Photographic Art By Skip Nall: Surfer Portraits at Dusk

I just got back from spending a few days in San Juan, La Union, Philippines, where I have spent many a day surfing some great waves. The main reason I went is that my daughter Jade, now going on three, has been wanting to go to the beach and I have been promising we would as soon as my shoulder was okay. It isn't 100% by any means but good enough to take her to the beach.

I had not done any photography since the motorcycle accident and knew I wanted to give it a try, see if my shoulder could handle it. I was thinking about just a camera and some cute photos of Jade.

But I have never gone anywhere without loading up more than I need so the night before we were to take off I decided I better put in at least a tripod, then well I better take a 580 EXII, well better take two just in cast one goes out. Hmmm? Probably better take a light stand, arm and knuckle...oh yeah and remote triggers, and a shoot through transparent umbrella, maybe a soft box, batteries, chargers, video camera.

Short of it is I loaded up still thinking I would only do some fun snaps. We stayed in a new studio apartment my friend Bob just finished, where two other good friends live. Sitting around drinking a beer with them the first night I asked if they would let me use them as models. They agreed although a bit reluctantly.

My idea was to shoot them as the sun set standing on the beach with their surfboards. The main obstacle was could I get down to the beach with the gear. I did trim it down to one camera body, a stand, shoot through umbrella, tripod, remotes and slaves and somehow managed to get to the beach with it all in hand.

I was so excited to do some photography again. I felt like a kid with my first camera.

As is always the case with late evening photos I was amazed at how fast the light fades and is suddenly gone, not a lot of time to work with but I feel very good about the photographs we got that evening.