Mirrorlessons Interview

I recently did an interview that was featured on an article about professional photographers shooting sports with mirrorless cameras on www.mirrorlessons.com.
It is a great honour to be part of the list and I would like to thank the guys at mirrorlessons for selecting me / my work. And of course thanks to Olympus Australia for supporting and sharing my work.

Here the extract of my part of the interview:

1. Please tell us about yourself and your surf photography work in a short paragraph.

I’m Chris Eyre-Walker, 25 years old, based in Sydney – Australia and I’m a self thought photographer. I’ve been fascinated by photography for over 8 years now and discovered surf photography a little over 2 years ago. My goal is to capture the unique shapes the ocean has to offer and freeze these moments in time that just last for a fraction of a second.

2. What do you enjoy the most about shooting surf?

Mostly, I enjoy that my workspace is in the ocean. There is nothing more exciting to me, than being in the water, while nature is unloading it’s raw energy onto the rocks through a big hollow, powerful wave. Being right in the middle of this can be very calming and yet exciting at the same time.

Being able to capture this energy and the unique shapes and curves the ocean has to offer, is what keeps me coming back.

Every wave is different and I don’t think I will ever capture the perfect shot that will say: ‘Alright that’s the one, You are done here!’

3. What is the most challenging aspect of surf photography?

Nature. The bigger the waves the harder it is to stay in the right spot. There is a lot of water pulling and pushing you around and it’s a constant battle to keep yourself out of danger. Nothing really compares to it. I don’t think there is a more interesting and harder subject to capture than raw, unforgiving nature. Framing a shot while swimming in though conditions is probably the greatest challenge. Perfect, curled, glowing waves are rare and a lot of factors have to come together to create the right conditions.

4. Why did you choose the OM-D E-M1 for your work?

Being a surf photographer means being on the road a lot – traveling and searching for waves. And with more long term travel plans coming up I was looking for a way to reduce the size and weight of my camera gear.

I had over 18kg of DSLR gear alone and with a big camera body comes a big underwater housing and also very big and heavy long lenses. I was using 2 bags for my camera gear alone! So my goal was to be able to pack everything into one bag when travelling. I chose the OM-D E-M1 because it suited my needs as a outdoor and surf photographer. It’s small and light, shoots 10 frames per second (or 9 in tracking mode), has a great list of features, is weather sealed and comes with a great range of weather sealed PRO lenses to work with. Olympus Australia has been an amazing partner and they’ve supported my work and helped me out a lot ever since I switched from DSLRs.

To read the full article and more interviews with other very talented photographers using mirrorless cameras to shoot surf here:

http://www.mirrorlessons.com/2015/04/28/10-photographers-who-use-mirrorless-for-sports-photography/

A list of the featured photographers, their field of expertise and choice of camera: