Necking.

(Rosewood)

One person's trash is another's canvas.

After spending a few days helping a good friend on a cross town move into her new apartment in L.A, Jefri was able to swipe this light and bring it home to turn into functional art. The light was originally one of a pair but after the other light took a fall and broke it was no longer as appealing as a single light, so Jefri decided some color was in order. I couldn't have agreed more.

A few more from The Red Room

It was an absolute pleasure of mine to shoot The Red Room, the Inland Empire's premier recording studio a few weeks ago. Now after going through all of the photos and conversing with the owner, I have some final shots to show you. We were both really pleased with the outcome of the shoot.

After getting the photos to the owner of the studio, it's now time for me to move on and finish producing the panoramas of both the control room and the tracking room.

Foggy Ridges

June gloom rocks. I am not ashamed to admit this. Unless it's the June gloom that sits around all day and completely denies the sun, I get stoked waking up in the summer to a little marine layer. It's a nice break from the heat looming right above the clouds. On one of these grey, wet mornings, I decided to climb up to the top of the Santa Ana mountains near my home. I got to the top and found myself engulfed in a moving fog bank. It was great hiking through the clouds that were moving in a way that they seemed to pour over the ridge. Attacking my olfactory department was the heavy smell of ash from a controlled burn the fire department had done along the ridge the day prior. The fire cleared the area around the trail that was once surrounded by grass, brush, and small trees.

Be here or be square.

Big swells of years past.

A very angry looking Cylinders.

Wave breaking through the middle of Newport Harbor.

The Wedge with onlookers.

Fathers Day.

Frank Balogh, Florida, circa 1969.

Thanks Dad for helping share the stoke of surfing and all of the knowledge you've passed on to me.

The Deck

Deck top, late afternoon.

Photographic Happenings

I spent yesterday afternoon shooting The Red Room, a top-end recording studio located within shouting distance of downtown Riverside. On top of beauty shots of the studio, I'm producing two 360 degree images which will allow you to scroll and zoom around the tracking room and the control room. I'm pretty excited to see them done. Here's a teaser of the shoot from yesterday.

GoProing

I've taken the GoPro out hiking with me twice now, and I'm totally sold on it. I've used it to shoot vistas, as a still camera, and on a head mount (think miner's lamp style) while rock climbing and going through dense undergrowth, and it's preformed flawlessly. I'm working on putting together a quick video with some of what I've shot thus far, but for now here's some screen shots of what I've shot. Click on them to enlarge, it's worth it.

Telephoto lens test

I must admit, it's quite convenient as a surfer to have a father who can use a camera proficiently. Case in point: after getting a new telephoto lens, he was equally as stoked to shoot with it as I was to surf and see the images. We both agreed the lens performed well. Click on the images to expand them.

lighting.

I can't help but to see piano keys on my walls in the evening.

Also, I've been completely stuck on this track and these guys in general. Go get this. For free.

Ace Skate

Ace giving me a tow down the street. Click to enlarge.

Of life and death.

Life. (somewhere in the Santa Ana mountains)

Embers.

Let the games begin

I am now the proud owner of a GoPro HD. Ever since first using these little guys on race cars while working for Skunk2 I wanted one for my own personal camera bag. My mind has been reeling with ideas far and wide, ranging from surfing/paipo riding footage, snorkeling, rock climbing, all the way to mounting this thing on my Jeep and go flying through some desert washes. I ordered it with the Surf Hero package, but along with the standard surf mount, I have another box of various wrist straps, head straps, and other mounting option. This really will prove to be nothing short of fun.

Oops, I disappeared to Joshua Tree

The desert greeting us after arriving not long after dawn. We were running off of four hours of sleep and coffee at this point, but seeing this added a huge boost to our energy levels.

Yucca plants in full bloom near Desert Queen Mine. It is hard to describe the large scale of the blossoms on these plants.

Bigfoot's face happend to adorn this late 1800's water tower we happened upon while hiking in an area of the park that was once a ranch to the Ryan family. Truth be told, we were looking for rumored multiple graves in the area we when came across this.

A peace sign on the opposing side of the same water tower, along with a better look at said Bigfoot. What I'm bummed I didn't shoot was graffiti scratched into the metal itself that read "Respect the Earth our mother."