goin to the good ol' desert

I got off work a bit early today, and as I was driving home I just had an itchin to take a road trip. Bethany and I both have a free weekend, so why not!? What better of a place to go than Death Valley? I love the desert!
So anyway, hopefully I'll get some sweet photos to post from this trip, but if you don't hear from me by Monday...well...you can probably just assume I did something really dumb and Bethany and I are stranded out in the middle of nowhere. Send help. haha.

We'll most likely be back on Sunday night and I'll try to post some stuff on Monday or Tuesday.

I'm hoping to see some great sights on this trip, as we usually always do in the California desert. Here are a couple snapshots from previous trips so you have an idea of the crazy stuff we encounter.

sunset

pretty sunset tonight...

lightning storm!

It's super rare when Southern California has lightning, so when I spotted it the other night I had to go out and shoot! I went up north a bit and found a cool spot to shoot on Camp Pendleton. Somehow there was an open gate and I drove on in and got a good angle of the hills where it was striking. It's kinda funny looking because when I shoot lightning I use as many cameras as I can, all shooting at the same time. This really increases the chances of getting a good shot, because usually the lightning strikes in a lot of different places.



Here are a few of the better photos I took.

miramar air show

Trying to catch up while on all the blog-worthy stuff I did last week! The Miramar Air Show was a great time!! Bethany and I went with our friends Peter and Taylor.


The sweetest part of the airshow is just seeing the amazing aircraft that our military has in their stockpile. Seeing those things perform is totally amazing. They are soo loud, powerful, and just overwhelming when they fly a few hundred feet in front of us at 1,200 mph!!! Sometimes when they flew by they would drop bombs that exploded right in front of the crowd. So cool.









I spotted quite a few sweet mullets in the crowd and included a couple pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Larry "Flame" Moore

A week ago today I had the privilege of photographing the memorial paddle-out for Larry "Flame" Moore. I didn't know him personally, but I can tell from everyone that knew him he was an extraordinary individual. He loved the Lord with all his heart, and loved other people in amazing ways.
You can read more about him in this LA Times Article and also this Surfing Magazine Article.

Here are a few of the photos I took-

too much stuff!

I've been doing so much cool stuff recently, and I have tons of pictures to share but no time to post em' up! Soon hopefully.

I'm off to bed to sleep for 5 hours, then another photoshoot (just one of many recently!) bright and early in the morning....

-Yesterday's shoot with my buddies Peter and Taylor-

More photos coming soon!

i made it to the beach in record time today

This evening I went out on my balcony to check out the sunset, it was so beautiful that I couldn't resist heading to the beach to check it out! Although sunsets are probably the most cliché and overshot subject by photographers all over the world, sometimes I still love taking them just for the memory of what I saw.

The sun was quickly disappearing under the horizon, so I grabbed my skateboard and made it to the beach in 90 seconds!

- On my way to the beach -




- At the beach -

the freak show preview

A long time ago I got bored and started messing with a bunch of photos to see what I could do with them. I did this simple little trick in photoshop and it totally transformed a photo of a normal looking person into a photo of a freak. I call it the freak show, but it's totally not done yet. These are a few of them below, but just wait, it's going to be wayyy better when I finish it. To see more of the freaks CLICK HERE.

horse pics

I was just looking through some photos I took on my honeymoon in Hawaii and found these horse photos. They're pretty funny looking eh?

slideshow on surfline

Today Surfline featured a slideshow that Aaron Chang and I made yesterday. The photos were shot around North County San Diego during the last few days. I only shot six of the photos in there because I'm pretty bad at surf photography... but I'm having tons of fun learning! You can see my name in the opening where it says "additional photos by Blaine Franger".

To see the slideshow click HERE

this is where i work...

I got off work later than normal today because I was finishing a project for my boss Aaron Chang. As I walked out the building and to my car, I couldn't believe how beautiful the sunset was and how blessed I am to work across the street from the beach. I can go across the street anytime and take surf breaks, walk on the beach, do whatever. I love the beach.
Anyway, I took a few snapshots on my way out and thought I'd share them with you.

opening night for lobster season!

October 1st is the opening day for lobster season, so on the night of September 30th all the lobster divers go out and have fun. I went with my uncle Andy and two cousins Drew and Joel. My uncle Andy and his son Drew are such hardcore fisherman. They get soo many lobster and fish it's incredible. And if that's not enough, they built their boat (in the pictures below) from scratch all by themselves in their frontyard! Amazing.

So we got on the boat at 8PM, anchored at our spot and started diving when the season officially started at midnight. We didn't get home until 9AM!

Anyway, the night was a big success all because of Uncle Andy and Drew. They caught mostly all the lobster! I only got 3 and they were all too small so I threw them back... Haha, ya I definitely need some practice!!

Even though I didn't get much lobster I still have a blast scuba diving at night. I see all kinds of cool things like octopus, stingrays, crabs... the list is endless!

I had lots of fun taking photos too. Most of the photos below are just snapshots, but the last 2 I took with my good camera. And another cool thing that happened is "red tide" when the water glows when anything moves through it. Thats is what the blue glow is on the side of the boat. It was so cool looking.