B i r d m a n T r i b e

...Way out in the Water

2012-01-16T11:31:00.000-08:00

Surf Shots

2012-01-09T19:31:00.000-08:00

I don't have many photos of myself surfing, so it's always nice when somebody else gets a few. Here's three from over the years. All at the same spot. One of my favorite waves and places along our California coast.

Top. Candy Wang 2003-4?, I set her up with my old Nikon N90s and the 500mm mirror refractive and she nailed it on some Kodak ultracolor.

Mid. Warm Jet 2010, shooting one of my first rides on my self shaped alaia.

Bot. Ken Low Last week, much thanks to state lifeguard Tom Snyder for the tip.

Enero

2012-01-08T21:02:00.000-08:00

Voodoo

2012-01-02T19:30:00.000-08:00

into twenty twelve

2011-12-31T20:56:00.000-08:00

Winter Solstice 2011

2011-12-21T21:23:00.000-08:00

South

2011-12-19T16:46:00.000-08:00

Downhill duo Patrick Rizzo and Noah Sakamoto of Second Nature fame rest atop Boney Mountain. Rizzo and Noah stopped by on their way south. Noah to get some bike parts in SD with Patrick continuing on en route to the Baja Peninsula.

I played Greenough's Crystal Voyager for Patrick and he really dug it for the mat scenes. He is bringing with him to BAJA a 4th Gear Flyer mat. Little did we know that Paul Gross of 4th gear Flyer also makes Velo Spoon replicas. The Greenough thread once again is exposed revealing the mans wide spread impression on all things surf.

Wishing Rizzo well as heads down South to BAJA. Wish I was going.

Local Fauna

2011-12-11T15:17:00.001-08:00

Pine Camp Days

2011-12-09T21:11:00.001-08:00

Good Medicine

2011-12-02T18:05:00.001-08:00

Went up to Tuolumne Meadows at the end of my season. The place is good medicine.

Samo Serengeti

2011-11-30T19:52:00.001-08:00

From up There

2011-11-27T14:59:00.001-08:00

"Boney Mountain is a sacred spiritual area, a shaman's retreat, and a place for vision quests. It is a place for meditation. From up there, you can see everything."

-Charlie Coke, Tiq Slo' 'Eye of the Eagle"
A Hereditary Chumash Chief

Warm Winds

2011-11-26T17:10:00.001-08:00

A Day After

2011-11-25T14:45:00.001-08:00

Sycamore Canopy

2011-11-20T11:00:00.001-08:00

Walking through the canyon yesterday it was as if all of the plants and trees were saying; Lets get this Fall thing over with. Water is on the way. Time to get ready for new growth.

Bird Nerd

2011-11-18T20:19:00.001-08:00

I can't really explain it, but I've been observing many unique and awesome bird species all of the sudden. So, yes, now I am officially a birder. I've bought the field guide and all.

Seen this recent afternoon was the quirky Belted Kingfisher, and maybe, a Golden Eagle soaring way up in the sky. And, no, I'm not going to tell you about my secret birding spot.

Twilight

2011-11-11T17:17:00.001-08:00

It's feeding time at the Ranch.

Wild and Scenic: The Kings River

2011-11-07T17:21:00.000-08:00

The Kings River was designated a wild and scenic river in 1987 and 81 miles of the river falls under the protection. The river has carved one of the deepest canyons in the world and shoots through some epic scenery. From pristine high alpine lakes to sharp and steep rocky canyons the river eventually hits Pine Flat Reservoir and Dam before being divided up and sent down to the massive agricultural landscape below.

The history behind the dam construction is a very interesting one and it actually played a part in the creation of Kings Canyon National Park. The dam's role was such that if Central Valley farmers got their water they would approve a National Park. There's a whole lot more to the story of course, and if one would like to know more about this, you may want to head to an unlikely source. The story of an infamous San Joaquin Valley mega farmer reveals a little about this topic. The King of California: J. G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American Empire by Mark Arax and Rick Wartzman sheds some light on the water battles of the mid 1900's that in some ways helped to create the park. However, the book mainly focuses on the life of the infamous Boswell who as a pioneer in factory farming becomes a super wealthy Agri Giant and in the process environmentally ravages the land he worked and owned. For the rest of the story on Sequoia and Kings Canyon one would have to go to Bill Tweeds Challenge of the Big Trees: A Resource History of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

This year the Kings was raging throughout the entire summer due to the heavy snow pack in the Sierra's. All of the images except one were taken this past summer at different times from May through September.

