Aka Summer Solstice

Longest day and shortest night of the year.
Summer has peaked.

The Medici's Don't Surf

OK Santa, here's the deal.

Swimming around the impact zone 

with a film camera containing 36 exposures, max, 

is really so last century - like this shot.

What I need is a nice wide lens and port to go with my DSLR.

In return, I'll create a few memorable slices of time

that surfers can pass down to future generations.

So could you please hook me up 

with a rich patron of the aRts?

I realise the Medici's probably don't surf, 

but some crew like them or the Gates', yeah, 

that would suffice - lots of money to splash on The aRts.

Thanks

PS You might want to go easy on the calories, 

your BMI must be in the red zone

Something Blue

 

Last time I played golf, I hit two holes-in-one and lost one golf ball. True story.

How one manages to lose a golf ball playing putt putt, I blame on the Japanese beer I was drinking at the time. 

When the surf is not cranking, golfing is not usually on my mind - though I have hauled my blue bag of clubs around many courses over the years. And lost enough balls to ponds that are designed to wither my focus and enthusiasm for this ancient game.

On the other hand, the author of the Swichfoot surfing books, Andrew Crockett has a more severe interest in golfing and has just published a coffee table book called Bump and Run.

His site states: "The ethos of Bump & Run is very much like his surfing publications, to give respect to the elders who pioneered the game and to not lose sight of the traditions that bind the culture together. Through two years working full time on the Bump & Run golf book Crockett has been fortunate enough to interview many of the all time great golfers including World Golf Hall of Fame members; Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Peter Thomson, Tom Watson, Sir Bob Charles and Kel Nagle."



"Focusing on the 'Golden era' of Australian golf Crockett has sought the knowledge of the elders with further contributons from;Norman Von Nida, Bruce Crampton, Graham Marsh, Bill Dunk, Frank Phillips, Jan Stephenson, David Graham, Bob Shearer, Peter Toogood, Ian Stanley, Bruce Devlin, Jack Newton and golf historian Tom Moore. "

So if you have a young Greg Norman in the making or an ageing golf tragic in the family or just want to meet the author of Swichfoot I and II, get thee to Annies Books at Peregian, between Noosa and Coolum, this saturday at 1000AM (EST) for the Queensland launch.

Something Borrowed

Continuing the bridal theme - "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" 

Today I'm borrowing a few old film shots from my first blog, Brine Time (all 793 posts are still able to be viewed).

GfG at Granite riding the ancient Joe Larkin pig mal with no leggie. It was old even in 1984 and weighed a ton - an epic to carry around all of those points. Didn’t used to see many mals in those days. A couple of guys from the Alex Headland crew, but that was it. The Larkin is awaiting restoration.

GfG at Granite. Probably same session as the other shot. We’d backpack around to the outcrop overlooking the furtherst cove. Surf. Shoot. Come in and scoff down a Mars Bar and a Coke and go out again, eventually returning for a massive pancake and maple syrup lunch and game of Space Invaders (20cents in the slot machine) at the little shop at the entrance to the National Park called The Noosa Wave.

The second shot above is one of the ones that accompanied a story I wrote about Noosa that was published in the Switchfoot II book.

Something New

Something Old

This week's theme (as endorsed by brides around the world): 

Something old, 

something new, 

something borrowed. 

something blue 

Today's contingent consists of 35mm films scans from last century ie OLD.

 California dreaming. Huntington Beach Pier, January 1978. Handheld. Manual focus. 200mm. Kodachrome 64. This guy was getting barrelled and hanging five and having grown up with short boards, I had never seen anything like it - nobody was riding longboards anymore on the Sunny Coast.

Mooloolaba Rivermoth. Sunset late 1980's. These pilot boats had twin Rolls Royce engines and were quite a sight heading out when there were large swells. Somehow they would pull up beside a monstrous tanker and the "pilot" would scamper up a ladder and then guide the newcomer into Moreton Bay and the Port of Brisbane.

Hand held slow exposure with a Metz strobe that still works fine today. This was our local evening stroll on a sunday evening, when we lived about a kilometre south. A couple of times the rivermouth silted up and you could surf from Point Cartwright down the river, whilst avoiding boats.

Kings Beach, late arvo. Nikonos V 35mm Kodachrome. This was the camera I used to shoot from the water with and must have had a frame or two left on the 36 exposure roll. I quite like 35mm focal length on a 35mm camera -  little wider than normal but not too distorted.

I was never much good at street photography, but quite like this one. Of course the Kiosk is long demolished and replaced with some sort of bland structure.

Salt Therapy

There's another "salt therapy" in town and it doesn't involve waxing up a board or cramming feet into flippers (fins).

It's the salt cave, where you hang out in a salt laden room, like a salt mine, for an hour after paying $50AU. 

I haven't tried it. But if I was going to I'd over to the team at Salt Caves in Mooloolaba.

Underwater Selfie

Sometimes the lousy surf, the lousy weather and lousy health all line up. Life happens.

Ages ago, my friend Lisa gave me a yellow sticky note with the words "the sun will come out tomorrow!" I still have it pinned to the refrigerator underneath some pics of World Vision kids who are doing it a million times tougher than me or anybody who has a computer or is literate.
It's a beacon of light on dark days. Thanks heaps Lis, it came in handy this week.

Below is a sandwich of an iPhone Sahara Desert dawn with a selfie underwater near Margaret River WA. It only took a cup of coffee to make, but I like the way the eyes and the palms lined up without me having to do any digital fanciness.

And yes the sun has come out again.

Grey Zone

6" x 6" x Summer

Closer **

Closer ** was the last album by Joy Division. I still have the vinyl. Great monochrome photography by Bernard Pierre Wolff.

Today's sunny, colourful post is the antithesis of that bleak music.

Sometimes you have to get closer.

Which is why I wear the red helmet when shooting in the water.