Large Metal Wave Photos

Three’s Bar and Grill located in Kihei, Maui has several of my wave prints in their bar. Some of these prints are as large as 40 x 90″ with a floating frame option.

A few months back, I nearly died (again)…

A few months ago when the waves were pumping up country (North Shore) I was out shooting in the water. The waves were so big it wasn’t very good to photograph and too dangerous to be in the water. I’ve learned over the years it’s not how big the waves are to get a nice photo, it’s how clean and glassy the wave is.
So after I get out of the water I start shooting some shore breaks, no one is foolish enough to be in the water at this size but I’m just one of those guys that just don’t care how big it is as long as I feel I can get a good shot. I remove my fins because they are starting to fill up with sand and rocks and it’s getting very uncomfortable to wear. These fins were not mine, I borrowed them since I left my pair in Maui. I noticed these pairs of fins had shoestrings attached to them for keeping the fins on your feet. I removed the shoestring and tied it to my water housing and double knotted it to my wrist, I did this because the waves were just too big and it would rip out of my hands and since I typically don’t wear a lease on my wrist since I tend to switch hands back and forth. I decided to use the shoe string to keep the water housing from ripping out of my hands and getting lost. I figured I was safe with no fins since I’m only going right on the sand and I wouldn’t be going out into the water too deep. Keep in mind the waves are about 15 feet right on shore and I’m the dumb guy with no fins on and a heavy waterhousing double knotted to my wrist.

After about 4 minutes of shooting, a massive wave came and just knocked me of my feet. The current is so strong that if you don’t have fins it’s impossible to fight it, you’re getting sucked out into the ocean no matter what. I got sucked out and was getting slammed by set after set of 10ft+ foot waves. What’s worse was that my housing was pulling me down and I was swallowing water. I’ve been in bad situations many times but at this point I felt helpless, the only thing you can do is not panic and try to stay calm, very hard to do when these waves are just holding you down and you are being pulled down at the same time by a heavy housing. I came to a point where I started to black out because of lack of oxygen. Finally, a wave pushed me in close enough to make it out. I was lucky (again)….

This is the wave that nearly killed me but sucking me out into the ocean.

It was a dangerous but good lesson for me, sometimes I feel I’m so experienced that I can handle almost any situations but obviously this is not the case, I got lucky. I’m a very experienced swimmer, I swam competitively in high school and college. I also have bodysurfed heavy waves for more than half my life, I was a lifeguard for 4 years while in high school and college but all that goes out the window, anyone can get caught off guard and sucked out into the ocean but how you handle the situation is when the experience comes in. Most people drown because they panic and they don’t think clearly, it’s easier said than done, I can sit here typing “be calm when you get into a tough situation out in the water,” but it’s a completely different story when you’re actually experiencing it. I admit I nearly panicked, I started to black out and I was thinking ‘damn, I can’t believe how stupid I was and now I’m going to die.’. Again, I got very lucky. If I was a cat, I definitely used up more than my 9 lives out in the ocean, too many close calls but as I’ve said to everyone in my life, no matter the danger, this is my passion and I will continue to do it until I die. I just have to learn from my stupidity and make better decisions to minimize the risk.

I swear I was one of the first people to mount a GoPro on my waterhousing when GoPro first came out. I never saw anyone who had that before I did, but a few months later everyone had it on their housing. Of course I can say I started the trend, but it’s probably not so.. Anyways, with that being said, I’ve been into videos longer than photography. I use FCP and have all the latest software. GoPro even did a shoutout of my video on their FB page a few months ago..

Basically, when a nice wave is about to roll in, I hit the record button on my GoPro which is mounted on top of my housing. I record videos then later convert this into a super slow motion video. In order to get the full effect of this, you really need to have a camera that has a high FPS recording feature. Luckily, the GoPro 3 is pretty badass and it can record 240 FPS, which makes it easier to convert into a very slow motion video as you will see here.

This is slowed down to around 1,000 FPS. It’s not as good as those $100,000 phantom cameras they have, but hell, it does a pretty damn good job for a few hundred dollars. I can’t wait to start making more videos of some sick shore breaks when it’s double overhead…. In the meantime, enjoy this video I took in Ixtapa Mexico last month. The heartbeat sounds you hear is my camera shooting still shots. I’ve included the photos for this footage below the video. It’s a great combination, video and photos…

When I first arrived to Zhihuatanejo, Mexico last month I was a little disappointed. I read so many blogs and articles about how great this place would be. So my wife and I decided to end our 30 day trip at Capella Hotel in Ixtapa, Mexico. This place was amazing. However, the places that were recommended to me while staying here was not good. The water clarity was not the greatest and I had a lot of scary encounters with BIG fishes bumping into me. When I say BIG fishes, I mean a school of hundreds of large fishes slamming into you while you’re all alone in murky water for 5-10 minutes non-stop. It was pretty freaky since it’s never happened to me before. This happened at a beach not too far from the hotel called Playa Linda.

