Blog

Night Surfing

Posted on August 15, 2012William Bay

I’m about to crawl in bed after just coming in from a surf session. Yes, that’s right, a surf session. I paddled out at 1-ish am after drinking and partying. When else would you I suppose… I can only liken it to a religious kind of an experience. The Bio-luminescence I spoke of the other day was out in force. And I discovered it’s not just a ‘thing’ that happens, but the waves glowing when they crash is actually the process of millions of individual life forms actually lighting up!!! As I paddled out into the dead, dark sea, I […]

14 years… Scorpion Bay, then and now.

Posted on August 13, 2012August 13, 2012William Bay

I’m writing this from the same exact camp spot I stayed at when I was 23 years old. Here are a few initial observations… What’s changed? I didn’t have to sell my vehicle in a junk yard in San Ignacio because I failed to put oil in it. I have gray hair. 3 surfboards instead of one. I am decked out a laptop, an iPhone and 3 cameras (geez, could I get more pretentious???)There are WAY more people here. There were 10 guys and girls out at 2nd point vibing each other for 2 foot waves during tonight’s evening session. […]

The Elephant Boy, Joshua Tree and Drop Bears

Posted on May 31, 2012November 7, 2017William Bay

A good photographer friend of mine from Australia, Xanthe Roxburgh was traveling through Los Angeles on her way to New York, and I got a chance to hang out with her while she was staying with another photographer friend of ours Jess Schilling. We all decided that it would be the greatest thing in the world to drive out to Joshua Tree during Coachella traffic. Good thing Xanthe’s son Arlo was there to entertain us on the drive out with songs about the mythical and highly dangerous Drop Bears of Australia. According to lore, they perch on trees and kill […]

Vegas Baby! WPPI Desert Photoshoot

Posted on May 30, 2012October 16, 2016William Bay

My first trip to WPPI 2012 was so much fun! Between hangovers, early morning educational classes, and murdering hookers we actually got a chance to go do a little photographing with some of my SWPB friends. We went out to a dry lake bed about 40 minutes South of the Strip and had some model talent meet up with us. Here are some shots with my great friend Jamie from Austin. She’s super beautiful, so we decided to trailer trash it up a bit at the end and do some donuts around her with my X-Terra while she wore a […]

LeeAn in Imperial Beach

Posted on May 29, 2012September 10, 2014William Bay

I was excited to hear that my friend LeeAn was going to be in SoCal visiting her mom. I asked her if she would come down and hang out in San Diego for a day or so since I hadn’t seen her in about 9 years. She said she would if I did some headshots for her acting career back in Austin, and a fine art portrait session to boot. I said “deal!” for sure. So we went to one of my favorite places in the world, Imperial Beach, back in November and did some really cool stuff. I even […]

Last Night at The Casbah – The Melvins

Posted on April 16, 2012October 16, 2016William Bay

I was reminded, as I was chatting with a cute blonde in a red mod cap and having a beer, that I actually have not set foot in The Casbah in over 16 years! She charmingly, and perhaps a little tipsily, affirmed that this was my re-induction into society. Her pretty face, and cute chortle were quite the warm welcome for my reinduction. The music however was quite mind-altering, and far from warm welcoming. From the start my friend James and I were under an all out audio assault as the opening band The Unsane, and then the side act The Long […]

20 Years Ago

Posted on May 25, 2011October 16, 2016William Bay

With both my favorite bands every Pearl Jam and Dave Matthews Band celebrating their twenty year anniversaries, it recently dawned on my thick skull that I too am experiencing a twenty year mark of my own, two actually. No… nothing as noble as sobriety, I happily drink like a fish. Nor abstaining from red meat, I do love carne asada burritos. No, none of that. This year, I celebrate 20 years of both Photography and Surfing. I love surfing. I try to paddle out every day. But I’ll focus on the photography here today. It’s fitting that in my 20th […]

Tamara’s Fine Art Portraits

Posted on May 20, 2011September 10, 2014William Bay

In our last portrait session at Torrey Pines, Tamara and I had planned on shooting film also for some close up nude and semi-nude fine art portrait photography. We ended up having to reschedule for another day unfortunately. We did the reshoot in La Jolla where I know of a little cove that provides some nice privacy. I’ve got the film back and I’m absolutely in love! With both the stunning beauty of Tamara, and with the Hasselblad! It’s an amazing camera, and I can’t wait to shoot more film. What’s more, to see these images full size, you can see why […]

Gloria and Her Music Box

Posted on April 29, 2011October 16, 2016William Bay

While I was photographing Tamara in the Windansea area of La Jolla (photos to come), we stopped at a house with a beautiful old door and lovely clay tube brick archways for a photo op. Gloria, the owner of the house came out to speak to us, and we were promptly invited into her house to see her old music box. As it turns out it was an original turn-of-the-century Polyphon music box (seen here in the background), that takes big brass discs for each song and creates music by striking a steel comb. It resides in the front atrium, […]

Tamara’s Beach Portrait Session at Torrey Pines

Posted on April 12, 2011October 16, 2016William Bay

I was very fortunate to have recently photographed one of the most altruistic and enthusiastic people in the world. Tamarra Orras is a combination of Mother Theresa and Holly Golightly. Her current project is with Gonna Go To Ghana, providing a computer lab for the village of Tongo. Truly a good heart. And I think it shows in the images we created the other morning at Torrey Pines.