Sea kayaking with thousands of dollars of camera gear in your lap can be intimidating even for the seasoned paddlers. “Taking great photos out of a kayak is one of the hardest places to work from,” confesses pro photographer Freya Fennwood, a six-year veteran of making images for the Outdoor Industry. Fennwood scored the cover of Adventure Kayak’s Summer 2014 issue, and her work has also appeared in Men’s Journal, National Geographic.com and Outside Online, to name a few. Here, she reveals some tricks for making your paddling photography easier and more powerful.
Dynamic angle: If you want to get great shots of sea kayaking, then you are not going to only get them while shooting out of a kayak. Some of the best shots are from a bank or bridge high above the water looking down at you’re paddling partners, or submerged half in the water as they paddle towards you. That said, while you are in your boat try and think about making the boat perspective more interesting. A camera phone is really good at this because it is so light and there are cheap waterproof cases. Hold your camera up high above your head, close to the water, or even in the water (if you have a waterproof housing, more on that in a bit) and keep asking yourself, “How can I make this look different?”
Boat movement: We can’t do that much about the subject we are photographing, except ask for a copious amount of patience as we ask them to repeatedly, “Paddle a little to your left, no, now paddle a little to your right, now come at me so the light is on your boat where I can see it…” so on and so forth.
One thing we can do is look for something to anchor on. Bull kelp is quite nice for this. If this is an option where you are photographing, park your boat in the middle of a kelp bed, grab a few strands and tuck them under your deck rigging. This at least eliminates your own movement out of the process of getting the shot. Also, rafting up to another boat can give you more stability and less boat movement.
Choosing the right boat for photography: The right boat for photography greatly depends on your paddling ability, size, and what you are going to be photographing. A wider more stable boat gives you more room in your cockpit for camera gear, and is less tippy while taking photos…
Learn more about Freya’s photography kit and read the rest of her tips on the Pygmy Boats blog.
