Surfer’s Path Feature
I don’t contribute to the surf mags much any more. This is mostly due to the low editorial rates they are paying these days. In fact, I don’t know how some of these magazine surf photographers live from the checks they get. I just saw the new Canon Mark 4 camera is going to be $5,000! Take that and put it in a water housing (another $3,000) and buy a few lenses (the Canon 400mm 2.8 is 6K), other accessories (pelican cases, etc.) and around 10K in computer equipment and software and you would have to sell a lot of pages to get your money back! Do these guys do the math? Hmm.
A friend of mine was on his way to being one of the top surf photographers in the world. His name is Ben DeCamp. You may have heard of him. He was making a name for himself swimming some crazy Pipeline and other gnarly spots. He was on staff for Surfer Mag. He has a good eye. I like his vision. So what happened to him? He ejected. We never really talked about the exact reason, but we often discussed the difficulty in making a living off the surf magazines/surf advertisers. Am I anti- Surf magazine? Nah, I realize they are being squeezed as well (you can read my take on their future here). The truth is one must find other ways to make a living and keep the stoke. What was Ben’s answer? The Style Shark and his blog Killer Whale petting Zoo! It’s strange, I love it, and it is harder than you think to create those shots. Yes, it looks a lot like Terry Richarson who happened to win this year’s Fashion Layout of the Year with Harper’s Bazaar article ‘Thriller Fashion’.
So back to the topic…I shot Ryan several years ago in the Mentawais and he recently wrote an article for Surfer’s Path about his trip around the world and what they discovered. This was no ordinary trip. First, they sailed. Anyone who spends time in boats could start to understand what it must be like to sail around the world and face the ocean for weeks on end. But that’s not the story. What they discovered was how polluted most of the oceans are right now. They even witnessed the alleged floating plastic trash island twice the size of texas drifting around in the pacific. I recently saw an article about this on one of my favorite blogs- aphotoeditor and on the wall street journal site. Unbelievable.
Some of the photos that I took of Ryan during our Mentawai trip are in the feature, so check it out.
NOTE: At the time I was negotiating with Surfer’s Path for use of my photos the Padang Earthquake happened. Instead of paying their small editorial rate I had them give it directly to Surf Aid. You can donate to them as well because they still need help. Thanks!
