The 21st March signified ten years since the Ben King Memorial Paddle Out. Here are three of the most iconic shots I captured on the day: The Gathering (on the beach), The Paddle Out and The Circle formation in the water.
This was a pretty difficult assignment to shoot back in the days before ‘Drones’ and I must praise motorised glider pilot Dieter Hostmann from Tyagarah Airfield for his flying skills and manoeuvring to get help me in best position to get the shots. It was a pretty tight fit in the cockpit as I sat by his side and only had a porthole opening on the right side window about the size of a CD case to point the camera out of and which was located at about my chest height.
Also thanks to Paul Full of Ace Photo Shop in Ballina for tidying up the shots with his digital imaging expertise.
In respect of Jen King (Ben’s widow) wishes these images are not for sale and are for display purposes only.
Where else did you think they have been hanging out all this time !?! Well Byron Bay of course…
Click image to enlarge
As an X Files fan back in the day, I painted this tile around 1994. My motivation was that Mulder and Scully were never seen anywhere near such a clean, bright, colourful, environment.
In fact every time they entered some dark dingy place I would be on the edge of my seat begging (usually Mulder) to retreat “NO…don’t go down there, NO don’t go down there… NO!!!” of course further and deeper into the darkness they would go…
So all these years later, just like everyone else who doesn’t want to leave Byron after their X-tended vacation, its time to put down the sunscreen and head back to work.
My Photo scored the front cover of the Lennox Wave after I joined Scott Rawstorne for a sunrise ride along the Seven Mile Beach stretch of the Great East Coast Trail.