fbpx
Features

Brooks Sterling: Photographing Surfers with Film

Chris Gampat
No Comments
04/28/2015
3 Mins read

brookssterling-thephoblographer-interview-01

All images by Brooks Sterling. Used with permission.

Photographer Brooks Sterling is based on southern California and specializes in lifestyle work. We’ve featured him before on the site after this video was made about him being an analog film photographer. Indeed, lots of his personal work is done on film but sometimes there is a small budget for it to be included in his commercial work.

Brooks talked to us briefly about surf photography, lifestyle work and shooting with film.

Phoblographer: How did you first get into photography?

brookssterling-thephoblographer-interview-02

Brooks: I started shooting photos because I wasn’t very good at painting or drawing and needed a creative outlet. I picked up my first roll of film from the lab and was instantly hooked.

Phoblographer: What attracted you to lifestyle and surfing photography?

Brooks: It’s really I all knowâ€Ĥit’s much easier for me to shoot surfing and the lifestyle surrounding surfing because that’s how I spend most of my time.

Phoblographer: Why the choice to shoot analog vs digital?

brookssterling-thephoblographer-interview-03

I prefer film to digital for personal work and editorial projects. Digital is the standard for commercial work, but it’s always fun to get a small budget for film when a brand is willing to let me burn through a few rolls during a shoot.

Phoblographer: Lots of times you’re in the water and shooting with the Nikonos. How do you know when to snap the shutter when every shot counts so much more with film more so than digital?

brookssterling-thephoblographer-interview-04

Brooks: From many years of surfingâ€ĤI can somewhat predict what will happen next. Most of the time I’m right, but sometimes I’m wrong. I’m always happy if I can get a least one memorable action photo per sessionâ€Ĥanything in addition is a plus.

Phoblographer: What kind of training did you have to learn how to anticipate and get the shot in the water when so many variables are unpredictable?

Brooks: Surfing, surf films, and studying the work of iconic surf photographers.

Phoblographer: How do you usually go about explaining the creative vision that you have in your head to the surfer so that they can help you get the shot?

brookssterling-thephoblographer-interview-05

Brooks: Every once in awhile we’ll discuss a shot and try to create itâ€Ĥbut I usually let them do their thing, while I do mine.

Phoblographer: On average per film roll, how many images do you feel are keepers vs throw aways?

brookssterling-thephoblographer-interview-06

Brooks: It really dependsâ€ĤI’ve shoot almost entire rolls that are keepers and other times get nothing.

Phoblographer: Every photographer has compositional rules that are basically instinctual to them. What do you usually go for in terms of composition of a scene and placing specific elements in an image?

Brooks: The rule of thirds is always a good startâ€Ĥbut there is no reason to follow rules if you don’t have too.

brookssterling-thephoblographer-interview-07

Phoblographer: How do you go about finding work and new clients and what marketing channels do you focus on specifically to get your work noticed?

Brooks: I try to always be creating and connecting with new clients, while staying in contact with my existing clients. I currently push my work through my personal website, Instagram, Flickr, and Tumblr. I also work with a lot of different online and print publications.

brookssterling-thephoblographer-interview-08

Phoblographer: How much time would you say is spent shooting vs editing, negotiations, etc?

Brooks: I shoot everyday, but it’s usually personal work. I’d say that client work is about 1/3 shooting, 1/3 editing, and 1/3 business operations.

Phoblographer: Tell us a story about a time that you’ve felt you were in danger as a photographer.

Brooks: I have never really felt like I was in dangerâ€Ĥbut the Jaws theme song seems to always start playing in my mind if I’m shooting water as the sun is settingâ€Ĥ

brookssterling-thephoblographer-interview-09

brookssterling-thephoblographer-interview-18

brookssterling-thephoblographer-interview-17

brookssterling-thephoblographer-interview-16

brookssterling-thephoblographer-interview-15


 brookssterling-thephoblographer-interview-13

brookssterling-thephoblographer-interview-12

brookssterling-thephoblographer-interview-11

brookssterling-thephoblographer-interview-10

Brooks Sterling camera film lifestyle Nikonos photographer surfing
Shares
Written by

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
');
You might also like