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the BIG apple

NY surf comes alive during the fall, the beach empties out, we dust of our wetsuits and we charge. Waves here are few and far between and on a good swell you can tell that half the guys in the water have called in sick. That type of hunger represents NY SURF, paddling until your shoulders are burning and saying 1 more wave, 30 times. I surfed until my arms were tired then shot till my legs were burning then did it again.

I love surfing… maybe too much?

People where getting annoyed this guy was catching too many waves (those people sucked at surfing), this guy was killing it all day. So much style and form… take as many waves as you want, I got your back

The wave would jack up right above the jetty, I couldn’t understand why everyone wasn’t lined up there? Me and this guy shared the peak the whole time I was surfing there. (rock jetty you can notice in the bottom corner)

This dude told me he was 40 years old! I really wish I can still hack like this at 40.

There were some barrels to be found but you had to ride them into the jetty. Mostly close outs but in NY we are not afraid to go for it.

The amount of people started to shrink as the day got closer too noon, maybe people took a half day or just maybe they got tired from surfing amazing lefts all morning.

Posted by  |  October 23, 2012 | Categories: Barrel, fun, long board, NEW YORK, SURF, surf photography, Water Angles | 10 Comments »

Candy Coated

Sorry It’s been over a month since my last post. On September 7th I had a leak in my water housing due to user error, I lost about $4000 worth of equipment and honestly it was so hard for me to even look at this blog since. I just surfed and re-evaluated everything I had learn over the last year, while I figured out if I could afford getting back into a hobby that means so much to me.

I got a new used camera body and considerably cheaper 50 mm lens and got back in the water yesterday to push myself creatively. The lens wasn’t as quick to focus into the light as my old one and instead of letting that hurt me I decided to use that to my advantage. I got in the water at 6:20am (about 40 minute before the sunrise) and I wanted to represent the softness and pureness of the morning light. The color was intense!!! And with my new lens it remind me of looking into a cellophane hard candy wrapper.

Thank you for your continued support, it makes the struggles of living creatively worth it. Aloha

First light creeped over the horizon at 6:30 water temperature was high 50′s and air was low 50′s but my buddy Neal still suited up and helped me get back in the water.

Sometimes you just need to take a second and appreciate the sunrise


Focusing was hard while the ocean was rushing and my buddy was floating over the lip but the softness captures the essence of surfing at it’s purest form. Getting up sooo early so you enjoy your passion before you have to run to work stoked and salty

As the sun broke it released these wonderful purple and red hues that engulfed the sky. I don’t really eat candy but this was a huge sugar rush for me

Contrast the sky against the sun blaring thru the brownish/greenish (really dirty) water and there was an explosion of color.

Not the most epic action shot but the spray of water across the foreground reminded me of crystalized sugar in bright light and it seemed more then fitting in this post.

Mahalo,

Daniel the Surfing Photog

Posted by  |  October 18, 2012 | Categories: ART, Barrel, Fine Art, fun, LONG BEACH, long board, Photography, surf photography, Water Angles | 3 Comments »

No Bro

I went to the crowed spot in New York today, Lincoln Blvd, It was the home of the Quiksilver Pro New York last year and is always full of surfers of all kinds. I actually enjoy surfing their despite the amount of people, usually it’s just the bro hang out. Good Vibes, cool people and a lot of  hooting and heckling. I’ve surfed everywhere in the US but these mushy brown waves is where I will always call home.

I gave out a crazy amount of business cards (actually ran out for the first time) so I have to say “sorry NO BRO” cause I do not post everyones photos and yes I WILL CHARGE YOU but I did take close to 1000 photos today so message me if you want your photos (read the contact section to help me out). If you didn’t think I was working out their today, you don’t deserve your photos haha. That being said thanks for checking out the site and I’m really a nice guy… most days.

Seriously if NY didn’t start getting some size I was getting on a plane asap. Thank you hurricane season

Literally 3 people told me to watch this guy, thanks for the suggestion, how about you worry about you and I’ll do me (no one has ever told me to shoot someone else). He could rip but he was a master of the the “one big punt” and it’s hard to shoot guys that pump down the line looking for one killer move… never know where they are going to throw it?

Was stoked to see women in the line up, this girl ripped harder then most guys today. She was the only one that intelligently commented on my water housing set up… Maybe has something to do with the logo on her board. Try harder guys

Take another lesson boys, she was out longer then everyone… Except me haha

Always giving credit to the stoked old guys, maybe cause I’m 28 and I hang out with 16 years in the water most of the time?

This dude wins the award for best wave selections of the day, didn’t ride the most maybe not the biggest but every long workable wave this guy was all over.

And if you want to see your photos make my blog, surfer harder! Aloha

Posted by  |  September 5, 2012 | Categories: Business, fun, LONG BEACH, NEW YORK, old man, Photography, surf photography, surfing, VANS World Cup | 3 Comments »

New Color

I’m in love with color, mostly the vast arrays of changing light during sunrises and sunsets. The light skims across the surface of the water and the hues of the sky become alive. Unfortunately clarity is an issue as the light fades, I recently purchased a flash for my water housing so I can better illuminate my subject in the failing light. It adds another 2LBS  making the totally weight around 7-8LBS and it’s not arrow dynamic cutting thru the water so, I feel like my balance is off and I’m struggling to maintain a horizon because its top heavy. Here was my first attempt on a super glassy 2-3 foot day at Robert Moses State Park. Many Mahalo’s for my friend Neal for staying in the water extra late to help me practice.

