Daily Image - October - Kelly Cestari

Powerful winter swells of the Indian Ocean or Summer not so powerful swells of the Atlantic Ocean? If you look at the year in a whole I spend a lot of time in Hawaii. If it were not for the island fever that sets in after two months I could happily live there. Every season I have that one frame which I call the money shot for all the time I spent on the North Shore, this was in the running in 2009. It’s not the gaping wide barrel of Pipeline we love, it’s not the dredging barrel of Backdoor but more a depiction of the power and how sometimes I run for the shoulder to escape that power.

Not all photos turn out they way you intended. On todays DSLR cameras there is a custom function for the speed at which the focus picks up on different objects and despite your best attempts to prevent focus shift it can and does happen especially when bobbing around in the water. For this particular photograph I was behind the wave so my attempt to pick up Antonio Bortoletto in focus as early as possible meant single focus point picked up the top of the wave between us, the result being a closeup view of what we pay no attention to but plays an all important part in how the session unfolds.

I call these pull throughs or if there is a surfer in the peep hole then fly-bys. It is generally the result of hanging in as long as possible to get a frame and because I love underwater images the half-half is another personal favorite. Punchy colors give it an extra point. This is from my first time shooting in Cape Town and I was very unprepared for the water temperature. Swimming out in a 3/2 with holes, no hood, no gloves had some of the surfers wondering how mad I was. I didn’t last very long but captured a memorable moment to remind me of the time looking back at land wishing I was dry and warm.

Yes this is South Africa! Where? That is your guess. Photographs of empty waves need that something extra to grab my attention. Take a look at where the lip has broken through the surface, how’s that for a wave within a wave breaking backwards. That, is an indication of how shallow the water was and a potential for danger.

Standard surfing photos date pretty quickly so go out and create the timeless image. With the right conditions I will choose going below the surface over spending hours capturing the same thing over and over. The setup for shooting underwater is different so when everything comes together it makes your day. I struggle to put into words what draws me to this photograph but it is a combination of the fin setup the play of shadow and silhouette and the crystal blue water.

When you shoot a location too many times you get complacent and tired of the same angle and the same surfer action photographs, sometimes you do something about it and go in search of that which is new and fresh. The hidden truth behind those beautiful empty lineups is that they are made on days when the surf is unruly and with no one out. This lineup was one of those days and this angle I had only half thought of until driving along and seeing a set unload which was promptly followed by slamming the breaks of my car.

Save Vetchies!!! Why on earth would the powers that be want to destroy this to create a harbour for the rich. Oh yes because they want to get rich and they do not surf. Since the harbour wall was extended I have not seen Vetchies like this again. Some of my favorite photos have come about by chance and this is one such photograph. I was shooting the New Pier action when by chance I looked up from the view finder and saw this wave peeling in the distance. Some quick reactions and a fast trigger finger resulted in a few frames and a moment of Vetchies Reef that may never happen again.

Big wave surfing is probably the only surfing environment where drop-ins are not followed by screams of anger, instead a ride with a fellow hell-man is followed by hoots of camaraderie. On the really good days at Waimea Bay there can be up to 50 people in the take-off zone, maybe more and the guys sitting the deepest on the boil without a doubt command the most respect. I’ve tried to push this photo in every direction but it remains a personal favorite.

Casey Grant, April 2009. I had just returned from a long season in Hawaii followed by the Australian leg of the ASP World Tour and the last thing I felt like doing the morning after landing was get up and go shooting on an overcast morning. John from theBOMBsurf told me what they wanted and I set about trying to get it. There are always photographs I enjoy and think fit the brief that never get selected, this is another I tried to push into a few issues of the magazine and to no avail it remains unseen until now.

Romantic sunset photographs are overdone and cliched . . . unless it is your first ever sunset on the North Shore of Hawaii. The fact that I have a photograph of my first sunset witnessed on the North Shore makes me smile. It is from my first trip to Hawaii in Jan/Feb 2007, that trip started a long running affair with myself and the North Shore. Going into my fifth season this year and I still love the rock.

Just as for those who wish to surf the more famed spots on the North Shore must earn their place in the pack so too must photographers work their way up the ladder. Four seasons in and I’m still taking the first steps. Regret is a bitch and this session is one of mine. The waves were good but it was a bit funky so I sat on the shoreline waiting for a gap to swim out. I sat too long and phsyced myself out. Memories from the previous season and my first proper near death experience kept me rattled and still do when I swim out on the bigger days. I was so close to the back when a set came pounding through and simply rattled the shit out of me mentally. Tail between my legs I let it wash me in and headed back for my land setup and from the safety of sand regretted turning back because as I got to the shore and bounced off a boulder I looked back and it was flat. Had I perciviered I could have been in that pack lining up for a pretty special photo of Shane Dorian.

Golden hour is when the light does just that, makes it all gold and pretty and sometimes there are just not enough hours in the day. In an attempt to squeeze any possible photo out of a day we slow the shutter and hope it all comes together. For speed blurs it is always nice to have something relatively sharp, Rudy Palmboom JNR kept his head focused while his body did the rest.

