Bali Surfing: Top 10 tips to get the shot

There are some places that have iconic themes that everyone knows the place for. Bali has many themes that run through it and for what it is “known’ for, but one of those themes is definitely surfing. I knew at some point I wanted to check out one of the hotspots for surfers while there and try getting some good shots.

There are a few things you want to take into account when doing certain types of photography. With this these are the things I thought about:

Picking the location

I was staying in Seminyak in South Bali for a week and I had heard that Canggu is the place for surfing in that area, which was not far from where I was staying. I left in the early – mid afternoon so I could find the best strip of beach and set up with a lot of time before sunset.

Know your subject

You don’t have to know everything, but knowing a few key things will make your chances of getting a great shot  skyrocket. With surfing, I have always been fascinated with it since a young age, I knew that the best waves are usually around sunrise and sunset time. This was perfect as this is also the best time to take photos for good light.

Have the right gear

When taking photos of pretty much any sport, you want to use the longest lens you have, which was a 300mm for myself. Since I was not going to be in the water with the surfers, I wanted to be able to get as close to the action as possible. I also tried out the cheat with full frame cameras and lenses. I am able to change the image area to a DX crop, which is what a non full frame camera is. This gives me a 1.5 times of my longest lens. This now gave me a 450mm zoom capability. I didn’t use it all the time, but it was nice to be able to have this option.

Position yourself to stay there awhile

I knew I was going to be here till the sunset, so I found a beach chair I could rent with an umbrella. I made sure it was one of the ones that are the closest to the waterline (which was still far enough away, but no other chairs in front of me.  I had water with me, sunscreen, hat and a towel.

Patience

More often than not, you are not going to sit down and get the perfect shot within 20 minutes of being there. Especially with surfing, you never know when a better surfer is going to show up. Patience is a virtue here, and it was worth the wait. Even if I didn’t end up getting “the shot” I wanted, I still had a day at the beach in Bali watching surfing. I did get the shot I wanted in the end.

Be the ultimate observer

Being a great observer worked in my favour here. With so many different surfers and skill levels and trying to predict where the next good wave is going to be, you have to be able to see everything. I also want to try seeing things in a new way and throw in some more of my style into the photos.

Find the best surfer

There were some decent surfers out on the water, but when a local surfer showed up, he was someone that I just KNEW was going to be amazing, and I was not wrong. I would always be keeping him in my peripheral  vision to see when he was going to catch a wave. It paid off, because he caught some major air time a few times and I was able to catch it. When you get that shot, an excitement just shoots right through you…it is so exciting, plus jaw dropping to watch.

Photograph through the action to the end

I do admit, always catching the highlight reel is great, but I wanted to show the full story of what surfing is like. To do this you have to catch the wipe outs as well. I photographed them paddling into the wave, catching the wave, missing the wave, the wipe outs and the time in between. I want to have a bit more of a documentary story to the day.

Show the differences

I wanted to show not only the great surfers, I also wanted to catch the atmosphere as it is such a unique thing to surfing. I also wanted to show all the different skills and people that were all co-existing in one small area in the water.

Cull and Edit

This is one of the hardest things for me to do. It is easy to narrow down the boring and crappy ones, but from there it gets really hard to narrow it down to just a handful to show. Once I get them down as far as I can, I edit the images in Lightroom.

This day of taking photos of these surfers in Bali was one of my favourites of my time in Bali. I was just disappointed I left this to the last day before I left. I would have definitely come back to do it all over again. I guess that means I just have to go back again one day! 😀

Looking for these unique experiences is one of my favourite things to do. If you want help finding out of the box things to do on your trip, drop me a line and lets make it happen.