Six Seconds of Surf

Six seconds is long enough to smooth the chop and short enough to keep the shape of the break. The window is narrower than you would think — at three the water is still busy, at fifteen it is fog.

Shooting into the sun means the filter does two jobs: it buys the shutter speed and it keeps the highlights from tearing. A cheap one will give you a magenta cast across the whole frame that no amount of white balance will fully undo.

This was the last frame before the tripod started sinking.