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Sand's Up: Local hipsters give a lesson in sand surfing in Cumbuco's impressive dunes.
"Cumbuco has these vast stretches of dunes—the sand supposedly blew over from Africa. Charlie had heard that there were great sand surfers in Cumbuco who would take people out to ride the dunes. But everyone we asked said, 'No, no. If they did that around here, we'd know.'
"These are the guys that supposedly didn't exist. When we finally found them, we wanted to see what they could do, so we went to the biggest dune around. These kids, we found out, were pretty much known as the best dune surfers in Cumbuco."
—Photographer Michael Darter
Photography Notes
- Camera: Canon EOS-3
- Film: Kodak 100 VS
- Lens: 17-35 mm
- Shutter: 1/125th
- Aperture: f/5.6
- Time of day: Evening
"I wasn't actually ready for this photo. They took off, and I grabbed the shot without a chance to look through the viewfinder. The sun was setting, so I encouraged them to keep it moving. The sand was really soft so it's hard to hurry. You basically took one step up and slid a half-step back. But they were getting some really good runs, and I wanted to shoot as many as possible.
"The wide lens lets me get close to the subject but also show what's going on with the surroundings. What I like about shooting people with a wide lens is that it draws you into their presence. You can't be 50 feet (15.2 meters) away and get a shot like this. The subject knows that you are there and what you're doing. Even if there's no shared language, there's still a shared interaction."
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