08 Dec How I got this shot…. Hurricane Earl Palm Beach 2010 Eastern Surfing Magazine Dec 2010

Posted at 16:54h in Beach, Ben Hicks Boca Raton Photographer, Boca Raton Photographer, Eastern Surfing Magazine, Florida, Surfing by

Hurricane Earl was a day late for many in South FL.  We all were driving up and down the coast the day before wasting time, money and confidence in all the reports.  Well the next day luckily Cheyne Cottrell and I got up really early and drove straight to Palm Beach, without checking it anywhere.  Rolled up on an indicator spot and Saw this….

From that point on we both knew it would probably be one of it not the best hurricane swells this season to hit South Florida.  It was a solid 6ft with over head sets.  Because of the current and lack of consistent barrels we figured the best thing to do was to shoot from land.  There was also only Cheyne to shoot.  With only one (pro) surfer in the water its tuff to “lineup” as we would call it.  While Chyene paddled out I set off on a hike to find a good spot to shoot.  I was carrying with me:
Canon 1D Mark 3
Canon 5d Mark 2
Canon 500 L IS lens
70-200 2.8L IS
Tokina 10-17 fisheye
Canon 16-35
Canon 1.4 and 2.0 converters  all in my Lowepro pack.

It was a hot day with hardly any wind so the first thing I did was find a semi shaddy spot with some ability to compose other buildings, trees and or people/objects in the foreground. Hiking down the beach trying to find a shady spot and a place to get a little higher was not easy.  Eventually I met a security guard willing to let me post up on the wall of a mansion.  From there I was able to get all the angles I would like, fill up my water bottle with water from there hose and answer phone call after phone call while I snapped away.  Eventually the swell started to die and after a few hours we decided to leave.  The photo ran in ESM of Andrew Fletcher was shot just as I was about to leave stepping off the wall still with the camera in hand.  Shot with my 500mm lens with 1.4x converter on my Mark 3.  While we hiked back to our parking spot we had already planned our next spot to shoot thanks to all the luxuries of modern technology.  The day continued with me swimming two more times throughout palm beach county and scoring a barrel session to ourselves at one of the best spots in S. Fl.  A good day!