The Sri Lanka adventure is over, I'm sat in the Colombo airport coffee shop, it's 5:15a.m. We got up at 2:30a.m because our flight was supposed to be at 6:00a.m. It's 1.5hours late. So we could of stayed in bed until 4:00a.m. Which would have been nice. Anyhoose. Blighty beckons. Enjoy the vid... iPad users click here for the Vimeo page where the vid will play fine.
They're big on karma in these parts. A theory that basically distills down to 'do good things and good things will happen to you and vice versa.' I don't subscribe to any particular religious philosophy but I do always have karma in the back of my mind. So when I rescued a washed up jellyfish yesterday I thought I was a little bit in credit with Mother Nature.
Skip to this morning when I was shooting particularly average A-Bay from the water; a wave with much potential but yet to really come to the party this trip. All was going well even though the surf wasn't quite right, the dawn light was lovely, the wind favourable and the swell had built over night. It felt like time to get some decent photos finally.
I was wrong. Turns out the jellyfish I rescued wanted to say thanks, it did this by casually drifting up to me and giving me a big hug, right around my throat. I responded to the insane pain of being stung in the throat by an adult jelly by punching it off. Net result- stings all over my knuckles as well. If you've never been stung by a jelly it's like a nettle sting turned up to 11, or a really good scald, end result is that tight burning pain you know is going to linger for hours… On the plus side this was a really good time to find out I'm not allergic to jellyfish stings.
Anyhoose. Karma can do one.
Enjoy the little film. iPad users click here for the video page.
So. I is in Sri Lanka innit. Where it is about 1˚ cooler than the surface of the sun. I'm sweating in places I didn't even know existed. The only time of day where you are not sweating is dawn, but cos the island is close to the equator the sun rises fast and it makes an audible swooshing noise as it flies upwards. The waves thus far (have been here since Sunday night) haven't been too hot, but a good swell is brewing. Check the vid for the skinny... iPad users click here for the vid.
Finally bitten the bullet with Vimeo and upgraded to their plus service so from now on videos will be in HD, better quality when run small like here but also means you can hit the full screen button for a more TV like experience. Here's a little test run where I also dicked around with a slo-mo technique. If only it was so simple as dragging a slider in iMovie... (For you mobile internet types the YouTube version is after the jump)-
So I'm learning how to do film with me Canon 7D, I was shooting last week with Stoker and after I got some shots in the bag got a few clips at the end of the sesh... Still in the experimental phase...
Good to see the British surf film scene isn't dead, even though there's more money to be made working down Maccy D's. Check out the trailer after the jump-
Am really digging these A Face For Radio clips by Chase Burns. It's a simple concept just showing slices of Bali life and some high octane shredding. Last ep had Ben Short and Ozzie, this ones got Ben, Riz, Kolohe Andino and some fella called Josh Kerr who like Taj is kind of second homing it on the dream isle. The Plastic Beach tie in gives it a nice enviromental punch as well, it maybe paradise but there's still shit on the beach... Clip after the jump-
Sometimes when you bimbling around the net (not surfing, anyone that says they are going to 'surf the net' needs a swift punch to the nose, 'loafing,' 'queefing,' 'lazing' and 'bungling' are all fine adjectives for the act of sitting on your arse staring at a screen) you come across little gems made by young film makers who are unleashing their creativity with the new era of video enabled SLRs... Chase Burns is one of them. Check his Ozzie clip out...
I heart Dane. He is definitely my favourite surfer (unless Parko is on fire). So here's a nice lil clip of him around his Ventura homelands doing some fine wheelies and big hackage. Clip after ze jump-
