the absurdity of form

I am constantly intrigued by the form of canvas covered cars. I dont know why but I constantly find myself taking pictures of these absurd forms, in a straight ahead "evans-esque" manner. this particular scene grabbed my eye as I was headed for a post surf cup of coffee. I think the color adds to the strangeness.

I love this part of the day...

Early morning anticipation, time to get the head together and experience the quiet of the mind and environment.

happy times are here again!!

Tropical Storm/Hurricaine Dan is in da haus!!... Waves again for the weekend into monday- two hurricaine swells in a weeks time-not bad at all!!!I am hoping to score on Sunday and Monday as I will be out of town for a Wedding for Friday night and Saturday. Good times this morning with a little bowly low tide wave coming in- fun on the quad fish. Kinda closed out but if ya caught a corner it was off to the races. Tuesday I am back to work on a regular basis, I am gonna miss the dawnies big time..

a surprisingly good dawn patrol

I headed to the beach this morning at 5:30, not expecting much. Arrived at the beach to extremely small, tide-drained little micropeelers. The wind was light off-shore. I stared at it for a while trying to convince myself it was worth the effort. Finally found the motivation, as the tide switch and started coming in, the wave quality improved providing an extremely fun little log session, with just two other guys out. Fun little thigh high zippers that stayed open long enough for some cross stepping and quick trips to the nose. The wave also had enough energy to allow for some cut backs when needed. Such a happy surprise, I am still smiling!!! I really dig these little sessions- expectations are down, empty line-up and glass.

snappy surf portrait

I really like trying to capture impromptu portraits after people get out of the surf. I snapped this one a couple of weeks ago and the subject looks so relaxed and happy- hopefully she scored a couple of nuggets on her christenson keel. pretty smile, for sure

There is a Fineline between stoked and .........

Here is a friend, Adam Ant. He has willingly agreed to have a micro-chip implanted in his "neuro-stoke center" by the Hilbertron. The guy is so obsessed with all things associated with Fineline surfboards. He is a complete hilber-droid owning five Finelines. In all seriousness, the cat is full of surf stoke and is quite a character in the water.

A couple from Hurricaine Bill

Please excuse the digital images(still cant wrap my head around the "sterile-ness "of digital photography)... I have shot a bunch of analog diana stuff yesterday but no time to process the film as of yet. Pretty fun watching the action yesterday and surfing my little tucked away semi- secret spot. Once again swellinfo over-called the swell heights, however the swell was still macking by east coast standards. Today proved to be quite fun with zippy rampy waves peeling across the beach. Surf a different spot than my usual place and enjoyed the diminished crowd and more contemplative vibe. So refreshing.. hoping the swell sticks around one more day, but I am kinda expecting a loggy type day tomorrow....

Oh no mr. bill !!

Well, we are still waiting for Mr. Bill to fill in. I got my "quiver" all set [vintage diana and snappy clone, diana +, holga, rollieflex tlr 2.8 planar and the canon rebel digital(uck!!) and loaded up with a choice selection of expired ektachrome and tmax 400. If the swell is anything like it is being predicted (triple overhead) to be, I will be on the boardwalk watching and snapping some crappy snaps.

I am really getting quite a laugh about all the hype and false bravado I have been hearing as of late. I only know a handful of guys that would be comfortable in triple OH conditions, but if you listen to people in the water, you would think we live near some big wave spot. The best is the four-five page thread on nysurf.com about what people will be riding for this swell.

bleery eyed dawn patrol

Still waiting for things to fill in around here. Hoping for later this afternoon for a line to start to show. I surfed this morning for the first time in two weeks, really small, weak and a full tide, great tune up session ,,, yeah right!!

Feast or Famine?

It's been mostly famine around these parts for the better part of two weeks. Completely slideless (if thats a word) for a long time, and now we are bracing for some significant swell. The hype has begun with swellinfo.com calling for double to triple overhead over the weekend (triple oh is completely unheard of around here).

I am still unsure of what to expect, but I am hoping for a few managable windows. My buddy cracked me up saying (in a pissed off voice), "Its really unfair what THEY are doing to us.. no waves for weeks on end and then this(referring to the upcoming swell event)". The funny thing is, my friend was referring to the swellinfo surfcasters, like they have some control over Huey.

Goin' Yard

I have always been interested in old boat yards. Images from these yards can appear timeless and I believe the analog medium and lo-fi equipment do these places justice. I gotta seek out more salty places like this one.

last of the north county san diego shots

a bit cliche' but what the hell. I love the form of bicycles and the shadows they make- I also love the efficient beauty of those trees out in socal. I just processed a bunch of back logged diana shots- still gotta scan and edit. hopefully a few worthwhile ones.

Robert Frank's The Americans

Robert Frank's seminal photography portfolio entitled The Americans was first published in France in 1958 and in the United States in 1959. The Americans is widely celebrated as the most important photography book since World War II. The photographs were captured between the years 1955 and 1956 while Frank (b. 1924) traveled around the United States. The book is extremely reflective of the beat undercurrent in America. The photographs contained in the volume looked beneath the surface of American life to reveal a profound sense of alienation, angst, and loneliness. With these prophetic photographs, Frank redefined the icons of America, noting that cars, jukeboxes, gas stations, diners, and even the road itself were telling symbols of contemporary life. Frank's style—seemingly loose, casual compositions, with often rough, blurred, out-of-focus foregrounds and tilted horizons—was just as controversial and influential as his subject matter. Frank's The Americans extremely profound impacted on me when I first fell upon it in the early 90's. The work haunts/inspires me....
"When people look at my pictures I want them to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice." Robert Frank, LIFE (26 November 1951)
"Quality doesn't mean deep blacks and whatever tonal range. That's not quality, that's a kind of quality. The pictures of Robert Frank might strike someone as being sloppy - the tone range isn't right and things like that - but they're far superior to the pictures of Ansel Adams with regard to quality, because the quality of Ansel Adams, if I may say so, is essentially the quality of a postcard. But the quality of Robert Frank is a quality that has something to do with what he's doing, what his mind is. It's not balancing out the sky to the sand and so forth. It's got to do with intention." (Elliott Erwitt)

the classic vw bug

such a classic in design. i love the curves and the simplicity of the machine.....

Bel Air Dawn Patrol- Cardiff Reef

I really love looking at older cars that have not been restored to look like museum pieces. this Bel Air was a functional surf/fishing vehicle. I really like the interplay of the coffee cup and garbage can. Not too sterile of an image. Running out of images from my trip- its been great re-living my time in North San Diego County through my photographs- I can wait to get out there again. No back to the reality of the summer doldrums in NY.

Self Realization Fellowship and Ashram

I snapped this shot as I walked through the beautiful gardens of the the Self Realization Fellowship at Swami's. such a peaceful and meditative place. Thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Andy Kessler who passed on yesterday. He was a serious legend with a big, kind and open heart.

Street Shooting Flashbacks- LaJolla

I snapped these two shots while walking around LaJolla before having an overpriced and rather forgettable meal. I miss street shooting greatly. In another life I was highly immersed in this photographic aesthetic. Capturing rather unique moments in time has always interested me and I guess I am a bit of a voyeur when it comes the the day to day human condition. I really love the first shot here, only I wish I had my trusty rolleiflex TLR rather than the very limited diana. The diana's lack of shutter and aperture settings led to a grossly underexposed image. Nonetheless, I believe it is a worthy photograph.

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cardiff reef..... so good

Here are the last of my color diana shots- i am pleased with the results and plan to shoot more color work- color film really seems to open up photo opts for me. Cardiff was so fun, I miss it so much, although it is not easy to photograph the break with a crappy snap. what a nice little beach though and the wave is insane. I can't wait to return next year.....

Youth Culture

When ever i travel i enjoy tuning into youth culture.. always interesting to see how kids express themselves in different locales. San Diego's north county seems to have quite an active youth culture....

california car culture

I really enjoyed seeing all the cool older cars out in north county SD. this one caught my every morning on my way to check the surf. it sat on top of a hill looking over Oceanside. First day of no surf for me for several weeks. Already jonzin' to get back in; however the doldrums appear to finally be upon us..

Snapshot Aesthetic

The more I shoot these days, the less ambition I have to attempt make a "great photograph", I find that this more casual approach loosens me up a bit and the image come across as more spontaneous and dynamic, and hopefully more interesting. I have been greatly influenced by the work of some of the photographers who have mastered the snapshot aesthetic. I guess the goal for me is somehow integrate a classically composed photograph (ala weston, sudek, strand, steglitz) with the looser more free flowing work of winogrand, goldin et al. I believe the shitty cameras such as the diana, brownie and holga are perfect tools for this impulsive shooting. below is a quick cut and past from wikapedia as it relates to the snapshot aesthetic.

The term snapshot aesthetic refers to a trend within fine art photography in the USA from around 1963. The style typically features apparently banal everyday subject matter and off-centered framing. Subject matter is often presented without apparent link from image-to-image and relying instead on juxtaposition and disjunction between individual photographs. This tendency was promoted by John Szarkowski, who was head of the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art from 1962 to 1991, and it became especially fashionable from the late 1970s until the mid 1980s. Notable practitioners include Garry Winogrand, Nan Goldin, Wolfgang Tillmans, Martin Parr, William Eggleston, and Terry Richardson. In contrast with photographers like W. Eugene Smith and Gordon Parks, these photographers aimed not "to reform life but to know it." (John Szarkowski, Diane Arbus) Szarkowski brought to prominence the work of Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander and Garry Winogrand in his influential exhibition “New Documents” at the Museum of Modern Art in 1967, in which he identified a new trend in photography: pictures that seemed to have a casual, snapshot-like look and had subject matter that seemed strikingly ordinary.

The term arose from the fascination of artists with the 'classic' black & white vernacular snapshot, the characteristics of which were: 1) they were made with a camera on which the viewfinder could not easily 'see' the edges of the frame, and so the subject had to be centred; and 2) they were made by ordinary people recording the ceremonies of their lives and the places that they lived and visited.

San O and Oceanside Pier

I love the timeless look of the San-O shot. The color film and the vintage Diana provide a little view into what the place must have looked like decades ago. The second shot was off the Oceanside Pier as the sun was setting- I am really happy with the color shifts that occur as a result of the camera poorly constructed lens and limited exposure settings. I have been enjoying this little run of summer swell we have been having here in NY. Saturday and this morning provided some fish friendly little waves. totally diggin' on my new Christenson Quad fish and my Josh Hall Long Fish Simmons. Both boards are true pieces of San Diego craftsmanship in the linage of Mr. Skip Frye