Nat Geo's new issue contains a superb photo essay on our Wild and Scenic Rivers.

Old Boney Trail

2011-11-06T21:55:00.000-08:00

The Impaler

2011-11-04T18:03:00.000-07:00

Logger Head Shrikes are rarely seen in Ventura County these days. Due to habitat loss and fragmentation from development theses little ferocious birds are going the way of the dodo in parts of California. Today was my first confirmed sighting. Shrikes are Impalers, in that they impale their prey to branches, barbwire, etc and then start to feed.

Birds pictured:

Logger Head Shrike

Northern Harrier

Greater Roadrunner

Observed but Not Pictured:

Says Phoebe

Black Phoebe

American Kestrel

White Tailed Kite

Red Shouldered Hawk

Rancho Sierra Vista November 2011

Zuma Canyon Restoration

2011-10-29T12:14:00.000-07:00

We are restoring native California Coastal Sage Scrub. Only about 35% of the original Coastal Sage habitat is left across the state.

Plant Uses

2011-10-24T16:15:00.000-07:00

I participated in the Plant Uses class with Jim Lowery and Mary Brooks of Earth Skills this past Sunday. This is the second class I have taken with Earth Skills and once again I walked away with an intimate nature experience and more ancient wisdom to gain from and practice.

We worked some yucca stalks into cordage, mashed a few acorns, observed and practiced much more in the identification and use of our amazingly bountiful and varied plant world all around us here in Southern California. The conclusion included a demonstration of Jim's primitive fire making skills. The debris hut was not part of the class but it is taught in the Wilderness Survival three day course I believe.

Blue Water Gold Rush Triptec

2011-10-14T19:29:00.000-07:00

Still island dreaming. Far West end of Santa Cruz Island.

Painted Cave, Santa Cruz Island

2011-10-10T17:20:00.000-07:00

One of the largest sea caves in the world. Posted because I just missed an epic island trip due to work constraints. Waves have kept me sane as of late however.

Board Envy

2011-10-09T16:14:00.000-07:00

Asymmetrical boards are all the rage and the guru behind some of the most advanced Asyms Carl Ekstrom is being honored at this year's Sacred Craft. I wish I could have been at this years show but I probably would have needed a much bigger pocket book so I wouldn't walk away broken hearted again.

Top two pics are from a trip I took to Sacred Craft Del Mar sometime ago.

Bottom Two Bonzer pics poached from Surfy where they have complete coverage of this year's event.

Point Lobos

2011-10-06T20:26:00.000-07:00

A Central Coast trip is looming in the near future as Autumn is more often than not the optimal time to head North of Point Conception.

Image:

Pt. Lobos State Park, I remember the day being super clear, the water an azure turquoise color, and everything was glowing in hyper color. All I had was B&W film. I think it was Fall 04?

Where I Work

2011-10-05T20:19:00.000-07:00

Wildfire

2011-10-03T13:43:00.001-07:00

Lion Fire, July 2011.

Caverns

2011-10-02T10:11:00.000-07:00

What Winds May Come

2011-09-30T20:28:00.000-07:00

With two lows back to back heading our way already, will we see anything resembling these conditions this October?

Wild Mountain Berries

2011-09-23T19:18:00.001-07:00

What do you do when you've just returned from a month stint working in the back country, grab some wild mountain berries and chow down.

Wild man and downhill skateboarder Patrick Rizzo grabs some fruit and relaxes in his VW earthship.

I too have returned from my stint in the mountains and will be posting pics for some time to come cause I got heaps of images to go through and we could all use a little Wildness every now and again.

Veterans Seek Wilderness Jobs

2011-09-02T15:28:00.001-07:00

I thought this was a cool story of how some veterans are looking towards the Wilderness for jobs and rejuvenation. Trail work is known to be the toughest of all of the jobs in the Parks and other Wilderness areas.

