Cover art for Nick Balcombe’s newest album release called New Begginings!
Nick is a hit artist out of Australia and worked with me in creating his newest image to brand his latest album release with the worldly known Loggerhead Sea Turtle that was featured in National Geographic earlier this year! Share his music and get a free music download! Here
ESPN / Xgames.com Ben Hicks Portfolio Review
Apparently I like hues!
Here I am speaking in front of the crowd at my third annual Photos 2012 slideshow at Island Water Sports. Photo credit to Leon Legot!
Espn recently did an interview / portfolio review on my last year of shooting surfing around the world. Here are some screen shots from the article.
Fanatic and I wish everyone a happy new year!
Here is a happy new year and merry xmas banner add featuring a shot of mine on Fanatics homepage.
3rd Annual 10 FPS Photos 2012
Take a look at the 2012 edition of my 10 Frames Per Second (FPS) video which is a review of the last 12 months of shooting. Check out more with my 3rd Annual Photo Exhibit at Island Water Sports on Friday January 4, 2013 at 6:30 p.m. where I will present my most memorable images and describe what it took to get each shot. Win some cool stuff from Quiksilver and Electric while supporting the local Jr. Surfrider Foundation.
Tropical Storm Isaac
Tanner Strohmenger punting in South Beach, Miami.
Todays tourist attraction on the strip at Fort Lauderdale beach
Skeeter Zimmerman’s patented layback snap in Miami.
With Tropical Storm Issac nearly on top of us, it was a struggle to get shots but we pushed on, traveled and made a few happen. Here are a couple that got published.
Maternity Shoot
My good friends Justin and Natasha asked me to shoot their second maternity shoot. Last time little Lela was inside and now she is outside listening in!
Shooting in Northern and Southern California
Surfline running one of Jake’s shots.
The impressive Half Dome that we summited two days later.
Recently I took a trip to Southern California to shoot a few things. Upon arriving I linked up with Florida transplant Jake Kirshenbaum to chase some waves Tropical Storm Miriam sent our way. The second half of the trip was a summit up Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, shooting fine art photos throughout and documenting the entire journey on www.slavetothewave.com, where you can follow all my photo expeditions around the world.
Nicaragua Surf photo trip: Aug 2012
Traveling to Nicaragua my second time this year keeps me on my toes to create new and interesting angles for the riders and their sponsors. Here are a few….
You also read about the entire trip in my blog series on www.SlavetotheWave.com http://slavetothewave.com/category/photographers/ben-hicks/
New Lifestyle image campaign with Salt Life brand
Recently Salt Life purchased a handful of images for use in their in house ad campaigns. Look for them at their retail stores. They will be featuring their team rider Cappy that I recently shot on a trip to Indonesia. Here are two images below that have been featured thus far. 
Fanatic 2012 Brand Campaign: Spring Flatwater Photo Shoots
Fanatic SUP, a paddleboard company that produces some of the best paddleboards in the world once again had me shoot their 2013 flatwater SUP (standup paddleboard ) lineup as well as their kids boards. We did this years campaign in the beautiful waters of South Florida near Miami and also in Jupiter, Florida. We had great conditions and I had some great models to work with. Thanks to everyone involved with all their hard work for making it a huge success. We also shot HD video interviews and also HD action videos with our GoPro’s.
Day 1, 2 and 3
Surfline.com’s US East Coast Year in Review
A couple images from this weird winter were ran on Surfline.com including from what I recall as the first empty inside out barrel shot of Delray Public Beach and Tanner Strohmenger inside the hook! Check out the live article here East Coast winter-in-review
2011 10 Frames per second – A look into my lens in 2011
A short video on some of the shots I took at 10 frames a second throughout 2011 from around the world. Enjoy! www.bocaratonphoto.com www.benjhicks.com
Photo issue of Standup Journal – Full Spread of Chase
Winter 2011-2012 photo issue of Standup Journal opens with a spread of Chase Kosterlitz. This photo was taken during the Fantatic Paddleboards 2012 catalog photoshoot. At news stands now.
Recent samples from some Nature shoots
Shot in various locations in South Florida you just might recognize. For purchasing information and a selection of my fine art prints got to www.benjhicks.com
Go Pro or go HOME!
Super excited to be getting support from Go Pro this year! Here is a a short clip from the Juno Beach Surfers for Autism! Enjoy!
How I got this shot…. Hurricane Earl Palm Beach 2010 Eastern Surfing Magazine Dec 2010
Hurricane Earl was a day late for many in South FL. We all were driving up and down the coast the day before wasting time, money and confidence in all the reports. Well the next day luckily Cheyne Cottrell and I got up really early and drove straight to Palm Beach, without checking it anywhere. Rolled up on an indicator spot and Saw this….
From that point on we both knew it would probably be one of it not the best hurricane swells this season to hit South Florida. It was a solid 6ft with over head sets. Because of the current and lack of consistent barrels we figured the best thing to do was to shoot from land. There was also only Cheyne to shoot. With only one (pro) surfer in the water its tuff to “lineup” as we would call it. While Chyene paddled out I set off on a hike to find a good spot to shoot. I was carrying with me:
Canon 1D Mark 3
Canon 5d Mark 2
Canon 500 L IS lens
70-200 2.8L IS
Tokina 10-17 fisheye
Canon 16-35
Canon 1.4 and 2.0 converters all in my Lowepro pack.
It was a hot day with hardly any wind so the first thing I did was find a semi shaddy spot with some ability to compose other buildings, trees and or people/objects in the foreground. Hiking down the beach trying to find a shady spot and a place to get a little higher was not easy. Eventually I met a security guard willing to let me post up on the wall of a mansion. From there I was able to get all the angles I would like, fill up my water bottle with water from there hose and answer phone call after phone call while I snapped away. Eventually the swell started to die and after a few hours we decided to leave. The photo ran in ESM of Andrew Fletcher was shot just as I was about to leave stepping off the wall still with the camera in hand. Shot with my 500mm lens with 1.4x converter on my Mark 3. While we hiked back to our parking spot we had already planned our next spot to shoot thanks to all the luxuries of modern technology. The day continued with me swimming two more times throughout palm beach county and scoring a barrel session to ourselves at one of the best spots in S. Fl. A good day!
Delray surf shoot
Matt Oberman
Matt Oberman
Kyle Alvare
As word traveles fast each time there is any possibility of a decent swell down here I always need to take it lightly. This was another one of those days that just didnt live up to the hype. Matt and I tried to decide where to go. He ended up just paddling out at Delray public along with 400 other people to surf bumped up swell. It was much larger on the outside but not really hitable on the lip. He and a few others got a few one turn wonders and I was there to bake in the sun. There wasnt much there and soon after got a call that it was “good” down in Boca at an undisclosed spot. So I headed down, called Kyle Alvare and we snapped a couple from the beach there. Not too bad. I got in the water for about twenty minutes until sundown and got a couple for myself. Heres a few from that day…
