Troy & Turk.

Before we left for Baja- I was having trouble with my 300mm lens jamming up on me.  I would go to push the shutter, and it wouldn’t fire.  I guess I was hoping that having it get tumbled around in the back of my truck for countless hours and on dirt road excursions, that it would fix itself- neh, not really..
I shot this image of JJ on Saturday March 27th.  We got there it was perfect; Head-high, moderate offshores, two dudes out, and lined up for days.  After I fired off this frame- he was completely covered up and came out virtually dry..This is one of the 13 frames that registered on my roll of Kodak E100G 36exp.  I was having to take the lens off the body virtually after every single shot- which was totally tweaking my tripod settings and my brain mentally.  Apologies for the crooked horizon line- super amateur, I know.
As for my jammed lens- it doesn’t really matter anymore, as I fully destroyed the body with sand/salt water.. epic times man.

(listen to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “I need you”, “Workin’ for MCA”, “Simple Man”, & “Saturday Night Special”..)

After running into RT & Tyler at church earlier this week, I mentioned to RT that we should get some shots soon.  After he was through filming some Hadley footage at the Bu for “Temporal Collections“, He made his way back up to meet Scotty & Myself for a quick surf.  It was really fun shooting with both Scotty & RT- as their styles are so on-point, yet so different when it comes to approach.

Cam Oden came over with David to my place in Costa Mesa around a week before Christmas, to get a few shots of me sorting through a batch of new negatives I had picked up fifteen minutes prior- for a new project that David & the Almond crew are currently working on.  I really liked these two..

I also finally found Live/Dead at a more than reasonable price on vinyl a week or so ago.  It blew my brains out when I put it on; especially the St. Stephen > The Eleven transition- It just sounded sooo much better compared to CD or MP3…obviously.

Last but not least- here’s some “art” for you that I shot out my window last night…

I just got back to my house yesterday afternoon, after spending about two weeks at my parents place inland.  Between my two recent surgeries in Fullerton, Christmas at my parents, and my moms birthday- there was no need to hurry back to my place.  It was so refreshing getting away for a bit, taking late night drives with my brother or friends and reminiscing about old times growing up together.  There is something about Christmas that brings a certain feeling out through the air- so crisp and pure.  That feeling, combined with my favorite time (3:43a) was just plain mesmerizing.  Driving through old neighborhoods, on new streets, and taking it all in was one of the best Christmas presents I was fortunate enough to receive this year.  God is good, life is good.
I shot the below photo at the end of a roll, burning frames.  CT, Robson, and myself were out exploring the canyon and this was just as the sun was setting.  The other shots are of me being a mcjaben-tot after I woke up the day after Christmas.  I wish it was Christmas year round..

My good friend, and ex-roommate- Chad Cheverier really did me a huge favor yesterday.  Since my finger has been totally F-ed up (and they casted me up to nearly my elbow…) I haven’t been able to do much.  Chad developed this roll for me if I let him use my single processing tank- SOLD!  It was a little of Tylers shop and a bit of that offshore day at Church I posted of the slides before I left for Phish.  Here a couple of Tylers garage.

Mitch was kind enough to ask me to whip up a couple t-shirt designs for Captain Fin Co. the other day, and I was very happy to help out.  These are what I came up with.  I personally like the butt/baby graphic best, but it isn’t up to me to decide which one will be wearable in the months to come…

.22 caliber round with gas trails and ‘bending/warping’ thin air, captured onto polaroid- then scanned and cropped.  circa 06′

So between going to Baja, going to see Phish, looking for a new place of living, and seeking out more work- I’ve been a bit busy as of lately.  Before I left to go to Indio, I managed to squeeze in a session with Mitch, JJ, and Scotty on a nice offshore day at Church.  Crowds were minimal, waves were plentiful, and the lighting was straight horrible.  I opted to shoot some slide film and figured if it came out crappy- I’d just flip them into BW post production.  I was kinda pleased with the results and just went with it.  I pulled out some of the cardboard slide mounts I purchased a while back, and proceeded to cut out the best frames of the day.  I had to get out the iron to seal them and had to make sure to be incredibly accurate and not melt the positives.  I wrote and typed on each mount just because I remember looking through the legends contact sheets and just loving the aesthetics that they had pulled off without even trying.  Here are three of my favorite slides from the day, you can see three more here- and at a much higher resolution..

**Also, Danimal sent me an encouraging email yesterday entitled “Hot off the Presses..” – KLxVans tees are in!  check this out!

Through Scotty Stopnik, I met Mitch Abshere.  Through Mitch Abshere, I met Shin Yamasaki.  Through Shin Yamasaki, I met Enoshi Takashi.  Enoshi Takashi is a surfer, a shaper, a biker, and one solid dude.  I had the privilege of working with Eno while he was visiting here for over a week to meet and make new friends, as well as visiting the Sacred Craft expo.  Enoshi is a great guy and is doing some amazing things over in Tokyo.  Check out his website, Rough & Rugged- as well as his rippin’ sweet blog, Built for Speed.  Hopefully next time I will see him on his home turf back in Japan.

Scotty Stopnik & ‘Meow’ /// Kassia Meador & ‘イルカ’ (pronounced: Lu-ka)

Al & David enjoy one together, while Robin tries hiding behind a red umbrella to get away from the camera- FAIL.

A new webisode of Sliders TV is up- Check it.  Filmed by Peter King, hacked/edited/destroyed by Beau Stopnik.

Making the best of less than sub-par lighting conditions; Truly frustrating and not very rewarding, but it’s been nice meeting/shooting with new friends none-the-less.  These are all from Monday night, besides the shot of JJ- taken last Friday afternoon.  Special thanks to Mitch, for setting everything up and having the patience with planning out a successful session.

It has almost been two complete years of me updating this thing every single day, as I’m nearing over 600 posts.  I’ve had a lot of work to go through to select my ‘best’ work for my personal portfolio/archive.  I originally started it with the idea of a gallery consisting of all the work on here- so viewers wouldn’t have to keep clicking ‘previous posts‘ at the bottom of this page, to see all the work I’ve been doing.  But when the gallery reached 187 something images- I knew I needed to weed out the sucks, and make it a true portfolio.
I have spent the last week going through lots of work, picking and choosing images from the past two years only, to put in my web portfolio/archive.  It has six (6) separate categories with ten (10) images in each gallery;  35mm/bw, 35mm/c, 120mm, 4X5, polaroid, and scans.  They may possibly grow to fifteen (15) images in each, but for now, it will remain at ten (10) each.  Take a look.

Frame 30 : Scotty Stopnik, fin-first layback. // Frame 31 : Mitch Abshere, rebound. // Frame 17 : CJ Nelson, cutback.
Oceanside, CA_09/22/09.

Mitch is a real nice guy who supports those he loves, and his Captain Fin Company just keeps getting better and better…
I’m real glad to help out in anyway I possibly can; Thanks again Scotty/th3 Turk, Mitch, Mason, and Dave from Brixton.

Oh- and check this crap out, VBS.tv did a Hi-Shredability on the Cycle Zombos…

R.S. IS COMING..

Image #0 on a regular roll of 36 – NAILED IT!