Water and Light | Hawaii

North Shore Insanity

So I've been in Hawaii on the north shore of Oahu for the last couple of days soaking in the sights and sounds of the Billabong Pipe Masters contest. Its been one of the best weeks of my life and every day seems like a dream.

When the swell died down, the contest was called off and all the focus shifted up the beach to Rocky Point. Great lighting and some fun little air sections made for a photographers dream. Spent a few hours  shooting on the beach before the wind picked up and I went to Teds Bakery for some grind then was able to get out and catch a few waves for myself

Bill Travis | Shaper

This is Bill "Aku" Travis, one of my oldest friends. He has spent the last two years rehabing an injury to his hand. After five surgeries and months upon months out of the water, he is finally getting back to his old self. We intended on surfing all day together but the waves didn't turn up so we decided to get into the shaping bay and work on a couple of new boards. Bill is in the process of starting his own surfboard shaping business so look for his boards to start showing up in stores sometime next year. 

90 Degrees in November

Autumn Afternoon

Deragisch Wedding

Was given the opportunity to document the wedding of Scotty and Carlyna Deragisch last Saturday. I was quite excited leading up to the event because shooting big events like this is one of my favorite things to do. I love becoming part of the crowd and capturing the joyful vibe of the wedding. The ceremony and reception took place at the Rivers End Cafe in Seal Beach, where we were accompanied by one of the best sunsets I've seen in a long time.

See more from this wedding on my Facebook page 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kevin-Jara-Photography/

Supersession

With the temperature in the greater southern California region reaching over 100 degrees for multiple days in a row, I was searching for anything to do to cool off. After sitting at physical therapy for a my knee watching Surflines live feed of Lowers going off with all the world tour surfers in town for the Hurley Pro which started on Sunday, I knew I needed to get in on that action.

The line up was one of the most talent ridden that I have every personal experienced. There was the young guys like John Florence, Julian Wilson, and Gabriel Medina blowing up as well as the veteran slayers like Freddy P, Mick Fanning and Christian Fletcher. Oh and some guy named Kelly was catching every set wave and throwing giant full rotation backside threes.

Labor Day Swell

After two weeks of flatness and weird weather, seeing a forecast with a solid south swell coming and good weather had me and many other surfers up and down the coast salivating. It was, however, Labor Day weekend, which meant a lots of people and not a lot of parking. Due to a recent knee injury, I didn't feel strong enough to spend the entire weekend shooting in the water so I decided to rent a 400mm lens for the weekend and mainly shoot with that. I hadn't shot from the beach in a while so it was a good refresher and practice.
The first day of the swell I drove down to Trestles to meet up with my brother and a few other friends from San Diego. After parking the farthest I've every parked at the top of the trail and getting down to the beach, I was stoked to see the guy suiting up next to me was Gabriel Medina, who won the Nike Pro at Lowers a couple months ago. He proceeded to go catch more waves and land more airs in such a short period than anyone I've ever seen, which made my job really easy.

I spent the next two days shooting in at 56th St in Newport and Northside Huntington Pier with Bryan Van Arsdale. Bryan is always a standout at Northside so it was fun working together all weekend with him. Both days were a little bit frustrating due to the variety of swell in the water at the same time which made the waves a bit wonky and not working to their potential. Despite these factors, we were able to get some decent shots.

Well I hope you enjoyed the pictures from this weekend. I'm having my knee looked tomorrow so hopefully its nothing too serious and I won't be out of the water for long. Until then, thanks to everyone who helped me out this weekend.

Escaping the Madness that is the US Open

Ah the US Open...a whirlwind of concerts, parties, thousands of the smallest bikinis a man has ever seen, a city rising from the sand complete with its own skatepark, and a surf contest thrown in to give its some legitimacy. I've tried to document the contest for the last couple of summers and I've tried every possible approach for someone who doesn't have any industry connections and can't gain a VIP access (though I've been working my butt off recently to try and make that happen). Its frustrating to have to deal with the daily morning overcast skys and the blown out chop that happens in the afternoon, making it hard to find a window to get a good photo. I only went a shot a few days out in the water on the northside, hoping to catch some of the competitors out practicing. Didn't get too much luck this year with waves, however. Slow, fat rollers on the high tide.

 The first day of the little swell we had, I shoot with my lens at 35mm opposed to the 16mm to try and give myself some forgiveness in terms of positioning. The current runs pretty strong on south swells and I tend to find myself doing laps in order to stay on the peak. This was one of the only decent shots of that day. I haven't shot in the water in while, so I was a bit rusty. Hopefully I can get some better waves and try out some different lens and techniques soon because the lens I'm using now is really more effective when the waves have a bit more size and fill out the frame more.

Los Angeles Walkaround

Orange Couch and America

Messing around with my flash and exploring the lighting possibilities of it with some simple accessories. This was shot using the flash above the camera with aluminum foil wrapped around the flash and shaped into a skinnier, more focus beam of light. I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out with such minimal equipment. Might just even use this for a bio picture for my new website that I'm building.

June Gloom

New one for my Water and Light/ Immersion Series (still not set on a title). I haven't really done any black and white for this series but with it being June and the ever present gloomy skies every morning there's not much else you can do. I'm still quite happy with this one no the less.

Nike Lowers Pro

Spent a few days last week making the long walk down to trestles (which is a pain in the ass with a bunch of camera gear I learned) for the Nike Lowers Pro. I went down there intending on documenting the contest for a documentary class at my school to focus on the corporate sponsorship and the recent changes in the surfing industry but it didn't turn out as strong as I thought it could. Maybe I'll focus more on it in the future.

Shooting from the water at Lower Trestles is a lot more difficult than I originally thought it would be. I think next time I go there I'll try to shoot with a longer lens and maybe use a boogie board to sit off the peak and raise my perspective a bit.

Michel Borez boosting on the inside.

Yadin Nicol wrapping one around

Cory Lopez going huge backside

Tanner Guadauskas

Dane Reynolds not looking to pleased to be doing another interview after his heat win

Stress

This is the first photo of a new series im going to be working on for the next month or so. I've recently been going through some rough couple of weeks and plus the added stress of graduating college soon and uncertain plans for the future. I'm actually really happy how this photograph turned out. The lighting is just beautiful in my opinion

Kelsey

Here's a few samples from a sitting I did yesterday with my friend Kelsey, who some may remember from the "Hit Me" series I did a few weeks back. She approached me a few weeks ago to see if I was interested in taking some graduation portraits for her and her family. I was happy to do so because I really wanted to try out my new reflectors. I couldn't find someone to help me out that day so I had some trouble getting the shot and simultaneously hold the reflectors which was quite difficult with how windy it was. It was a lot easier when we went over to the school later. I think they turned out pretty well and I'm excited to incorporate these lighting techniques into my repertoire for the future

Hit Me #2

Hit Me

This is from a dramatic lighting assignment for my studio class. The idea I decided on (or peer pressured into by my great friends) was to take a punch to the face. I came to this idea through a lot of deliberation and self reflection. I am nearing the end of my college days and the real world is fast approaching, therefore my mindset hasn't been the most anxious free. I decided that in order to prepare myself this upcoming challenge and to stay motivated, I had to get over the fear of failure or uncertainty. In order to succeed you have to get over that negativity and believe in your strengths. Allow failure to humble you but don't let it break you. For this photo I willingly allowed my friend to punch me as hard as she could in the face. This is taken about five seconds after the hit. Sure it hurt but its not the end of the world. More photos and video evidence to come soon.

4th Street, Long Beach, California, February 19th 9pm - 2am