Cockatoo Paul is your ultimate Australian bushman. He’s a one man band that can do anything and everything. You wouldn’t be able to walk 1 meter with him through the “weeds” in your backyard, before he would be stopped dead in his tracks, turning over some leaves, which he would then tell you the scientific name of, and what they could be used for, whether medicinal, poisonous, or edible.

I wasn’t too into the idea of teaming up with a learn to surf school, but after spending some time with the team at Mojo Surf Australia, getting to know their story, and basking in their constant state of stoke … I’ve changed my mind! Had a blast shooting some of Alison’s Adventures at their camp!

Here’s an april fools day commercial for Odina Eco Bikinis I shot for Alison’s Adventures. Edited by Ruth Mamaril.

Never thought I would be back up to the Gold Coast so soon, but with some time off, I jumped up there and re-connected with some friends. Aside from the sea tics and sketchy swim back at dusk, we absolutely lucked out with some frothy barrels and few brave enough to charge them.

I’ve always heard great things about the Arts Factory Lodge in Byron Bay. It’s such a unique and quirky place with quite the assortment of eclectic and talented people.

Here’s a teaser I worked on for Alison’s Adventures. Edited by Ruth Mamaril.

This morning session with Johnny Abegg and Alex Frings included the company of a shark and pod of dolphins.   This session nearly tops my list of most favourite sessions ever.

Straight off to OZ to join Alison at the Byron Bay Film Festival. She screened her film, “Snaked” for hundreds of school children in the area, and we got to meet some filmmakers around the world, including the guys of Manufacturing Stoke, Jack Mccoy, and Lin Sutherland.

Jack Johnson even stopped by!

Met up with Kimie Miner, one of my favourite Big Island music artists, to do a quick UW shoot! Absolutely in love with her music!

Off to shoot some photos and video’s for Alison’s Adventures, an upcoming adventure web series that is kicking off in Byron Bay during their film festival.   So stoked to be going back, sooner than I ever imagined, to go shoot the crazy adventures we will be having over these next three months.  Should be posting some sweet daily content, so subscribe to Alison’s BLOG or like her FB PAGE to keep up with us!

I was blessed to be a part of Peter & Meg’s “leap year” wedding at the Four Seasons Hualalai. I love simple weddings and it was SUCH a joy to spend time with them and their family!

I flew back to California with the expectation that I would at least be here for the next year, living at my dream spot steps from Blackies and the Newport Pier, then the opportunity to shoot content for Alison’s Adventures came along, so I dropped it all and deferred my last semester of uni, to literally work on project that’s in line with what I’ve been dreaming about doing for the past year … so the 1 month I was in California, I spent literally on the computer half the time, packing up, setting up Alison’s Adventures blog and getting some of the social media pages up and running … as well as a few surf sessions here and there, a wedding, portrait shoots, and drinking way too many Lavender Latte’s at MilkandHoney.

Clear skies and gorgeous sunsets.  So stoked there wasn’t much rain and stormy weather this month.

Photosession with the Ploessels.   My 7D died mid-way during their session!   Took it in to the Canon Factory store and they said my camera had over a 190,000 shutter count!

Small, intimate wedding in Orange.

“The board rooms” … The SUP turned out to be a great coffee table for the living room.

Staff headshots for 3ROUNDBURST!  They create some epic stuff!

UW Engagement photosession w. Jaimie & Alec!

Headshots and portraits for Renee!

Senior portraits for Derek and Ryan.  Can’t believe it was only 2 years ago when we made “Bouncy Balls” the music video.

Ashley & Matt literally ‘showed me the town’ as we went around SD for their save-the-date photosession. Engagement sessions are always fun, but this one was especially because it felt more like an “adventure” rather than a typical 1-location 1-hour sessions. I feel that by spending real time with people/”clients” and getting to know them through making their photosession an “experience,” always lends to making better photographs that better present who they are and the essence of the relationship they share.

I wasn’t even supposed to be staying in Hawai’i this month, and I still can’t believe how this time last year, I was in Singapore and Bali, shooting photos and working on a short documentary. That experience gave me the travel bug and kick-started off into a great 2011, and this first month of 2012 is definitely going to be leading into some exciting times ahead.

I was supposed to be back in Orange County, slaving away for a month to get 3 credits in some mundane general education class that would count towards me completing my college degree. I still “earned” 3 credits this month but instead of sitting in a classroom for 5 hours a day, 4x a week, and studying useless information which would slip through my head faster than that dodgy taco you at at that hole-in-the-wall that at gave you food poisoning, I got approved for an independent study course to team up with four documentary production classmates from Chapman to help them shoot a short doco on a freediver / underwater photographer (sea life) based out of Kona, my hometown. It was such a blast, trekking around the West shores of the Big Island to help shoot this doco, and was obviously heaps of fun to have friends to “tour” around my favourite spots on the island.

During this month, I also teamed up with Alison Teal and some other girls to shoot underwater and lifestyle photos for Odina, a sweet line of eco bikinis which made of plastic bottles and other recycled materials. We were blessed with a week of decent swell in Kona and some vog-free days that cleared up the view of Mt. Hualalai, making for some perfect photo opportunities.

And talk about last-minute: The last Friday of the month, I was scheduled to depart to Orange County but instead was flown to San Francisco on a day’s notice to help shoot and edit some video blog content at the Macworld conference for Melbourne Geek, an Australian online tech and review blog site run by my friend, Josh Janssen, who I met back in September while visiting in the city. Also got to re-connect with my hyper-talented friend from Kona, Eda.

Now back in Orange County, I’m stoked to be living a street across from my favourite OC surf beach, and getting ready to work on a project that’s going to be taking me out of the country again in March.