That’s it now, the last batch of surfing photographs from the last big day, maybe we’ll get another good swell now that they are all gone.

You can also see the five previous photo blogs here

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/you-shouldve-been-here-yesterday/ (15 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/yshbhy-part-two/ (15 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/hands-up-if-youre-having-fun-yet-yshbhy3/ (9 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/the-swell-that-just-kept-on-coming-yshbhy-4/ (12 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/you-should-have-been-here-in-february/ (14 photos)

Been so long since we’ve had a decent swell to ride here (and photograph), and with summer almost here, its probably not going to pick up anytime soon, so i returned to archives for ‘that day’ back in February, and had a look at the shots that were overlooked at the time, I took over 700 pictures that day, so there’s plenty to choose from! I’ve also tried to keep the processing to a minimum, just the occasional bit of ‘punch’ and horizon straightening in Lightroom!

You can also see the four previous photo blogs here

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/you-shouldve-been-here-yesterday/ (15 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/yshbhy-part-two/ (15 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/hands-up-if-youre-having-fun-yet-yshbhy3/ (9 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/the-swell-that-just-kept-on-coming-yshbhy-4/ (12 photos)

Ahh Winter, the holidaymakers are all gone from our beach communities and now it’s just the waves and us.

There’s nothing quit like the feeling of being one of the only surfers in the water on a nice winter’s day in New Zealand. The serenity, the roar of the waves, and the chill of the water, all make for a great Zen-like state while waiting for the perfect wave.

Once on the wave, the freedom of riding freely without maneuvering around someone or cutting the ride short to avoid a collision is such a great thing and most certainly makes up for the chilly waters.

Often New Zealand gets a bad rap for it’s few popularized surf breaks as many would head to the land of OZ for epic surf trips. What most people don’t know is there are many great surf beaches in New Zealand and with it’s compact land area, you’re never too far from one.

While short boarders and long boarders still dominate the waters here, there is a new breed of surfing emerging and that is Stand Up Paddle Board Surfing or SUP Surfing. While the west coast beaches have pretty consistent surf, the east coast is a little less consistent so SUP surfboards are perfect for those small days that seem to plague the east coast for days on end.

For the soul surfer who loves to be in the water all year long and as much as possible, SUP boards can be yet another avenue for more wave time as they have the ability to catch the micro-lines that roll in on the east coast of New Zealand.

Another reason New Zealand is a great place to surf is the shear beauty of the landscape and beaches that surround the two islands. There is nothing like sitting out back in the crystal clear waters as the sun sets over Mount Maunganui without any huge high rise hotels ruining the view.

If you’re looking for a great surf destination, look no further than New Zealand and don’t wait for Summer down under, come experience soul surfing at it’s finest during the Winter in Aotearoa.

Theodore Kallmyer

SUP rider in NZ

Just a photo blog today cos i had fun shooting them, and as much fun as the iphone hipstamatic was for the Walk the Wight blog, i definitely needed the 7D for these next shots!

Taken at the Owl Centre in Muncaster, in the Lake district. A fabulous place to visit, run by the ‘World Owl Trust’, another group of people working really hard to help endangered creatures.

All the shots here are watermarked lo-res web versions, if you are interested in using hi-res images for any reason please visit the wildlife gallery on my website, I will make a donation to the world owl trust for any sales made.

©2010 Jason Swain, All Rights Reserved
These images are not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.

Anyway, something a bit different from me today, an iphone blog taken during yesterdays 2010 Walk the Wight, in aid of the Earl Mountbatten Hospice.

I walked the 14 miles from Carisbrooke Castle to Alum Bay, many walked the full 26 miles across the Island starting in Bembridge.

I saw that wind and rain was widely predicted in all the weather forecasts on sunday morning, and after last years drenching, I decided not to take the big camera (quite literally a monkey of my back) and have a go using the hipstamatic app on my iphone. It mimics the analog film results of the old plastic toy cameras, and if you shake between shots, it randomly loads different lens and film types.

I hope you like the results, and if you enjoy viewing, maybe you can visit the charity site and make a donation!

Walk the Wight is the largest annual fund raising event on the Island, over 12,000 people walk walk from one end of the island to the other in aid of the Earl Mountbatten Hospice.

You can find out more about the walk (and make a donation if you like) here…
Walk the Wight

I talked about being in the right place at the right time (photographically speaking) in the first part of the blog, and for many of the classic lake shots, early morning or late evening light shows them at their best, with the peaks lit up and reflected beautifully in the calm waters of the lakes.

But for the stone circle at Castlerigg i think the bright sunshine and cumulus skies were just what i imagined, and exactly what i would have wanted. I called the first shot ‘Sun Worship’ because that’s what it felt like to me (i’ve no idea what they were really worshiping).

And heavy brooding skies seemed perfectly apt for the menacing presence of Scafell Pike and the desolate windswept landscape surrounding the Hardknott Roman Fort.

Not too much more to say about the photos really, hopefully you’ll enjoy looking at them, simple as that. One more set of Lake Landscapes to come, and them maybe an Owl blog, and hopefully one day in the not too distant future, i’ll get to see some waves again.

So once again i’m posting non-surfing pics on my site ‘dedicated to surf photography’. But its been a really long time since i’ve seen good waves, i’m struggling for anything surfing related to blog about again, and I was up in the Lake District the last time the Island had a swell, so there it is. Maybe soul-surfing will evolve to just being my general blog site if the surf doesn’t pick up soon!

I’m also pretty sure my surfing time will be badly affected by the fact that my good friend and surf buddy ‘pacey’ (psychedelic surfer on fiickr) has gone travelling for a year. So i wont be getting those excited early morning phone calls on cold winter mornings telling me to get my ass out of bed because the bay is going off and there’s no one in! I hope he stops to think about that as he pulls into another barrel in indo or Oz the lucky #!$@#….

So back to the lakes, it was my first trip to this stunning part of the world, and the first time i can remember going anywhere without a surfboard or wetsuit in a very long time. The only thing that sweetened that pill beforehand was that I would be taking my new camera, and i’d get to try out the 7D on some seriously beautiful landscapes.

Of course visiting somewhere as photographed as the lakes comes with its own pressures, I’ve seen some truly amazing images from the lake district, and aside from having the right kit and the skills to use it properly, a big part of getting a great landscape is knowing where to be to catch the best light and compositions, and then of course having good lighting conditions happen whilst you’re there.

I could add that you need to be in the right place creatively speaking too, but i’m taking that for granted here, because if the lakes don’t inspire you, you’re not meant to be a landscape photographer.

Bearing that in mind, and being honest with myself, I dont think i’d call any of the shots I came back with anything really special. The trip reminded me that i’m still on a learning curve with photography, and I’m also certain that i need to be there a lot longer and at different times of the year to really even begin to see and understand the beauty of the place and appreciate the rhythms of nature and weather up there. It’s not all bad, I do like some of the shots, but many are lacking that certain something that you get when you truly know a place. I’m also wondering if i should pick up the paint brushes again, I’ve got a little itch somewhere in my mind, and maybe the problem i have with the photos is just that they’re not paintings?

So here’s the first batch of photos anyway, your thoughts and constructive feedback are appreciated, i’ll probably do a couple more photo-blogs from up there and then move on to something new, (I’ll also try and talk a bit more about the place and the walking / hiking / climbing in the next blog)

*Bonus surfing pic because i cant ignore surfing completely! this one is for Pacey, hope you & SJ have a great trip mate

So… more fun shooting red squirrels than surfers? well you got to do something when the sea is flat for weeks on end.

It’s not more fun than surfing itself, i can just about remember how much i love that, and it’s been so long since we had good waves to take photos of (6th feb) that i might have just forgotten the fun of doing that. But for the last few days, dawn patrol has been in my back garden with red, and i’ve been more excited about that than i remember being watching the action at Compton or Freshwater Bay.

It started with the squirrel box that i got for my last birthday (thanks freya) and lots of expert advice from Paul Blackley (who has to be the best wildlife photographer on the Island in my book). The fact that i got the Canon 7d now and it can shoot at 8fps and up to IOS 6400 helps too, but the secret mostly consists of a big bag of hazelnuts and a lot of patience.

After a while i’ve learnt the routes he takes, and where he likes to bury the nuts, but its the way he bounces around at high speed and constantly keeps you guessing what he will do next that makes it such good fun to try and catch with a camera. There is a similarity there with surf photography, but i’ve found that after watching and taking pics for years, i can usually read the wave and anticipate what a surfer will do next,  compared to that a squirrel is just a lot more random and so in that way, exciting.

These shots (except the obvious ‘urban acid’ surfing edit) are all shot in RAW and posted here as mostly sooc (straight out of camera) apart from the odd crop and in a few cases a little tweak to the contrast or exposure. In addition to being the first action shots with the new 7D, it’s also the first time i’ve used lightroom (beta 3.2) for managing the files and i’m liking the really subtle control and streamlined workflow its given me.

And because i couldn’t ignore surfing completely, i’ve chucked in an edit of one of my favourite photos from the last good swell.

Hope you like the pics, comments, feedback and criticism are all welcome in the comments box below!

Apologies for the lack or recent surfing blogs, there hasn’t been many great days for surfing lately (a few sneaky waves have crept under most peoples radar, including mine once) and then when some swell did come, it was all about surfing and not taking pictures, but I do have a few new things to talk about now, including this new show that has been in touch looking for surfers!

Portrait of a Psychedelic Surfer

They are looking for people from all walks of life to appear in an exciting new BBC entertainment show John Bishop’s Britain which takes a closer and comical look at all the things that affect our lives in this country! They want to know what YOU think about life in general, from family and love, to sport and politics, to what it’s like growing up and going to work!

They are particularly keen to hear from Surfers who may have funny stories, opinions, views etc on the topics above.

If you would like to appear on our show, have your say and share your stories, then get it touch with them NOW!

Email all your contact details (name, age, phone number, location) to takepart@objectiveproductions.com and they promise to get back to you right away!

Will it mean more crowds at Freshwater bay and fields? as surely a certain % of surfers will stop and have a look at those breaks, if they are forced to detour via Freshwater Bay to get to Hanover car park. Or will everyone try and squeeze into Brook car park and walk along the cliffs or beach?

Of course, miracles might happen and either the erosion will stop where it is, and one lane of the military road will remain open (those traffic lights will be fun in the summer) or maybe someone will come up with the £10m figure thats being bandied about as the amount needed to sort it out.

*** UPDATE (24-03-2010) ***

Here’s an email i got this morning from Jill Wareham who’s running a facebook campaign to save the road, better act soon if you want it to stay open!

Subject: Military Road will close at Brook
The recommendation to the Cabinet (7 Councillors) of the Isle of Wight Council due to meet on 30th March is that when the road becomes unsafe, the council truncates the road both side of the breach at point (between Brook and Compton) and install turning heads and improve car parking as necessary.
This means that the Council don’t care – they’ve done no consultation with the public and the road could close at this point tomorrow.
Please write to Cllr Giles the Councillor in charge of roads at edward.giles@iow.gov.uk if you don’t want this to happen.
7 Councillors could let this road close – is this what you want?

*** UPDATE (31-03-2010) ***

So a week later, and Jill is reporting good news on the facebook group today, the Councillors have decided to defer the decision to close the road. People power works! They have decided that they are going to consult people – possibly because of the amount of emails Cllr Giles has had this week. They are also going to get round the table with Natural England and the Environment Agency, etc to see what can be done.

Here’s a few pics* i took there last week, and also a couple of bonus ones from Brook, proving that whilst it can be beautiful there, there’s also still a bit of beach cleaning to be done here to… (thats not a dig at the great job done with the recent SAS beach clean at Grange by the way, just a reminder that there’s always more to do, and always will be as long as people keep treating the sea like a garbage dump)

*please note that the image with the bus is deliberately trying to attract interest and spark debate by exaggerating reality. The wide angle lens and the low angle,  and a bit of extra editing are all designed to make that look more dramatic than it really is. Although with all the rain we had over the last few days, reality might now have imitated art and overtaken it.

*update…. All i had to do was have a moan and the waves came nice swell the last few days!

The only plus side i can see is that i’ve got a lot more work done in the last few weeks, and ons of the things i’ve achieved is (get ready for the shameless plug setting up a spring promotion on my www.jasonswain.co.uk website where you can purchase any of the surfing or wave prints from my galleries.

Get 25% off all photo products (prints, cards, canvases etc) in my spring promotion.
Use the coupon code ‘SPRUNG’ at the checkout to get your discount! The offer runs to the end of May 2010.

A few examples of how the prints look when framed…

Then i thought i shouldn’t do it at all, as the site should remain pure and only deal with surfing and waves (i’ve never taken any ads or promos on the site, despite requests)

But in the end i thought it best just to come out with it, make it a shameless plug, its my site why not good wetsuits are a vital part of surfing in the UK, and the changes over the last 10-15 years mean you can probably have twice as much time in the water on a winters day, and thats when the best waves are here, so maybe a little discussion about suits wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

And this blog has another angle too, vanity, and perhaps its an angle a few people can relate to, pretending that the advancing years are having no effect and i can still fit into the same size suit as i did 15 years ago. I got seduced by all the hi-tec jargon for the new ‘pyschofreak’ winter suits, and i let my desire blind me to the fact that the one i was looking at was a size medium, and i’ve really been too big for a medium for a few years now.

The ebay listing is WAS full of all that technical gumpf that worked on me, describing the ‘state of the art’ technology making it the warmest suit ever made etc.. And the fact is, it is the warmest suit i’ve ever tried, i actually felt warm out there in it, and i tried it on two of the coldest days this winter, so i’m genuinely disappointed to be selling HAVE SOLD it, but i need to wear a large and wearing a suit thats too small isnt good for your back or you’re surfing so its gotHAD to go.