Michael Wilkins
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Photograph of a lone surfer crouched at the base of a large breaking wave at sunrise, the whole face of the water lit gold and the lip throwing spray above them.

Inside the Gold

Sydney, Australia · June 2019

1D X Mark II, 234 millimetres, f 11, 1/1000 of a second, ISO 2000

One surfer, one wave, and about a second and a half of light.

Shot from the headland at sunrise with a long lens, when the sun is low enough to come through the back of the wave and light the whole face from inside. The surfer is small deliberately — the wave is the subject and he is the scale. At this focal length and this light you get maybe two usable frames a set, and most of them have nobody in the right place.

Part of The Sydney Coast, a series.