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