Nelscott Reef

Last weekend, I checked the surf report before heading out for a run with Sarah in Forest Park in Portland, and I nearly turned around and headed home to grab my wetsuit and boards.

11' west swell at a 20 second interval. A 5 knot East wind (that would be offshore here on the west coast).

Soon after, I got a phone call from Richard Hallman of Hood River telling me that the annual Nelscott Reef big wave surf contest had been confirmed for the following day, when the swell was to be even bigger... and that I should grab my gear and head over to the coast.

The following morning anticipation ran high as the competitors gathered at the beach to check their gear, launch the jet skis, and head out to the break. The Nelscott Reef is a a deep water wave that breaks a half of a mile offshore from Lincoln City. It takes the perfect conditions to create a wave that is rideable and the organizers again made a great call. Surfers from as far away as Australia, Brazil, and Hawaii were able to show up in time for the event, as well as big wave veteran teams like Mike Parsons and Brad Gerlach, and Garrett McNamara and Keali'i Mamala formake. Some of the local visual artists present to document the contest were Richard Hallman, Lance Koudele, Sam Drevo and myself. In years past, this event was all tow-in surfing, but I was especially excited to see how the surfers would fare in this year's paddle-in division.

After hanging out on the beach for a while shooting photos, Keali'i offered a ride out to the wave so I grabbed my gear and we headed out to reef. I tranferred over to a ski with Richard and shot for the rest of the afternoon. I only had a wide angle port for my water housing, so I decided risk it and shoot without protection any for my camera gear except a plastic rain sleeve to ward off the spray. We had a few close calls, especially in the impact zone during one of the bigger sets of the afternoon when Jamie Mitchell of Australia paddled into a massive bomb and Keali'i dropped in the next one which turned out to be the winning wave for the paddle in division. Richard was a great driver and we managed to get over the shoulder just in time.

I am grateful for the opportunity to be out there! Here are a few images from the action.


Tools of the trade: the Parsons/Gerlach quiver


Mike Parsons paddling in and making the drop

Jamie Mitchell's big one--2nd place paddle in

(following 3 images) Keali'i Mamala on his winning drop for the paddle-in division

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!

Central Oregon bouldering

Sometimes I forget how lucky I am to live in a place where I can leave my door and be out somewhere peaceful in a matter of minutes. Yesterday I shot some bouldering near Bend with my friends Greg Garretson and Logan Carr along with Brooke Sandahl of Metolius Climbing. They are all incredible strong climbers and as with most of the Oregon scene, relatively unknown.

It was great to escape the barrage of negativity in the news about the economy and just be outside in a beautiful place with good friends.

Incredible.

I've always been impressed by the simplicity of Platon's work as well as his ability to use wide angle lenses for portraiture, but his image of Willie Nelson might be his best portrait yet.

One By One

This past spring and summer I had the opportunity to shoot and edit a music video project with my friend Micah Wolf, who is a songwriter and musician based on Maui. Micah wrote a song called 'One by One' after reading an article on the immense amount of plastic trash collecting in the worlds oceans, most notably the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" located hundreds of miles southwest of the western United States in the Pacific Ocean. This area where the four prevailing currents converge is known as the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, and there are estimates that 3.5 million tons of garbage has collected here from North America, Asia and, Hawaii, 80 percent of which is plastic. Sunlight causes the plastic to break down into smaller and smaller pieces, and seabirds and other wildlife mistake it for plankton or other foodsources. Tens of thousands of dead birds have washed ashore, many of their stomachs packed with these plastic reminders of our throwaway society.

Captain Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation was the first to bring this issue to the public's attention and has revisted the site many times to gather further research. Many articles have been written and Bill MacDonald filmed a documentary called the Synthetic Sea.

As a father of three himself, Micah felt that producing a music video of his song could raise greater awareness among the younger generations. Algalita was excited about this opportunity to further spread the message about their work and were generous enough to let us use some of the footage of garbage and the raw plastic "nurdles" that they had in their archives. I filmed Micah recording the song on Maui at Grace Recording Studio while making his latest record called "Beyond the Shores" that will be released this fall, and gathered additional footage around Oregon and while on a couple of surf trips with Belinda Baggs-Peterson and Gerry Lopez, and shot a lot of video portraits along the way.

I gained a lot of respect for video production while editing the footage and learning how to use Final Cut! Rick Tyner is Micah's partner in Blockplane Records as well as his bass player. He also just moved down the street from me in Bend, Oregon and put in many long days with me on the production. Carol Feinga over at the Kokua Foundation was invaluable with her insights and advice. The final result can be seen below.

Many thanks to everyone who helped out with this project!



Here are a few images of Micah while he was in the studio recording One By One:

Pictures And Sound

As most of my good friends know, music is one thing that I am pretty passionate about. I don't usually care much what the genre is, but if it is good, I'll listen to it... and if it is really amazing, I love to share with anyone who will appreciate great music.

When I met my good friend Luke Reynolds over a year ago, he and I quickly realized that we shared a common interest in great music, 16mm surf films and sushi. We also happen to the same birthday and both grew up in the woods--he in Vermont and myself in Michigan.

Luke founded the band Blue Merle several years ago, and after the group went their separate ways, he moved into a tent in Vermont and began writing new material. Three years later, he is releasing an album on Vanguard Records with his band Pictures And Sound. Jacquire King (Modest Mouse, Tom Waits, Kings Of Leon) produced the album. I guarantee most of the tracks will eventually be on many of my favorite mix CDs.

The new record is available for pre-order now here, and will be available on iTunes and elsewhere on August 19th.

Check out his website to listen to a few tracks, you won't be disappointed.



Here is a couple of short films about the Luke's writing and recording the new album:

Be here Nau.

Thanks to the good folk at Horny Toad apparel, Nau is back.

Stoked.