But it has a certain something that i like, the quirky englishness of the way she’s standing there in her stripy pink wellies! and the way the long shadow anchors her to the corner of the frame.

It was hastily arranged (in a few hours) with the first willing female i could find in reaction to a request from a potential client who was on a deadline, i don’t think it will come to fruition with that particular customer, but I thought it was worth giving the shot its moment in the spotlight here.

Massive thanks to Sally for being game to turn up at short notice and wade about in a very cold english channel (the boots came off a bit later) whilst i tried to figure out the best way to deal with shooting almost directly into about a billion megawatts of direct sunlight.

Mustang Sally – Lady Surfer, originally uploaded by s0ulsurfing.

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©2012 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.

This and the other photos on the site are all ©2012 Jason Swain with All Rights Reserved. The image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer. Please contact me via email photo@jasonswain.co.uk if you want to use it in any way or license it for your own project.

I didn’t tell Pacey he was on the cover till this morning, i think he might have been getting a bit of stick for it

Having said it was cool, and of course being thankful for the exposure it will give to the exhibition and the www.wightsurfhistory.co.uk project,  I do have a gripe. The whole artistic intention of the shot has been lost in translation and the tighter crop used on the cover. It was meant to be about capturing the surfer in, and celebrating his natural environment, and to me (and most people who see the original) its the dynamic cirrus clouds and foreground details of the waves on the beach that make it work as an idea. I’m not usually very precious about stuff like that, and of course you could say that it all goes out the window the moment it has the ‘weekender’ branding splashed across it too.

On a different note, its also ironic to see Pacey there with the word ‘weekender’ above his head, because he is about as far removed from the idea of a  ‘weekend warrior’ surfer as it is possible to be. He lives and breathes surfing, and is out in all conditions and weathers, all year round, i dont think i’ve heard him say no to a a surf session yet, snow on the ground, big gnarly waves, he’s always there.

As for the picture of Me & Paul, the first one to mention ‘right said fred’ tribute act is in trouble

IWCP weekender cover

Portrait of a Psychedelic Surfer

Portrait of a ‘Psychedelic Surfer’ was chosen as the ‘photo of the week’ at photographyblog.com. The portrait of Ian Pace posing with his board at Compton Bay is a wide angle ‘Vertorama’, a digital composite stitched just like a panorama but vertical instead of horizontal.

The surf wasnt very good that day and i’d been taking shots of the west wight landscape with the wonderful ‘cirrus fibratus vertebratus’ sky and it struck me how perfect the setting would be for a shot of ‘Pacey’ in his natural element with a bit of whooshing from the clouds and the waves surging up the beach.