Monochrome Monday (squall)

In between sets

in between squalls

I'm off to see a man

getting some ink

Spring, baby

Continuing the Spring theme, here's a surfer born in Spring.
This is a combo Kodachrome slide sandwich of GfG via a cumbersome rig consisting of manual focus, manual wind on 35mm Nikonos with an external dive strobe.
Now don't blink or run me over in the dark, brother.

Spring Clean

The annual Spring Clean has commenced.

Backing up the external back up hard drive 

to the back up, back up external hard drive 

and reducing the email in traffic 

from 800 unread to 450 unread

(how did we end up on sooo many subscriber email services?????)

Rip Off Rant

ok, 

so you think it's fine to steal music from rich bands

well don't come stealing my images for your profit

i didn't spend 20 years processing my own films

i didn't waste hours working dead end jobs

to spend $15K on equipment

i didn't stand in the sun while my mates got barrelled

i didn't nearly drown to get the water shot

for you to steal my images

ok?

(this post is for Steen Barnes 

and all the other surf photogs 

who've been ripped off. 

Hang tight brine brothers!)

Losing One's Marbles is Optional

I've known my best mate since he moved into our street when we were both nine years old. Unlike me, he's a goofy footer. I have archives of classic shots of him and although this old shot is not him, it reminds me of the wave of the trip my mate scored in the Maldives. As I'm paddling back out at Sultans, I get caught inside as he comes screaming across the reef at high speed on his bright orange Southcoast longboard. 

The sight of him way above me as I duck dive is etched deep in the memory bank. We rate our surf sessions in marbles, as in "that was a two marble surf".  If you don't surf enough, you'll lose your marbles (go crazy). I'm pretty sure that Sultans session was a three or four marble surf.

For some reason, foggy mornings like today remind me of an epic day when my best mate and I were teenagers editing our sociology video assignment at university. We thought our "mockumentary" parody of Academia was pretty awesome after one whole day of editing. The lecturer, a famous person from The Film Industry, deemed it "unfit for human consumption". We took that as a compliment.

Happy holidays, buddy and get some marbles back in the barrel.

Monochrome Monday (behind)

Who can keep up

with the 24/7 

march of technology?

Just when I think

I have the hang of it,

they release an update

or another version 

- albeit

better, 

faster, 

clearer

(meaning

"we want your cash".)

Maybe I'll keep

my "square" status

a little longer.

I never was too good

at being

an early adopter

Doers and watchers and shooters of both

Moonset

If you saw the full moon setting this morning in our arid western skies you'd agree it was a pretty awesome experience, difficult to describe. If you didn't see it, then I can't really explain the magnetic hypnotism of a glowing heavenly blob edging towards the rim of our planet through a screen of silhouetted branches. The feeling is somewhere between a thrilling barrel and finding a green oasis after traversing a monotonous, barren lunar desert for hours.

 Have a thrilling weekend.

South of My Days Circle

Oh, they slide and they vanish 

as he shuffles the years like a pack of conjuror's cards. 

True or not, it's all the same; and the frost on the roof 

cracks like a whip, and the back-log break into ash. 

Wake, old man. this is winter, and the yarns are over. 

No-one is listening 

South of my days' circle. 

I know it dark against the stars, the high lean country 

full of old stories that still go walking in my sleep. 

from South of My Days Circle by Judith Wright

Surf Meets Southwest

"Surf meets southwest? What a mouthful," I thought, as I wandered into a new store in Gibson Road, Noosaville last week. There's all manner of eclecticia from laser cut cow skulls to paintings of Johnny Cash done in a Warhol style, with old boards and fresh surf photos shot from the water in between.

But this is no try hard attempt to plug yet another emerging market during tough economic times. This is the brainchild of a woman raised in the bush, who's worked hard and who has a son who shoots surf - essentially a mother son partnership. 
But one so artfully arranged, this trained photographer thought the layout was the work of a professional visual merchandiser. They are still getting their web thing together. So in the interim, here's an evocative shot and wonderful wordage from Teena Osbourne, the aRtist-mum about the bush and her store. Check it out.

