Normally by the time the weekend comes, I’m exhausted from work and just looking forward to being able to sleep in. There’s no time for rest in the winter though, with mostly cloudy skies and ENE wind on the forecast, the day started early for me. Right at the crack of dawn, I stared out my window and saw a familiar faint pink glow on the horizon. I call this the pre-burn, where the sunrise colors would appear, fade, and suddenly become intense. About 12 minutes before sunrise, I paced back and forth in my room debating whether I should run out with the camera or just launch the drone from my back porch. I decided to fly so I could get a good angle in case there were only partial colors. As I got to the outside bar, I noticed groomed peaks and said “god damn, it’s good”. The entire sky lit up, the sea turned pink and purple. The color only lasted for less than a minute and a half before it started to fade. Not too long after, the sky and water was completely drab.

The day had just begun. As the tide dropped throughout the morning, clean, lined up A frames were making it’s way from the depths. A good size crowd developed at Moraga, where it was less walled out. I headed up to the top of the hill as bigger sets hitting double overhead+ appeared. I almost exhausted my memory card within an hour. I was worried about the overcast lighting, but at times the sun almost pierced through the thick layer of clouds, giving my photos a gloomy tone. Today was one for the books.

Dropping tide, barely a breeze, sand bars and barrels, not a bad Friday evening.

I spend almost every night staring at a computer screen. It’s much easier to sit comfortably at home than to plan a trip, pack, and drive 10 hours to an interesting location. At the end of the day though, I’m more content with the latter. There simply is no substitute to be sitting around a campfire, being surrounded by trees and stars, and sharing stories with people who you don’t see often. Did I mention there was no cell service or electricity, or even running water that night? So much of what we do with our electronic devices doesn’t matter in reality. Yes, we can live without all these amenities and conveniences, we don’t need to be in constant communication with the world 24/7, or have to share every moment of our lives. I know that myself still succumbs to this digital world, but I said I can forgo it, at least for one night.

See you in the morning.

We made it. Not a single cloud or signs of smoke in the sky. Read more about the journey in my updated Oregon Gallery.

No expectations.

I took two of my good friends to see and photograph the Milky Way. We set up camp, ate dinner, then started the hike up the peak as the sun went down. The darker the sky turned, the more stars started to appear. By the time we got to the top, we could already see the Milky Way span across the lake. It was brightest and more prominent near the horizon. I want to thank one of my co-workers for letting me borrow his lens, which had a much larger maximum aperture than mine allowing more light to enter the sensor. See the slight purple/magenta glow? My eyes lit up as I saw that on the back of my camera.

My first time shooting Sandys beach was back in 2015. I was wearing booties so my fins would stay on my feet, but with the sand flushing in, it was no longer tolerable. While rinsing off in the parking lot, Marcus came up and said hi. He saw the sand pouring out of my booties and said “oh yeah, you don’t want to do that, the sand will grind up your feet”. I asked him where I can get some new DaFins, and he happily pointed me to a shop just a few minutes away. I was able to get a new better fitting pair of fins and go out the next day. Little did I know he was a local bodysurfing legend, I got a few sequences and shared it with him. I keep looking forward to the next time I go back to the island, already knowing I’ll run into him again. It’s easy to notice how he was always looking out for others and sharing nothing but good vibes in and out of the lineup. It is with a heavy heart, to know he caught his final wave this morning. Aloha, my friend, we’ll all miss you.

It snowed heavily the night before. I knew if I wanted to photograph white-out condition this was a good chance. I chose one of the highways that cross the Sierra that I’ve never driven on before, hit up my friend and said we gotta go. I planned for the worst, knowing many roads would not be cleared for vehicles to drive through. We had to cross an unexpected frightening section of road that was icy and caused us to slide downhill. We immediately put on chains and carefully proceeded up in altitude. Before we knew it, we reached a winter wonderland.

No expectations.