Image is a picture of the amazing journal that trail crew member Ariana Noelke made and kept while in the backcountry.

Check out the story and slideshow on The New York Times site.

pic by Jim Wilson/ New York Times

Wildlife Corridors Please

2011-09-01T16:12:00.000-07:00

P-18, one of the mountain Lions the National Park Service and biologists at the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area have been following via a GPS transmitter was hit by a car and killed trying to cross the 405 on Tuesday.

Maybe this incident will finally get Caltrans and the State to put in for the funds and construct the much needed wildlife corridors along the 101, 118, and 405 freeways. P-18 was also the offspring of the only mountain lion the Park Service knew of that actually crossed a freeway, the 118, thus bringing in new genetic material to the Santa Monica Mountains cougar population.

One potential area for a corridor would be on the 101 under the Liberty Canyon bridge in Agoura.

LA Times has the story here.

Cougar pic via LA Times

Wildlife Corridor design via Good Magazine

Wilderness Rangers

2011-08-18T12:17:00.001-07:00

I live in a little cabin up in the woods during the summer about an hour away from the nearest big town, Fresno. Rick and Suzanne Sanger live in a little cabin way up in the mountains. From Roads End it takes a person three days on foot to get to LeConte Canyon and Le Conte wilderness ranger station where Rick has worked for the past few summers. Rick has been a wilderness ranger for the National Park Service for over 15 years now and has been stationed in many other small cabins or tents throughout the Sierra. Rick's wife Suzanne now joins him for the entire season as a volunteer.

Buck Rock Fire Lookout

2011-08-02T12:44:00.000-07:00

I made it up to Buck Rock Fire Lookout the other day and was able to spend some time and talk with volunteer fire lookout Nancy and her dog Ty.

Buck Rock Fire Lookout is located in the Sequoia National Forest atop a granite dome and sits at 8500 feet with a 360 degree view of the surrounding forest. It is one of only a few live-in lookouts left in California. If you would like to learn more about the lookout and the many other projects the Buck Rock Foundation is involved in go to their site at buckrock.org.

Horizon

2011-07-29T12:37:00.000-07:00

"In landscape I see a revelation of how pure spirituality has descended into physical existence ... These are the scenes, on the human edge of the cosmos, that I am showing in these photographs."

—Neil Folberg

Alta

2011-07-26T22:03:00.000-07:00

Been putting in some miles lately trying to stay high, or at least get up there for a bit, into the 10,000 ft+ realm.

Black Bear

2011-07-19T22:06:00.001-07:00

Brine Time

2011-07-12T12:06:00.001-07:00

I awoke next to Sequoiadendron giganteum and by the end of the day was sleeping next to Sequoia sempervirens. The next morning I awoke to the sound of crashing surf.

Bears are Out and Rivers are Flowing

2011-07-08T21:45:00.000-07:00

Top. Lil bear spooked by bigger bear up into a tree.

Mid. Lil bear trying to stay away from the bigger bears while he searches for grub.

Bot. Ella Falls

Deer Creek Dusk

2011-04-29T19:31:00.001-07:00

Above All

2011-04-22T20:05:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth Pass and Ranger Meadow captured during my first ever backpacking trip.

Above All is a very well done and very cool book comprised of images of California's highest peaks with photographs by David Stark Wilson and text by Steve Roper.

Elizabeth Pass is a mere 11,375 feet.

Vertical Rise

2011-04-18T15:14:00.000-07:00

Rizzo Bombs the Sierras

2011-04-15T20:53:00.000-07:00

Sector 9 Trailer for "Second Nature" from Colin Blackshear on Vimeo.

Patrick Rizzo: downhill skateboarder, biological technician, wild man, friend.

Fallen Goliaths

2011-04-11T11:41:00.001-07:00

Standing they are impressive, but one often gets a better idea of just how massive these trees are when they're down. I wonder how many trees were toppled by this winters extreme conditions and snowfall.

Mega Flora: Sequoiadendron giganteum

2011-04-02T19:02:00.000-07:00

The General Grant Tree (Home Tree) is a Giant Sequoia located in the Grant Grove of Kings Canyon National Park. It is the 2nd biggest living thing in the world ( some say that the Aspen colonies or some huge mushroom in Oregon is biggest, but this singular tree that one can easily observe as a single organism gets my vote). It is 2nd only to its close neighbor the General Sherman Tree in Sequoia Nat'l Park.

