Omar the pro photographer...some shots

Saturday March 31, 2012

Omar, our pro photographer friend, took some recent shots at Belmont

It was an interesting day on Tuesday when Omar (http://omarnazif.smugmug.com/) came to the beach with his camera. There was a latino video being shot on the ramp and one of the guys was throwing potato chips in the air trying to get the seagulls in the shot. That's what this is??

As an amateur photographer I found it interesting Omar calling out to me "Hey Jim look over here." I'll file this away to be used on all of you on the beach this summer.

I have to thank Klaus for this shot. I remember taking one of him dragging his left hand in the water. When Omar was pointing his camera at me I thought "I'm going to try this." It worked.

Omar has an amazing eye as you can see in the gallory of pictures on his web site. He was able to get the only jump I could actually pull off. The wind was pretty low and this was as good as it got.

A few days prior Omar came down and shot my son Dan and his friend David at Belmont.

This shot of Dan in the clouds is fantastic. Double click on it to make it full screen.

These are all kite tricks Dan can do. A back roll

Big air.

An over the shoulder.

This is David doing a one handed extension.

And a rail grab.

Lastly, there has been no wind for the past two days so Ruth decided it was time for Spring Cleaning. Tonight we finally got the Dining Room and Living Room re-arranged and cleaned. Yes even I have had to learn how to operate a vacuum cleaner and a dust rag. All is good :)

Sunday is great again, and the week was good too

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Clearing winds hit Long Beach again. This makes two Sundays in a row. We have also had a great week of kiting. Five out of the past seven days.

Check it out, another un-real kite day.

Dan arrived at the house around 11:30 and was ready to kite. Ruth and I on the other hand were only on our second cup of coffee. And we had most of the Sunday Times to go. WHAT??? I'm a diehard as long as it's warm and wonderful. OK, I'm spoiled.

Then I started feeling guilty that Dan was down there with no support group. As I walked across Ocean Blvd. I thought I saw Dan walking up the beach. Up, there he was after a meer two and a half hours heading for the launch ramp, in the rain.

I decided to cut acorss the sand because Dan was not walking that fast against the wind and rain. Go figure, it was about three and the wind graph was showing gust to 40 mph.

As I approached Dan I couldn't believe my eyes, there was a boat race going on in the middle of the bay, in raging wind. Good luck.

Dan got his lines wrapped up a;nd we headed for home. I cleared out the garage and hung up his kite to dry. There's always tomorrow.

As Dan and I headed for home I saw Kyle doing some outragious kite tricks very close to someone in the water. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out he was "performing" for a cameraman who was in waist high water with a GoPro type camera on the end of a stick. Hope the shots came out Kyle.

After we got home and Dan took off, Ruth and I headed to the beach to walk the dogs. The rain wasn't over but it was a fantastic sunset. Can't wait for tomorrow.

In closing I had to add this shot of the dogs. Left to right is Bebe, Harley and Lilly, Dan's new little puppy mix breed that he's had for a few weeks. They were a drip taking all three for a walk. Lilly is so curious so she runs from place to place checking everything out. Bebe and Harley in the mean time are just along for the ride..... or walk.

OMG.... it was over the top!!!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Today it blew like crazy...

Wow, check out those peaks. Over 40 mph.
Dan and I got down to the beach a little after 2. According to the graph the wind had come down a little, the peaks were only about 30 as opposed to over 40.

As you can tell from Dan's glasses it's the day after St. Patrick's Day. The plan today was to pump up the Best 10 and share it between us. Thanks Markus for taking a few shots with your iPhone today.
Everything was great on paper except Dan forgot the input valve for his kite so we had to improvise and hold a substitute by hand. It worked, but wasn't perfect.
After Dan I got Dan's kite in the air I ran home and got Ruth's camera and took a few shots. Here I'm hiding behind the lifeguard tower trying to get away from the flying sand.
As you can see from this shot Dan got out and had a good time for a while. Then all of a sudden his kite was in the waves and eventually on the sand. We dragged the sandy, wet mess up to our camp and Dan borrowed a kite from Henry and went out again. I was fine taking some pix.
At the end of the day we all had fun. Actually this whole week has been awesome because I was able to kite for the next four days in a row. FUN, FUN, FUN!!!

GREAT WEEK!!! The wind is coming back

Saturday March 17, 2012
It's St. Patrick's Day and the wind is coming back

Monday thru Thursday we had wind and today we had clearing winds.

Saturday, 3/17

Today Dan dropped by to see if I wanted to kite. Thanks but on thanks. I said I would come down and take a few pix.

When I arrived I ducked under the roof of the restroom to get out of the elements because it was raining. I wouldn't want to get my jacket or camera wet would I??
My son Dan and Lise Shippam waited for the wind to come back. When I went to RiteAid a few minutes earlier it was really howling. Now there's not so much wind.

Chad and Cloie walked up the beach. Maybe the wind quit on them. Right now there is very little wind to speak of.

Radco is leaving the building. He said he had been on the beach since about 11 and he was getting cold and tired.

Dan was able to get in one last ride before it was time to take time out for "Saint Patty's Day."

A couple of days ago my neighbor took this shot of me coming back from the beach. Thanks Nicki & Johnna :) Hope to see you soon.

So we were able to get out Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We could have gone out on Thursday but Dan and I had a neighborhood meeting. More on that later.

It just so happened that Omar brought his camera down on Wednesday. To check out some of his shots go to http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150635970938768.395769.628838767&type=1&l=dcc0036fef

The Big Rock is here

Wednesday March 7, 2012

The Big Rock is in Long Beach

I'm sure by this time you have heard of the huge bolder that LACMA is having transported to their museum on Wilshire Blvd. When Ruth heard it was going to be in Long Beach we had to go. This is the site as we drove up Atlantic Blvd. just north of the 405 freeway.

As you can see traffic was restricted to one lane in each direction, and both sides of the street were filled with on-lookers like us.

It actually took a little while getting by all of the people in order to get a good view of the rock.

I wish I had brought a step stool or a small ladder because I couldn't get a good shot with all of the people. It was estimated that there were about 20,000 visitors that day.

I was finally able to get Ruth and our two dogs, Harley and Bebe close enough to get them and the rock in the picture. Sorry Harley, your face is a little dark.

I finally got brave enough to walk in the street between signals to get the subject of all of this fuss. It doesn't seem that big now. Soon it will be on exhibit and I'll post those pictures when it happens.