hawaii time

I apologize for the lack of updates lately..It's been a very busy week in Hawaii since arriving just after Thanksgiving.  I worked on a really cool shoot for Quiksilver with some of their key surfers as well as a campaign for a new headphone company which should be out next summer.  Shoot all day, edit all night..A lot of images, a lot of editing, no complaints.  For now I leave you with this image from the first day I arrived. Big, North Swell Pipeline, 3 guys out..Howling North East winds.

Surfer Magazine September 2011

Cover of Kelly Slater from our April trip to Tavarua.  We flew down there for 2 1/2 days and this was shot on the first day of our trip.  I went from the airport straight to the lineup at Cloudbreak.  Never been there before and it was quite a memorable day.

Rob Machado Hurley ad photographed at Oceanside in June

Same day as the photo above but this image was held for editorial for the magazine.  Rob Gilley shot an amazing image about 10 years ago in Oceanside and I've always wanted to shoot in light like that.  This day Rob had gotten home at 2am from a portrait shoot in Los Angeles and after 3 hours of sleep I was at his door picking him up.  We surfed from around 5:45-7:30.  It was really cold, but the light was as good as light gets.  Rob was really cool about getting up early and knew that this day was going to be a special one when we checked the buoys.

This day was a fun day at lowers, nothing epic, just rippable and clean.  Kinda cloudy actually.  While Dane and I were shooting, Kelly came down and surfed too.  Walking back to the car at the end of the day I couldn't resist but snap this photo of the two of them on the tracks.

Taylor Knox ad for Dragon shot at Backdoor in Hawaii this year

Kelly Slater photographed for Quiksilver Wetsuits in Santa Barbara in February of this year.

This months issue of Surfer Magazine just came out and had a collection of photos that I was lucky enough to shoot and be a part of..It's always cool to see your images printed in the magazine and not just on a computer screen..It's on the newsstands now..check it out!

Reef Mcintosh Dragon ad

reef mcintosh. Dragon ad. backdoor, hawaii 2010

When the bay closes out.

shane dorian. waimea bay. december 2009

March 2011 Surfer Mag cover!!

This months cover of Surfer Magazine is a photo I shot of Alex Gray at Log Cabins this past winter in Hawaii!!!  The day started off slow at Rocky Point, than around 11the wind came on strong onshore.  My girlfriend and I went on a bikeride to foodland to get lunch and decided to check the waves on the way back to Rocky Point.  The wind had switched and it was pumping!  6-8 feet with a couple bigger sets and because of the on and off again rains, the water was a deep blue.  I was going back and forth between shooting film and digital.  This wave that Alex caught was one of the most perfect waves I have ever seen break there and luckily he rode it with ease.  Below is the original photo, the cover, and a video of the wave...Check it out!  Thanks to the guys at Surfer for running my image, Alex for catching the wave, and Jenna for hanging it out on the beach while it rained that afternoon!!

more snapshots from more places

I have been very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to travel the world photographing some of the best surfers and waves around.  Usually for the surf magazines and advertisers, they request digital because it is easier for them to see the images the day the were shot and apply them to the layouts and whatever other needs they are after at the time.  The reason above, along with many more are why so many photographers have gone entirely digital.  Aesthetics aside, digital is great.  It serves it's purpose for some looks.  That is not to say that we should throw all our film cameras away.  I always keep a film camera or two in my bag for when the surfing is over and all the megapixels in the world couldn't show what a roll of Tmax can show...So here, below this is a sample of some snapshots (straight out of the camera) from the past few months of chasing waves with my friends and what in my opinion looks far better than any digital image would look like with or without photoshop

Jenna at home

Looking out the window of my friends house in Hawaii...The wind just switched offshore

Mick Fanning at home in Hawaii checking the score of the Charger game

Board cemetery at the Quiksilver house on the Northshore

Joel Tudor cleaning the dust off an old 1963 Bing we borrowed to surf when it was small in Hawaii

Derek Dunfee waxing up his 10'0's at a motel in Half Moon Bay before a big day in November of this year

Barbwire in Big Sur

Sunset reeds in Big Sur

6 trees

My friend Pat and I decided to go skate down in San Diego about a month ago on a rainy day...He nearly broke his arm after I zigged instead of zagged with the camera...we had fun and this kid was laughing at us..he ripped.

