Ashton Herman gets shit done. Young Ashton came to us via a persistent badgering to be a WY intern. We kinda liked the kid so we brought him with us to Waco to shoot with Chippa, Ozzie, Nate, Mitch, Finn, and the Geiselmans. He came home with some solid eye candy from that trip but his work also includes a wide range of landscapes and other scenic relief to gaze upon. We recently caught back up with him to see what’s the latest for the young lad and any new projects he has been working on.

What Youth: How old were you when you started photography? 

Ashton Herman: I was around eleven years old when I started shooting, I’m seventeen now.

I do! My first camera was a little $15 waterproof Kodak that I got for Christmas one year. I had so much fun with that thing shooting photos in 1-2 foot blown-out Seal Beach [laughs].

I’m super grateful that I had the opportunity to learn from Tom Carey over at WY for a few months – he’s the only person to ever really help me out with photography in general, not even just from a surfing aspect, I had learned everything else on my own until then.  I had such a blast, you have no idea.

What have you been shooting lately?I finally saved up enough money to buy myself my first car. I’ve been working three to four jobs the past six months hustling, trying to save up enough money to get a car and so that I can get the hell out of Long Beach and get back in the water. I’m about 30-40 minutes away from any decent surf so it was rough trying to get down there these past few months having no car or license, none of my friend’s surf or really like the beach so I’ve been itching to get some solid surf for quite some time now. Now that I have a car, I’m getting in the water as much as possible and shooting every second of it! It’s been so much fun shooting surf photos again it’s unreal, I’ve missed it so much.

My favorite camera to shoot with is definitely the 1DX Mark II. Though I don’t own one I got to shoot with one a few time while assisting Tom for a few months and that thing is a such a workhorse, I love everything about that thing.

My favorite place to shoot is anywhere with good waves or crazy landscapes. I haven’t gotten to do many surf trips lately so I’m super excited to take myself on a few trips up and down the coast of California. Should be a good time!

I don’t really have a favorite person I like to shoot right now. Although being able to shoot Chippa, Nate, Ozzie, Finn, Mitch, and the Geiselmans in Waco this past August was an absolute dream. It was my first ever surf trip and to do it with a group of guys like that was insane. I can’t even begin to imagine what a legit surf trip with guys that talented would be like. So excited for these upcoming years, and hopefully all this hard work that I’m putting in now will pay off!

Any upcoming projects? I actually have a little zine project that I’m working on at the moment. It’s still in its very early stages but I’m super excited to see how the whole thing comes out and to share it with people! I really want to do some book projects in the future so I figured that this is a good way to get a bit of understanding of the whole process!