BEAUTIFUL BREAKING WAVES: CLARK LITTLE

CLARK LITTLE

It’s not hard to find beauty in the ocean. It’s easy for anyone to see. It’s easy for anyone to snap a beautiful photo. A number professional photographers have specialized in capturing ocean beauty in exceptional ways, each with their own perspective and spin. Award-winning photographer Clark Little was the first to capture the astonishing beauty inside ocean waves as they come in to break on the shore.

Little began to shoot inside the curls of waves and developed his own artistic niche, narrowly focused on the shorebreak. His portfolio of inside-out wave images has been broadly developed over the years, and has been copied by others. Little has more recently expanded to take aerial photos of the shorebreak as well, having  just released his first six aerial shorebreak images shot over the North Shore of Oahu.

Originally from Napa, California,Little was raised in the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii. Before he took his amazing shots of the ocean, he was known for his surfing at the Waimea Bay shorebreak. He made quite a name for himself in the 80’s and 90’s for taking off on the most dangerous waves and somehow gracefully gliding through them in one-piece.

In 2007, Little realized his passion for the waves when his wife asked him to snap some pictures to decorate their bedroom wall. Little jumped on his surfboard with a waterproof camera in hand and went deep into the ocean. It was then that he realized that his passion for waves and the ocean was more than just ocean-deep. He wanted to capture the unique and dangerous perspective of the inside of waves just as much as he wanted to ride them.

“Clark’s view,” that wide-angle inner-wave perspective, is what got Little his world-wide recognition. See more in the film SHOREBREAK: The Clark Little Story.

“The shorebreak is my comfort zone. I absolutely love it. It's always different. The light, the colors, the water, the sand and what happens to it. And to be there to capture it and share it with the world... what a dream.”

Little’s work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian Museum, among other museums and galleries around the world. His work has been published in National Geographic, The New York Times, LIFE, Geo, and Nikon World, among others. Little’s commercial clients include Apple, Nike, Nikon, Facebook, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Toyota, Anheuser Busch, Starbucks Coffee, Whole Foods Markets, Hilton Hotels, Lockheed Martin, Verizon, to name a few.

Check out Little’s books, The Shorebreak Art of Clark Little and Shorebreak, a 160-page wave and ocean photography book which features waves from Haleiwa, Maui, Kauai, Big Island, California, Japan, and French Polynesia. This book, more than just the average coffee table book, serves as a portfolio of Little’s best work from all his experiences and travels in the past years.

The Clark Little Gallery Haleiwa, in his hometown of Haleiwa, Hawaii, is a few feet away from the very magic of his photography takes place. It’s wonderful to visit in person. But if you can’t swing that, you can purchase prints, books and other Little items at his gallery online.  All images can be printed on aluminum (our most popular media), canvas, glossy and matte prints. Some images are available as large as 40" x 60".

Read more about Ocean Beauties in It’s Time To Visit & Save The Great Great Barrier Reef, Beaches Make Our Minds More Beautiful, Compelling Oceanscapes: Kristin Hettermann, The Ocean Cleanup Is Happening Now!, and Super-Beautiful Vegetables From the Ocean.

And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Mind/Body, Soul/Impact, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Arts/Design, and Place/Time, Daily Fix posts.

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IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Photo: by Clark Little. “Flame.”
2. Photo: by Clark Little. “Pineapple Express.”
3. Photo: by Clark Little. “Heart.”
4. Photo: by Clark Little. “Sandy Shack.”
5. Photo: by Clark Little. “Sea Shells.”
6. Photo: by Clark Little. “Flying Honu.”
7. Photo: by Clark Little. “Blue Rise.”
8. Photo: by Clark Little. “Memorial Day.”
9. Photo: by Clark Little. “White Wash.”
10. Photo: by Clark Little. “Glass Bowl.”
11. Photo: by Clark Little.
12. Photo: by Clark Little. “Marlin.”