Maine

Every mid-September for the past 3 years I've headed east to Portland, Maine and met up with my good friend Woods Wheatcroft who is an amazing photographer with an ever creative and quirky eye. We always go early for a few days of surf and hang time before the annual Aurora Photos retreat. Woods and I have a great vibe flowing and this year was no exception -- we caught some fun waves on the tail end of a hurricane swell and found some great hills to skate.

The retreat is held on Sebago Lake and is attending by a variety of the photographers that Aurora represents, as well as some key speakers from the industry. This year, Karen D'Silva of Spark Visual Research gave a comprehensive inside look at today's image market and the senior Photo Editor at National Geographic magazine, Sadie Quarrier, presented an inspiring look at some of the recent projects she has managed.

The event is a rare opportunity for photographers from all paths to come together and share story and be inspired--minus the ego. I feel so fortunate to work with an stock photo agency like Aurora where I am part of a family of photographers rather than just another name.

The Great Sebago Canoe Race was held again this year and Woods, Peter Dennen (Aurora's creative director) and I had a title to defend. Sadie and I had a little pre-race trash talk because of our common backgound with rowing crew, so she grabbed the two tallest photogs, Ilje Herb and Richard Hallman, for her team. But, alas, it was again no contest and Woods, Peter and I held off everyone with the help of Lisa Seaman. Sadie's already calling for a rematch.

Andrew Kornylak is a good friend and great photographer from Atlanta, and he captured many moments from the event using the high frame rate on his Nikon D3 and created this unique video from the stills, great work man!