March 19, 2021, Sonoma Coast
On the day I shot this, the waves were in 12 seconds sets. Five per minute. This was a typical inside wave. The real action was several hundred yards further out.
This one was not the biggest wave ever. Probably only about four feet. But it was exquisite in its sculptural delicacy. A fleeting example of Mother Ocean’s ephemeral art.
June 8 is World Oceans Day. Do something nice for Mother Ocean.
(Nikon D500, Tamron 100–400mm f/4.5–6.3 Di VC USD. RAW processing in DxO PhotoLab 4.2; Editing in Adobe Photoshop.)
AMAGA Photography Blog 
You say that the real action was several hundred yards farther out. Is there a place where you get a clear shot at those more-distant waves with a telephoto? Alternatively, have you ever been able to get closer in a boat? (A high shutter speed could compensate for the boat’s rocking.)
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Thanks, Steve. There was lots of real action further out and I got hundreds of shots. Some of them pretty impressive—but to me, aesthetically, they were just big waves. Yes, they were much larger. 15 to 20 feet. But not terribly interesting to me aesthetically. But I may post one and let the community decide.
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Love the photo but I would’ve liked to see it bigger!
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Thank you very much, Liz. You can click to see a slightly larger version.
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Even now when I click on it nothing happens. However I got around it by doing a R-C and ‘Open in new tab’ and then I could see it bigger (I wanted to see the splash in more detail). It’s a nice image.
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Thank you very much.
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Mother Ocean’s ephemeral art brilliantly captured, my friend.
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Thank you very much, Marina.
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Superb photo
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Thanks, Paula.
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There’s nothing like coming across the phrase ‘Mother Ocean’ to set me sailing on seas of nostalgia
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Sledgehammer, my friend. Total sledgehammer. Thirty seconds into this I started sobbing uncontrollably. I’m still recovering several minutes later. We may lose this in a generation or two unless a relatively small number of very highly placed and incredibly suppressive individuals don’t get displaced. Because they will never get a clue. But the thing is, we won’t lose the ocean. The ocean will lose us. The ocean will eventually recover. A long time after we’ve killed ourselves and many other forms of life off.
I was indeed thinking of this very song as I was working on this image. Hence, Mother Ocean. And I must say, I was tearing up as I was working on it.
On a lighter note, the bartender in the last few seconds looks exactly, and I mean exactly, like me in my early 30s. Scary.
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It is so cool to be able to capture something as ephemeral as the shape of a wave! This is an interesting one. Our oceans unfortunately are in real trouble and so much depends on them.
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Thank you, my friend. It takes a long lens, a large memory card, and a lot of patience. Shutter speeds 1/800 or higher. In the space of 2 1/2 hours I made about 1500 shots. Only two or three are any good in my opinion.
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The hardest part is probably when you sit by the computer to select the good ones!
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That is a hard part. Out of this entire shoot of 1500 or so frames, I’m only picking two. And of those only one is a real star in my opinion.
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Beautiful image! I can actually hear the crash of the surf.
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Thank you. It was, let me think of a word, loud.
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Somehow I am not surprised that you have an image for World Ocean Day and it is a very Talibartian image at that. I hope that you don’t mind the comparison. 🙂
As I have shown with Murphy Falls, size doesn’t matter and this is an exquisite wave at any size.. And perfectly captured…as close to perfection as we are capable of creating.
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Thank you very much, Steve. I don’t at all mind the comparison. I’m especially happy that Rachael liked my Instagram post of the same image. Yes, I had to post on World Oceans Day. Read my exchange with Linda L to get the rest of the story. And you’re absolutely right, size doesn’t matter. I was asked, both on Instagram and here, why not show one of the larger waves. I did, after all, press the shutter button about 1500 times in the space of 2 1/2 hours. There must be something good. So I will post one. And I like it. But not nearly as much as I like this one. Your Murphy Falls pictures are magnificent. And it does prove the point, rather exquisitely.
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Silvery fingers, just wonderful!!
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Thank you very much. My favorite of the two.
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Loved the forms!!
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Thanks very much. I do too.
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