There was enough light when we first started that the flash wasn’t needed, Plus I need to understand range of my Flash (check out the moon)

Normally he would be a silhouette shooting into the sun but the flash added just enough color to make this shot

Too Far away and the flash doesn’t even matter.

The Flash actually made this too colorful and its was super red and over exposed so I bumped up the contrast and made it black and white, around this time I was having issue with focusing, the camera couldn’t find a focal distance in the dark.

This obviously wasn’t the best shot but it illustrated perfectly the concept I was going for, Perfect clarity in almost no light.

In between sets and at the end I wanted to try to get a few beach break barrel shots. But it was really hard to turn my arm with the extra weight to position my camera perfectly

Posted by  |  August 30, 2012 | Categories: ART, B&W, Barrel, Black and White, clark little, Fine Art, long board, NEW YORK, Photography, Robert Moses State Park, surf photography, surfing, Water Angles | 7 Comments »

The Places We Call Home

I went surfing all day today, it feels so good to be able to say that since it’s been flat for weeks on the East Coast. I met up with a guy I randomly met in Hawaii this winter that ended up living 3 miles away from my childhood house. When we met neither of us knew when we would go back but it’s nice to reminisce about the small details about the places we called home. He lifeguards at Robert Moses State Park and I was excited to see a semi clean sand bar at a beach I never went to while I lived here. Hidden gems I guess.

When we surfed in Hawaii we only rode shortboards so I was stoked to see that Neal had skills on a longboard

My Favorite shot of the day! There is so much style in this photo its crazy

 

A few of his lifeguard buddies snaking each other and having a blast before their shifts

He offered to let me try his soft top but I declined, Not my style but he made it look good

I loved the fact it wasn’t crowded but there were a few locals ripping it up

The water quality is so much better out east, I don’t think I’m surfing closer then 30 miles from NYC any more

Neal offered to take photos of me and since I really don’t have any professional quality shots from the water, I was excited to let him try with my camera, I told him he had to take his photo getting hit by the wave, I do it ever session as a gag, funny to see someone else do it.


His best shot of me, don’t blame him I really wasn’t catching good waves on my shortboard plus I got up at 4am to try my new Flash for my Water Housing… I need more practice with it

I need someone willing to wake up at 5am to get to the beach by first light, cause with my new flash I can capture so much amazing color. For now you just have to look at my head haha

Posted by  |  August 25, 2012 | Categories: Exploration, fun, NEW YORK, Photography, surf photography, surfing, Water Angles | 1 Comment »

A Gift of Love

On January 20th I got an email from someone that randomly came across my blog and wanted to buy a print. It was a photo of my buddy Rez at Ho’okipa, Maui during a sunset session taken a few days earlier. He wanted to buy it for his girlfriend for her birthday. I knew he wouldn’t use it for commercial use because of the tone he had in his email so I told him I’d sell it for the price of a 6-Pack. I told him I’d love to have a picture of him and his girlfriend with the picture (a tradition of keeping pictures of mine that people have printed out). I was waiting to share that 6-pack with Rez as soon as I got that photo. 9 Months to the day he sent the picture and I couldn’t be more stoked.

Posted by  |  August 18, 2012 | Categories: ART, Business, Fine Art, Ho'okipa, Maui, Photography, surf photography, Water Angles | 2 Comments »

A world away

I wanted to taking surfing pictures, I never knew I would fall in love with the world under the water. Moments seem to slow and pace comes to a crawl. Here are some gems that for some reason or another never made it onto the blog.

My Friend Kate at Little Beach in Maui

During my photo shoot with Kate (see above) I was blown away how beautiful the sand suck was at the beach, she kept asking me what I was doing in the shallows. I guess I see things differently then most

Attempting to spearfish with my buddy Rez, I say attempting because it is really hard

The Beautiful Val Frey doing what she does best, looking good

My Buddy Rez wanting a ducking diving shot, it’s not so sexy when guys do it haha

I’ve tried this shot so many times, It’s not something you can catch on the fly, you have to wait and wait underwater for all the elements to come together

I got Kate to play in the Sand with me for awhile

I made my buddy Rez Hold this girls hand so I could get this shot, I was told it looks like two dudes hold hands, either way I still like it

While in Florida I went to brunch with an old college friend and made her climb in the coy pond so we could get shots, give me a break brunch was $50, she was confused why I asked her to bring a bikini to brunch

I had to finally post this, I’ve been saving this for months and it seemed long enough to make fun of

Posted by  |  August 3, 2012 | Categories: ART, Barrel, duckdive, Florida, fun, hawaii, Maui, Photography, surf photography, surfing, underwater, Water Angles | 4 Comments »

Entitlement

Somewhere along this journey I started to do more then just take pictures, since I travel so much I get to document each local surf scene I travel too. I’m lucky enough to have another job so I don’t need to make money selling surfing pictures. This has it’s plus and minus, I take the pictures I want too and if you want to buy them more power to ya.

