Surfers

I’m working on a new personal project, a series of portraits of surfers. I’ve always been fascinated by the surf culture and this project is a great opportunity for me to learn about it through the people who made surf what it is, in one of the most popular places for surfing, California.

This is one of the people I’ve been photographing today in Pitas Point, close to Ventura.

His name is Steven.

I’ve talked to Steven for a little while, right after he came out of the water, his family waiting for him.

“How long have you been surfing?”

“For all my life.”

Classmates

A few months ago I’ve shot these pictures of my friends Ben, Chelsea and Lexus. I’ve stumbled on ‘em today while I was selecting some images to print for a portfolio review. Even if it wasn’t that much ago, it really feels like years, for how much I’ve been working lately!

Here they are.

PATH contest

I’ve got the honor to have two pictures selected to be shown al the Gallery 27 at the Brooks Institute of photography in Santa Barbara. There will be an exhibition with the theme “The Path” from May 3rd to June 15th. If you are around come and give it a look. Along with my pictures, there will be other very talented photographer, and I’m really grateful to have my works displayed with some photographers that are a real inspiration to me, like Chris Broughton (you can check his website by clicking here).

These are the photos they’ve selected. The first is taken in Sori, Italy, where I spend almost every summer of my life (my mother is in fact born in Genova). The other one is a picture that I took here in Santa Barbara on a foggy and cold night. I like the fact that these photos represent together my old and my new life, and the person I am today. To me the path is the road we travel to be who we are, and the beauty of it, the beauty of a travel, is not in arriving somewhere, but resides in the road we walked. This is why I’m really happy that both these two photos have been selected, they tell together a bigger story of myself, showing the road that made me to the person I am today.

P A R A D I G M

Since tomorrow I’ll be in charge of the editorial line of the Paradigm website. My friend Ben Flynn (who’s a great photographer too) gave me the opportunity of run his blog for a week. Paradigm is a great concept: it’s a blog like this, but of a different kind. It’s a place to share pictures that inspire you for their visual style, their content or their beauty. Or it’s simply to share something that you like. It’s more direct, as you display the picture in a grid, and you scroll down and down. It’s great if you are a visual person. First of all, because you can be inspired by watching so many pictures, and second and most important, it’s something that help you build your own style. By saying “I like it”, you become more aware of what you find interesting, of what you want to be. And most important, you get to know yourself even more. 

I’m very excited to do this! I believe that having a place where you can put the images you like, it’s like having a box where you only put the things that have a meaning, that you want to save forever.

And it’s even better to share this with others, so that they may find to have something in common with you, or even find your style boring or ugly. That’s ok, it’s part of the game.

See you on PARADIGM (click on it to check it out!)

The art of flight

I had the privilege of flying yesterday morning over the city I currently live in, Santa Barbara. And this has been possible thanks to my good friend Julien Lecomte, who just had his license.

After a night of bad sleep, I got up at 6 AM, packed my photo gear and drove to the Santa Barbara airport, where he was waiting for me. After sneaking in the airport (you just open a small door with a card and you are in. I wish you could do that at LAX too!), we prepared the airplane (especially me), filled it with fuel and took off. By the way, don’t go to refill you car at the airport, it’s more expensive…

It was an amazing experience that everybody should try at least once in their life. Plus, I always wanted to be a pilot since I was a kid, and even if I wasn’t driving it was amazing just to be there. I was more worried the night before, but I guess it was only excitement. On the plane I felt like it was natural to be there. I’m thinking to get my own license right now…

Anyway! Too many words… This is the story in pictures. Better than words… But not even close to what is “flying”.

yes, gopro. Julien probably had crazy tricks and turns in mind. I’m glad that he didn’t do any!Ciao mamma shotI like photograph where there’s a big sense of composition, order, geometry. I like it when it is very graphic and ordered. This is why I’ve always wanted to shoot houses from above. We all think that our house is special. It’s big, small, it’s “bigger than”, it’s “nicer”. It’s ours… From above they are just  boxes. Big, small, red green or blue. They are just the same. 

