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