When I'm shooting on the beach,
particularly round the coast of Wirral we've got vast beaches,
it's important for me to show that space within the shot.
So, negative space, which is empty space, empty sky,
is an important part of my imagery.
I just stumbled across the Canon You Connect gallery one day,
and I just uploaded some recent shots of the sand buggies.
I'm Steve Deer. I'm a senior Creative for an advertising agency,
and I shoot seascapes and action photography for fun.
The Mudyard is such a magical place. It stinks, it's smelly,
but I know there's a fantastic shot there waiting to be had.
I've got some good images there, I haven't got the great one yet.
Because of the position I was in, up to the middle of our wellies in mud,
I wanted to sort of shoot quite quickly.
So I set the camera to bracket.
So, I set the exposure that I thought was right,
and then the bracket, the other three shots,
it gave me a shot one stop over- exposed and one stop under-exposed.
I'll always check the wind speed first.
I'm not too bothered about the weather, you know,
I'll shoot when it's raining.
The main lens that I'll take with me is the 70-200,
but I'll always pack my 24-70 as well.
I think the most important Canon product
that I take with me is the angle finder.
If I'm shooting low, I don't want my chin to be in the sand.
I put the angle finder on, and looking down into the camera
it could be inches from the water.
I'm shooting in AI Servo mode, so I'm getting nice bursts of the subject.
More often than not I've got the centre focus button selected.
But that doesn't mean I need to focus on the windsurfer;
I could focus on the mast of the windsurf or the point of the windsurf.
I'm trying to freeze the action.
I'm trying to keep the exposure 800th of a second, 1000th of a second.
That will lock the spray, and it will lock the subject as well.
And I like to over-expose, because shadow detail is
the most important part of my action images.
And I'm shooting guys with wetsuits on.
I don't want those to turn into a black blob.
I want them to see three dimension.
If the sun is quite static,
then check the exposure that you're happy with,
then slide it into manual and key in those exposure details.
Then you don't have to worry about exposure,
just concentrate on getting the great shots.
It's amazing really.
When you put your head on the ground and have a look,
you'll find that it cleans up your environment so much,
that you just concentrate on your subject.
If you're looking for that perfect shot,
you can't worry about getting mud on your jeans
or rolling in pigeon poo.
You can't be too worried about getting your camera grimy;
you're going to get sandy, you're going to get wet.
The Canons are constructed very well; they can be wiped clean.
I'm prepared for anything when I get down to the beach.
I just don't know what's going to be thrown at me.
It could be a great windsurf shot.
It could be somebody digging bait on the beach.
It could be somebody standing on the end of the pier with a kid.
I just don't know what's going to happen.
I'm trying to be different all the time.
I'm not capturing everything in the central frame.
I'm getting the kids, the subject,
but I'm interested in the reflection as well,
the secondary element, you know.
When I'm retouching, I'm always thinking about
the end result, which is a print.
I also think tactile; I want to feel something.
I want a piece of art at the end of the day.
But I do treat the action stuff
exactly the same way as I treat my seascapes.
There's a hell of a lot of effort and post-processing goes into the imagery,
bringing everything out: bringing the shadow detail;
making sure that it's bright enough;
making sure the colours that I've seen on the day are in the shot.
The most important thing is to learn to see.
And that really means forget about rules in photography.
Everybody talks about the 'rule of two-thirds'.
If you're going to follow rules
then you're going to get shots just like everybody else.
Regarding where I'm going with my photography,
I really don't take it that seriously.
I wouldn't enjoy it if I did.
I just enjoy what I do, end of.
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