Hello my name is Martin Dorey and you're watching AdoramaTV. Welcome to this, the
fourth episode of my series about extreme photography. Now, today I'm back
on the beach with Clive Symm. He's a surfing photographer with over 20 years
experience shooting surfing on the north coast of Cornwall, here in the UK.
Now to do that he's got some very specialized equipment and some of it has
to undergo some pretty rigorous conditions, not generally like it is today,
but let's go and have a little rummage around in his kit bag.
OK, Clive, so we're here on the beach, beautiful day
loads and loads of light. You've got your go to lens out. Tell me about it.
Well, this as you say, is my go-to lens for surf photography. It's a Canon 600mm, f/4. It's all weather
proof which is very handy for around here. Although, saying that, it does suffer sometimes from the
salty spray. The quality on it is just second to none. It's absolutely amazing. I've got photographs
where you can see bubbles inside water droplets being flung off the surfboard.
You can see stitching on wetsuits with it. That and the camera body that I use,
the Canon 1D X, it's just an unbeatable combination as far as I'm concerned.
How fast is the lens? What kind of apertures are you able to shoot at?
Most lenses have got a sweet spot and I think this
one's about F/8. I get a little bit more in focus, because obviously focus is critical for
me. And F/8 tends to give me the best of both worlds, between low light capability
and what I actually get in focus.
Would you push the ISO to keep the F stop?
It depends what the conditions are like. If it's really dull and dingy I will
push the ISO up to 6400 some times to keep F/8. If it's not too bad then I'll drop the aperture a little bit.
Do you remember the shot of Nathan, we were talking about before?
Do you remember what the lighting was like? What settings you were shooting at?
Well, that shot of Nathan is, as we know, it's on a really stormy day.
The conditions were awful. I had actually cranked the ISO up and dropped the F stop a little bit on that
because I was so far away from the action. So you tend to get more in focus the further away you are.
So I was probably about half a mile, three-quarters of a mile away to get everything I wanted in the shot.
Shooting at f/4?
Probably about 5.6 on that one.
At 6400?
Yeah.
And are you quite happy to shoot at f/4 with the focus? What's the focus like?
The trouble with these lenses and focusing is they've got such a tiny, tiny depth of
field on them, so you've got maybe 10 feet in focus if you're really lucky so
I have to use autofocus the camera is so accurate and it's quicker than my eye as well
to focus on stuff and it tracks fluidly but I can only use the center focusing
point because if I get a splash from the wave in front, comes in to frame, it will instantly lock on the closest item.
You can set it on the custom functions. I just find the center focusing point is the one
for me, because I can track it, I can frame it, I can do everything I want with that one and it is super accurate.
So why the 600? Why not 400? Is it just the quality of this lens?
Yes, the quality primarily for me is unbeatable and also I get the reach with
it. I can...A lot of the sponsors want to be able to read the logos and the shots and
with this, you can do that. And with this camera body, as well, I can actually crop in even tighter and you
can't see any difference in the quality.
OK, so this isn't a normal lens, is it. I mean, it's you
know, it's pretty heavy. How do you shoot on it? Do you shoot hand-held, tripod?
I have to use a tripod. I have on very rare occasions shot handheld but it is, as you say, it's really heavy.
I'm not sure of the exact way but if you...
Yeah, it's pretty heavy.
It's so heavy that I have to have a special bag for it. This one
came from America years ago, not available as I'm aware in the UK. The places I walk to,
I've got to have it on my back basically.
The value of this lens, is it quite a lot of money?
To replace it I think it's about £8,000, plus £5,000 for the camera body so
you want to make sure they're well protected.
It's got to be looked after and do you keep the body on the lens when you travel?
When I'm walking about, yes, when I'm moving about, all the time.
If I'm moving from 10 yards on the beach, I'll stick it back in the bag. It's just not worth
chancing dropping in the sand or the salty sea pools or anything like that.
And I guess when you're out about, you don't really want to be changing lenses do you?
No. No absolutely not. One of the issues with Digital SLRs is you get dirt on your sensor.
And when you're out in the wind and the salty air, the second that lens comes off, invisible stuff is attaching
itself to the mirror box, if you like, and as soon as the mirror comes up to take an exposure,
bits stick on the center and I am cleaning my sensor after every two or three seconds maybe.
And tell me about your tripod as well, because obviously you need a pretty hefty piece of kit
to carry that lens.
Yeah, hefty but light would be good. This is hefty but it's not that light, not really.
It's carbon fiber with magnesium fixings on it but you can see again, this was
actually less than a year old but the magnesium is corroding already on it.
So again it's just because of the conditions you're out in? On the beach. Sand, salt.
I always rinse it when I get home but you can't get it...you never get it all off so...
So, yeah and I mean I guess you need and you've got a fluid head on there as well, I think. Is that right?
It's actually a video head. I just find it easier to control the camera because the camera is so heavy and
I mean there's image stabilize with the lens as well but with a fluid head it just gives you that much
smoother movement.
So these guys are moving pretty quickly, quite a long way away.
Yeah they have... I mean some of the move extremely quickly
especially when they're doing big moves and what have you. So another useful thing in this camera is
burst rate. It will do 12 frames a second for me so I'm getting a whole move in that will last second say
and there's 12 decent photographs out of it and you can choose the best one,
the body position where the logo is on the board, say, or the wet suit that the sponsors are
looking for and you choose exactly the one that you want and it works.
So you would always shoot in bursts would you?
Yeah, always.
And in terms of the camera, it's obviously very quick, are you using SD cards that are highly-rated?
There are CF cards on this. It actually takes two and I think I'm running two big fat 128GB cards on it.
And I shoot to both just in case one of them fails, so they've both got the same images on them.
Ok right so you've got a back up?
Yeah but you get 2,000 + shots on any one of those.
So when you're out, you've got enough storage to be able to shoot everything.
I don't want to open that door when I'm out.
OK, and tell me about the camera.
This thing has probably taken thirty thousand photographs.
It still looks good as new so you're obviously doing something right.
Yeah I look after them.
Considering how extreme you've been taking it. Do you have a problem with sand?
And does the sand ever get into the workings of the lens?
I've not had it yet touch wood but it's always an issue, you know, I've fallen
over the beach before. I've even had a dog take one of my tripod legs out on me before,
not that one. It bent the leg in half. It was a write off. Harry, it was called actually, running down the beach,
'Harry, Harry, Harry!' and the next thing I know I turn around and it's taken my leg off my tripod and I just
caught my camera before it hit the sand, so I didn't get sand in it but I lost a tripod and
she was off chasing the dog and that was it. She was gone.
There are all kinds of hazards for a surf photographer.
Yeah, it's all good.
Excellent.
Thanks for joining me on AdoramaTV today. Next time, we're going to be looking at
shooting mermaids. Until then if you want more great tips and tricks please go to
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