BEHIND THE LENS: JARED BUTLER

Can you tell us a bit about yourself—where you’re from, your age, and how you’d describe what you do?
I’m 28 years old and was born and raised in North County San Diego, California, but have been living on O’ahu for about 10 years now. I am a Photographer, Camera Operator, and Video Editor working for Parallel Sea Productions. If I’m not shooting, I’m usually hunkered down in our editing bay doing all kinds of edit, sound, and color grading work for one of our various projects.

What first inspired you to pick up a camera, and how did you get started in photography?

I would say I got into photography and cinematography originally through surfing. I grew up surfing and loved watching surf films. I think a lot of surfers watch surf films and want to replicate the surfing they see and while there’s an element of that for me, I’ve always been a pretty average surfer and kinda known I’m never going to be able to do half the stuff I see guys do in surf edits. I would always watch edits and be just as interested in how the filmer got a specific shot or what the camera setup was. I’m a big fan of nerding out studying filming/photo techniques and how it all works and seeing if I can replicate it in my own way.

How did you become part of Parallel Sea, and what drew you to working with John, Nate, and Ivan Florence?

About 5 years ago I was working doing underwater video for one of the shark tour companies in Hale’iwa and my good friend Tay Steele was working on a video project with the Parallel Sea guys. He kinda introduced me to them and I got working on smaller editing projects and have kind of just grown with the team from there. It’s been a dream working with John, Nate and Ivan because they’re all so talented and fun to hang out with. John specifically has been really cool to work with because he understands photo/video work and can chime in with his own creative ideas. It’s pretty inspiring to see the drive he continually has for coming up with new ideas for films year after year on top of juggling all of his other responsibilities.

Can you share a standout moment or story from your time shooting with the Florence brothers on the North Shore?

It’s funny cause I've now shot multiple event wins, the Eddie, and really fun production days shooting for edits, but one of the days that Erik and I remember the most and still joke about was a random day in the middle of winter two or three years ago. This was during that time when they were running a digital Triple Crown and everyone was trying to get clips to enter. It was a big day (like 10-15 ft) and John, Nathan, and Ivan woke up before sunrise and surfed Pipe. They finished that session and as Erik and I are packing up camera gear John calls us saying he’s immediately going out to Sunset. We head over and shoot Sunset, then finish and John goes back out to Pipe so we head back down there and film for a couple more hours. Pretty sure we finished back at Sunset with John’s fourth session of the day until dark. The guy is a machine and it’s almost comical how much he’ll push himself in a day running off of like one protein bar haha. It’s pretty cool to watch him in his element though and we ended up getting a couple clips that day that helped him win the Triple Crown that year.

What makes a surfing image stand out for you?

The surf world is so saturated with similar photos from roughly the same angles. This is kind of a cliche answer but I think the best images in surfing always have something unique about them that evokes emotion- whether that’s through composition, color, lighting, or focal length, it’s always fun trying to bring photo principles and apply them to surf photography rather than just hold up a camera and capture what’s happening. Sometimes you have amazing conditions and Mother Nature can do a lot of the work for you and sometimes it can be a fun challenge to try to manufacture art out of everyday conditions.

How has the North Shore shaped your photography style and approach?

The North Shore is probably the most photographed place in the world for surfing, yet every year I see people capturing photos in a new or unique way and I love it. There’s so many talented lensmen who travel here every year and it’s cool to see the place come alive every winter. I’m really inspired by everyone out here who finds a unique angle for a wave or spends all day photographing the in-between moments of a scene rather than the surf itself. I have way too many photos sitting on old hard drives that look just like every other surf/landscape photo from here, but I get fired up when I feel like I finally captured something distinct and I just try to keep finding opportunities to do so.

One camera, one lens for the rest of your life, what's the kit?

That’s such a tough one. I wish I had some hipster answer for you like a Leica or Hasselblad body but I use a Canon R5 and I’d probably be happy with it for quite some time. As for lens, a lot of my work has been shot on either a 24-105 f/4 which is like a lightweight Swiss Army knife for the run and gun stuff we’re always doing, or a 50mm 1.4. You get limited when only using a prime lens, but I think I would have to gamble and go with the nifty-fifty just cause it’s so small and can create some really beautiful images in that aperture range.

What advice would you give to aspiring ocean photographers?

I still have so much learning to do but would say for me a lot of the learning and growing happened by shooting a lot even when conditions weren't the most perfect. I’ve learned a lot more about photography by the amount of hours I’ve shot on “okay” days versus one “perfect” day, and it’s better to make mistakes and learn from them before a big shoot day. Also, developing talent is important, but dependability and putting yourself out there goes a long way in this type of work. I’m still working on that last one as I’m naturally a pretty shy, introverted person but it definitely helps you immensely to be a good ‘people’ person. I’ve noticed that the outdoor film/photo industry heavily relies on networking and relationships and if you can be a fun person to work with while being reliable and delivering good work, you’re likely to keep growing and getting more work.

Your favorite photograph you’ve ever taken.
I honestly don’t know if I have a favorite photo. I have a handful of special frames that come to mind though. One of them is from the day the Eddie ran in 2023. We had just finished shooting the Eddie the entire day and everyone was just wrapping up and hanging out with each other as the sun was setting. It was still huge even into the evening and I still had a camera in hand while packing up and decided to snap a couple frames of one of the last sets that rolled through before sunset. The photo I like is rather simple, honestly not that crazy, but it’s just one that’s meaningful to me. It's just an empty wave filling the frame but it’s kind of special to see the entire bay close out like that because it only happens when Waimea is at its biggest. There's such a deep channel in the middle of the bay that makes it pretty much a lake and seeing that much water moving through there is a wild and rare sight. I just like to see that frame and remember a really fun historic day.