SALTMOTION PHOTOGRAPHY | JOEL COLEMAN [16.12.2009]Industry

SALTMOTION

Name: Joel Coleman

Weapons:
Canon DSLR’s 5D mk II that's used most of the time.
Canon 600mm, 70-200, 24-70, 100-400, 90mm, 50mm, 14mm fisheye,
Aquatech Housing to keep it dry!... + a pair of Churchill flippers to keep it moving!...

Years shooting: 
I began photographing my friends in the surf somewhere around 15 which would give me something like 15 years behind the lens now which sounds good but it is only the last 5 or 6 years I have taken it really seriously…

Hunting grounds:
I grew up in and around Bondi. Before heading off overseas when I finished school after six years away (and some amazing waves) I returned to Sydney, stayed in Bondi for a few years until I met a girl and followed her to the Northern Beaches. Manly is home now and that is where I spend most of my time. I love being able to live in a big city and have enough work as a photographer to keep things moving forward yet still be able to lie in bed at night and hear the surf!...


How did you get started in the world of surf photography?
When I was learning about photography in high school I really fell in love with the camera and it was not long before I was photographing my friends getting a few waves around Bondi and Tama. At about 15 I got heavily into SCUBA diving and ended up travelling quite extensively after high school with the qualifications I had gained to teach diving. The world of underwater photography is really amazing and I learnt a lot over a few years about dealing with in water camera equipment, housings and different lighting setups for use in the water. I was still enjoying my surfing and always wanted to get more surf photographs but being limited in my surf time it was pretty hard to give up waves to get the camera out. Like many surfers I started thinking of more and more ways to change my life to offer me some more time to surf & take photos so I made some changes and after a while had the time to spend with the camera pointed at the waves as well as filling my wave quota. From there it grew into a profession and now it is pretty much my main focus in life…

What inspires and motivates you?
My alarm clock is the key to keeping me motivated!.. I keep the sucker in the next room so when it goes off I have no choice but to get out of bed!...

Apart from the alarm clock there are many things that influence me and maintain the motivation. When I lie in bed at night and listen to a building swell I just get a buzz that lasts through the night and makes me jump out of bed at dawn. Surf photography is a limitless passion and it keeps you striving to get those perfect shots. Like surfing itself it just keeps you wanting more.


There are a few surf photographers out there who I admire for different reasons. Some like Stu Gibson who seems to be fearless when it comes to getting in deep in massive surf and some like Dustin Humphery who’s creativity often breaks boundaries in what makes a good surf photograph. And more recently I have been blown away by Clark Little’s work.

Where can we find more of your work?
I publish my work on www.saltmotion.com five days a week. Regardless of what the surf is like it keeps me motivated and provides a platform for people to see what I do.

Got a favourite shot?
Most surf shots rely on a quality surfer performing something special on a perfect wave. This photograph is the exact opposite of that. I took this photograph in Noosa one afternoon as the sunset produced that end of day magic that it often does up there. No big moves, no perfect waves just great light and composition…


Got a favourite surfer or surfers that you enjoy shooting?
I love photographing people with style that are enjoying themselves. I’m not that interested in competition surfing as I find it limits the expressive nature of what you can see on any given day when someone is out there simply enjoying the surf, unaware of the fact that there may be a lens focused on them…

If you could go to any location with 4 surfers:?
Where would you go? Africa, I spent a few years there in the past and it has some amazing coastline and with a little dirt under your nails and dust in your nose you can find some isolated spots with no other surfers around… Heaven!...

Who would you take? Rob Machado, Joel Tudor, Kassia Meador, Michael Peterson

And why? Imagine a trip from Morocco to Cape Town down the west coast of Africa with these four gurus of style. Rob Machado would probably stop along the way and solve the political problems in the Congo, Joel Tudor would be able to ride any kind of board in any kind of wave you happened to find and make it look like his home break that he grew up on, Kassia Meador would bring the feeling back into the glide with moves on a longboard that would make any village chief melt and MP would as well as smoking Africa out of ganga hopefully lay down another cut back like he did at Kira that made the morning of the earth poster the icon of the surfing world that it is today… and only the man himself knows what else he may get up to!...

So what’s on the cards for the future, for you & your work?
At the moment I am pretty focused on expanding the saltmotion website to include some more content that will not only provide visitors with the best photographs I can offer but hopefully bring their attention to the more creative people that operate in the fringes of the surfing community. The recent resurgence in all things retro and the grass roots approach that people are looking for in their surfing is something I am really feeling at the moment and hope to expand more on in the future.

Where do you see the future of surf photography heading?
I think with the continual improvement in digital camera technology and the reduction in its cost there will be more and more people calling themselves surf photographers and getting out there trying to ply their trade. Some may think of this as a bad thing as the market is often considered over-saturated. However I like to put a far more positive spin on the art form and like to think that the pressure from more and more images will only help raise the bar of what is possible and how images are taken in and of the surf.

On a technical note I am really interested to see if digital cameras can reach 24fps (the equivalent of motion picture) as that would pretty much mean you could film in real time and then grab your stills. Modern cameras already fire at 10-12fps but only for short bursts… I am sure it wont be long before we may see another revolution on how we capture those moments we call photographs!..

Thanks for your time Joel. Anything else bro?
I think I have said enough, check out my photos – they ramble less than I do!...

You can sign up to Saltmotion's daily newsletter from the below links. Also, make sure to drop into mesurf each week for 'The Week that was' where we showcase Joels top shots from the week.

Website: www.saltmotion.com
Contact: joel@saltmotion.com

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