ALRIGHT LETS GO

In Nicaragua, we met Sterling's friend Bryan, an amazing photographer.
He snapped this photo of Me, Sterling, Victor & Nate.

SNOW?

Driving to Los Angeles early yesterday morning, i was passing Rincon when i saw... snow? Bizarre, to say the least. (iPhone photo)

BACK TO THE FUTURE

Irina Werning recreates childhood photos, so cool... CLICK

NEW ARRIVAL

I am elated to have finally acquired a Hasselblad 500cm. I've shot several rolls on it so far and am enjoying both the challenge of the camera & format as well as the quality of image it produces. I'm excited to travel with it, as the system really has you slow down and exert patience to achieve a good photograph. I'll be posting photos soon!

JUNGLE WOMAN

Past Teahupoo, up the river, around the bend, into the trees....

PARADISE LOST

80˚ water, a sharp wind and not a cloud in the sky.

A LOT OF GOOD THINGS

A lot of amazing things are happening right now, more info soon. I'm firing up the ole' Flickr for some photo blogging action. Living life at the speed of sound and loving every second of it, but man i could go for some Tahiti bliss right now.

NEW WEBSITE

I've updated my website quite extensively. Almost 70% of the photos on it are brand-spanking new, taken within the last 6 months. Please have a look... CLICK HERE

TRENT MITCHELL

My favorite photographer, Trent Mitchell, just launched his new website. All i have to say is WOW. Have a look through all his photos, and you will surely be amazed.

TAHITI, PT. II

this was simply the most amazing moment of my life.

our first morning in Tahiti for a Billabong girls trip found us speeding across the channel in from Papeete to Moorea. Several miles off Moorea, we spotted Humpback whales and dropped the boat into idle, and slowly followed their sporadic surfacing trail. when we were within several hundred feet, we jumped in, and Scott Soens and i raced to where we last saw the whales. Low and behold, we were met by a 15 foot calf, who swam circles around us while investigating our strange bodies and waterhousings.

Looking down into the deep blue abyss, a larger, darker shape that was barely visible followed us as we lazily drifted in the open ocean current. after about 15 minutes, the calf dove down to the dark shape, just barely visible while easily 75 feet below us. The now 2 dark shapes swam parallel to us for several moments before they began their ascent, directly before us. Lo-and-Behold, it was a 55-60 foot long mother whale, who came up and surfaced within arms reach of Scott and I.

I was so speechless that i honestly felt that i was paralyzed, and can truly claim this was one of the only moments i have ever struggled to take a picture. after surfacing, the two were off into the blue with just one swift flick of the tail. hands down the most spectacular moment of my life. 

DRIZZLING DARKNESS

Brandon and I did a run down to a dark and drizzly left on what was supposed to be a sunny July day. Some summer! At least there was a dark mood out in the water to tinker with through the lens.

MONKEY MAGIC

A skunk trip down south, a monkey mask and 1 roll of 35mm =

INTO THE NIGHT

3 photos from a warm evening~

DRENCHED

Marissa, spring storms on the pier.

STORMS OF MIDNIGHT

DOWN TO THE SOUNDLESS SEA

HAIL TREVOR!

Trevor got the cover of the Patagonia Spring 2010 catalog as well as the front page of the Patagonia website. Needless to say we are both really stoked... and boy does he deserve it, such a talented yet humble guy.

blogpost about that day: The Eastside

CRAY

FUNKY FRESH

On a recent evening surf session just south of SB i grabbed an old, rusted 35mm camera out of the back of my car and decided to snap a couple evening shots in the dumpy shorebreak. I loaded a roll into it and swam out, rocking just a 50mm (rusted at f/1.8) with no waterhousing. At first I exerted some effort to keep it dry, but after several trips through the barrel i decided it wasn't worth the effort to fight the water. And so I dunked the camera, swished some water into the lens and opened the film back several feet below the surface. I developed the film at Longs and did not apply any additional funkery. Here are the photos, pretty strange eh?

ODDITY

In Brazil, i mostly shot digital photos and Super8. I found this to be my favorite combo; I love my Nikon D700 like I imagine I'll love my son, and my Bolex 155 super8 rarely leaves the grip of my fingers, anywhere. I did however shoot one roll of Kodak Gold 200, which i deliberated to be a thoughtful and miscellaneous collage spanning the entire trip. I don't think I've ever made a roll last so long, traverse so much distance, and expose to so many non-sequential subjects. Needless to say, while my appendage of a D700 enjoyed Brazil extensively, the un-mysticalness of dumping a day's worth of photos to a computer only fueled the daily increase of my excitement to see this hodge-podge roll.

Well, here is what I got back, basically a roll of Bubble Wrap. 90% of the photos are illegible. The upper three are what pulled through, and the bottom is just to remind you of what lines a UPS box. X-ray machines 1, Morgan 0. I'm not angry, just... befuddled.