Sunset Shaka
It’s not often I curate a shot in my mind and then attempt to bring that vision to life. Nearly 99% of the time I prefer capturing scenes as naturally as possible to present them in the truest form. But on this day, I’d been dreaming up this shot for a minute and my good buddy Eric Brush was game to go make it happen. The concept: a shot where all of the fun lies within the shadows. The point: It’s not always about what you see. These machines can certainly be pretty, but at the end of the day it’s the feelings they evoke that mean more than anything. It’s that sunset drive after grabbing the last few waves of the day. The steam blown off at the end of a sh*t week. Those things you’ll never see, but if you know, you know.
Morning Row
In the summer of 2021 I was working like a machine for a marketing agency. Traveling endlessly for photoshoots and spending every other waking moment on the computer. I felt like my own personal creative endeavors had taken a major back seat, and it was time I brought them back to life. So I made a promise to myself to wake up every day before the sun and head out the door with no plan but to shoot some photos. I never knew where I was headed, just made a game-time decision based on the weather more often than not. In the couple months of doing this little exercise I felt like I experienced a whole new side of Jupiter. My first sea turtle hatch, endless shark fins against pink sunrises at Coral Cove, slow coffee sips as old men gathered at the beach boardwalks just to laugh together. I saw a lot, and I also learned a lot about my craft. It’s an exercise I recommend to anyone wanting to become a “better photographer,” and certainly one I’m grateful for challenging myself with. This shot came out of that timeframe, and always stuck with me. I had no clue our beach patrol did this rowing practice every morning, with the intracoastal practically to themselves. But as they say, “you don’t know if you don’t go.”
Taking Things For Granted
Nicaragua, May 2022. A week long surf trip was as good as it gets for the soul, but one morning my buddy and I snuck away to see if we could tug on some fish. As we walked down the beach at Playa Gigante, we were greeted with this sight and it stopped me in my tracks. The things we take for granted. We do it on a daily basis without notice, but in reality the things that seem so simple to us are, more often than not, someone else’s means to survive. It’s incredible to experience other cultures, and I’m always grateful for the reminder to keep a level head.
