I've been going through the archives and found a bunch of drum scans that where part of the edit for my first book PhotoCPL, some made the cut, some have been sitting in the archive waiting their turn to be aired. Just for a trip down memory lane, I'm going to post some to Instagram over the next week.
I always get worried about recanting former glories, I'm concerned that people will think I'm lost in the '90's. I'm not- honest! Yesterday I posted the first image and I was stoked with the reaction and comments, in fact it created a pretty cool conversation.
Here's the first one, it actually made the book as a double page spread. Richard Hodder aka @inthedrink always says this is his favourite shot, he reckons it was one of the images that inspired him to get a water-housing. Big call, and I'm sincerely flattered.
The surfer is Marc Moore who has always been one of my favourite surfers to do roadies with. The laughing organiser, he'd always get the groms ready with an insightful piece of advice, like when you do your road trip shopping tie all the bag handles up so your food doesn't roll about the boot.
Marc's brand Stolen Girlfriends Club celebrated their 10th anniversary last week. Congratulations to all the partners, Dan Gosling and technophobe Luke Harwood for navigating a turbulent decade so well and coming out on top. Love your success guys!
This shot was taken in Taranaki, The Mountain is in the left of the frame, at Rocky Lefts in 2002. Shot with a Canon A2 Body and Tokina ATX 17mm with Velvia 50 iso film. I still don't know how I didn't end up with a face full of fins.
Here's the one I'm going to post later today.
This photo did not make the final cut for the book PhotoCPL. The cover shot of the book was of Maz from the same boat trip, so this one just missed. We had been surfing such full-on barreling setups, surfing this little hot-dog wave was a nice variation.
The boat trip is the best I've ever had to privilege to be a part of. In 1999 the Metawaii's was where everyone wanted to be. There still were only a dozen charter boats and just about everywhere we surfed, we surfed alone. We scored great swell and Macca's, Thunders, Ht's and then in the Wavepark. Epic times with Damon Gunness having his 21st on the boat and Chris Malone and Brent Rasby in full force. Timing is everything.
The photo did make the pages of NZ Surfing Mag as a double page spread. A week after the issue came out, Matty Bedford, a former cover star of the mag made a point of telling me how sick this shot is. He frothed that it had made him go surfing. I think that's the biggest compliment a photographer or an editor can get, If you stoke someone to make them want to get out there.
And here's one exclusive to you;
Luke Harwood on Whangamata Bar 2003. This was shot from a small boat and ended up being one of the most expensive photoshoots I've ever been on. The driver of the boat had a shocker and panicked, putting us side-on in the impact zone. A 3 foot wave landed perfectly in the middle of the boat, $9000.00 of camera gear was lost. The boss was not happy. Amazingly the roll of film in the drowned camera had rewound and wasn't too wet. We got all the shots back from the session. Shot on a Canon Eos-1n with a Canon 400mm F4.0L on Velvia 50 iso film ...damn I miss that camera!