Lightning - a new photographic experience

Thursday, 27 October. My Italian landlady, Annalise, her seven-year-old daughter, Poppy, and I had just gathered around the dinner table when the first, rather soft, yet impressing thunder and lightning occurred. We went outside and witnessed how both, thunder and lightning became more intense and impressive, at least for me that was. Annalise and Poppy must have felt the same way as Annalise suggested to take the car and drive up a nearby hill from where we could oversee the entire bay as well as the hinterland. So, I sensed that this could be a good opportunity to try a different area of photography. I rushed into my room, grabbed my camera bag, tripod and the fastest film roll there was (ISO 400) and within less than a minute we set out. When we arrived at the top of the hill, possibly five minutes later, it began to rain; of course. There I was, still sitting in the car, worrying about my camera equipment getting all wet. No need to say that at the same time I was quite excited about this intriguing photographic opportunity. Having been a dedicated admirer of MacGyver since my early childhood, I decided to use my simple, 100% cotton T-shirt to design a “water resistant casing” for my camera and I must have done well because despite the fact that I spent at least a quarter of an hour in the rain, the camera remained dry and I managed to take some frames too. So there I was, standing in the middle of the dark, topless, wearing nothing but my boardshorts and flip flops (or as the Australians say: thongs) – somebody should have taken a picture of that, I guess. Anyway, I have posted my favourites below. In order to totally appreciate especially Lightning 02 you are reminded that it was pitch black. I hope you enjoy the pictures. They are not award winners; yet for me it definitely was an interesting experience.

Sebastian

Lightning 01

Lightning 02

 

Chloe - Little did I know ...

Little did I know when I took this picture at Bondi Beach in Sydney. A friend kindly brought an article to my attention on which this post is based upon. The following story is very touching and sad. Unfortunately its subject matter has made the news again; I am referring to the latest Bali Bombings from 1 October 2005.
The mural represents an “emotional work of art” which helps a grieving father to deal with the death of his 15-year-old daughter, Chloe Byron; she died in the Bali Bombings in October 2002. The picture of Chloe is one of many murals which can be found along the boardwalk of Bondi Beach. The idea for the mural came from Chloe’s father, David, who looked at the other pictures and thought that “it would be nice to have a picture of Chloe” at their favourite surf break. He approached the council and got on to an artist and the result can be seen in the picture I took. David taught his daughter how to surf when she was eight years old. He said that he feels “she is still surfing beside him”. When David is out in the water on Bondi Beach he can look to the sand and see the mural of his daughter. A flower prettifies her hair; when she surfed she wore a flower in her hair. As a committed father David renews the flowers by the mural every day and apparently tells his daughter about the surf that day.

The story about Chloe and my taking of the picture is an interesting “coincidence of life”, at least for me. When I took the picture I did not know any of the above. Yet, somehow I did feel the sadness evolving from the mural and I can clearly remember thinking if it was “just” a piece of art or if it had a deeper meaning. There was something about Chloe’s face lighting up the rather dull day and which inspired me to capture it on film. It is interesting how life sometimes explains itself at a later stage. Now that I know the background of the mural, it makes me appreciate my picture even more.

Sebastian

The perfect 5 minutes

The last three days have been really bad for surfing. The wind was blowing from the wrong direction so that any attempt to even get half a wave failed miserably. This morning I woke up early and instead of the usual 20-minute walk to Tallow beach with my surfboard tucked under my arm, I decided to go for a short run and check out the waves. After having dragged my body, which was still half asleep, up two steep hills I arrived at the beach and yes, surfing seemed possible. All over sudden I could feel this rush inside, adrenaline started pumping through my veins - I ran back to my house, had quick breakfast, took my board and set out.

When I arrived at the beach, the water was already well-crowded. Feeling a bit more comfortable on my board, I decided to walk up the beach and find a more remote surf-break. The first contact with the water made me realise that it was still morning and that I only wore a springsuit (short arms and legs, 2mm). An hour into the surf I paddled a bit further out to get out of the zone where the waves break and where you do not want to be unless you want to get on the wave. After a little while I spotted about ten dolphins at a distance of approximately ten metres which I had done before. What made this time different was the fact that the dolphines were swimming not alongside the beach but towards it, keeping their distance though. Then I lost their sight but not for long. Out of the blue (literally) three dolphins appeared inbetween me and the beach, right in front of my surfboard. They were so close that I could almost touch them. And the beauty of it was that I was alone in the water. All the other surfers were 'fighting' for the waves futher to my right. For these 5 to 10 seconds the world to me was perfect. The encounter with the dolphins had already made my day but more was still to come...the next wave I attempted to take, I paddled really hard, positioned myself well, mounted smoothly on my board, took all the speed of the wave down to the bottom of the wave where I did a smooth bottom turn and surfed up the wave, turned my board again back down the wave, regained new speed down to the bottom and surfed the wave across until there was only whitewater left...it almost felt like I was one with the wave for this ride. As an experienced windsurfer, skate- and snowboarder, I can tell that this feeling was unique as in no other boardsport I do there is a constantly moving element. But at the same time the feeling was familiar in a sense that one only truely appreciates these moments as a beginner when they happen for the very first time, be it the first time that you glide in the footstraps as a windsurfer, or nailing that trick you have been practising for months as a skateboarder or be it the first time you drop into an untouched field of powder snow as a snowboarder. For these moments everything makes sense and you leave with this glow in your eyes and a big smile on your face...

Aloha, Seb.

SYD-Darling Harbour

Not so lonely Skateboarder