I'm not a morning person, especially before caffeine. This is a terrible trait for a surfer and it's a disastrous one for a photographer. I'm jealous of people who can go to bed at 8 or 9 pm and then spring out of bed pre dawn. Two of my good friends, Kev Emirali and Dave Gilbert are annoyingly chirpy at 5 am, I don't go on surf trips with them.
Getting up before dawn is a bad thing. But for a photographer it's a necessary evil. The unavoidable fact is the best light is in the first and last few hours of the day.
Last week bad things happened, the alarm was set for an hour before sunrise. Horrible. Time for a photo of Rangitoto and today was THAT day. It's raining, f2ck, sh#t, grrrrrrrr what the bloody hell am I doing sitting in the Takapuna reef car park. Kev and Dave wouldn't be so angry....grrrrrr! I remind myself that clouds make for good sky colour and detail. I remind myself that these marginal conditions are what make great images. Andris Apse would go.
This image has been added to the Beach Gallery, want to see it bigger?Just click on the image
And then, 20 minutes before dawn, good things happened. The squall moved through, it was going to be a beautiful morning. The shoot could not have gone better. Rock scramble; sweet. Angle found; no worries. Camera set up; too easy. Exposures dialed in; nailed it. Ewwwww maybe I am a morning person. Nah crazy talk.
In Print
It's always a stoke to get work published, and it's even nicer to get paid! International magazine Australian Surfing Life latest issue hasn't hit the NZ book shelves yet, but I'm stoking on getting a page in the issue as part of their 'The Swell That Smashed The World' featuring a pic from Shippies and some badly crafted words from yours truly.
On The Web
You should be buying your books from PhotoCPL but if you want to buy them on the web elsewhere then The Market is the place. This month's Collection is a nautical theme and look there, The South Seas book is staring. Thanks to the crew at The Market for featuring one of the books.
So SociaL
Last week's email was all about the Rewinds that have been happening over on Instagram. It has been quite a trip down memory lane and the response and messages have been so cool. Thank you to everyone that left a comment and liked the Rewind series. Today is the last one for a while, but I think it's ending on a high note. The rewinds only got as far as 2004, so there'll be another series later. Just click on the image above to see what happened...and give us a follow :)