Pat again

Dane almost made the final this year..he was sooooo close. His semi against Jeremy Flores had 3 waves break in the 30 minutes the heat went on..This is him waxing his board just before he went out.

The Gudauskas brothers along with Dylan Graves and Nolan Hall at there house at Sunset this winter

Joel riding down to go surf sunset one evening

Weird light leak makes for an interesting effect...Not too sure how I feel about it, but there's something about this photo that I like so I'm putting it up anyways

Joel organizing his boards...I think the tape on my film came undone on this roll as there are a few lightleaks and such.

a couple Hawaii snapshots

Tom Curren at Sunset

Kelly and Shane at the Eddie Ceremony

Kelly and Wassel closing the circle

KP moments after he lost the Pipe contest

Pipeline

training

I am home.  Home is where I am.  It is nice.  It is great.  It is rainy, it is cold, but I couldn't be happier.  I had a great time in Hawaii.  Spent nearly 3 1/2 weeks posted up on the North Shore working on a couple of different projects including an ad campaign for Dragon Eyewear, Bloomingdales, and editorial work for Surfer.  It was a busy couple of weeks of shooting, but I had a blast doing it. Now it is time to sit down and edit all the work I shot from Hawaii.  First stop this morning was dropping off the film from the trip and going through the digital images one by one...Above are a couple snapshots from the trip that caught my attention that are slightly off from what the mags may be looking for, but that doesn't mean there isn't something to them that catches my attention and share my view of the North Shore 2010.

Hawai(internetless)

I escaped the cold and rain of California to try my luck at this winters season in Hawaii.  Since I've been here the waves have been big, small, flat, medium, big, windy, calm, clear, and brown.  Woke up to thunder, lightning, rain, and flooding.  With no hopes of shooting any sort of action images in this weather, I went to town, dropped my friends and girlfriend off at the airport to go home, ate the best Mexican food on the island, checked the waves on the way home, shot a portrait/lifestyle shoot for Dragon sunglasses, pretty happy how it came out and watched Mick Fanning surf OTW with 2 other people out during one of the most amazing sunsets I have seen in Hawaii.  Although the sun never broke through, it lit the clouds up to a beautiful range of pinks, yellows, and blues.

Shane Dorian for Surfer Magazine

Shane Dorian Kona, Hawaii

On the road and back again to go in a bit

Flew over to the Big Island of Hawaii for 3 days to shoot a portrait for an upcoming profile in Surfer Magazine.  We had a great time over there and lucked into some moody weather.  Here's a photo of Jenna and I after we ended the shoot and got one for the scrapbook!  Once the magazine comes out I can show more of what we were up to over there, until than..Here's an example of one of the lighting setups for the final shot before jumping on the plane and heading home.

bodysurf

In 2008 I was asked by Surfer Magazine to shoot a "how to bodysurf with Marc Cunningham."  It was the first time I had ever met him, although had seen him in the water every winter in Hawaii since I was young.  Below are a couple outtakes from the shoot that I thought were funny.  He was full of jokes and it made for a really fun afternoon.  He even took off the speedos he had been wearing all day to let Brendan Thomas get the full experience of bodysurfing in Speedos!  

ehukai beach park

white legs

Mick Fanning Dragon Advertisement

original photo

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Hawaii part 1 of ...

Flew to Hawaii for what is forecasted to be the biggest swell in 1969.

After an awesome session at Waimea we came in and built a wall to block the water from flooding our home.

This is our crew.