Jon Claxton | Photography

After a late night phone call from my long time friend Scott Kam of Rootamental, I found myself standing in a local parking structure on a weeknight shooting skate photos rather than completing a proposal for work that had been weighing on my mind that evening. I ended up hauling my flash and the fisheye to the scene, but ended up ditching the flash and instead just try to pan the subjects with the ambient light given off by the sodium bulbs overhead. It was more an experiment with light than a true attempt at perfection, but I loved the challenge of trying to pan with every clump of skaters that flew past me. After reviewing the photos, I definitely didn’ t have the success ratio that I was hoping for, but I loved the grain of photos that I got from cranking the camera up to 1600 ISO and applying some presets. I told Scott that I demand a replay in order to vindicate my photo skills.

Check out: http://www.rootamental.com/

Although October 4th has come and gone, I can remember it vividly. The first real rain storm of the season was predicted for that day. And as the day approached it look more and more certain that the forecast would come true. Sure enough, almost perfectly described by our local weather guru, the rain in fact fell between the hours of 10 and 11 in the morning, but it left nothing but beautiful blue sky above for Bill and Meg’s ceremony at Montana de Oro.

Last weekend Lulu, Pat and I packed up the toys for a weekend at Santa Cruz Island. Prior to leaving for the weekend trip, John Lindsay (local weather icon) announced that the central coast was about to get battered with high winds and swell. Not such good news, when you are about to embark on a boat trip to the Channel Islands.

The weekend started on Friday at 4:30 am when I quickly gave the steering wheel up to Pat Patten, who was something 0f a madman amped on coffee. As a result of his caffeinated state of being and discussion on world economics, the laborious 2 hour morning drive went by swiftly. It went even more swiftly for Lulu, who was resting her eyes in the backseat.

So, to make a really long story short: the wind at SCI was absolutely ridiculous! Thankfully this only lasted from Friday to Saturday, but it’s strength and random gusts keep us second guessing our steps along the majority of the 12 miles of hiking we did the first day. We were stoked to finally wake up on Sunday to slack winds and a flat, clear ocean. Finally, we were able to launch the kayaks and do a hunting along the shores of SCI. Notable observations within the 30 feet of visibility included a couple of lobster-saurus’ who had a stronghold on large crevice, a couple of medium sized rays, and a legal cabezon that thought he looked more like a rock than a fish.

P.S. No real pictures to attach as of yet. Amongst my frantic packing for Channel Islands, I argued with my alter ego that the camera case would not be brought along. So without a camera, I’ve relinquished responsibility of photo documenting to Lulu and Pat. Standby.  (photo obviously inserted now.  thanks for the patience.)