Tilt-shift photos of Teahupo’o, Tahiti

If you haven’t heard of a monstrous wave in Tahiti called Teahupo’o (pronounced cho-pu), then it’s about time you did! We love this wave! It’s awesome power and picture perfect barrels are awe-inspiring. From behind the breaking wave, it literally looks as if the surfer will drop off the edge of the world. A wall of water rises suddenly from open water, due to a steep reef rising from the ocean floor, and comes crashing down onto shallow water and razor sharp reef! You’ll never tire of looking at this wonder of the world. Read more here…

Of course, it’s a surf photographer’s dream! And there’s no better out there at capturing Teahupo’o than Tim Mckenna… Presented here are aerial images of Teahupo’o using the tilt-shift photography technique. You can see the full set of photos to purchase, including beautiful shots of Tahiti (French Polynesia) on Tim’s website, but below we’ve picked out some of our favourites…

Also, check out some tilt-shift photos of Pipeline (Hawaii).

What is tilt-shift photography

"Tilt-shift" photography encompasses two different types of movements: rotation of the lens plane relative to the image plane, called tilt, and movement of the lens parallel to the image plane, called shift. Tilt is used to control the orientation of the plane of focus (PoF), and hence the part of an image that appears sharp; it makes use of the Scheimpflug principle. Shift is used to adjust the position of the subject in the image area without moving the camera back; this is often helpful in avoiding the convergence of parallel lines, as when photographing tall buildings.

Tilt Shift lenses are frequently used in architectural photography to control perspective, and in landscape photography to get an entire scene sharp. They can also be used to create a selective focus area to simulate a miniature scene.

Outrigger canoes, small boats, jet skis and surfers are perfect subjects for this.

www.timmckennaphoto.com

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