© Chris Burkard.

Crystal Thornburg surfing in Central California.

Surf trips come up rapidly, as quick as the swells that show up on surf maps, and the photographers and editors who cover them very seldom have a lot of time to plan their work. Grant Ellis has been the photo editor for Surfer Magazine for almost seven years. He started as a surf photographer and followed professional surfers around the world for three years, having surfed from the age of 8. Surfer works with a large number of photographers and surfers to find and produce the stunning images in the magazine.

Ellis says that he can track the swell as it moves across the Pacific or Indian oceans through the emails from his photographers around the world. And if big waves are the greatest thrill in surfing, getting an image in Surfer’s Big issue is the ambition of most surf photographers.

Because surf images reflect the many nuances of light and water, editors at Surfer do rounds and rounds of color proofing to make certain each image is just right. The wave comes through, and they do their best to catch it.

Pictured here is a selection from Surfer’s Big issue.

(more…)

© Jim Wright / Men’s Journal

A perturbed Bruce Willis, star of the Die Hard films, photographed by Jim Wright for Men’s Journal. More images from Wright’s series can be seen in the PDN Faces 2010 online gallery.

© Thomas Beyerlein. Courtesy of Sony World Photography Awards 2010.

Thomas Beyerlein’s “The Art of Movement” image series was awarded 2nd place in the Sport category of the 2010 Sony World Photography Awards. See more from the winners gallery here.

© James Dodd.

The photographic series “Olympic Dreams” documents the trials and tribulations of the British Junior Diving team en route to the Olympic Games. Since the winning of the 2012 Olympic bid, sport funding in the UK has increased dramatically and much of it has been spent scouting exceptional young talents and developing them into potential Olympians. For more of James Dodd’s images go here.