Lost and Found
I had a lot of epic shots I took this winter but it’s funny how many I missed, It would be impossible to post all of them but I’m getting surf stoked all over again going thru my re-edit.
Then It Clicked
Around the 3rd week in November the North Shore Lit up, It was time for me to step up or get out of the water. All the pro’s started to show up and the waves started to get heavy. If you remember the waiting period for the Haleiwa Reef Pro, 9 days without contestable swell then BANG.
I was so impressed by the talent that it made me hold position longer and try to get closer. It was the push I needed, I was getting drilled by outside sets and slammed into the reef everyday but the fear was gone. I wasn’t going to miss it, I wasn’t going home empty handed.
Adriano De Souza
I would stay out all day everyday, holding position, legs cramping, watching the never ending magic
Tanner Gudauskas
Having Fun
Once my nerves started to subside and I started having fun,my pictures got exponentially better. These are all from November 12th, my 4th day as a water photog. I stayed in the ocean for over 7 hours that day (3 sessions), it was also the first day I sold my shots to anyone. A huge mile stone and the first day I felt like things started to click.
I’m a ham and rarely serious…
I started feeling comfortable getting close, I was out of position but at least I was close haha
This one is painful to look at because it shows I had no clue how to position my body, I took many beatings to figure it out. Flynn Novak bottom turn
I went out for my last session at 5pm stayed out until 7pm trying to figure out controls for fading sun shots.
Humble Beginnings
Ok, if you haven’t been following me or new to my site, this was my effort to cover this winters surfing season in Hawaii. I had never taken a professional water angle shot before in my life and had no clue what I was getting myself into. I’m the first to admit I was way over my head, but it didn’t stop me from going for it.
This is the start of my re-edit of my photos from this winter. After reviewing my photos I’m amazed how far I came in 3 months. It just goes to show if you put your heart into something and tell yourself failure isn’t an option you can accomplish your dreams. These are my photos from the first 3 days with my water-housing (november 9,10,11). It’s not as easy as point and shoot haha.
How bad it this hahahahaha, it’s Gavin Gillette but It’s so blurry If it wasn’t for the logos on the board I couldn’t even identify him
I was so afraid I was going to drowned, I keep myself soooo far away from the action. Hawaii waves are more powerful then anything I have ever encountered. Humility was the best lesson I learned thins winter
Not only being too far, I didn’t understand how to frame a picture. I was unconfident in my abilities which led me not to even look thru the view finder I would just hold my arm out and hope for the best. Man I’m a kook
I must have taken 5000 photos into the sun before I figured it out. Here is my first attempt.
I’m sorry you have to look at such crappy photos but it’s important to me for you to realize how far I came. Here is a picture of my first sunset on the North Shore, (notice the lack of people and all the sand that was on the beach during the beginning of the season).
Goodbye Hawaii
Surf photography isn’t my career it’s a passion… I traveled to Hawaii for the last 3 months on my own expense to capture images that inspired me. I’m so thankful I have a life that allows me such an epic adventure but more then that… I’m thankful for the people that encourage me everyday. I really appreciate all the likes, Comments, Questions I got these last few months and I’ll miss being able to deliver the amount of content I had time to produce.
I live for my winters, it’s my time to frivolously live without limitations. I work on the road for 6-10 months a year straight managing Mobile Marketing Tours around the country. I’m thankful for a job that will be starting in a few weeks but I sad to admit that I will only be on the coast for a few weeks in the next 6 month. A crushing blow for anyone that loves the ocean as much as I do.
I only explain this because I never had so many people tell me what I was doing inspire them, that my photos gave their day just a little more excitement. There are people out there that have read everything I wrote and looked at every photo I’ve posted for the last 90 days. People that don’t even surf or live near a coast or even know me…
I don’t want to let you down and I won’t… I don’t want to lose sight of that “Dare to be Great” adventure I got to live the last few months. The content might be a little different and a little more DRY but I’ll never stop looking for those moments in live worth capturing.
Thank you,
Daniel William Fryer “The Surfing Photog”
Kate…
It’s always a pleasure to work with beautiful talented athletes. Kate brought this calmness and elegance into the shoot that really translated to the photos. We had the opportunity to explore a lot of different ideas and different mediums (rocks, sand, waves, deep dives, pool) and the morning sun was excellent lighting. The shot took place @ Big Beach in Makena
(http://www.facebook.com/KateBella)
Really Fine Art
I had the pleasure of working with my friend Val on some Fine Art shots. After her duck diving shoot (http://thesurfingphotog.com/2012/01/10/duck-diving-photo-shoot/) she put on a tight white dress and swam around. It was a lot of fun and we just ran with it, no real direction just having fun. I hope you like it as much as she did.
