Pelican Over Breaking Wave, Carmel

As an underwater photographer, I usually carry around a ton of gear, and once I reach a diving destination, I just sit on the bottom.  The amount of gear required to do professional underwater photography is monumental, as is the maintenance required to keep the gear working.   Now a pro has to buy a new camera or video camera just about every other year to keep current.  That means buying new housings for the cameras too.  Ouch!

As a result, I've always loved the simplicity of just going out on a good day and boogie boarding.  I've also been taking surf photos for many years, starting with a Canon film camera in a surf housing (having to swim back after shooting 35 frames on a roll of film was a real pain in the butt), and graduating to Nikon D200 and then Canon 7D cameras in Delmar and SPL surf housings. 

But the GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition cameras have been the bomb for surf photographers and surfers everywhere.  These guys have thought of everything.  They are the perfect surf cameras.  I wish that the quality of the still images was higher, but you can't get everything.

Here are two video clips I shot on Tuesday.   I've always admired the way pelicans skim across the tops of breaking waves.  The first clip shows a pelican doing just that, coming right over me as I filmed the wave breaking.