Driving along Lake Michigan in Evanston, I saw someone walking into what I perceived to be a very dangerous lake. The waves were very high and frantic and the wind was enormous. I thought I was witnessing a suicide. So I parked my car and ran to try and stop this person from ending their life. But he wasn’t suicidal. He was just a crazy surfer.
Two guys in wetsuits trying to surf in hurricane conditions? Yeah, I’ll shoot that.
Once I saw these two guys trying to surf, I grabbed my camera and started shooting. I didn’t have my tripod or any long lenses. So I did the best I could. They got onto their boards a few times, but the wind just kept kicking them off. I talked to one of the guys briefly and he seemed shell shocked.
I later decided to throw together a short movie to promote the photos. The video got picked up by a few online articles and my view count skyrocketed past 8,000 views in a few hours. I got a lot of thumbs down most likely because the surfers weren’t making it up onto their boards. Or maybe it was something in the article that was ticking people off. Either way, it was a fun shoot and I love how the photos turned out.
