Liquid Eye housings which highlights their latest budget housing design, it features a permanently attached pistol grip and the standard removable front plate. http://www.surfphotographersunited.com/forum/index.php?/topic/3172-liquid-eye-launch-the-new-i-model-c1600/ The big story though is the price of the housing: US $795, (about £520) so even with […]
Yesterday I participated in a 2 hour workshop run by Mike Searle as part of the Art8 festival in Newquay, it was good fun and highlighted a few things that I will be working on in the future. I would definitely recommend a workshop like this for anyone learning surf photography, there were eight of […]
I recently bought a second hand Panasonic GF1 body, it’s a Compact System Camera (CSC) which uses the Micro Four Thirds (M43) lens system. The used but well looked after body, boxed with charger etc. cost me less than £100 on Ebay. I’ll go into more detail about this particular camera another time (in short […]
If you’ve been following the tech news you might have seen this already, if not check out the video below for the run down on two new DSLR’s from Canon which could well be the best option if you’re looking to get into surf photography: The 700D is looking like a decent alternative to the […]
If you read my Surf Photography Gear – What I Want post you’ll know I was on the look out for a Canon 70-200mm F4 lens, I managed to get one for under £300 on ebay around three months ago, so it’s time I shared my thoughts on this very popular surf photographers lens. I’ve […]
IMPORTANT – please note that the latest versions of Magic Lantern do not support Pico C scripting, you can still use the scripts but you’ll have to use an old build of Magic Lantern, read more, and download the version I use, here: https://learningsurfphotography.com/manual-control-with-magic-lantern-updated/ I have a Canon 60D and an Aquatech CR-60 housing, this […]
I bought my refurbished Canon 60D via the Canon outlet on Ebay, it’s the second refurbished camera I’ve bought from them and I’ve not had any issues at all,they come with a years warranty from Canon. Mine was an EOS 60D body only, they’re not currently available, they tend to go in and out of […]
I managed to find a second hand Tokina 10-17mm fisheye, as I mentioned in my post about the surf photography kit I want in the future, this has been the lens of choice for many surf photographers shooting with a Canon cropped sensor body (e.g. Canon 7D, 40D, 60D etc.). This post is a quick […]
There’s already a post on the current gear I have for shooting photo’s (and video) in the water, what you didn’t see was the long list of housings I have had in the past. Both DIY home builds and off the shelf products feature in my history of housings, I’ve laid them all out below […]
A new type of water housing has been released by Essex, a respected manufacturer of custom and off the shelf housings. It’s called the Slant-X and it boasts a few unique design characteristics that will be of interest to anyone learning surf photography. You can find out a lot more about it by following the […]
Fisheye photography has always interested me, I got a snap on wide angle adapter for my video camera as soon as I could, at the time I was influenced by skate videos like Misled Youth and the water footage in bodyboarding videos like No Friends, I like the distortion, the extreme close-up nature of the […]
This popped up on my Facebook feed via Aquatech, Chris Bryan with what appears to be a 7D housing strapped to his brilliantly no frills Phantom camera housing, so he can shoot stills whilst shooting ultra high frames per second footage with the Phantom. I assume this is just messing about, I doubt he’ll actually […]
Last week at work I put together a buyers guide for GoPro HD cameras, in the style of a DP review comparison table, it features the GoPro Hero 3 range and my current camera of choice, the GoPro Hero 2. Here’s the link to the full buyers guide with some more FAQ’s and links to […]
If you have checked out my recent post you will have seen the kit I currently have, if I manage to save some cash (or actually make some money from this hobby) my kit bag will eventually include this: Canon EOS 7D body, it uses the same chip but it’s faster, better and stronger than […]
There’s some good information out there on which water housing to buy for surfing, I would particularly recommend Roger Sharps Blog post on the subject here: http://www.surfphoto.co/surfphoto/2011/09/surf-water-housing-buyers-guide.html But they tend to focus on what the options are for buying a new housing, which pretty much all cost over £1000, not that it’s easy to find […]
I’ve been researching and generally looking into the kind of gear that most keen amateur surf photographers use, not the pro’s who make a living out of it necessarily but people like me who have a full time job and want to pursue surf photography as a hobby and get decent results without breaking the […]
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I've been shooting photos and video of surfing for over 20 years.
I want to help surf photographers like me get the right gear and improve their surf photography.
Contact me: ben@learningsurfphotography.com