Josh Gordon

labour day weekend surf/storm - september 2010

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 14:21:00 -0400

last week i noticed there was a big cold front coming through for the labour day weekend. i knew this would bring surf and cold temperatures. unfortunately the wind was more west then north which made things big, burly, and choppy. i shot some photos each day as the front moved through.

saturday was the biggest day, with the provincial police trying to shut down the beach due to the amount of swimming drownings this year in big waves. we went out later on saturday with some eerie skies, then noticing a giant waterspout a few kilometers down the beach. after a beer night at the local pub with all the local, and out-of-town surfers, sunday was a better, cleaner day. we spent the majority of the day at the beach fighting the rip-current and catching some waves. i was hoping to get up this morning for an early paddleboard session for day 4, but it was flat. it’s all good though; fall made it’s appearance pretty fast, and that means surf season has arrived.

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

i recently got a new 9’6” fish stand up paddleboard with a quad...

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:45:53 -0400

i recently got a new 9’6” fish stand up paddleboard with a quad fin setup. i got it made by Bob from Fishstick Surfboards in Toronto with the sole purpose of riding waves with it. a week ago i got out on it for the first time, along with my new gopro HD camera. i’ll be posting more videos of recent surf sessions soon

bruce peninsula underwater adventure

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 16:46:00 -0400

my friend Zac and i went up to the bruce peninsula a couple weeks ago for some camping, stand up paddleboarding, and snorkeling. we woke up at dawn, went down to an outlet we scoured on google maps, attached our gear to our SUP’s, and took off down the cliffs. we anchored our boards on some rocks and dove in. the water is notoriously clear there, and has sinkholes more than 400 ft. deep. if you go bring a suit, cause it’s definitely not warm there.

here’s the photos from the morning, as well as some other randoms from the same area shot 2 weeks before.

a little wildlife

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 16:59:12 -0400

there was a bat sleeping under a mat i had on my deck - i didn’t know this and moved the mat. it was about 9am, very sunny and bright, and it was going absolutely nuts. it landed in a nearby tree so i started shooting photos of it. the bat didn’t like this because i was close. it snarled it’s fangs at me, and immediately after i shot this photo it flew straight at me in attack mode. i obviously flailed my arms around like a little girl, but i don’t care.

the chipmunk on the other hand absolutely rules.

it's been a while.....

Wed, 12 May 2010 17:37:00 -0400

….since i’ve posted anything. i’ve been surfing a lot since i got home from panama, but not taking any pictures of it. lake huron has been real good to me so far in 2010. i figured i’d try to make up for it and shoot some photos this past weekend during a big wind storm that came through.

the long-lens shots are from saturday when it was an absolute washing machine out there. a couple guys were out surfing, but i wasn’t that desperate. you can see the size that was generated by the 60KM winds. the fisheye shots are from a stand up paddle session we had sunday morning; catching the cleaner leftovers from saturday. the water is warming up…already 39°F!

Panama Pt 2...

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 19:58:00 -0400

for my second weekend in Panama, i went to the San Blas Islands. i had read about this area in a travel magazine 5 years ago, and promised myself i would go there one day. this place is the whole reason i came to Panama, and it didn’t disappoint. San Blas was the epitome of paradise. i had always dreamt about being alone on an uninhabited tropical atoll in the middle of no where - and 3 weeks ago my dream came true. i sailed on a yacht for a few days exploring, and snorkeling by myself on remote reefs. i saw tons of fish, beautiful coral again, and some species i had never seen. with bath like water temperatures and miles and miles of reef, the snorkeling was the best i have ever done.

to be sitting on a 30 square foot island with just a few palm trees all to yourself is priceless. this was something i will never forget

Panama Pt 1...

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:41:00 -0400

i recently went on a trip to Panama. it was the first time i had ever traveled solo, so i knew it was going to be an adventure. i had a lot of fun, met a lot of people, and saw things i had only dreamt about. these first shots are from Bocas Del Toro, and a couple from Panama City. Bocas was nice, but it rained for 6 days straight, out of my 7 there. Panama City was a pretty cool city; and i’ve been to a lot of large cities. i ended up seeing Metallica while i was there, which was great. they had never been to Panama City before, so the electricity in the air was thick. definitely an amazing experience. this also gave me an opportunity to try out my new PT-E06 waterhousing. it took a while to get used too, as i had never shot underwater photography before. i still have a lot to learn, but it got me so excited about doing more underwater shoots in the future. i think it’s my new fav style of photography

anyways, here’s the first set of photos from my first week….

death threat & trapped under ice @ poor alex - feb 12th

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:28:00 -0500

i saw death threat and trapped under ice last friday in toronto at the poor alex theater. the show was put on by stuck in the city and turned out to be amazing. i hadn’t seen death threat since 2003 and trapped under ice are always amazing. unfortunately i messed up most of my TUI shots so that’s why they’re B&W and over-exposed. duhhhhhhhhhh

“…and every saturday night, you know it’s…..”

TUI

DEATH THREAT

ice cave - jan 16th, 2010

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:05:00 -0500

winter is in full effect.

i was driving along a beach here and saw a big ice cave from the road. the ice is thick, and the water is shallow there; so i climed out to the ice and took some snapshots of it. the cave was big enough to sit a couple people in.. and i thought it looked pretty cool.

frozen rail jam - dec. 18th @ blue mtn.

