Giles Shaxted

So last weekend The Skate park and surf park had their grand opening. Tony Hawk and other (unknown to me) Skaters showed up, I am gonna work out who they are sooner or later if you know from the piccies let me know. Anyway I had a blast. I got some what I think are nice photos for my first attempt (and probably last) to shoot proffesional skaters. It is probably one of the most fun types of photography I have ever tried. Either way Here is a link to the piccies and of course a few more attached. (more…)

Well as of the last few weeks I have been having a great time .. I can lay all this down to a few things .. Peters Birthday .. Marks Birthday .. and hanging out with Heather late night beach talking. Peter and Jays Birthdays will come and go .. Heather has gone however so I will have to miss out on what was there for the short period of time ..

Considering I carry my camera around almost all the time I really haven’t been taking many photos which I need to get back into doing .. start me off slow and build up big .. actually going through Heather’s photos has inspired me to take more .. even though I go manic while Alex is down .. I seem to just get lame the rest of the time .. I know I go through spits and spats of taking photos .. and it’s probably best for my hard drive that I don’t go strong the whole time ..

Anyways .. the photos are from the nights out the last few weeks .. I am sure I will see some more that other people took soon from Alex and Heather who were both snapping away on various nights too. One comment on the photos .. you won’t see many I put online of me kissing guys … and the birthday kiss Jay got or forced upon me will not be making it up onto my site .. Jay gets affectionate when he drinks .. and from the photo apparently so do I !

Why didn’t anyone tell me that my journal looks like shit in Internet Explorer !!

Does everyone use firefox ?

Do you like looking at fucked up websites?

when did this happen I am sure it was fine when I left the UK .. what did i mess with that changed it … AG AG AG .. I am not in the mood to fix it and as those of you that are seeing it messed up I have two thigns to say to you .. GET FIREFOX .. theres a link down on the right .. second … TELL ME ! I may fix it soon … my head just isn’t there today ..

.. on the bright side of life I just met someone who is making me very happy to get to know them .. well I have known them for a while .. but I am getting to really know them now … just a shame she is leaving the island for a while on monday .. timing is everything .. isn’t that what comedians say ?

Alex has over the last year or so gotten me in the water during happy hour many times, even with the elements often being against us either through weather or dive shops closing. Todays day of diving is cancelled as we have a Norwester on our hands .. boo hoo.
Anyway .. our dusk dive last night was a very awesome dive, mostly due to Alex’s eyes but there was so much going on .. almost too much. We were in the water for fish spawning as normal, after the last few times of watching and learning their behaviour the process of photographing it became ever easier especially with the SLR capabilities of the D60. There were not many hamlets around, many Rock Beauty’s and also quite a few butterfly fish .. all of which have a very noticeable courtship process. Eden Rock the reef we were at had so many fish on it though that at first it seemed to be putting off some of the mating fish, however they soon became unaware and went about their business. The odd thing is for the first time of doing this dusk diving photography other fish were getting in the shot .. I’d often get a blurry blue chromis flying past in the background .. looks cool but takes away from the object of the photo. At the same time a very friendly turtle cam up to play and it is the second time I have touched a turtle and let me enhance this wording for you by saying rather the turtle touched me. Once in the east end a turtle came up and literally shook my hand .. a breath taking moment that was ruined by a moron of a diver who grabbed the turtle and started throwing it around. I won’t get into that story but there was some unpretty scenes afterwards between myself and him.
This turtle did exactly the same thing .. and I didn’t notice until looking through my view finder he was too close to photograph with my macro lense on.
The highlight of the dive for me though was the great shots of the hamlets I got followed by a wicked Flying Gunnard right as we were finishing up our safety stop before exit.
Mucho thanks of course goes out to Dave and Paul at Eden Rock for being good friends who comp us on our diving on a regular basis.