Luke Zippi Florida 2A Diving Champion

I haven't used this blog in a while but I post photos and YouTube videos regularly. So check out those website for up to date galleries.

This posting highlights a local high school athlete whom I photographed and videotaped back during the 2009 high school swimming/diving season.

I met Luke Zippi at the Cape Coast Conference Diving Competition at Rockledge High School back in October where he took 1st place at the event. He continued his dominance in diving at district and regionals and went on to take first place at state taking the 2009 Florida 2A Division Championship. Luke attends Viera High school.

Additional photos of the CCC event are here.


Here is a video of the top 6 finishers is here .

Congratulations Luke!

Balaram Stack 10.0 x 3

Lightning in a Bottle

To see lightning strick is an amazing coincidence of being in the
right place at the right time. At the NSSA Easterns, I saw lightning
strick. Not once, not twice, but three times.

Lightning being a 10.0 surfing score. And the same surfer, Balaram Stack, scored all three. The first occurance was on Saturday during an open heat. I shot the sequence but I saw nothing but water. Sure he came out of the tube. But was it really a 10.0?

The next time was the following day. I was in a position to photograph him during the experience. Once again, a 10.0. This time I agreed with the judges.

I asked Balaram to pose for two pictures. One with 10 fingers extended, and one with his arms crossed (a Roman numeral 10).

A half hour later, he went out in the Air Show competition and scored his third 10.0 of the competition.

I wanted to ask him to pose again: this time with his 10 toes, 10 fingers and arms crossed. But I didn't press my luck. He still had one heat left, and how many times
can you go back to the well?

Well done, Balaram!

Melbourne Downtown 5K: Cory and Noah

I shot photos and video at the Melbourne Downtown 5k Run. Two athletes from Cocoa Beach Jr/Sr High finished well in their age group. Cory Sayeau took 1st in the Boys 11-14 and Noah Jacouvitz took 2nd in Boys 15-19. Good job!

Additional photos are available here. Orders can be placed here.

Red Bull Rider Cup

I photographed the Red Bull Rider's Cup action in Cocoa Beach Friday afternoon. Satellite High beat Cocoa Beach High. The team consisted on Tommy Orsini, Pete Polanski, Chad Ellingham, Chris Tucker, TR Clark and Zack Edwards and was coached by George Seguna.

They used radio communication with the coach on the beach.

Photos are are icunphotos.com

Morning rumble

The tranquility of the morning was distrubed at 432am when a Delta II rocket carrying a GPS satellite blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Surfer Weston Williams

I met Weston last spring at the NSSA Eastern Championship at Sebastian Inlet. He is from North Carolina. Today he surfed in the Rip-Pics Spring Classic surf contest. He reached the finals in Boys 13-15 as well as the Stand Up Paddle competition.

Good job, Weston!

Other photos are at icunphotos.com

Vinny - A Character on the Court

Today's shout out goes to Vinny Guttaduaro of Satellite. While he does not have the court stills of a Roddick or Nadal, he has the boyish charm to make you laugh. His career path should take him far in acting or comedy.

Many athletes are dedicated and focused and easily distracted by a photographer like
myself. So I try to act like a barfly and be inconspicuous. Not so with Vinny. He asked me to take his picture. He told me what he was going to try. Be it a Ninja serve or a between the legs return (aka a ball buster). He warned his opponent by saying something like "I'm a home run hitter". I heard that second hand from some of the dedicated team mates, who got a good laugh out of it.

Life is short. Play
hard. If you can't do something well, then accept and enjoy what you have a passion for.

I think Vinny would do well in one of my indie short spoof movies. I wonder if he an remember lines?

FMPTA with Emmy Winner Roger Miller

Roger and Me

Carrol, Roger and Bill

Florida Gators and Roger.
I attended the Space Coast Chapter of the Florida Motion Picture and Television Association in Cocoa Beach Monday night. Guest speaker was Roger Miller who has won several Emmy and now is retired in Florida. He spoke of his career and the changing industry and was gracious enough to pose for photos with members.

Additional photos are here.

Enzian Film Slam

Eric Thompson


David Bermejo


Alex Wolfe

I attended the Enzian Film Slam #3 Sunday in Winter Park. I played paparazzi and photographed the film makers. Three that I enjoyed were The Perils of College by Eric Thomas, Bedhead featuring music by James Whitaker, Directed and produced by David Bermejo, and Midnight Cycle by David Wolf (no web site available).

Additional photos are here

Stingray Shuffle @ the Zoo

I shot photos and video of the Brevard Zoo 3k race on Saturday. Chris Rego of Florida State U. won leading his closest competition by over 45 seconds. I interviewed Chris and his brother, Kevin, after the race. Kevin, from Viera High finished a respectible 6th in his age bracket.
The 3k meandered through the zoo grounds. Now I wish I would have added some humor and had Chris say "Its amazing how fast you can run when wild animals are chasing you!"

YouTube of run with interview is here

I tried to add the Meters song "The All Asked for you" but they bagged me for piracy, so I had to strip off the soundtrack.

Additional photos are here.

Larger than Life

Tasha Drazich has created a masterpiece in her larger than life sculpture of the surfing legend Kelly Slater. I met Tasha in the spring 2008 when the mini-me prototype statue was presented to the Cocoa Beach city commission. Since then, I took photos and videos of the early stage of the larger than life statue. I created a short documentary to be used for fundraisers. It was displayed at a Surfrider Movie night in June 2008. It was shown at the Enzian Film Slam in August 2008. It took first place in documentaries at the 2008 Melbourne Independent Filmmakers Festival.

The statue is almost ready for bronzing. Follow the progress at thekellyslaterproject.com.

Up and coming surfers

Several times a week I venture out with my camera looking for rising stars. They could be athletes, actors, singers. My venue typically is a surfing contest, high school sporting event, or musical performance. Sorta like the movie Almost Famous.

Last weekend I covered an NSSA surf contest.

Some of my favorites are Sam Duggan, Patrick Nichols and Noah Dovin