A Few Things That Remind Me of Home...
For me early childhood was a time of seclusion from the rest of the world. I knew the world existed though. Every night at news time dad would connect the TV to the car battery for half an hour so we could all sit and watch the news while we ate dinner. The TV would go off, I was back in my safe place where at bed time, which shortly followed, the sounds of the animals was the music that sent me to sleep,my lullaby.
There were 6 of us living in that beautiful tiny house by the water. My first memories are of my brother and sisters walking up to the gate to catch the bus and me feeling excitement as I would have the day to myself to explore. I must have walked around that property thousands of times through the horses and the cattle making my way to the water looking for turtles.
The animals were how I spent my time… Dad would bring home injured or orphaned animals he found on the property. We would care for them and then release them… I can remember turtles, joeys, dingo pups, a platypus riddled with ticks and one of my favorites is the koala baby that spent a few days perched on the top of the toilet door.
I would collect the jacaranda flowers from the ground and make an arrangement for mum as a way of showing her my love… I often wonder about how I knew that the giving of flowers was a gesture of love. I guess it made sense to me that if they made me feel happy then they would do the same for her. I’ll never forget the way she would reach out to take them like it was the first time she had ever been handed them.. She had a unique way of making everything feel so special.
I can still vividly see in my thoughts things that were in the house. The yellow kerosene fridge, the irons mum would heat on the wood stove to iron my brother’s shirt for school, the string art that dad and my brother spent their spare time making, the mincer that sat permanently attached to the kitchen bench. Drawings done by us kids nailed to the wall. It is memories like this and the texture of the wood and smell of saddles that all contribute to the content of Surf meets Southwest. 

by Teena Osbourne

Monochrome MOnday (another editor)

This week's monochrome selection includes a snap of another surfing editor and fine trapperer of imagery - Justin Bevan, of foam symmetry surfing magazine, snapped on the fly as I was heading out for an arvo shoot with the SPL housing.

The Shire Lights Up

Does the editor surf?

Even in this wonderful digital age of immediacy and instant gratification, I still find myself buying the odd surf mag including the Pacific Longboarder which recently featured some pics of my mates at a spot we all love (and hate when it's crowded out).

 But something I've wondered about is why you never see pictures of the editors of these mags surfing - Phil Jarrat ex-Tracks, Bruce Channon ex-Surfing World and ex-Australian Longboarder and John Brasen from Pacific Longboarder mag - I've seen them all surfing so I know they aren't just cynical keyboard hacks chained to laptops in some media mogul's basement like so many briney battery hens.

So here's a small tribute to The Ed with today's featured editor John Brasen surfing his way to winning his division at the 2013 Wrecks and Relics Comp. Stay wet or at least have a good ride on a road somewhere.

Alignment

Documentary style photography is not really my thing, though I do have a few nuggets in my collection  - snippets from  a  larger reality, when all the elements of light and shade and form and content align and I trap them in a little box with a hunk of glass on the front.
This was one of those moments. A bunch of old timers had been standing tall for their pic after a surfing comp final and then started peeling away to their various families and responsibilities. Ballet of sorts.

Mr Ed

Former editor of Tracks surf magazine and the Australian edition of Playboy, Phil Jarratt snares glassy beach at Miller's Left during the annual Wrecks and Relics gathering of briney old raconteurs.

The Other Green Room

Less than 100 meters from the chaos and carnage in the lineup there's another green room - a tranquil spot in the rain forest where a whole miniature universe exists if you take the time to be still and focus.

BIG thanks today for those who fought and continue to fight to save our natural wonders.

Monochrome MOnday (busy)

The bride and her posse yesterday while the surf cranked along the open beachies - a busy shooting day, but one of the best weddings I've been too. BIG thanks crew for your patience while I got the shots, for the great food, for the awesome live music from Zach Gunthorpe and for the great stories shared. Yewwwwww!