Art of The Dark
by Matt Hume
What are your biggest Phobias. Acrophobia: fear of heights? Trypanophobia: fear of needles? Claustrophobia: fear of enclosed spaces? For me it is the ocean and the dark. The ocean fear only developed due to a series of failed exposures as a toddler. I have learned to overcome these fears, but today they are still quite prevalent.
As a photographer, I have always been trying to find ways to document my subjects in unique and different locations. However in March, my passion for art and my strongest phobias conflicted with each other. I was invited by a fellow photographer, Teva Todd, and a shared group of surfers: Graham White, Neven Metzer, Wyatt Wittman, and Lily Marcos to come shoot at Rincon.
Rincon is a world class surf spot situated on the border of Santa Barbara and Ventura county. It is the only spot in the entirety of Santa Barbara county that manages to get decent waves, leading it to being slightly overrated.
As for the invite, there was only one catch. They were planning on swimming at midnight. This ridiculousness was due to a combination of perfect moments; a full moon, solid swell, and a peaking high tide. A rare combination of good weather that leads to good waves and optimal vision.
With two exams due and other early classes the morning after the shoot, I had to weigh my options. I was two hours away from the surf spot, and would probably not get home until like 3am in the morning. On the other hand, I would get some photos of this rare experience. Of course I accepted.
The day that followed was a cram packing day and a puzzle to figure out how to light our subjects in the water. I was using some old night photos during the full moon for meter referencing so I had a slight idea of what was necessary. This time I had a wide aperture lens to maximize my light, but it would still be tough. The meter would read. 125,000 iso, 1/50th sec, and f1.2. Not exactly ideal haha.
I jumped on a call with Teva. He had an old Lume Cube which is a tiny water proof light built for rugged weather. It had a tripod mount but that was it. We talked and he said he would head to Home Depot before to see if it would possibly mount to his camera water housing.
At around 8pm I was packed and booking my way up from northern Orange County to Rincon. Thankfully the LA gods blessed me without a single bit of traffic; a true miracle. I pulled into the Rincon parking lot at around 10:20pm. The moon was just rising above the mountain range, and five minutes later Teva pulled up. We got to cleaning our cameras and waxing our water housing ports; something we do to keep water off the front lens.
Next thing we knew, the whole gang was pulling up. We all immediately started suiting up. Everyone was stoked and ready to get out there. Teva and I were ready and started testing some shots, using our phone flash to get some portraits.
We all started to head down to the beach. I managed to grab some iPhone clips while everyone was heading down. We stumbled down the dirt path and onto the rocky beach. As we looked out we could see perfect right hand breaks in the distance. Even more so we could see a speckle of blue on the breakage of water. Almost as if there was a tad of bioluminescence in the water. At the moment, the stoke masked my fear for the time being haha.
We made our way up the point to get to the best location to swim out. We stumbled over the slippery rocks. Me and Teva were barefoot since we would later have to put on our fins.
We sat down to double check our seals for our housings and then started to swim out. The ocean’s current carried us down the beach quickly making it tough to maintain our location.
As we made our way out, the moon light helped but it did little to help me see the upcoming waves. Bobbing up and down with my nose at the water level and the bright camera screen creating an even greater contrast of light, preventing any hopes of my eyes adjusting to the dark outdoors. The dark moving series of water blended in perfectly with the dark night sky, only being separated by the occasional oil rig, acting like an overly bright star glistening in the channel.
We kept ducking and ducking under the waves. Each one we couldn’t really tell how tall, all we could see is if it has broken or not and the roaring of the wave told our sense of hearing just how far out it was. The water was cold and despite our 5mm wetsuits, we were both cold. Our constant paddling blood movement eventually started to warm us up.
Once we made it out we were greeted by the group as they were jumping on some waves. We started firing off shots as our friends would come down the line.
Unfortunately our cameras were severely struggling to focus and Teva’s camera wasn’t getting anything. We found that the best idea was to use Teva’s light as a way to light the subject. This of course created another problem, the insane light contrast made it so the surfers could not see the wave. It was totally blinding them. We talked to some of the surfers and they said it was worth it for the shot. Regardless, Teva and I thought it would be best to have him down the wave quite a bit so the problem would not be as prevalent.
As the surfers kept catching waves and riding them in, I found myself alone. That's when the stoke mixed adrenaline started to calm down and the fear started to become prevalent. I mean, based on the circumstances, it was something straight out of Jaws. After that it was a constant mind struggle of pretty much my worst nightmare. I kept saying to myself I should just head in. Somehow, out of pure will and the occasional friend catching a wave way up the beach, I managed to keep myself out there and my mind controlled.
We managed to all gather back and took some fun casual portraits in the water. We have been out for a couple of hours at this point however it felt like just minutes. I tried to capture the bioluminescence on my camera but it was stuck in a black and white filter and I couldn’t change it. My GoPro tried to catch it but it was just too dark for it to render.
They started to paddle out to the north point again and that's when we noticed that the swell was building. We saw one about to break away and as I was about to duck I tried to capture my friend on it. I wasn’t able to dive in time and the fresh white water hit me, pulled me in and threw me over. I entered the washing machine for a good 20 secs. After the same thing, only this time I managed to duck under.
After the set cleared I found myself pushed mostly down the beach. I started to get back to capturing the surfers coming down the waves however this time I noticed they were surfers not in our group. My friend Teva who was now just using his flood light to help assist my photos was getting chewed out by the other surfers; for blinding them. He could not see well enough to see who was in our group and ended up deciding to head in.
We paddled in and walked steadily over the shallow water and slippery rocks to get to the beach. It was even more tough before as we were so very tired haha… but full of adrenaline. Heading back, some of our group were walking up the beach from riding all the way in and we captured their stoke.
We headed back to the parking lot happy we were able to get so much cool stuff. I wasn’t exactly sure if any would turn out but I knew for sure I had at least a couple of good ones. Looking back the fear was not incredibly prevent and so I was thankful I did not wimp out and turn back. The fear mixed with adrenaline forced my only occasionally creative mind to perform at its best.