The Grant tree has a circumference of 107.6 feet, is 267.4 ft tall, and is around 2000 years old.
What do you say to a group of people when you get to such a tree?

Had this little square of Kings Canyon Nat'l Park not been designated a NP in 1890, then named Gen. Grant Nat'l Park, this grove most likely would have been gone too.

How did the giant trees get their names? Go here to read a short article found on the Kaweah Commonwealth's site that explains it nicely. One of the first names given was Wellingtonia gigantea, named after the Duke of Wellington, who supposedly didn't care much for trees. Fortunately, some rationally minded Americans stepped in and made sure that name didn't stick. Although some people in the UK might still refer to them as Wellingtonias many now know them as grand trees named after the grand Chief Sequoyah who gave us the Cherokee alphabet.

la Primavera

2011-03-28T11:14:00.001-07:00

Spring usually means...

If a Tree Falls in the Forest

2011-03-27T11:16:00.000-07:00

Jason standing next to , and top of, the Chicago Stump in Converse Basin. This is the place where some of the most grand and biggest of all giant sequoia trees were logged. The massive monarchs were almost completely removed from what was once the biggest grove of these sacred trees. All for shingles.

If These Walls Could Speak

2011-03-25T17:52:00.001-07:00

If these walls could speak, they would probably S C R E A M .

SEKI

2011-03-14T20:53:00.001-07:00

Top. Jesse and CJ on Bettle Rock
Mid. Cave crew at Crystal Cave
Bot. Fallen Sequoia Vortex, Mary, Christina, and Me

Friends Will Keep You Warm

2011-03-07T20:21:00.001-08:00

As some of you may already know, I will be returning to work as an interpretive park ranger in Kings Canyon National Park this summer and I'm already looking forward to seeing the new friends I made this past summer, some of them I know will be friends for life. Almost every single night we sat around the fire while we drank beers, listened to Jonathan do his best Townes covers, laughed, ranted and argued over astrophysics, Edward Abbey, Park policy, the local black bears, hell we even cried a bit.

I was lucky to have great friends living so close. In fact, two of my best mates were my two neighbors, and before I had met them I was driving an hour away to hang with a few coworkers who didn't care to party much. Boy was I stoked when Jonathan, Jason, Patrick, Hannah, Erin, and Grant showed up. I rarely saw those few that I had met in the beginning of the season as we had a full contingent of young and old moon howlers living right at Pine Camp.

More pics and story to come.

Around the Corner

2011-02-25T18:35:00.000-08:00

What are You Looking For?

2011-02-12T13:38:00.000-08:00

Hog Farms

2011-02-06T12:12:00.000-08:00

The Day After Tomorrow: Images of our Earth in Crisis takes readers on a journey to bear witness to the environmental destruction that is currently plaguing our planet: From a forest in West Virginia devastated by mountaintop removal mining, to a region in Florida left in ruins by the phosphate mining industry, J Henry Fair presents hard evidence that our unchecked consumerism is leading the way in the destruction of our planet, one natural resource at a time.

Primarily through the use of aerial photography, Fair captures spellbinding vistas of pools of toxic hog waste, streams of paper mill runoff, and the remains of hollowed-out mountains. These environmental abstractions lure the viewer in with unique asymmetrical shapes and striking colors; however, fascination quickly turns to horror, as the viewer realizes what lurks beneath the surface of the image.

Fair is a consummate environmentalist, and after years as a corporate and portrait photographer he turned his lens on the industries that sustain us—oil, fertilizer, coal, and factory farming, to name a few—eager to uncover the dirty little secrets that he knew were well hidden there. It turns out the secrets, and the “dirt” they produce, are far too large to hide. For example: the factory farming industry is responsible for one of the largest environmental disasters in history, wherein a hog waste lagoon burst, causing 25 million gallons of highly toxic sludge to flood the New River in North Carolina, killing ecosystems, animals, and infecting water supplies. Just before Christmas in 2008, the Tennessee Valley Authority power plant was responsible for sending a billion gallons of coal ash waste into the Tennessee River; this spill was 40 times larger than the infamous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Coal ash is toxic, containing a laundry list of hazardous substances such as uranium, mercury, lead, and arsenic. These are only two examples of the endless calamity we inflict on our environment daily. Now is the time to take action and make change.

More than anything else, The Day After Tomorrow is a call to arms. Our planet dies a little bit every second, and this trend will continue unless we take responsibility. Fair’s images reveal the calamitous effects of our consumer culture’s insatiable appetite for natural resources. Forests are being wiped-out, water supplies polluted and/or drained, animals and humans are dying, but for what? These stunning and tragically beautiful images, in conjunction with a collection of essays by some of America’s leading environmental defenders, provide indisputable evidence that the way we eat, commute, and manufacture is collectively destroying the Earth, and we must change the way we live if we expect our planet to survive.

Image by J Henry Fair and words from Powerhouse Books

Timmy Sees Birds

2011-02-04T19:08:00.000-08:00

Tim Curran has certainly taken inspiration from those graceful wave/ wind surfers the Chumash Pterodactyls.

Wouldn't have got these without super rad ocean photographer and great friend Scott Soens lending me his 600mm.

For some real surf photography check out his newly revamped beautiful site.

Alternate Realities

2011-01-30T11:21:00.001-08:00

Rurban Carnivores

2011-01-16T15:43:00.000-08:00

Urban Carnivores

2010-12-31T18:55:00.001-08:00

So my roommate Tiffany has a one of the coolest jobs in LA, trapping bobcats in and around Griffith Park. She is assisting UCLA graduate student Laurel Klein trap and take blood from these bobcats, and whatever else they might find in their traps, to see how they are affected by anticoagulants, or the stuff they use in rodent poison. The bobcats, pumas, and coyotes that inhabit these urban mountains have all suffered from secondary poisoning from eating poisoned prey.

For more information on this issue please go to Laurel's site Urban Carnivores.

All of these images were captured by Tiffany Arminta or with motion sensor cameras the girls set up in the Griffith Park area.

Timelapse Grabs

2010-12-19T21:17:00.000-08:00

Working on some time-lapse sequences for a potential short one day.

Bird Book

2010-12-09T18:02:00.000-08:00

Naturalist John James Audubon's "Birds of America" sells for $11.5 million dollars, making it the worlds most expensive book.

Audubon was part naturalist, part artist, and possessed a rare, almost unequaled ability to observe, catalog and paint the birds he observed in the wild. Experts say his book, originally published in 1827, is unmatched in its beauty and also of considerable scientific value, justifying its stratospheric cost.

Check out the free electronic version of the book here.

I wonder how many birds used to inhabit California just over 200 years ago before most of the rampant development and serious habitat conversion begun to take place. Surely places like the Oxnard plain and California's great Central Valley were large marshes and estuaries that could have housed thousands more flying fauna than the meager remnants of those grand ecological wonders turned to commercial agricultural mud flats can provide for today.

Pic and story via the LA Times
Photo: A Sotheby's employee with a page from "Birds of America" by John James Audubon. Credit: Suzanne Plunkett / Reuters

Perihelion

2010-12-06T22:26:00.000-08:00

As we near the Sun in our orbit we are approaching Perihelion, the point at which we are nearest the Sun. When the moon and sun are both lined up with Earth during this time of year the tidal effect is at its greatest and this causes the extreme tides of December, January, and February every new and full moon.

The Missile

2010-12-05T16:31:00.000-08:00

Looked nothing like this today Steve.

Delta Tip Fighters

2010-11-27T08:24:00.000-08:00

SURFERMAG.COM: Let’s get back to your Speed-Dialer or Quan and explain to the reader why the board has four fins as opposed to a keel fin setup or just two regular wooden (Larry) Gephardt fins on it.

RICH PAVEL: Okay. Let me grab some. [Gets up, grabs fins.] These are the fins I was using and building when I was living in Santa Barbara and it’s the outcome of that influence that I had, Larry Gephardt and stuff. He’s got such beautiful foiled fins, and they float. I wouldn’t put something on your board that doesn’t float. But also I surfed a lot of rocky areas, pretty hard on a set of fins. I liked having this glass bead or halo around it. I kind of resort to that because it was hard for me to have the time and the resources and the energy to stick with the wood fins all the time. So this was kind of a nice compromise. The question was, how do we get to four fins? What you have with the classic keel is a low-aspect ratio fin, and I got spending time with George (Greenough) up there, quite a bit, not heaps, but some time with Greenough, compared to no time is a lot of time [laughs]. That was good, and Stan Pleskunas who was a longtime friend of Greenough’s has also been, in fact that whole family, has been a good influence. The low-aspect ratio fins are kind of like your delta tip fighters: they’re fast and they have good recovery; the high-aspect ratio concept, it’ll hold in much better and for a longer period of time, you can push it a lot further than the low-aspect ratio, but when the high-aspect ratio fails, dude—you’re done. You’re done. Whereas the low-aspect ratio fins, they can be failing and correcting in almost the same moment and literally in the same space. So…

Pavel talking about four fins versus two comparing fins and surfcraft to fighter jets as do many shapers like BJ Hilbers and his Gee-Bee's. Whole Article here

Just waiting for the waves to see if it will fly...

Tablas del Otono

2010-11-21T20:16:00.001-08:00

I was down in Encinitas this past weekend visiting some good friends and since the new Surfy Surfy store is right there in Leucadia I had to make a stop by to see what they had in stock. I knew that I if walked in there it would be extremely hard to resist walking out of there without una tabla nueva. So the super cosmic Pavel Creek Fish quad airbrushed by Moonlight Glassing's resident astral artist Peter St. Pierre in the middle is what I walked out with. Muchas gracias goes out to JP St. Pierre at the very cool Surfy store and the whole Moonlight crew for putting together such fine functional art for the masses to consume.

All boards in my current quiver and the Liddle is on loan from the gracious Warm Jet.

Painting with light and desert vision quest in Joshua Tree National Park a couple of weeks ago.

HORIZONS

2010-11-15T19:33:00.000-08:00

Cosmic place

cosmic plants

cosmic sky.

"We are preoccupied with time. If we could learn to love space as deeply as we are now obsessed with time, we might discover a new meaning in the phrase to live like men."

-Edward Abbey in Desert Solitaire

Kauai Boy

2010-11-09T20:11:00.000-08:00

Andy Irons blowing up at Topanga, Winter 2008.

I had got the tip that he would be down there so I jammed over to snap a few. He was launching, snapping, and carving all over the place.

I walked by after he got out to grab a few myself and to say what's up. He saw my Bonzer and said, "Bonzerrrrr" with a gleeful tone. I think it made him happy to see something that reminded him of the Islands, his home.

RIP dude

Dia de Los Muertos

2010-11-01T17:31:00.001-07:00

Poached this one from Vert is Dead. Happy Halloween creatures.

La Cabane aux Tresors

2010-10-23T10:12:00.000-07:00

Photography by Swiss photographer Nicolas Henry.

Dunes

2010-10-13T21:38:00.001-07:00

Jack McCoy was swimming around out there this day. Some South African dude they called Pom walked up to us and handed us an organic watermelon while we sat on the sand post surf and watched the desert rats give the shallow reef a go.

Starr Nights

2010-10-08T18:31:00.001-07:00

Hermit Crabs

2010-10-04T21:51:00.000-07:00

Looking for ideas to hook up the back of my shell.

Summer in the Sierra

2010-09-25T15:39:00.000-07:00

Shralpers pt. 2

2010-05-05T22:09:00.000-07:00

shralpers

2010-05-02T19:34:00.001-07:00

Fear Builds Walls

2010-04-30T21:13:00.001-07:00

Roger Waters is planning another Wall tour.

Bedrock

2010-04-22T22:17:00.001-07:00

for Earth Day

rocks

2010-04-20T20:21:00.001-07:00

Paglen's Space

2010-04-12T09:47:00.001-07:00

photo by Trevor Paglen

WA Slab

2010-04-10T16:27:00.001-07:00

Some pics from my trip to West Australia with Glen Kennedy back in May of 07. This wave is real close to Glen's house and it was the first spot I surfed when I got into to his little town. It was windblown and all over the place and it looked sort of mushy, but the water was turquoise and the sand was warm. It was late and getting dark and we were the only ones around. My first wave I got slammed back down with force and I realized that this wave was going to take a little time to figure out. With everybody the whole way over talking and asking me how I felt about the sharks and the recent attack I couldn't help but think of them out there swimming around looking for a late afternoon bite. I thought I saw dark shadows racing across a wave face, I got scared but Glen didn't look affected, which I found out he never does even in some pretty heavy conditions.

This wave is a local favorite and when it was on they were there siting deeper than me and pulling in under the lip. This day they were getting some big blue wedges. Top image is of female standout Bec who is known for surfing big heavy tubular waves (your only choice if you live where she does) . Middle is of the one local who quietly rode his Brewer and waited for the best ones, a super nice and mellow guy.

I never really got that wave wired partly because of the heaviness but I plan on going back soon and I still have my 6'8" Bonzer pintail that worked oh so well in the powerful surf of WA.

Green

2010-04-04T20:22:00.000-07:00

SAMO Time-Lapse Photography

2010-03-31T21:23:00.000-07:00

RSV Time_Lapse1 from Anthony Bevilacqua on Vimeo.

My first attempt at time-lapse photography. Shot before work on a misty morning.

Cellyphone Work Pics

2010-03-28T15:20:00.000-07:00

Hotel California

2010-03-26T19:41:00.000-07:00

Noah Again pt.2

2010-03-21T16:55:00.001-07:00

sky view

2010-03-10T19:11:00.001-08:00

Anthony Petruso

Cali lineup

2010-03-06T12:32:00.001-08:00

Waterhousing for Sale

2010-02-28T08:09:00.001-08:00

I am selling my SPL waterhousing built for a Nikon D300 for $1500.

I bought the housing new around a year ago for $2400, it has had pretty light use and is in excellent condition.

The housing is custom built for a Nikon D300 with battery pack/grip and 10.5mm fisheye, but Sean at SPL can make a new port for any lens for around $400.

Also willing to sell the entire set up of the D300, grip, 10.5mm fisheye, and housing for $3500
( this whole package new would cost around $5200).

Really do not want to sell this rig but I must. It has produced some amazing images in the short amount of time I've had it.

email me with any questions: anthonybphoto@gmail.com

Surf pic. Pascal

Mishe Mokwa

2010-02-10T21:27:00.000-08:00

Seed Hoarders

2010-02-06T21:50:00.000-08:00

This chart from Phil Howard at Michigan State University shows how three chemical giants, Monsanto, DuPont, and Syngenta, have come to dominate the agricultural seed industry in the last 10 years. Obviously, there are concerns about whether this market is fair:

Monsanto supplies proprietary traits to 85 percent of corn planted in the United States, and 92 percent of soy. Corn and soy are the lifeblood of the U.S. food system. If you eat a standard diet, you’re ingesting a Monsanto-originated product with just about every bite you take. Nor is the company a benign monopolist, the report shows. GMO corn seeds have jumped from $110 per unit in 1999 to upwards of $190 by 2008; for soy, prices soared from less than $25 to more than $40.

But this monopoly isn't just bad for farmers' livelihoods; it's bad for the resilience of our ecosystem. We have 71 percent of U.S. cropland being used for just three crops, and a small handful of companies supplying the seeds. That's a precarious situation, and it's why projects like the Seed Vault are important. There's a bigger version of the chart here.

-All this scary seed stuff found at Good, written by Andrew Price

David Maisel's Aerial Photographs

2010-02-01T20:35:00.001-08:00

The work of David Maise l demands a closer contemplative look, images of the canisters filled with the remnants of unclaimed bodies to an Oregon asylum and the cyanide leaching fields dotted throughout the West that ironically closely resemble the old canisters full of crematel remains. His images show us things we could never see without the medium of photography and Maisel wields its awesome powers to bend our perceptions of space, place, and the human impact. Lens Culture has a nice audio interview with him here.

Winter

2010-01-30T11:26:00.001-08:00

Some Summer Skate Pics

2010-01-26T19:20:00.000-08:00

Wild Goose Chase

2010-01-23T21:32:00.000-08:00

Detritus

2010-01-19T19:27:00.000-08:00

Can't wait to go and jump into the water!