On this day I went to the old mans longboarding beach “Gilgo Beach”. It’s a “town beach” and if you don’t know what that means: it means it’s operated and run by a town so they can do anything they want with it (kind of like a country club). If you aren’t a resident of the town it cost $40 a day to park, there is no public transportation and they really don’t want you there. I wanted to document the old man scene that I watched growing up when I used to go there as a kid. I wanted wide angles of the gracefulness and close ups of the technical nose-riding. I forgot that even though I enjoyed watching this type of surfing, this is not my favorite type of scene to be in.

Old dudes on Long Island are crabby, they usually hate their job have a bad back and think they can catch every wave. Thats all well and good but surfing is supposed to fun. Most of these guys are the epitome of a hard core surfer, cold weather, dawn patrol before work and they will never stop surfing. It’s something that I respected growing up but never understood that tough guy, weary of outsides, this is my beach attitude. All of them will deny this, but none of them even payed attention to the young surfers or short boarders in the line up. I didn’t stay long and I won’t post the negative attitude I witnessed but just remember have fun, it beats working any day.

Even thought I think I got some good shots I’m not going to speak about the photos individually, they are happy in their little pack and I’m just going to let them do their own thing. Maybe one day when I’m old I’ll understand but I hope not lol

Posted by  |  July 27, 2012 | Categories: ART, B&W, Exploration, Gilgo, long board, NEW YORK, old man, SURF, surf photography, Water Angles | 1 Comment »

The Definition of a Surfer

Any surfer will tell you riding waves may be the act of surfing but being a surfer has many meanings. I am not the same surfer I was when I was 12 when I got my first board and I won’t die being the surfer I am today.

I’m back in NY after a lengthy North America tour and a high school friend wanted to get some surfing pictures of her and her 10 month old daughter. It was hard for me to prep myself conceptually for this photo shoot only because the elements would be greater then the surfing (lighting, angles, distance, crying babies). I decided that early morning light would be the best, an East Coast summer sunrise has this crisp almost blinding light that seems to skim across surface of the ocean and I knew it would add to the youthfulness of this shoot.

Now my friend neglected to tell me that she has never taken her daughter surfing before so my ideas of close ups, capturing joyfulness excitement of her child riding waves turned into watching the bond of a surfer/mother take the first steps into a whole new world. I realized I needed to swim further away and give less direction and not even continue our conversations. They were both justifiably nervous and both of them didn’t really know what was going to happen. I watched as their moods changed and the elements that I was so focused on faded away. I could tell my friend was realizing that a new chapter of her surfing life was starting to happen and even though she might not want to give up her old surfing life,she was ready to make this work.

The range of emotions that flew by were powerful enough for me to be stop in my tracks

You wouldn’t think paddling out on a two foot day would be challenging, until you realize that it’s the first time you’ve ever done it this way

the initial relief of making it to the outside was washed away by the realness of the moment and the striking realization that this was really happening

My favorite photo: the wave passing by with neither of the heads turning, as if it didn’t matter

and the exact opposite: the mother watching what she would love to be doing while holding her daughter tight

On this day no waves were ridden but we welcomed a new surfer into the world. Aloha

Posted by  |  July 26, 2012 | Categories: ART, Business, Exploration, Fine Art, fun, Photography, SURF, surf photography, Water Angles | 3 Comments »

Hometown Breaks

I’m a New York Surfer, I grew up on Long Island. This is a statement I had to defend my hole life. Now I’d love to show you how epic the waves can actually get In NY but it’s not going to happen in this post haha. I’ll be in NY till september so here’s to hoping for an early hurricane season.

I went to the beach today with my friend and his family, I was hoping to get shots of him and his daughters surfing but I forgot that none of my friends can surf and they all got Old and Lazy (they would be the first to admit it). So I got some shots of some local surfers and a few shots of us messing around in the shore break.

I know it’s not Hawaii or any other amazing breaks I’ve shown in my posts but its home. No matter how far I travel, my root grow out of nasty brown water and I’m proud of it :)

As my friend stated watching me take shots “TAN SHIRT KID IS KILLING IT”

Learning on small waves will make you scrappy!

My buddy wanted to try taking shots of me, but he didn’t feel comfortable out in the break so we hung out in the shallows. This is the best shot he got of me, it’s harder then it looks isn’t it

but he did get a great shot of me getting pounded by the white water… Thanks

Before we left I went out one more time while he caught his breath and had a cigarette break ( I wonder why he need to catch his breath?)

this guy asked for a business card, so even though it not an amazing shot. Everyone is stoked on getting a surfing shot so, I hope he likes it.

O yeah, heres my friend being sexy on the shore

Posted by  |  July 16, 2012 | Categories: Business, Exploration, fun, NEW YORK, Photography, SURF, surf photography, surfing, Water Angles | Leave A Comment »

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