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:41:28 -0500

i snapped some photos on saturday at frozen rail jam, in some serious dumpy light. i was waiting to finally shoot something with this fisheye. a lot of good snowboarding & skiing went down and the amount of groms killing it impressed the hell out of me.

first big winter storm of 09...

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:39:00 -0500

we got hit with the first storm of the season last week. at one point every road around me was closed, and as you can see from the pictures below there were some treacherous driving conditions. with 60km-80km winds stirring up lake huron for 3 days, came some waves that were spectacular yet blown out and massive. i didn’t see anyone out surfing; and you can’t blame them. there was no outside, just curling monster waves as far as you could see. i took these photos of the pier before and after work for 2 days in a row. i have never seen waves explode over the end like it was on those days. in a couple of the pics it has to be 20-30 ft in the air.

I like to call this one, “you ain’t in Maryland anymore”

sorry about the lack of posts lately. i have thankfully kept up with photography and recently picked up an olympus 8mm fisheye, and a fl36 wireless flash unit. i’m saving up for the waterhousing and lens port. she will be mine; oh yes, she will be mine.

the daily commute...

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:32:32 -0500

i drive past these two every day on my way to work. they’re pretty funny; always running around and seem to be playing. i stopped and took their picture the other day

Nov 15th, small wave day

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:28:00 -0500

I spent the afternoon at the beach today shooting some photos and hanging out. There were smaller waves coming in; fun enough to kill a Sunday afternoon.

It's just a lazy afternoon...

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:26:21 -0500

This weekend I basically did nothing but take care of my riddled body, attempt to learn more about this camera, and shoot macro with this telephoto lens. I drove around the country trying to find some of my favorite test subjects; cows. You’ll see by scrolling down that I found a still, very obedient cow to photograph…..just totally not what I would have expected…

Yeah I know….that’s pretty gnarly. It was probably the work of a pack of coyotes. It’s weird, I don’t eat beef and haven’t for many years, but seeing this kind of thing didn’t bother me. It’s just the circle of life, right?

Then again maybe I’ve watched too many National Geographic shows…..

Lake Huron Surfing Nov 5th, 2009

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:36:00 -0500

First hour with my new camera and 70-300mm telephoto lens. I really still don’t know how to use this camera or the lens; here’s how it turned out. I shot all of these out of the window of my truck while sitting on the beach.

so last year I went on a “holiday” which turned out to be more...

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:16:00 -0500

so last year I went on a “holiday” which turned out to be more of an adventure then anything. Our original plan was to hit the southern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, and venture down in to the northeast coast of Panama to explore the Bocas islands and surf some beautiful reef breaks. On our first day in the country, the Caribbean coast was hit with some of the worst storms they have had in 25 years; and of course it just so happened to be when I decide to take a trip down there. See here

While we were in the midst of the storm, we were documenting everything on my little waterproof Sanyo videocamera. Much of the intent of the trip was to surf; but I wasn’t about to surf in 20ft+ messy swell, and get sucked out to who knows where. People thought we were crazy for even skimboarding while it was full throttle. We ended up being trapped on the coast due to bridges being washed out, and mudslides coming down the mountains washing out any cars that were unlucky enough to be driving on the highway. The storm was like nothing I’ve seen before. Just picture the strongest downpours you’ve ever seen for days straight, power outages all day, food supplies starting to run low in stores due to washed out roads. We thankfully met the nicest, most hospitable people I have ever met on ANY of my travels if the course of my lifetime. If it wasn’t for them, our pet dogs for the week, Nicaraguan rum, a deck of cards, and a positive attitude; we would have been in a way worse state then we were. Even with so much destruction around us, it was still amazing and I don’t regret it at all.

Adam edited a video showing our adventures from the two weeks; and now we made light of the situation and dealt with it. From the Caribbean, to avoiding Panama all together; completely diverting our trip to the pacific coast of the country with our new friend Alex from Puerto Viejo - this video shows what an insane trip this was. Once we got to the Pacific we did have a couple days of sun, but it was still relatively dumpy weather. Even though things did not go our way weather wise, it was an incredible experience that I will never forget as long as I’m alive.

Down and Out...

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:04:00 -0500

Well my days of skateboarding may be over…..for now. In the 14 years that I have skateboarded, I have never injured myself so bad that I needed surgery; until two weeks ago.

I was skating a loading dock, nothing even special. I fell back when I landed and snapped my arm. Broke both my Ulna and Radius and one of them came out the bottom of my forearm…awesome. Two metal plates and 16 screws and I’m back together.

Since my last days of cinemetography; I thought what better time for me to pick up a hobby and get back in to the artsy side of my interests. I have been looking for a digital camera for a while and I decided to go with the Olympus E-620. What sold me on the camera was the quality for not only the price, but the size and weight of the camera for a DSLR. I plan on shooting a lot of surf and nature photography, and soon getting the underwater housing unit so I can shoot fisheye up close and personal in the waves. I may even explore some dive trips with this setup, who knows. Regardless I’m really excited to get back in to things, and taking on the new challenge of producing quality photographs.

This blog will primarily be my outlet for my Photography, and any other useless dribble I want to post. I will be posting up my first test photos shortly. Enjoy!

- Josh