And finding a Wes Anderson hotel in Ericeira
When I first saw photos taken from the sea I knew that it was something I wanted to do. Photos which were made up of both above and below the surface of the water were even more amazing. Had no idea how to do them, sort of succeed a couple of times with a compact Nikon but that was extremely hard to do without swallowing half of the sea, tried both in Sri Lanka and Greece. And, the photos didn’t have enough pixels. Yes, I do care about them. Sometimes. After speaking to a guy at a camera shop, who told me what kind of equipment you need to get those photos, I got myself a water housing and a dome port to my camera. Since I recently had gotten back from Sri Lanka where I’d been photographing surfing from land I wanted to do that too, but from the water since I’d seen amazing picture of that.
So, I took my camera and water house and went to Portugal, Ericeira to be precise, because that’s where surfing was going on and I planned to take some surf photos there. Well, that didn’t happen. The sea was flat. Another thing that I discovered was that The Atlantic was super super cold, and I didn’t have a wet suit. So bought a cheap one at Decathlon. One morning I put it on, felt a bit embarrassed, and went to the closest beach with my camera to try it out. Then I discovered another thing, even if the sea was flat it was still powerful and it was difficult to take pictures at the same time as you’re trying not to drown. But I tried, learned some things and had fun.
Even though it was hard to do water photography, and I felt like a complete failure, two photos turned out great. And I think that’s the way with so many things you really want to do but they are not the easiest to accomplish; you try, you fail but, there’s a glimmer of hope because something turns out good and that makes you continue with what you set out to do.
Still haven’t taken any surf photos from the water, well a couple but not the ones I want to take, but I discovered something that I feel is so much more rewarding; photographing the surroundings, the sea itself, what’s below the surface, fishing boats and people so, be open to the moment and what’s in front of you. It might not be what you thought you wanted but it’s great anyway.
Oh, how much do I sound like a motivational speaker atm?
