Sun Light Camera Action SH OT

ON THE WATER IN THE SUN, BOATING IS FUN. BOAT PHOTOSHOOTS, ON THE OTHER HAND, ARE HARD WORK. REALLY HARD ... WE SWEAR.

By William Randall | Photos by Richard Steinberger and Courtney Hayes

First and foremost, boat photographers are problem solvers. They have to be. The variables of light, weather, water conditions, models and logistics. There’s a lot that can go wrong and a lot that has to go right to get the quality of imagery clients expect.

Longtime boat shooter Richard Steinberger uses the recent photoshoot of the new Sailfish 226 Dual Console to illustrate just what it takes.

“It was very challenging, the weather was a bit much,” Richard explains, “but I think we ended up with good results. And we regularly capture great shots even when the weather and other details conspire against us.”

This was a fairly small production, with just one boat, so it was relatively easy. But it did require video capture as well, and there was a family of four to keep coordinated and all “on” at the same time.

“The weather was challenging in the morning, but we had great light late in the day,” Richard describes. “We evaluate the weather conditions, and why we need to achieve. Moody lighting like we had in the morning lends itself to fishing and glare-free detail shots, so we waited for the nicer afternoon weather and light to shoot the lifestyle watersports parts.”

The “talent” was the Leneave family, an adventurous boating family, who took stage, or in this case sea, direction very well. It was great portfolio work for them, and a good experience. The photo boat was a pontoon with an upper deck, which worked great for high shots and unique angles.

“Matthew Vetzner from Sailfish did a great job managing the shoot,” Richard says. “He’s very organized and most importantly made it very clear what he wanted, and that allowed us to focus on the capture. My job is to look at what he wants, but really my job is to give him what he needs. At the end of the day we have to have a happy client and that’s where the photographer’s skill and professionalism comes into play.”

Richard has been shooting boats for decades and has seen a lot of changes during that time. Drones have changed things a lot. Also, shooting stills and video at the same time is now very common. Upping his video game has changed other parts of Richard’s career, as well, and in partnership with his wife ,Heather, he’s expanded into documentary work, like the award-winning film they did on a Lakota youth program Heather is involved with.

“Trying to do still photography and videos at the same time is always an additional challenge but it is common on photoshoots now,” Richard explains. “You basically have to take twice as long, and you tell different versions of stories.”

So what does a successful shoot look like to Richard?

“First, what we do is sometimes a little risky, so ensuring that no one gets hurt is huge,” he says. “After that, you have to put aside the stress and capture the energy and keep it loose and show the lifestyle that people enjoy on a boat. But it’s imagery, at the end of the day, you have to set up the scenes and show the full range of how people will use the boat.”