Straight Shooter #1: Robert Brown
Behind the lens with one of the best high-performance powerboat photographers in the business. (#1 in a four-part series.)
One of the biggest perks of covering the go-fast powerboat world is that I get to work with some truly great photographers. At one time I had hoped to be a professional photographer—OK, I was a junior in high school and I thought it would be a great way to meet pretty girls—but a lack of basic photographic talent forced me to abandon that brief fantasy. Still, I spent a lot of time with a camera around my neck and my hands in darkroom chemicals, and I came to appreciate high-quality photography.
One of Robert Brown's shots for Powerboat Magazine, taken during the Lake Havasu leg of the Performance Trials in April.
So I have nothing but respect for the guys who do it well and, again, I’ve been lucky to work with a whole bunch of them including the late Tom Newby, who died—on a photo shoot—in a helicopter crash almost three years ago. Newby was the best, hands down. He was a perfectionist.
Like Newby, the photographers you’ll meet here pay relentless attention to detail. Good shooters are just like that. Unlike Newby who studied photography at the Brooks Institute, none of them has any formal training. But all had aptitude and passion, and every one of them works hard.
With that in mind, I submit the first of my favorites:
Brown at the helm of his U.S. Camera Boat, which is specially designed and built for on-the-water photography and videography.
Robert Brown: From the Surfing Trenches
If you’re looking for a wisecracks, spot-on mimicry and crisp action photography, you don’t have to look any farther than Robert Brown. Brown, 51, started shooting when he was an 18-year-old surfer in Southern California. His primary subject, of course, was surfing and he earned a solid reputation, plus a few bucks, as a surf photographer. Brown still shoots surfing; however, he focuses his time, energy and lenses on big-wave action. He has won three Billabong XXL Awards for his big-wave surfing photos, as well as one Billabong Tube Ride of the Year photo honor.
Brown eventually made his way into commercial work for personal watercraft manufacturers including Yamaha, Sea-Doo and Kawasaki. (He still shoots for Kawasaki.) I met him in the late 1990’s during a Sea-Doo press trip, and we became friends. When Powerboat magazine needed a photographer for a personal watercraft shoot, I referred Brown to the editor at the time. He got the job and nailed it.
“It was just perfect, to be honest,” he says. “I’ve always liked fast boats, and with the higher-performance stuff came shooting from helicopters and all that stuff. I’ve always wanted to be around the water. That’s where I feel the best.”
The rest, as they say, is history. Brown has shot offshore races, poker runs and boat tests for Powerboat. Of all the on-water events he’s captured, he likes shooting poker runs most.
“For one thing, they’re successful right now,” he says. “It’s a lot more fun to shoot a lot of boats than a few, like you do at offshore races these days. And I don’t really like flying in helicopters when there are a lot of other helicopters in the air, and that’s how it is when you shoot races. I spend more time looking for other helicopters than boats. It takes away from your concentration. Even though you can still take good pictures, you come back almost not knowing what happened.
“I enjoy watching the boats,” he continues. “I don’t like the very fastest ones unless they’re being driven by professionals. I like to see people treat poker runs for what they are supposed to be, not as races. There’s still some overlap going on.”
A fleet of Skater catamarans mills together during the 2010 Desert Storm Poker Run. Brown captured this image from London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, Ariz.
Editor's Note: There are four articles in the Straight Shooter Series. To read the others, see:
