Bodyboarding in Cornwall, originally uploaded by s0ulsurfing.

Another treasure found languishing in the archives, bringing back memories from a fun day at Porthcurno beach in Cornwall, without doubt one of my favourite places in the world.

Still no sign of the littlest soulsurfer yet, but we must be getting closer, if you don’t hear from me for a few days, i may just re-appear a little frazzled with a whole new subject for my shooting, although i’m not sure if baby shots are really my style, guess we might find out about that in the coming weeks.

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©2008 Jason Swain, All Rights Reserved
This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.

My photo (Offshore, Empty wave @ Logan’s Rock, Porthcurno, Cornwall) is featured in this months (December 2010) edition of Digital Photography Enthusiast Magazine.

I know pride comes before a fall, and i do try to keep a good sense of perspective on any ‘success’ i might have with my photos, but i will admit to being a bit ‘chuffed’ (thats english for happy for my global friends) when this popped through my letterbox at the weekend.

I’d been asked to be in the magazine quite a few weeks back, but had no idea what sort of size the image would be, so it was a really nice surprise to find a double page spread inside.

The mag itself is billed as a “digital lifestyle magazine” and looks like a pretty good mix of product review, how-to articles and interviews with photographers (i’m not on the payroll

Digital Photography Enthusiast Magazine

Empty wave at Porthcurno

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OK, this is not my story, but its a pretty good day for isle of wight surfing so i wanted to cover it here, and the first thing to do is to get the right people credited for the words and images.

Thanks to Paul Blackley (my partner over at wight surf history) for putting this story together, and thanks to ‘the Newquay Surfer’ (http://www.newquaysurfer.org/) for allowing use of the video, and thanks to Annemarie Hughes (http://www.annemariehughes.com/) for allowing use of the images.

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Lights, Surfboard, Action (take #2 split tone), originally uploaded by s0ulsurfing.

Surfing backlit waves at Compton Bay on a late summers evening.

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©2010 Jason Swain, All Rights Reserved

This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.

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Shadow Puppet Surfing in the Green Room., originally uploaded by s0ulsurfing.

Looked to me like joe was making shadow puppets with the backlighting, any ideas what creature he was making? could be a crocodile?

Last weekends swell seems a lifetime away already, there’s been no decent waves since then, and there’s none on the horizon, we’re definitely having a boom-bust cycle with surf this year!

Time for a bit of blatant self promotion and cheesy sentiment, so if you’re offended by either of those, look away now.

Thank you Flickr.com ….

I’d like to say thanks to all the people who follow my s0ulsurfing account on Flickr and who having seen my pictures from around the island over the last few years said that i should be working for the tourist board. People mostly say nice stuff to each other on Flickr (its like the opposite of magicseaweed), so i don’t like to get carried away with any praise, for many its a social network first and serious photographic appreciation second, but many of my contacts on there are awesome photographers, and i do value their judgment, and their words. So without getting carried away, i also know that sometimes i can produce decent work, and the feedback I get is genuine.

So encouraged by those words, I eventually wrote to all the various parties responsible for isle of wight tourism, mentioned the comments and suggested that they might like to use some of my photos to help promote the island. And to cut a long story short, the good people at the Isle of Wight Chamber of Commerce (who are now responsible for publishing the islands tourist guides) responded positively,  and a few meetings later, here it is, my photos are in this years official 2010 ISLE OF WIGHT accommodation guide.

60 of my images have been used in total, including the two on the front cover, and you can take a look yourself at the interactive brochure here http://www.gowight.com/brochure/

I’ve followed the debate about the merits of the brochure design over on the ventnorblog website (http://ventnorblog.com/2010/01/18/interest-in-tourism-guide-strong/), some islanders have liked it but its not been universally well received here, some dont like the colours and feel of the cover, but personally i think its a great piece of design by the talented local designer Aaron Rudd, and the IWCC report that its creating lots of interest and orders are strong (which is what really counts).

Not all of the images are mine, but i think there are 60 from me, 3 from my good friend Paul Blackley and the remaining 26 are from either Steve Thearle or Tom Stroud. I’m talking about the ‘editorial’ images here, the ones used to illustrate island locations, not those of the hotels etc.

So thanks again flickr, this wouldn’t have happened without you, and i’m writing about it here on soul-surfing because following on from the positive coverage that island surfing got during the ‘wight surf history‘ exhibition, its a surfing image that’s made the front cover, and some people reading might recognise Andrew Swinton posing on his longboard on a lovely summers evening at Compton Fields last year.

Summer longboarding