Judge 2007

Pete Taras

PHOTO EDITOR, TRANSWORLD SURFING

Though these days Peter spends most of his time sitting behind a computer editing photos for Oceanside, California-based TransWorld SURF, his heart lies in the ocean. Peter started shooting surf at age 18 and soon landed a senior photographer gig with SURFING magazine where he spent countless hours in the water capturing world-class surfers in their element. Though he has fond memories from that time, he's a bit bitter.

Sure, Peter was on-hand for all the classic sessions, but he never got to ride the waves himself. "I missed out on eight years of my surfing life," he says with a little chuckle. Now, having manned the light table at TransWorld for five years, Peter's finally finding time to sneak in surf sessions—and he still gets in the water with his camera a few times a week during the winter season when the surf is firing. "I really enjoy getting out there and shooting water photography rather than sitting on the beach with a 600," he says. "I like to be really close to the subjects. Whether it's a water shot or a portrait, people's personalities just shine through a lot more and it's intimate, like I'm part of the photograph."

Most embarrassing photo moment:
"Once I was out shooting water photos with this surfer in Del Mar and I had a seal try to molest me. It was swimming really close to me on the surface so I was making otter noises as it. Then it started grappling me. He put his furry paws around me and was trying to hump me. I freaked. I tried to climb on my buddy's board, but he was like: "No, get off me!" I've never been so terrified in my life. I was like running on water."

On the future of surf photography:
"I think that surf photography has become bi-polar, actually. There's been great highs and lows. The lows being the over-usage of digital photography and its diluting of the creative process. The highs being the acceptance of black-and-white, medium format and flash photography. Flash and night-time photography has to be the biggest advancement for our industry. Being able to shoot photographs during the night finally gives surf magazines some more options to break up all those blue water photographs."