Daily Image - February - Karen Wilson

“Karen’s passion for surfing and the ocean, her journalistic integrity and eye for beauty has helped her to create mind-blowing imagery of the world’s best surfers in the world’s most exotic locations such as Tahiti, Fiji, Australia and Hawaii. Karen captured Kelly Slater’s historic seventh and eighth world titles as well as numerous other memorable moments in surfing. Her images have been published globally in newspapers, magazines and websites. She has had numerous magazine covers and graced the front pages of newspapers such as the New York Times, The Australian and Sports Illustrated to name a few.
In 2007, Karen set up her own freelance photography business - D-Vine Images. Her business now encompasses photography of weddings, portraits, events, parties, extreme sports, lifestyle & travel. She also provides a media service for sporting events.”
 

I started surfing after I graduated from Tech with a Diploma in Video Technology in 1997. I’ve grown up on the beaches of Durban and the North Coast and surfing was like love at first sight for me so naturally I decided I had to pursue a career that kept me as close to the ocean and my first love as possible.

Surf Photography was a natural choice and I began my steady climb up the male dominated ladder of professional surf photography in the late nineties. When I set about on this path, I didn’t have a camera so my training began by literally studying all the surf mags I could get my hands on. I examined every photo trying to learn as much as I could about what makes a great surf shot, I read every single word from cover to cover and basically used the local surf magazines as my ‘university’. At this time I was working as a freelancer at SABC in the local news studio as a camera and sound operator and also waitressing part time. My spare time was spent surfing as much as possible. I managed to land a waitressing job at the New Pier Coffee Shop where I met all the who’s who of the surf industry. I was also going to Glenridge Church and it was here where I met John Whittle. He sold me his old Minolta camera equipment and I started shooting as much as possible. This was all before the advent of digital photography so surf shoots were really expensive because you had to buy slide film (R60 a roll), then pay for it to be developed (R25) and since I was still learning, most of my photos were rubbish. It was a great learning curve though, as there is very little room for error when shooting on slide film, unlike digital photography which allows you to see your shot instantly. I read books on photography and I spoke to all the other surf photographers so that I could learn as much as possible. Guys like Barry Tuck, Doug Cockwell and Chris Van Lennup were helpful, generous with their wisdom and a great inspiration to me. But it was meeting Pierre Tostee that changed my life and after a few years of harassing him with emails, he hired me as his assistant on the ASP World Tour and the rest, as they say, is history.

View Karens website for more of her photography.