On my third day in Ixtapa, I decided to try a new break called Jetties. When I got here in the morning I couldn’t believe my eyes. The waves were perfect, the clarity was crystal clear, and the winds were offshore. Best of all, there were only 2-3 people in the water, I was in heaven!

I met a lot of cool people here and we became friends. I took thousands of photos for the next 3 days at this spot. I even managed to use my GoPro3 and slowed the footage down quite a bit take a look below. Overall, I’m very happy I found this break. The wave hits off the jetties (hence the name) and creates a nice barrel that pitches and A frames. I am definitely going back here and the wife stayed at the hotel getting pampered, what a wonderful experience.

On rare occasions I’m able to be in the ocean with perfect lighting, glassy conditions and all alone. The reason why it’s so difficult is because of several reasons:
(1) The conditions have to be good, that means not too windy otherwise it will not make for good photos underwater.

(2) There has to be some waves, if it’s flat obviously it will not photograph well since there will be nothing to photograph.

(3) lighting has to be perfect so that means you have to time when the light hits the beach. In this situation, I wait for the sun to rise over the mountains and hit the water precisely when I’m in the water. This causes the great contrast from light and dark.

(4) Good sandbar – no reef

(5)  Not crowded (preferably no one in the water).

(6) Clear / Blue water. Some places in Maui have very fine and dirt/sand.

(7) There are many other factors involved, I just can’t think of them at this moment but it will probably come to me after I log off. I just know that in the 6 years of shooting in beaches around the world, it’s rare to find a beach that have all the above conditions. With all of those conditions it’s still extremely difficult to photograph a keeper.

Good luck and please email me any questions you may have.

My kickstarter trip was a success, thanks to you all!

Thanks for all my backers, fans and friends who helped this trip be successful. The trip literally costs us around 30k or more, we did not anticipate plac

I’m attaching a few photos from the trip, there were literally thousands of photos to go through but choosing and narrowing it down to 20-25 images was the most challenging. If you have any questions about anything, feel free to contact me. Otherwise all of these images will be available for purchase very soon.
Here is the full link to view the gallery  http://smu.gs/14QfMzL

 Tulum, Mexico

Some of the clearest waters I´ve ever been in. The people in Tulum were so friendly, very much like Hawaii. We were here during the Mayan calendar ending of Dec 21, 2012. In fact, I actually swam out to their sacred El Castillo Pyramid during the sunrise on 12-21-12.

The park was not open and swimming here was strictly prohibited. I quickly seen by the guards on duty and was flagged to swim back to the public beach. I was able to snap a few shots. The photo here was taken 2 days later when I was allowed to legally be there.

CONTEST – 2 Wave Photo Giveaways

Aloha guys, I’m doing a contest to promote my sister’s new Fan Page called Asia Trends. I’m going to be giving away a two – 12×18 Wave Photo on Metallic Paper (highest quality) mounted on a 2mm board signed and shipped anywhere in the world. Her website is IonAsiaTrend.

It’s easy to qualify, just follow my sister’s page Asia Trends. I will randomly pick two winners next Friday Oct 26th 7pm HST. There has to be at least 100 followers from this contest so please tell your friends about it. Also, this is the larger high quality prints I’m using for this contest, please do not follow then unfollow to just qualify, that would be rude. If you are interested in Asian trends, or Food, Travel, even beauty advice, then follow her and have a chance to win a signed photo.

You can tell I love my sister very much and thank you for following her.

So After Shooting an epic day last weekend on Saturday at North Shore. I go back the following day hoping it would be just as good.  Unfortunately, it was not. However, just as I was leaving the beach I noticed a crowd gather around near shore. I walked over and saw a large black fin sticking out of the water, I’m thinking, “cool maybe it’s a small shark and I can go in and photograph it” (I really would too, I promise). But then I realize it was a stingray. In fact, it was a family of stingrays.
Luckily, I had my camera in my hand and fins available. I quickly swam towards the rays and started shooting. They were pretty fast but I kept up and kept my distance. I noticed when I got too close the mother (big one) slowed down and stuck her tail up. I had a mental image of Steve Irwin and his unfortunate accident which caused his death. I quickly backed off.

The experience was awesome, I just had to share a couple of the images I was able to get. Mahalo – Kenji

You can only shoot so many wave photos before they all start looking similar at the same location. You can either do two things, the first would be go to a different location and shoot in different  or you can shoot at the same place and be creative. I chose the latter…

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