Gavin Gillette ended Joel Parkinsons maided ASP World Title dream in Hawaii and a few days later was still going about his unassumed thing without any stickers on his board. Gavin is one of the friendliest guys you can meet and this is one of those “fly-bys” I like and one of those frames I’ve tried to get seen in print yet to no avail it sits gathering harddrive dust.

At the time I wrote off Andy Irons for skipping his heats, it has taught me a big lesson. You never know what someone is going through until they tell you their story, I apologise for my assumptions. I don’t have that many photos of Andy freesurfing and this one while not the absolute best gave me great joy finding it in my archives. I actually remember this day, I had been out shooting in the water for quite a while and was about to swim in when I saw Andy stroll out from the Billabong house and found the energy to stay out till he’d had a few waves. Not the best photo of Andy but glad I have one.

Another of those squeeze out all you can get golden hours. Some days the water is a crystal backlit blue while others it is this green yellow start at it til your eyes burn color. A lot of photographs are made each season on the North Shore and each season there are litereally hundreds of thousands of photos that go by with the surfer unidentified.

Gavin Beschen, brother of former ASP competitor Shane, is an excellent surfer in his own right and so calm and relaxed. At times I can’t recall when or where a certain photograph is from but these that are never seen and I try to get them seen, their stories remain with me. This was a day when the waves were ok but inconsistent, Gavin paddled out and within 15 minutes snagged two just like this, it happens.

This the “Shane Dorian – Mark Healey Biggest Paddle Wave at Waimea Ever” wave. When all the websites and magazines ran photos of it I didn’t realise I had photographed it until realising I had actually been there that afternoon. Just shows that looking back into your archives will reveal a few unnoticed gems, something you thought was nothing one day will actually be something another. This was also the same swell that saw the Eddie being run.

This was from Chad du Toits first season on the North Shore and he arrived ringing the bell and getting noticed. This is a photograph I pushed in every single direction I could possibly think of at the time and no one raised their hand to take it. Normal people would cry when pulling off a wave only to be greated by something bigger, Chad put his head down and paddled over it. A photo that can only be appreciated in a big print.

I would keep going back to Mozambique just for the water, warm and clean as if pored from a tap. Add Casey Grant and you can’t go wrong. Another frame I would choose over others to be seen.

It is not the prettiest photo, it was an overcast day, there are water drops on the port, it is not the dreamy look out the perfect oval barrel mouth into palmtrees and the water is disgusting brown but I still really enjoy this photo Matt Kruger.

This photo of Jamie O’Brien has been run but not how I wanted it, I wanted it as a cover and it only got a DPS and remains one of my favorite photographs from Pipe. It would not have been possible were it not for my favorite Canon 70-200mm lens and its wonderful capabilities at f2.8, it was late it was dark and the lens did the magic.

Matt Archbold is a legend, black and white action photographs suit him and I’m a sucker for black and white photographs.

To me this sums up the “I should have just stayed at home” sessions and at the same time when we laugh at a friend who has just taken a serious tumble for your entertainment. And it is Black and White and despite knowing how the person ended up in this situation still keeps me wonder how did that happen.

When in Jeffreys for two weeks you have to start finding new ways of showing the morning sunrise lineup shot, this year I got a little trippy with the slow shutter and a graduated filter all while still showing how small the waves where that morning. It will never get run in print but just imagine it as an oil painting.

This could be anywhere, it could be morning, it could be dusk, it could be town it could be a tropical destination and that is the beauty of it, it keeps you dreaming.

The Black and White issue of theBOMBsurf ran this in well, Black and White. I love BW but this is one photo that needs to be seen in color and appreciated in a large print. It was tricky getting this photo done and those tricky briefs turn out to be the fun and memorable ones.

Photographers and editors will never agree on everything, we know how we want our work shown and they have their own ideas. When I opened the issue featuring this photo I was on the phone instantly giving poor Iain an earful of disgust. Seeing one of my all time favorite photographs “ruined” made me angry, made me want the world to see it how I want it to be seen, so here it is.

The Pipe Masters trophy is based off a photograph of Gerry Lopez, if you could buy replicas I would but that is what makes it special, you can’t. An oil painting would do though.

From the same shoot as the opening spread of “The Black Art” feature. We were lucky to be given free reign over surfboards ranging from weird to hollow to my own. I would have preferred to have shot this from the rooftop but the building we photographed this in for some reason never had rooftop access. Instead I clambered over old props and layers of warehouse dust, I can tell you wearing white to a warehouse is never a clever idea. A photograph that aids day dreaming and inhibits productivity.

In the end surfing does not exist without three things: waves, surfboards and surfers. The waves are what drive us to surf, that constant life long desire makes us surfers, surfboards allow us to act out this desire, without surfboard shapers none of this would be possible. As always when I’m asked to go about creating photographs for a feature such as “The Dark Art” there is a frame or two that no matter how hard you try convince the editor they get left out. This frame of Spider hand-crafting a surfboard is once such frame.

At the end of the day wether you're a novice or a pro, ride a high performance thruster or an Alia there is one thing constant among us all, the want for a good wave, the desire to find the wave that suits our abilities. Keep searching, keep dreaming and always wash the salt from your ears before work.