As a surfer and swimmer, I never get tired of watching water in motion—its constant, unpredictable dynamic energy that fascinates me. But what makes it truly spellbinding is how those moments—those intricate, living forms—exist only for an instant before they’re gone.

That’s what I love most about photography. Through my lens, I get to chase those split seconds, preserve them, and create something that lasts beyond the moment itself.

When I captured “White Water Horses,” I was standing on a very steep beach, mesmerized by the way the whitewater rolled back off the sand and slipped into the ocean. 

Every so often, two waves—one retreating, one advancing—would collide, sculpting the foam into shapes so wild and spontaneous they almost seemed alive.

What makes this image special to me is the light—angled at about 45 degrees—casting depth and character into the whitewater in ways you rarely see… Shapes emerge out of the shadows, their edges illuminated, the whole composition transforming into a living sculpture in three dimensions.

I get lost in this image. You can wrap yourself around its twisting forms, dive through its frothy caverns, completely immerse yourself in its fleeting landscape…and it’s frozen at a mere 1/1600th of a second—a moment that will never happen again, yet here it is, living on through the photograph. That’s the magic for me: making the ephemeral eternal.

– By Aaron Chang