And here was just an outtake that I really liked. I told her to point her feet and look graceful I think I just accidentally captured her practicing
Wind Surfing
Ok I never tried Wind Surfing, seen a wind surfing magazine and have never shot pictures of wind surfers, That being said I think I did a good job. Met some nice wind surfers in the parking lot of Hookipa Beach park asked some basic questions about the sport and swam out. I’ve seen them bust crazy airs before so I was ready for that but I had no clue how fast the can move in with a slight shift of their sail. I really didn’t want to get hit so I played it cautious
Air of the Day!
The next 2 shots are of the same guy (SAME WAVE), I loved the color behind the wave shooting into the sun. Surfers never get that high so I wasn’t use to turning around looking for that image.
Here is an older guy that was leaning so deep into the wave, not sure if that a good thing or not. But I though it was cool
This kid was killing it!
GOOD JOB? YES OR NO
Duck Diving Photo Shoot
So a few days ago I had a photo Shoot with my friend Val Frey. She operates a Billabong Surf Camp here on Maui (www.WavesHawaii.com (best school on the island)). She wanted to get the classic duck diving photos so for an hour all she did was swim under wave after wave. The girl is a super athlete and did it with a smile on her face the whole time.
900 photos, over a 100 keepers, this was the hardest editing I had to do all winter
Wave of the winter
This is the Heaviest wave I caught a picture of this winter. It’s of Tom Whitaker at Honolua Bay on 1/4/12
Honolua Bay!!!
Today at Honolua Bay was EPIC!!! I have so many amazing photo’s from todays session. If you don’t know where the place is don’t come here haha.
Kai Barger was killing it!
Dustin Barca about to get shacked!
Its awesome when you have the chance to show people there waves after the session, Met this guy on the top of the hill, he’s a local guy that was killing it all day, went back for more after I left too
I dig this shot cause I get to show you how heavy it was and where I had to sit to get these shots. Only got pounded once but I can tell you it wasn’t fun…
New Island Maui
So I moved to Maui at the end of December thats why my post have been slow lately, I love the feedback and the comments I have been getting and it’s weird but I feel an obligation to keep posting. So there are two back to back swells coming the first week of the new year and I promise I will start blowing up thesurfingphotog.com again.
Mahalo for visiting. My new place is down the street from Ho’okipa so I’ll start showcasing the local rippers soon
Don’t be hating
I was off today, couldn’t figure out what to do with my self. Got suited up, camera ready, walked down to Pipe…… and sat on the sand watching it for at least 3o minutes. Wasn’t a point to get wet, pipe was a gnarly drop into a Mush Burger. It bothered me that I didn’t want to get in but to get any type of shot I would have got blasted over and over.
I was Hating all day, worked out for two hours then just walked back and forth to the beach over and over again….. Same story. It drives me crazy, cause there was waves but nothing I wanted to shoot or surf.
Around 2pm I lost it, grab my camera and hiking gear and climb the Ko’olau Mountain Range behind sunset. I know, I’ve been told repeatedly not to climb there, It’s either private land or military. But I don’t listen well…
Towards VLand
Towards Sunset/Rocky Point
The whole North Shore
Found these glasses on the street at the beginning of my hike, so I gave my best “better not be hating look”
Rocky Point is Home
So I live across Kam Hwy from Rocky Point Surf Break (probably the most photographed beach this season due to the lack of Pipe swells) so there is always talent at my beck and call. I could live here forever but I wouldn’t want to be any where else right now.
It’s impressive to see a 13 year punt an air this high and land it. Names Rico 
If you have ever surfed Rocky Point you have seen this guy, his name is Rasta, nice guy just don’t take off on his wave
We are both starring at the same thing, the lip 
Wanted to show the change of color from the rights to the lefts, both these pictures were taking within 10 minutes
I don’t post blurry pictures too often but I literally get hundreds a day, Water is a hard medium to shoot in and if you haven’t noticed to sticks to everything. This u shape blur actually worked as it blur out the back of the surfer and the sun refection on the wave. Picture was taken at 5:30 right before sunset
O yeah and it’s Holly Beck, you might have heard of her!
Velzyland Afternoon Session
The crowds were out in full force today, I wanted to get away and have a fun session, no better place to find smiles then at Velzyland. Meet a bunch of happy people today, gave out a few business cards, so lets see if any of them go home and check out the site. I’m not trying to make money on small day like today, just go out and have a good time. Mahalo for checking it out
So I don’t usually post pictures of bodyboards but these guys where mad cool and actually funny
Few good ones rolled thru
I got a bunch of pictures of this Young scrappy kid, reminded me of my self. He would paddle his brains out to get into every wave. Kept going the whole time I was out there, gave him a card hopes he checks it out.
WaterProof Long Exposure
So when I first got my water housing I wanted to see how far I could push the limitations. If have you never seen a water housing it has very limited controls (more access, more points that could potentially leak). So a lot of planning needs to takes place before you start trying a long exposure in the ocean. It’s not like you can just stop and readjust, water is bad for cameras. Here is the first attempt ( Click here for first attempt), I went out a little earlier this time to get the sun as it was setting. Turned out OK but I still have a lot of conceptualization before next time.
An underwater sunset, the blue strip down the middle is actually a channel thru the Reef, there is a sand path and since its lighter it picks up the reflection of the water better then the reef (HOW COOL IS THAT!!!)
I tried to Un-Focus here to make the illusion of standing in clouds, the shore waves weren’t that strong so it picked up the refection, otherwise it would have looked like vapor.
Add a light to this one to show the color of the water as a contrast against the red sky (it’s been raining the sky has a reddish purple hue) 
And here is just a picture of the house on Rocky Point, I use it everyday as a reference point while surfing and shooting so I’m always thinking about it. (reference point: positioning point on land so you can line yourself up in the water to be in the best spot for the wave)
Turtle Bay Resort
So the waves are very small, so I deiced to go on down to Turtle Bay Resort and take pictures of Tourist. I figured I could make a few bucks or just have fun watching people learning how to surf. Trust me it takes years to gain style and everyone (myself included) looks like a kook when they first start. I had a blast and so was everyone in the water. It’s on the North Shore but there aren’t any local here that want to beat you up. People are just happy to be in the water. I meet Josh Kerr today surfing with his daughter, really sweet girl that wanted to know what I was doing, Josh told her I was talking her photo. He thought I worked for the hotel, I guess all the photographers he knows wouldn’t be caught dead in a place like that hahaha. But I got his information and I told him I’d get him the photos and NO I WILL NOT CHARGE JOSH KERR FOR PHOTOS, HAHA (if you don’t know who Josh Kerr is check out his website http://www.kerr-azy.com/)(I think he’s currently ranked 6th in the world)
Kind of funny to see Josh on a long Board 
And there was a cool turtle that was hanging out in the line up. I didn’t want to bother him to much but I came close enough to snap a photo
Waimea Bay and More Eddie shots
I spent all day at Waimea Bay on the 1ST, the Eddie Ceremony wasn’t until 3pm and I had never swam out to the break before on a large day (it was 8-12 feet) so I had to know I could make it out there and back by myself before the Eddie Paddle out. It wasn’t really harder then any other spot I was just being cautious and safe. It did take 15 minutes non stop to get out and 20 to get back thought, so it wasn’t exactly fun, but great exercise.
First few are just some locals getting on the break before it got crowded, Waimea is a known “share wave” meaning that no one has priority and any body can take off at any time. You’ll see what I mean in a second.
I was surprised to see my buddy get a wave all to him self, This guy charges so he can make waves that most don’t take off on I guess.
The rest are from the Eddie, I wanted a picture of the guys Paddling out to the break, here is Mark Healy, Makua Rothman and Danny Fuller
This was just another great angle that didn’t fit in my first post
And this last one is a picture of all the guys taking the strings out of the Flower Leis so they wouldn’t be littering. I really love this picture but without context it’s wouldn’t make sense
Brotherhood, Respect, Unity
It was hard to try to document the paddle out without feeling emotional about the importance of the Eddie. It’s more then just a contest, it’s a brotherhood of men and the community they represent. I wanted to show how much respect and honor this day meant to everyone, not just the participant. The North Shore is a small friendly country town, despite the circus that arrives every winter. If you treat it with respect and try to represent “aloha” while you are here, it will embrace you.
