Aloha,
Shooting big waves or any waves really for me is practice. I had been shooting waves with the Pentax 645D and a 400mm telephoto prime and came to the conclusion that It was just not going to be fast enough for for what I wanted to do unless the light was perfect.
I was really torn by my choices and had pretty much resigned myself to having to get nikon 810 E and a telephoto prime, that is until the new Pentax 645Z was announced! I was hoping that with the cmos sensor and a few years worth of R&D the new Pentax would be able to shoot faster and still deliver, ultra high quality images. In my opinion; they hit it out of the park! Although, I still don't like shooting above ISO 400, 400 seems to work pretty good for me to be able to shoot fast and still get nice clean files!
As with most things the high ISO performance is a bit overrated, miles better than the 645D; but like al lot of bragging cameras, not as good as people say.
I shoot with the 645Z and 400mm on a tripod with a Wimberly sidekick gimbal mount, getting into the zone, is pretty quick and with a little practice (ok a lot of practice) you can get pretty sweet shots on the fly, and anticipate what the clunky autofocus on the 400mm is going to do, and breathe down on the shutter release right when you need to, which is usually a bit sooner than the actual movement of the wave takes the shape of the shot you want. Shooting this way is a numbers game for sure, shoot a 100 frames get one just right, its ok though, the waves just keep rolling in, practice makes perfect and all that.
My real objectives when I started shooting waves was to practice for an Africa trip. Since I live in Hawaii, waves seemed like a fairly good thing to practice shooting long and fast on. The light can be challenging, your physical locations are not necessarily the best, and you need to anticipate the shit out of your shot in a very fluid (no pun intended) environment.
I have converted my 645D to infrared, but now I am equally torn again as I would love to have a 645Z converted to IF for Africa, but I suppose, if the conditions are perfect I might still get a few shots in with the old Door stop; 645D
Funny thing is, people in Hawaii like waves, I've sold a bunch, and kind of developed a nice little portfolio.
Funny thing is I like shooting waves, there is that wonderful dance between the abstract and figurative taking place. the way the light works on the water creates an endless symphony of reflections, the same location will constantly change and offer new creative opportunities. You can shoot close and tight or wide. Freeze the frame, or let things slide a bit and get some nice blurs and trails.
when you're shooting waves your office is not a bad place either...
