SEASCAPES
The beauty of shooting seascapes is the variety of imagery you can capture, yet its dynamic nature makes it a challenging subject. We speak to three professional landscape photographers passionate about the coast for their advice
Emily Endean
Emily is a Fujifilm X-photographer and brand ambassador as well as being on the Pro Team for 3 Legged Thing. The ocean is her favourite subject to photograph, whether at the shoreline or out in the water, exploring new techniques. See more at www.emilyendeanphotography.co.uk, Instagram @Emily_ endean_photography, Facebook @Emily Endean Photography
Boscombe Pier
I have photographed Bournemouth’s Boscombe Pier many times over the years, always looking for different angles. Once I’d discovered a love for photographing out in the water, it gave me a brand new perspective and a new challenge on coming up with something different. For this image, I ventured out at sunrise, to give a soft light and gentle colour palette to the scene. The water was calm, moving around me very slowly. I positioned myself as low as I could, so it was clear to see I was fully submerged in the water. I focused on the pier and composed the scene with it positioned in the top third of the frame along with the soft clouds in the sky.
Emily’s top tips
1 Protect your camera
There are many brands out there offering underwater housings and the prices can vary massively. Depending on your budget, look for something secure and safe and that you trust taking your camera out into the ocean with! For all these images here, I used a SeaFrogs Underwater Housing for my Fujifilm X-T3 and 60mm macro lens. If you want to experiment before investing too much money, there are plenty of brands offering underwater cameras, or even a GoPro. I’ve got plenty of lovely shots using my GoPro and it’s a lot of fun!
2 Get creative
Think outside the box and step away from the confines of how you might create seascape imagery on land. Get low, as close to the water as you can, and try photographing at this level and see the interesting perspective this brings. Use a macro lens so you can photograph the ripples up-close on the surface of the water. I tend to fire off a few images to get a feel for things and often I am surprised by what I see; that fleeting moment of a ripple as it passes by, the sun rising above the horizon and out of the water. The lower you are, the more interesting it gets.
3 Know the ocean
Keep safe by checking apps like Magic Seaweed to check the conditions and the swell expected for that day. Observe the ocean before you head out, see what it is doing. Is it an incoming or outgoing tide? Head out in conditions you feel safe and don’t go
