Monday, September 29, 2008
Hawaiian Surfing Dog
This dog in an original member of The Beach Boys, Canine Chapter.
On our last morning on Kauai before flying home later that day, I got up early with plans to drive to a nearby botanical garden and get some shots of the beautiful Hawaiian flowers and fauna. Much of Jurassic Park (as well as dozens of other movies) were filmed on Kauai and at least one of the scenes was filmed in the botanical garden just down the road from our hotel.
In slow motion, it seamed like, I got my photo backpack together, grabbed the tripod, and made sure to pull all the memory cards out of my laptop from the night before and then slogged down my tired body down to the rental car one last time to get some parting shots only to find... that the car wouldn't start! The battery was dead. So while I felt blessed that I was finding this out a few hours before we had to get to the airport on time, I was still very worried about getting the whole mess straightened out, whether we would have to exchange rental cars, etc. The rental car company was great though. I have to give Budget credit. They sent someone out fast to jump start it and all was good.
While the Budget guy was jumping the car battery the Pug dog that you see here ran right past me like he owned the whole beach. He knew exactly where he was going! (No swimsuit either. Very confident in his dog-inity!) Then I noticed the girl with the surfboard go by and shortly thereafter saw the dog get ON the surfboard!
After everything with the car was straightened out, I had to make a choice. Should I continue on to the garden and get photos that any photographer with a tripod and macro lens could capture, or take a shot at the surfing duo and hope I might get a model release?
I had to give it a shot. I put on my Nikon 70-200 VR lens, walked down to the beach, and started shooting. As it turns out, a lady came up to me on the beach asking about my lens and she turned out to be a professional photographer from California. A bit later she asked me to take shots of her son and daughter who had been taking surfing lessons. I didn't mind and she was more than willing to sign model releases for me in exchange for prints. (I also provide models with the images online where they're able to order prints at cost with no markup on my part.)
I was able to get some great shots of them. I might post a blog of those pics in the future. I started focusing mostly on the two kids but every now and then tried to get shots of the girl and dog. She had not gotten out of the water though, so I had given up at that point on getting a model release from her. It wasn't until I started walking back to the hotel to start packing my bags that I noticed she was paddling on her surfboard in the same direction and about to get out of the water.
I waited for her to shower off and then I approached her about signing a release for me. I admit that even though I've shot plenty of people before whom I've only just met and gotten releases from them, most of the time, in fact nearly all time, I ask beforehand! It's a bit intimidating to approach a beautiful woman in a bikini who you have been photographing from a distance and explain yourself! Luckily though, she didn't mind at all, and she even mentioned she had been wanting prints of her and her dog. (Sorry, I don't remember the doggie's name.)
In hindsight, I would have taken hundreds of pictures of the two of them surfing and really wish that I had done so. As I started editing the pictures I found I had a lot fewer shots than I thought, especially ones without other surfers in the frame. I suppose the lesson learned from this experience was to never assume you might not get a model release. Shoot like crazy and hope for the best.
By the way, the doggie was a surfing animal! (pun intentional) Every now and then she would go out in the water without him and he (or she) would pace back and forth on the shore watching her every move! Waiting to go again! The waves would come in and he would run toward the ocean as the waves receded and then run away when the next wave crashed on the beach!
Woman surfing together with Pug dog on surfboard on Kiahuna Beach, Kauai, Hawaii, USA.
On our last morning on Kauai before flying home later that day, I got up early with plans to drive to a nearby botanical garden and get some shots of the beautiful Hawaiian flowers and fauna. Much of Jurassic Park (as well as dozens of other movies) were filmed on Kauai and at least one of the scenes was filmed in the botanical garden just down the road from our hotel.
In slow motion, it seamed like, I got my photo backpack together, grabbed the tripod, and made sure to pull all the memory cards out of my laptop from the night before and then slogged down my tired body down to the rental car one last time to get some parting shots only to find... that the car wouldn't start! The battery was dead. So while I felt blessed that I was finding this out a few hours before we had to get to the airport on time, I was still very worried about getting the whole mess straightened out, whether we would have to exchange rental cars, etc. The rental car company was great though. I have to give Budget credit. They sent someone out fast to jump start it and all was good.
While the Budget guy was jumping the car battery the Pug dog that you see here ran right past me like he owned the whole beach. He knew exactly where he was going! (No swimsuit either. Very confident in his dog-inity!) Then I noticed the girl with the surfboard go by and shortly thereafter saw the dog get ON the surfboard!
After everything with the car was straightened out, I had to make a choice. Should I continue on to the garden and get photos that any photographer with a tripod and macro lens could capture, or take a shot at the surfing duo and hope I might get a model release?
I had to give it a shot. I put on my Nikon 70-200 VR lens, walked down to the beach, and started shooting. As it turns out, a lady came up to me on the beach asking about my lens and she turned out to be a professional photographer from California. A bit later she asked me to take shots of her son and daughter who had been taking surfing lessons. I didn't mind and she was more than willing to sign model releases for me in exchange for prints. (I also provide models with the images online where they're able to order prints at cost with no markup on my part.)
I was able to get some great shots of them. I might post a blog of those pics in the future. I started focusing mostly on the two kids but every now and then tried to get shots of the girl and dog. She had not gotten out of the water though, so I had given up at that point on getting a model release from her. It wasn't until I started walking back to the hotel to start packing my bags that I noticed she was paddling on her surfboard in the same direction and about to get out of the water.
I waited for her to shower off and then I approached her about signing a release for me. I admit that even though I've shot plenty of people before whom I've only just met and gotten releases from them, most of the time, in fact nearly all time, I ask beforehand! It's a bit intimidating to approach a beautiful woman in a bikini who you have been photographing from a distance and explain yourself! Luckily though, she didn't mind at all, and she even mentioned she had been wanting prints of her and her dog. (Sorry, I don't remember the doggie's name.)
In hindsight, I would have taken hundreds of pictures of the two of them surfing and really wish that I had done so. As I started editing the pictures I found I had a lot fewer shots than I thought, especially ones without other surfers in the frame. I suppose the lesson learned from this experience was to never assume you might not get a model release. Shoot like crazy and hope for the best.
By the way, the doggie was a surfing animal! (pun intentional) Every now and then she would go out in the water without him and he (or she) would pace back and forth on the shore watching her every move! Waiting to go again! The waves would come in and he would run toward the ocean as the waves receded and then run away when the next wave crashed on the beach!
Labels: dogs, Hawaii, surfing, travel photography
posted by Terry Smith Images at
10:15 PM
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