These aren’t your typical photo journalistic shots, I wanted to find the Aloha I saw today and share it with you. Mahalo for taking the time to see it
Eddie Paddle Out Ceremony
I was just in the middle of the Eddie Aikau Paddle Out Ceremony. I still have goosebumps thinking about it. Words cannot describe the love, emotions, brotherhood feeling within that circle, it was truly magical. They had the ceremony at Waimea Bay on the North shore. The day goes a followed, they come together, get inducted into the competition, say a prayer and then go paddle out to the bay for a blessing and to show respect to Eddie. The public does not paddle out as a sign of respect but they allow a few photographers to document the paddle, I was one of those lucky few. I’m truly honored by this experience, I have so much respect for these men and the waves they ride. The Aikau O’hana and the Hawaiian culture is such a loving respectful part of this surfing community and I want to thank them for all the Aloha they have shown me.
There were waves in the bay so all the guys went and had a little surf session 
Kelly Slater 11 time world champion and former Eddie Winner
Tom Carroll
Danny Fuller and John John 
I love the fact that Tom Carroll paddled back out to catch another wave, he was also one of the last people to show up to the ceremony cause he was out surfing Waimea, 50 years old and full of stoke. I have so much respect for this man. 
My 3rd session Yesterday
So I must of shot for a total of 6-7 hours yesterday, about 1500 frames. By the end of the day yesterday when I got in from my last session around 6 I was done with editing. I went to Turtle Bay Resort to watch Marky Healy talk about his surfing/free diving/spear fishing/stunt man (he’s done it all) experiences in this Talk series thats going on during the Triple Crown. Really cool stuff, that dude is seriously balls to the wall and an amazing waterman. (sorry no I didn’t bring my camera, if you want that type of stuff check out US weekly, I showcase talent and art)
I like how the surfer changes color from the first frame to the last. I don’t shoot on P, I like full control of my camera. I have to choose weather or not I want the first frames drowned out by the sun and the surfer lit up or first frames clear and the surfer dark in the barrel. can’t have it all
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Flynn Novak makes my life so easy, always throws moves in the best part of the wave and always goes big. Thanks Flynn (haha like he reads my blog)
If I want to stay in this industry I have to start learning the sponsored Groms (under 12). Meet
BARRON MAMIYA
He rips
Getting Close again
I’ve felt a mile away shooting at the VANS World Cup of surfing, big waves, shifting breaks and the fear I would get in someones way during a scoring wave has keep me on the shoulder. If I wanted to use a long range lens I’d shoot from the beach. You know me, I love to be in the action. Went off at Rocky Point today and was getting a little too close for comfort. All in good fun right haha. 
Could have cropped this picture and zoomed but I love the clouds, so the picture stand and he floats
For the second half of my session I was focused on getting underwater shots, still need to pratice and maybe go out with friends cause not everyone was happy with me getting so close hahahaha.
haha this guys face says it all, it’s all in good fun, check back later for more pics. Love YA
I LOVE Sunset Beach
Every time I take the 15 minute swim out to Sunset Beach Break, I always have a great time. It’s about 200 yards from the beach and when the current is strong it is not an easy swim out. Lets not forget to mention BoneYards and why it’s called that. The easiest way to paddle out is over boneyards (nick named this because of the dry exposed reef right next to the break) but it’s not the safest. I guess people just realize the skill it takes to get out there and they totally respect it. Ok lets stop talking about me and just see some pictures hehe.
Empty Barrels into boneyard, no one was brave enough to take them, I really wanted to swim in and get my board but it would be dark by the time I got in
Torrey Meister was owning the break, he comes out to Sunset a lot, mostly a long board spot but he knows how to rip it up 
I think I’m in love with the world under the world.
This is Bruno, he was so stoked to be out there, I can’t help but smile when I look at his face. He came over introduced him self and was wondering what i was doing out there, I gave him the website name, I really hope he checks it out and smiles too when he sees his face. 
You can see the contest site in the background, I got permission to shoot during the contest so I’m totally stoked, I hope it gets BIGGGGGGG. and I get a front row seat to watch some of the best surfers in the world tear up sunset 
More Clark Little Shots
Not really my forte but, I seem to get a lot of positive feedback from the last time I tried to get those classic beach break barrel shots. I guess it translate better to mainstream appeal then regular surf photography. I like it but its over edited and plastic to me. It’s funny after trying this a few times I realize all the techniques Clark uses in his own photography. Not to say they are any type of trade secret just very simple editing software touch ups.