Don't know who shot this, grabbed image from LA Creek Freak

California's Gold

2010-01-10T20:16:00.001-08:00

For all you Huell Howser fans out there, you have got to check out this video.

Had me crackin up and rolling on the floor. Oh my gosh!

Hydro Hysteria

2010-01-06T20:38:00.000-08:00

I think it was July of last year when this swell hit. Some of the best waves I've ever seen rolled through during the three days it graced our shores. The first chance I could get to go was a late Friday afternoon, and as I ran past the pit for a darkening session and looked to my right I saw Richard Kenvin, Joel Tudor and their insane, iconic, and inspiring quiver of Simmons, Alaias, Bauguess, and other legendary crafts standing tall and proud in front of the Adamson House.

I was holding my 5'10" 80's quad, which I have had ongoing seven years now but just found out a couple of weeks ago that it was shaped by Gaylord Campbell ( I couldn't decipher the logo). I found the board in the used rack at Kennedy's and because I had always admired the look of those funky stubbie 80's quad's, and since the board was in pristine condition I didn't even hesitate to shell out the $125. Lust at first sight.

After riding my first quad I knew there was something extremely significant going on with the short fat and wide fish shape and also that four fins meant attaining speed with less movement. This was way before I'd seen anybody riding quads. I preached to my friends that quads would be the next big thing without any real evidence besides my own stoke. And, although I wasn't surprised when the dual fin and quad revolution hit, I was a bit mesmerized by just how hard it had struck the chord. Super dudes were riding them in everything from perfect right points to huge left pits. Nathan Fletcher, Danny Fuller, the Mav's crew, Dan Malloy and Daniel Thomson. My thoughts and blabbing became somewhat validated and I continued to ride my fat orange double-wing butt tail quad just about everywhere. To this day it remains one of my all time favorite boards and it has been with me on trips from Big Sur to central Baja and everywhere in between.

When I ran past Tudor and Kenvin that evening I felt a bit of pride for riding what was just a few years ago seen as retro, or just made for fun in mushy waves, but was now being validated as futuristic and relevant thanks to guys like RK, JT, Rasta, and Fletcher. I wanted so badly to run back to my rig and grab my camera so that I could snap off a couple of shots of those two standing in front of that priceless quiver and capture that epic moment. 14 year old Griffin shot the Terry Martin Simmons down the line past the bootie wearing pot bellies, Warmjet and Scott Sullivan grabbed a couple of frames: all hail Simmons and the hydrodynamic planning hull. I surfed until I couldn't surf no more that swell and the bright orange board shaped in '84 held up just fine in 09 on those wondrous walls of 1st and 2nd point. Fellow photographer and kelp aficionado Robert also rides quads, and not because they go good in junk, but because they go great in fast down the line juice. He also doesn't mind riding a shortboard or waiting patiently out the back for the sets.

See you on a bright day in July, out amongst the kelp.

Bird People

2010-01-01T17:55:00.000-08:00

"...three major classes of beings can be distinguished in the narratives:
the First People, supernatural beings, and the nunasis.

The list of species comprising the First People is rather interesting, for many of the animals that one might suppose would figure prominently in Chumash stories -such as bears, rattlesnakes, mountain lions, whales, deer, and elk,

- are either not mentioned at all or briefly touched upon in passing.

Most of the First People mentioned by name are birds of one kind or another..."

from Decembers Child: A Book of Chumash Oral Narratives by Thomas C. Blackburn

Pu'u

2009-12-19T11:08:00.000-08:00

Was going for that David Pu'u inside the tube sunrise shot this morning. No luck today but had the briny all to myself save a bunch of gulls and three curious seals. Guess I'll have to keep trying at that beach where the souls go to rest.

Creatures of the Blue Lagoon

2009-12-07T16:34:00.001-08:00

Rainy days keep me inside rummaging through old slides. Searching through the forgotten and overlooked images and then scanning them breathes new life into the little 35mm worlds.

Malibu Creek and Lagoon sometime ago.

Noah Again

2009-11-30T19:37:00.000-08:00

If there's going to be some rock dancin tubes around, Noah will find em.