On Saturday morning I drove up to Newport Beach to visit one of Southern California's best shore breaks.  Simply know as "The Wedge". I have seen many FANTASTIC photographs from great wave photographer Robbie Crawford, Aaron Goulding, Clark Little and a host of others... So I thought I would see if I could get in on the action...

Leading up to this trip, a few of my photographer buddies who have shot there told me to be careful, don't take it for granted, even on small days.  Boy were they right!  It wasn't that I didn't believe what they were telling me, it is something you really have to experience before you really "Know" what they are talking about.  This was not the La Jolla or even Laguna waves that I am use to.  Much more power...much more turbulent.  I tried duck diving as I normally do on a wave that broke in front of me...The wave sucked me right up and threw me over the falls like I was a rubber ducky...

So...I monitored the weather and the swell.  Everything pointed to a great sunrise with great waves...I only got one of the two...The wedge was firing, however, mother nature didn't let the sun shine.  Oh well though..The experience was great and can't wait to go again.....

Here are a couple that I did like from it..

Silly surfers getting in the way of a perfect empty wave shot... =)

Getting the shot of someone getting the shot!

Probably my favorite of the day!

Back on shore, the life guard is making sure everyone makes it out of the water okay..

Very Very excited to go back soon...See some of the larger pics at http://surfingeye.com/recents

As with any photographer, or any professional for that manner, the longer you do something, the better at it you get.

I feel that my photography keeps getting better and better.  With each time I shoot, I feel that I am able to get at least one shot that is unique and makes me keep coming back for more.  Until now though, I have just been putting shots in my "portfolio" folder that I felt were my best shots.  Not really creating anything that had direction or showed off my view of surf photography.  

That's all about to change.  I am going to start working on creating a new / actual portfolio.  One that shows my take on not only surf culture, but how I feel about photography. 

There will be a lot of experimenting with this.  Times of day, angles, lenses, in and out of the water, locations and so on.  There may be a lot of images that never see the light of day, but as long as I can get that one or two out of a shoot, then that's all that matters...

Hope you enjoy the new journey...

With July hitting San Diego it means two very important things...

1.  Overcast skies are a thing of the past!

2.  The beaches are crowded...

I got in the water for a little wave shooting over the weekend and came away with some decent shots.  The first night (last Thursday) was painful.  After flooding an housing back in January, you would think that I would double check everything each time I got in.  Not the case.  I left one screw a little loose and one good wave put water in the housing.  Not to worry.  Camera and everything else was fine.  However after drying everything off in my housing, when I went back to get in the water, my port kept fogging up.  After 3 or 4 times of the port fogging up...i finally just dealt with it...Lucky for me I the fogging went away..

This was one of my shots that I got with the fog on my port.  Most of the pics I just trashed, but I actually liked the way the sunspot that it created..

Little shorey highlighted by a great sunset.

One of my favorite things when wave shooting is to be able to get that really nice back lit wave with the sunset.

My take on endless summer.  Kids of all ages playing in the shore at sunset.  

See more at http://surfingeye.com/recents

As I posted last week, I was able to catch up with Roxy Surfer, Tatiana Weston Webb while she was in town to defend her U16 & U18 USA titles at Lowers.  

The weather and the waves were much better this past Saturday, and Tatiana thrived in the great conditions.  

She was able to breeze through her first final in route to the U16 title, dismantling the field and thus successfully defending her first title.

Her 2nd final though was much tougher.  Similarly to Kolohe Andino in the 2011 U18 Final, Tatiana snatched the U18 (Governors Cup) title away from Dax McGill, on her very last wave of the heat.  

Congrats again to Tatiana on her amazing performance on Saturday!  The back to back U16 USA Champ and the back to back U18 "Governors Cup" USA champ!

Here are a few of my favorite images of Tati from the final day!

Tatiana being carried up the beach by her father after the U16 final

Reaction from Tatiana after finding out that her last wave was enough to take home the Governors Cup.

You can see more images from the final day of the USA Championships at Lower Trestles at: http://surfingeye.com/westonwebb

Last week I was fortunate to be able to shoot with a very talented young surfer.  Roxy surfer Tatiana Weston-Webb. She is the current U16 & U18 USA Champion.  Tatiana hails from the island of Kauai and is in SoCal to defend her title at this week’s USA Championships at Lower Trestles (Click HERE for more info on this weeks contest).  I was able to catch up with her for a few shots at Lowers. 

The day wasn’t that great (overcast skies and small waves) but Tatiana got a few good ones and looks to be ready for this week…

I actually didn't realize this was Tati until I got down to the beach..I just liked the way this was framed when I shot it...

Get out of the way!

Tati looking ready to defend!

You can see more images from this shoot in Tati's gallery (http://surfingeye.com/westonwebb)  Other images of the other surfers (Parker Coffin, Ezekiel Lau, Jake Marshall) are available in their galleries as well.  Hope you enjoy!

I have not been able to get in the water all that often lately, so on a day last weekend when I could, I had to take advantage.

Of course I brought my camera with because the waves were good as well.  With every big wave that went over me, I thought to myself..."I can't wait to see what that looks like on camera."  Because the last thing I was seeing before I went under on a lot of these was was a really glassy clear barrel.  One thing you may or may not know is that you can't go back and look through images while the camera is in your housing.  So i really never know what I have gotten until I get out of the water..

After I got out though, I was very happy with what I was seeing as far as the wave shots went.  A few of them were some of the deepest barrel shots that I have taken to date.  If mother nature would have given me some nice blue skies, a lot of these images would be in my wave portfolio.  But June gloom is in full affect in La Jolla right now.  Here are a few of the images though so you can see what I am talking about...

I have a few more posted under http://surfingeye.com/recents so please take a look.

Hope you enjoy!

A while ago I was asked to do a clothing shoot for an upcoming clothing line called East Africa Threads.  Through months of bad weather, and rescheduling I was finally able to get this shoot done.  One of my favorite models (Aubry Wiltcher) helped me out to show off the fun cloths that they produce..

A little bit about East Africa Threads:

East African Threads is an alternative clothing company.  All East African Threads clothing is made in east Africa with only local African fabrics.  The East African Threads philosophy is to "Give Back."  100% of profits go back to the communities in east Africa where the clothing is made.

The shoot was last week at Scrips Pier in La Jolla.