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Michael Clark: Photographing Extreme Sports

© Michael Clark Loading...

© Michael Clark

D700, AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G IF-ED, 1/25 second, f/4, ISO 200, Aperture priority, Matrix metering

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In one way it was surprising that Michael Clark didn't have any surfing photos. He is, after all, a prize-winning adventure sports photographer known for his editorial, commercial and advertising images of elite athletes in artful action under often extreme conditions. He'd photographed climbers, mountain bikers, kayakers, mountaineers—but about a year ago when he was working on his new book, Adventure Photography: Capturing the World of Outdoor Sports, he realized he had no surfers.

"Well, I live in New Mexico," he says, with a laugh. "There's not a lot of surfing going on." So he headed to Hawaii to fill the gap, and when we talked to him recently we wondered how he'd approached what was for him an entirely new area of sports activity. His answer made us realize that no matter what our photo interests, there's something to be learned from the techniques and methods of the extreme sports shooter.

Essentially Michael went after surfing images the same way he approaches everything: with preparation and planning.

"I wanted good light, so I wanted to be there early and late," he says. "There" was the north shore of Oahu, where he could count on great surf, great surfers and great light.

He brought along essential equipment—his D700, an assortment of lenses (including some big glass—an AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4G ED VR and an AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G IF-ED) and a sturdy tripod.

Which is not to say that the unexpected didn't show up, too. "What surprised me was how fast it happens, and how you have to really concentrate and pay attention." Michael says. "If you're talking to the guy next to you for a few seconds, you might miss the best wave of the day and somebody doing something crazy on it. You've got to be alert every single moment."

And he had to adjust his use of autofocus. "The surfers are first coming right at you and then turning and going across the frame, so I had to understand how to set up my AF for that situation. Because the D700 has 51-point AF, I could pick pretty much where I wanted to put the person in the frame, and then as I moved the lens I kept that AF point right on the person."

So preparation is first on the list of what we can learn from an action-adventure-extreme sports photographer. "For a professional, preparation is a huge part of any shoot," Michael says. "I don't think most people understand just how much preparation goes into a shoot to assure that we can get amazing images."