Nacionale » black + white

Scotty on Closr

Mike — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 07:41:47 +0000

Another El Porto surfer portrait – this time of Scotty. He is one of the regulars at El Porto and one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet.

Scotty (for anybody who can't use Flash)

From the One California Day World Premiere

Mike — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 04:42:47 +0000

Back in July of 2007, Jason Baffa and Mark Jeremias debuted their film, One California Day, at El Segundo High School to a packed house of people hungry to see some great surf footage. The movie delivered great surf footage in spades featuring surfers such as the Malloy brothers, Joel Tudor, Alex Knost, and Tyler Hatzikian. But it also gave a glimpse into the lives of the surfers themselves. We were able to see the surfers and their other creative outlets which gave the movie its intimate perspective.

Just prior to the start of the movie, I was able to shoot the following image of Jason Baffa and Mark Jeremias along with Tyler Hatzikian, Dan Malloy, Chris Malloy, and Keith Malloy. I shot the image using a Sinar P 4×5 view camera on Polaroid Type 55 P/N film.

From left: Tyler Hatzikian, Jeff Johnson, Mark Jeremias, Jason Baffa, Keith Malloy, Chris Malloy, and Dan Malloy

That was 3 years ago. Check out what Chris Malloy, Jeff Johnson, and Keith Malloy have been up to lately. The world premiere of 180° South: Conquerors of the Useless was February 10, at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. See the trailer here. It looks like an amazing film.

Damian Fulton Portrait

Mike — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 06:37:57 +0000

I had the distinct pleasure of photographing Damian Fulton about 5 months ago. Not only is Damian an amazing artist (I’m a huge fan of his), but he is one of the nicest guys you could meet. I’ve gotten to know Damian over the past several years because he is an El Porto surfer.

Damian lives a beach lifestyle, but it’s a beach lifestyle in one of the busiest metropolitan cities in the world (Los Angeles, that is). Damian’s surf art is all about the juxtaposition of beach life and the trappings of an urban environment. I wanted to capture that same vibe in a portrait of the artist. The red and white smokestacks in El Segundo appear in many of Damian’s paintings and I felt that doing a beach portrait with the smokestacks in the background would provide the visual tie between the artist and his art.

I shot the following image using my Sinar P 4×5 on Fuji Neopan 100 black and white film. I used Photoshop to combine the image with a scan of a glass plate negative to give it the old film feel.

Damian Fulton Portrait

El Porto Surfer Portraits

Mike — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 04:30:00 +0000

My old site had a bunch of portraits that I had taken of some of the surfers that call El Porto their home break. I removed that old gallery of images when I went to this blog format for the site and figured that I would slowly begin adding the portraits back while mixing in some other images from my archives.

These are all portraits that I had taken several years ago using my Hasselblad and the standard 80mm lens with Ilford Delta 100 film. Charley and Rick are still out at El Porto on a regular basis. Ted Robinson moved to Orange County a few years back and we don’t get to see him out in the lineup very much unfortunately.

Rick Noguchi

Ted and Jordan Robinson

Charley Finney

Cold Water

Mike — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:00:52 +0000

Every so often, when I’m up in the mountains, I get this crazy idea in my head that it would be fun to go into freezing cold water (and I mean freezing). Back in January of 2005, I was up in Yosemite with my wife and some photographer friends. There was plenty of snow that particular month and we lucked into some beautiful wintery landscapes. I decided to do a crazy self portrait where I got into the Merced river. So after setting up the camera, I waded into the icy cold water and had my wife click the shutter a few times. The picture below was the result.

Freezing my nuts off in the Merced River

Wave Dave

Mike — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 09:43:02 +0000

This is a portrait I took of Wave Dave, an El Porto surfer, standing next to his old Ranchero after a session at El Porto. He is a super nice guy, but he’ll never admit to it. He can get a bit grumpy about the crowds, but he does it in a way that makes you smile. And he likes to wear his surf trunks over his wetsuit. Gotta love Wave Dave.

Wave Dave