Nathaniel Harrington is a photographer whose series “Chasing Minis” is about what makes Vero Beach unique in Florida. The title might make you think of a skirt length now seen mainly on the tennis court, or the British subcompact, sightings of which have become fewer in recent years.
In fact, the minis to which Harrington refers are the waves that wash onto Vero’s beaches. The 33-year-old photographer has lived in Vero for eight years and knows his waves. In his early 20s, Harrington lived for a few years in Laguna Beach, Calif., (with side trips to Hawaii) where he became known for his photos of big waves and the surfers who tackled them.
“I’ve been published quite a few times,” he says, noting that he once had the cover of Hawaii’s Freesurf Magazine with a shot of Maui pro-surfer Matt Meola in action.
While the Pacific Ocean can’t be beat for its monumental surf, Harrington has grown to appreciate the Atlantic’s more clement production.
His Chasing Minis series of cresting, spilling, plunging and collapsing waves off Vero’s coast look like they could rival anything the Pacific can throw at Oahu. Harrington’s wave photos mimic 20-foot-high swells because he snaps them from a minnow’s eye view, a fraction of an inch above the water’s surface.
“One of my favorite things about photographing minis is how perfect and different they look from a really big wave,” says Harrington.
He explains that the small waves he photographs have “a glassy, molten look to them.” The water tends to act more like syrup when it breaks, sending forth fingers of liquid rather than shattering, like a giant wave, into a billion droplets.
Harrington’s rapid exposures freeze the waves as they fall, producing portraits of waves that can be compared in beauty and translucence to a free-form sculpture of glass or ice.
One of his shots shows an indigo wave flinging its medusa tendrils before a dawn-tinged sky.
As printed on a 54-inch-by-36-inch sheet of polished aluminum, the image is impressive.
Harrington classifies his Chasing Minis photos among his fine art works. He also shoots commercial photography, as well as for-hire videography.
“I’m the Underwater and Drone Creative for ‘The Obsession of Carter Andrews,’” he says.
Translated, his title refers to the fact that, in addition to taking action photos underwater, Harrington chases down fishing boats and their quarry with a camera-equipped drone. “The Obsession of Carter Andrews” is a fishing program on the Outdoor Channel starring Vero Beach resident Carter Andrews.
If you are into fishing, especially with flies, Carter Andrews needs no introduction. If you are not, Harrington explains that the 55-year-old Andrews “has been a professional angler for practically his entire life.”
Enthuses Harrington, “It’s really cool to be able to work with him. We travel all over the U.S., Mexico – he’s taken me to all sorts of really cool places to film for that show.”
Travel is something that Harrington does a lot of in his line of work. In early November, he was in St. Thomas for 10 days photographing sea turtles, stingrays and reef fish for a business client. At the time this profile was written, he was preparing to go to the Florida Keys to film a fly-fishing shark tournament for Carter Andrews.
“The shark tournament should be pretty fun. I can’t say I’ve ever experienced it. I don’t know what I’m getting myself into. I don’t know if I will be jumping into the water to film them,” he laughs.
Would he get into the water if he knew there was a shark below?
Coyly he drawls, “Oh … I might do it.”
Harrington is a free diver who says he much prefers holding his breath to dive than wearing a tank.
“One of my favorite photographs is actually of a bull shark swimming in a school of blue runners right off the coast of Vero Beach here. I swim with sharks; I swim with anything that’s in the water.”
He says he especially enjoys photographing octopi, “because they are the hardest to find, period.”
They are ideal for shooting color because, Harrington explains, an octopus can “go through an entire palette of colors” while changing the texture of its skin to blend into its immediate environment.
“My passion, the job that I do, has interesting moments all the time. I’m dealing with nature, and sometimes violent nature. Whether it’s a 20-foot wave or an 8-foot bull shark, you never know what you are going to run into when you stick your head under the water. I love that part of it.”
Other humans are among the easier animals to find in the ocean, and in addition to divers and anglers, competitive surfers and those surfing just for the fun of it have often been the subject of Harrington’s lens.
Videography is a fairly recent addition to his skill set.
“It’s the same camera, just a quick flip of the switch,” he says.
A road trip he made with two buddies this June to surf the troubled wake of Hurricane Isaias employed his skills both as a still photographer and videographer. The latter resulted in a brief video of the trip, a personal memento that captures the derring-do of his agile companions as well as some spectacular wipeouts.
“Me and my friends are all outdoor enthusiasts, so we watch weather, study weather patterns and look at hurricane models constantly when they are forming. Those storms produce surf, and in some instances that can be a very brief window of opportunity to get world-class surf in Florida.”
Spoken like a true Floridian, except that Harrington was raised in a Minnesota village near the St. Croix River, a stone’s throw from northern Wisconsin. He learned to swim in Minnesota’s “cold brown lakes” and was taught to fish for bass, northern pike, catfish and lake trout by his maternal grandfather.
Snow is Minnesota’s version of surf, and as a young teen Harrington got into snowboarding. At 15, he began photographing the sport.
While he still considers himself “very good” at snowboarding, Harrington soon realized that he could best distinguish himself in the sport with his camera, rather than his board.
His artistic inspiration was found in the pages of snowboarding magazines, where the work of staff photographers Trevor Graves, Scott Serfas and Aaron Dodds showed him what a pro could do.
“The first time I made money was selling photos to magazines. That was the real goal. I wanted to grow up and be an editor of a magazine. I wanted to do creative writing and photography. Sad to say, as of today, most of those magazines don’t exist anymore. It has all been closed down. Now it’s all digital media, Instagram. No more paper and ink.”
Nevertheless, Harrington sells his work to both e-zines and the occasional print magazine. He stays busy doing outdoor photography all year round. He has never resorted to studio photography to make a living. He terms himself a “creative,” in his fine art as well as his commercial work.
“I’ve never really been into doing the normal thing. Portraits, maternity photos and wedding photography never really attracted me. It’s like a job. To me, that is not what a camera is for.”
