Evolve: Sean Davey’s Transformational Moments

We were there on a Rip Curl team shoot in 2000, but our boat had a fouled fuel filter on this particular morning. We were watching Teahupoo from land, wondering what was going on out there. I found out much later that this moment which I had photographed from land was of Laird Hamilton's millennium wave. I could not see him because he was so far below sea level. What inspired me to shoot this image were the people raising their arms in the boat. This taught me the importance of always having your camera trained on the action, if you can, even with circumstances conspiring against you like we had with the fuel filter. Photo: Sean Davey

Often the best and most brutal looking slab waves are located in the most incredibly beautiful places. Shipsterns Bluff in Tasmania is no exception. 180 of the 360 degrees are flanked by huge seaside mountains, of which Shipsterns is one of. Sitting in the boat this one morning, reminded me so strongly of why it's so important to not be just focused on tight action photos. It's good to try to capture the experience from a more pulled back perspective. Photo: Sean Davey

Every time, I see big, perfect waves being ridden, I have to remind myself to step back and shoot a few pulled back images before getting into the routine of shooting any tight action on the big lens. It's so often more important to get these pulled back images than it is to go tight. In fact, I'm more likely now to shoot the pulled back image than the tight image simply because the pulled back image is more likely a line up and those are timeless. This is Evan Valiere on one of those timeless waves with an absolutely timeless bottom turn. Photo: Sean Davey

For me, true grace in a surfer's style, especially on big waves, is just so good to photograph. Gerry Lopez has always been regarded as the true Pipeline style master. Over the past ten years, Randal Paulson has consistently impressed me with his stylish and calm approach to riding big Pipe. It's guys like this that most inspire me to photograph. Not sponsors or fame, but just straight up style. Mason Ho, like his dad Mike and Uncle Derek, is ushering in the new style masters, taking a leaf straight out of his dad and uncle's books. Style is king: don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Photo: Sean Davey

At the time, this was the biggest wave ever surfed there, and it caused quite a stir in the magazines. What was really rad about this photo for me was that we were in a tiny little dinghy, five of us (four photog's and one driver). Our driver was a local surfer, very familiar with the reef at Teahupoo. He was very confident and would often have us sitting some 30 or 40 feet closer to the action than the other boats. This continually unnerved me. Then this thing came through, and I looked up at it thinking, "we are done. There is absolutely nothing that I can do, so I will simply shoot it," just on the off chance that we somehow make it out of this situation. It was that serious. Scared the crap out of me, but I did get the shot. Kissed the ground when I stepped off the boat that afternoon. Moral of this story was always shoot if you can, even if it means going down in a blaze of glory, which thankfully, we didn't on this occasion... Photo: Sean Davey

From much earlier in my career, probably mid '80s – '84, perhaps. They had a Gorilla Grip team event at Bronte and Tamarama beaches, and this was when teams were really heavy with name surfers. Mereweather was one of these with MR and Nick Wood, who was blowing up at the time. Also Simon Law and Matt Hoy representing. I knew that the pro's would be out early in the morning, getting their training in while the masses slept, so I got up early and swam with my old Nikoness II and Toshiba Flash. I was very much hunting an MR image. As a young surf photog', that would be the ultimate to get a sick water shot of MR at that time. Sure enough, he was approaching me and I just steeled my resolve to get the shot and held my position. Mark told me later that he was starting to feel the fins letting go and was worried that he was going to run me over, but that the shot was very cool. It almost ran as the cover of Waves magazine, but was pulled by the publisher at the last minute. This really was early, early days for me in the use of flash to capture surfing, but it was all fun to be continually experimenting with different techniques. It helped to form my resolve to shoot different. That's one of my motos. Photo: Sean Davey

For me the return of black and white was a very welcome thing. It was not actually during this shoot, but in post production where I was working on the image and decided on a whim to go black and white with it. A little more work on banking up some of those tones and here was my 1st B&W picture in quite some time. I've created black and whites on a pretty regular basis since this little gem came along. This is Nichole Link, from Pupukea. Photo: Sean Davey

A remarkable session was had this day at Teahupoo. Many perfect waves ridden, but I distinctly recall the very moment that this frame poured through my viewfinder and thinking to myself at that very moment: "I may well have just shot a surf photo about as good as one can get." This image was the result, and although Bruce Irons did eventually get engulfed by the foam ball, this wave was absolutely as perfect as they get right at that moment. Photo: Sean Davey

We were on a road trip for Surfing and Tracks magazines, driving around Tasmania to the best spots on the day. This particular day had us arriving really much later than I wanted, because I knew the steep hills would block off the sunlight early to this location. I jumped into the water with my water housing and made a bee-line for the tube zone, quickly followed by Kahea. Looking up the hill at the sun, you could see that it was going to go over the hill in mere minutes, so we set about getting as many pics as we could knowing that our visual window of opportunity was going to be short. It's situations where you look at it and just know that you have to do everything you can right there and then to make the images happen. Photo: Sean Davey

I've always been drawn to create differently to others, especially when those others are on the beach creating alongside of me. With literally dozens of other big lenses on the beach, one knows that most are simply capturing the moment at the standard 1000th of a second or there-abouts. I like to capture the velocity; the angle of trajectory even. This can be done by using a much, much slower shutter speed (in this case; 1/50th of a second). Because the camera shutter is effectively open 20 times longer than at 1000th of a second, you are capturing 20 times longer exposure. You're capturing a lot more, which equates to speed. I know from the nature of working with such slow shutter speeds that not one other photog' on that beach had exactly the same image as me, even if others there were also dabbling with slower shutter speeds. The end result is that I get the unique shot out of the bunch. Don't be afraid to mix it up and try different technique. It will help to define your own signature style. Photo: Sean Davey

This was the first time that we went to Shipsterns Bluff with Kieren Perrow, Mark Mathews and Drew Courtney. We had just driven a couple of hours and walked a half hour uphill through the forest to come out on top of a very high cliff, with Shipsterns a faint view in the far off distance. It's at this point that we all began to ponder the further 2-2.5 hour hike in to the bluff. We were all looking at it, wondering if it was big enough.Then Kieren said "We come this far, haven't we?" I thought "yeah, he's totally right." How could you walk away from this, anyway. You'd have to have a look… I've always remembered that moment when encountering any situation that is remotely like it. Photo: Sean Davey

After that long hike, Keiren Perrow pulled onto this monster. Well worth it. Photo: Sean Davey

This was maybe 1999, and it was super late in the day. Heaps of photog's had packed up and left for the day, and there were only a few left on the beach at Off The Wall. I saw the golden light starting to build in the sky, so I headed down towards Backdoor on the off chance that if Bruce busted an air, he might do it against this one golden bit of sky, thus at least giving me a backlit silhouette of him. Sure enough, Bruce goes huge, and I took about six slides of it at at about a 40th or a second. Here's the amazing bit: during just that moment of inertia at the height of his maneuver, he was still enough for me to produce a reasonably sharp image. None of the others were anywhere near as good. Photo: Sean Davey

I've always liked swimming around under water and capturing the view from that side as it produces so many amazing images that most folks never even get the chance to see in real life. I really dig on this image of Herbie, though, because the result is so abstract. It looks more like a painting than a photo. It's moments like this that remind you how the next incredible image is always just around the corner. Photo: Sean Davey

As a developing photographer in Australia, I had befriended a Brazilian magazine editor named Rosaldo Cavilcanti. We have worked together on many things over the years. This one year, he was going to the Todos Reef Event in '98 as the coach of the Brazilian team, made up of Carlos Burle and Rodrigo Resend. They both charged their hearts out and Carlos won the event over all. Total legend. It was my first time shooting truly enormous waves from a boat. This was pre-Teahupoo (by three or four years for me), and I just remember thinking that it was so cool to be able to roam a large lineup with huge waves, continually changing up your perspective, not to mention the excitement factor. Photo: Sean Davey

At the Mountain Dew Pipe Masters 2000, conditions were just so completely epic that you could shoot images as good as water photos from the beach. Pipe is one of those waves that will look cool from the beach, but sometimes a little disappointing from the water perspective. You kind of expected it to be better than it often is at Pipe from the water. This is because when you shoot from the beach on a longer lens you condense the perspective and so it makes it look more intense and sometimes bigger as well. Photo: Sean Davey

I was well versed at shooting quality Backdoor and Off The wall, but every so often with exactly the right swell direction and tide, Rocky Rights gets every bit as good as Backdoor. This is evidence here of Dan Malloy on a drainer. The thing for me was that NO other water photog's were in the water, where Backdoor at the time typically had at least a half dozen other photog's at pretty much any given time, so it truly was a revelation at the time to be able to shoot such a perfect wave and be the only guy out. That was pretty much when I stopped shooting Backdoor and OTW in preference for an uncrowded Rocky line-up. Photo: Sean Davey

Flash was doing the rounds again via the use of remotes. I was doing some remote flash tests with Jamie O'Brien in front of his house at Pipe. I got thinking about it, and realized that with such a beautiful sunset being put on by nature, I had to make it the star of the image and so I pulled way back to make Jamie smaller against the expanse of the sunset. The result was beautiful. Photo: Sean Davey

I was out shooting water shots with the fisheye one morning at 2-4 foot Rockies. what made it magic was the glassiness of the water - hardly a breath of wind on it. Those are often the best days for getting really cool water shots. Shane Beschen was out and boosting huge airs, one right past me. Jack Johnson was also out enjoying the mellow glassy vibe. I had just shot him as he passed me in a tight barrel when a certain person who shall remain un-named and who I was working with but not for at the time, was barking orders at me to go and shoot the Volcom groms on the lefts. Jack yells back "Beat it, can't you see we are trying to get a cover here?" And I thought to myself, "Ah yeah, why would I want to leave this productive session right now to take a chance on a different shoot that might not produce? Sometimes you've just got to stick with what you're doing despite outside forces. Photo: Sean Davey