arnaldoabba.com

Finally yestererday I’ve created my website! You can see it by clicking here

the main page of my website arnaldoabba.com

I’ve been working on it for almost 3 months, it’s definitively not an easy process! First you have to choose if you want a custom template (which is very expensive!) or a pre made template (a lot cheaper), then you have to buy a domain, then of course you need to have categories and a selection of pictures that you like (and they have to be edited and sized correctly), create a biography, choose the fonts, the style, decide what you want to communicate, etc…

But after all, it’s worthy! Also because with digital nowadays your pictures are always kept in an hard drive all the time, far away from your sight. Sometimes they’re printed, but most of the time they wait for you to go throughout them again for a short while. It’s definitely better to have ‘em displayed somewhere where you can see ‘em everyday. And you fall in love with picture that you didn’t like that much, or you change your mind on your favorites ones. And you also create a layout of pictures and you see that they have a different meaning if they are close to another one, you create a new story, a new meaning. And most of all, you see where you are going, what you are, what you like and what you don’t.

Go and check out my website and feel free to reply to this post, telling what you like, what you don’t, and in this case what you would change. I would really appreciate any feedback, so don’t hesitate!

SF

I’ve been in San Francisco again for Thanksgiving. This is the second time that I’ve been there since August, and every time I leave the town thinking that I’ve got to see more of it. It’s an amazing place, one of the cities I like the most in the States, so far. Maybe it’s because it reminds me of Genova in some way… Big city on the sea, hills, going up and down, and no parking at all, and… I got a parking ticket… That’s why!

There’s a nice hostel on Clay street: it’s cheap, the food is good and you have a unique view of the town from the rooftop. The only problem with this place is that you have to live with this italian designer, Nicola Mondini, who is a pain in the ass when he’s busy (most of the time) and nervous (because he doesn’t have time!). But for the rest, he’s a cool guy. And a great car designer (maybe one day he’ll stop drawing micro machines…). Here he is on the roof of his house, on a rare moment of relax.

And then there is his landlord, and old man who owns two buildings in SF, and makes money by renting them to people. I caught him moving non paying tenant’s body parts from his garage to the trash, back and forth. Here’s the evidence. It’s a dirty job, but it has to be done…

My friend Nicola pays his rent regularly…

Anyway, since he was busy all the time, I’ve spent three days going around and shooting like mad, and going back home to download the pictures, work on them, and out again… But it was worth it!

And I had a great time with Nicola, photoshopping like two nerds and laughing like crazy with the daddy long legs video on youtube (“I don’t, I don’t…What??!). If you wonder what I’m talking about, just click here, you’ll understand…

Anyway… Here are some shots that I took. Enjoy!

Ben Flynn (photography) meets Leica

Today I’ve been finally shooting with the Leica M8! For those of you that don’t know what it is, the Leica is a german camera brand which is legendary. The quality is in fact outstanding: I understand now why famous photographers like Cartier-Bresson, Sebastian Salgado and the italian Gianni Berengo Gardin love this camera. It has the reputation in my school of being difficult to focus with, but it felt pretty easy and comfortable to me. It just has to be used. Especially if you can use it for free (I had the camera and two lenses, for a total of 15.000 $!!!), which is a great privilege!

I was scouting a new location in the area of Santa Barbara with my friend and classmate Ben Flynn, which is an amazing surf photographer (check his website out by clicking here and you’ll see it by yourself), when i decided to snap a couple of portrait of him. And the results are amazing! I’ll definitely find some more time to shoot with this camera, since I won’t be able to afford one for a long time…

Back Again!

It has been long since my last post, in the last weeks I’ve been very busy with the presentation of my final portfolio for the photography class, that I completely forgot of the blog. As I said, I’ve been working very hard, studying for the final exams, shooting, selecting the best images (selecting!!! The most difficult thing on earth) and editing, then fucking around with photoshop and wasting time… but! I’m very happy for the results, I have some shots that I love, and a lot of memories for this last two months. Here is one of the shots that I love the most: it’s a night shot of a foggy Santa Barbara.