The Red Dawn Blog

Late Summer Re-Cap

Econ — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 18:02:41 +0000

So much has been going on around these parts (New York) in the last month and a half allowing me close to no free time making it especially difficult to stay on top of posting. As much as I love keeping my website and blogs up to date, it really does take some premeditation to keep all the different angles covered and to make sure each post follows suite from one blog to another, from one site to the next and from social media outlets back to Red Dawn Productions. Posting individual photos to Facebook, Twitter or Google+ is good for some instant gratification in the form of feedback but, in the long run it spoils shots that could be composed into bigger and better things such as online articles, photo features, galleries and for the best shots, published in print.
This shot is a good example of saving photos for on-line publications. Originally used by Surfline as slide #11 in Part III of the Hurricane Irene feature it was selected as the cover photo displayed on the main page of Surfline.com. It’s always nice to have your photograph displayed on the home page of a site with such an intense traffic flow, and at the forefront of a feature covering such a hyped up hurricane (Irene). The week after the shot was used for the Hurricane Irene story, Surfline used this shot again in the Mechanics of Long Beach feature, even though it was taken in New Jersey, they used it to explain how a swell might look in NJ when LB is seeing some solid South-East swells. I actually scored several (seven to be exact) shots in the Mechanics of Long Beach feature that was released right in the middle of the Quiksilver Pro New York WCT event. As you could imagine that was very exciting being that most of the professional surfing world had their eyes on New York at that given moment and my photographs were featured during that historical event. Speaking of the Quiksilver Pro New York, I grabbed some shots of what is being called the most innovative surfing event of all time. Even though it was about 4 weeks ago to this date that the all-time final went down in Long Beach, the resulting photographs will remain time-less to us New York surfers.

The contest setup was a sight to see in its own, they had a Quiksilver store literally constructed on the beach at National Blvd in Long Beach, the competitors tent had a locker room similar to those in the NBA and NFL and an entire hotel (The Allegria) was rented out for competitors and staff involved with the venue. Long Beach gained an extra city block directly on the beach during the 1 and a half week contest waiting period. Whether the contest was on or off there was still hundreds even thousands of people walking around at the beach on Quiksilver Ave. I happened to have classes the entire week of the contest and spent a solid number of hours in transit between campus and camp quik, but was rewarded with shots I managed to score in the rain of some free surf sessions by the likes of Julian Wilson, Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson and Owen Wright.

Another standout during this particular free surf session was Brazilian Alejo Muniz who was in top form and would later go on to post his highest score on the ASP world tour to date. Muniz is one explosive rider and New York really brought this to light(even on a dark and rainy day). It was awesome to be able to shoot these guys rain or shine, though we happened to be lucky enough to receive an absolutely beautiful fall day with classic Long Beach waves in the 6-8 foot range with light offshores and about 80 degree air with near 70 degree waters.

Another surfer capable of doing miraculous things on a surfboard like taking down a 10x time world champion by the name of Kelly Slater is Owen Wright. Owen Took the entire contest by storm, and for those of us who were watching the heats as well as before and after, it was no surprise this 21 year old aussie took down the king, netting 300 grand in the process.

With such a loose laidback style, Wright had all the right moves in his bag of tricks and certainly proved worthy of challenging Slater to the 2011 World Title race. After loosing to Kelly in Tahiti at Teahupoo a week earlier, he overtook King Kelly in the largest surfing competition of all time. It will be interesting to see how the rest of this year turns out as there are plenty more upsets to come in the second half of the tour. (More shots coming to the site soon, Quik Pro Finals, Taj Burrow, Kelly Slater, Owen Wright, Hurricane Irene, Hurricane Katia etc.) Stay tuned. FULL FEATURE HERE

Water Photography by Econ

Econ — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 02:03:21 +0000

Since the beginning of 2011, there has been an usually small amount of memorable swell events. A trend that started shortly after the blizzard we received directly after Christmas in the last few days of 2010. The blizzard resulted in my flight to Puerto Rico being cancelled for my first trip down for the 10/11 winter season. Rescheduled more than a week later which was only going to allow me 6 full days in the Caribbean, my second flight mysteriously gets cancelled while waiting at the gate. The days/weeks and even months following this were all insignificant months as far as the surf was concerned. There was a really all-time swell in March down in New Jersey and about 3 fun days this spring which allowed me to shoot some water photos and that’s about as much as I can provide evidence for with photographs. I have heard of a few days this summer being really fun and clean but cant think of more than one or two instances I actually got to witness myself. Not for nothing but a half dozen days of surf in 8 months is probably up there for the all-time worst years of waves that I have been around for. As a result I have been organizing the few photos of waves I have from this year in galleries with past years that are all actually in stock as prints in various sizes and will all be available in my on-line shop in the next week or two. I created a gallery of proofs for the viewers to check out and get some ideas as to what kind of water photos I have for sale at the moment, you can follow this link..The Water Photography of Econ. If anything in this gallery is of interest you, please do not hesitate to email me at info@reddawnproductions.net if you would like to find out more, purchase a print, and/or make a custom order. My store also has a bunch of prints listed already, but certainly not everything yet. Note: if you live in suffolk county New York and want to purchase a print from my store, I can arrange for a pick-up/drop-off and waive shipping fees. Please visit my on-line store at RedDawnEcon.Etsy.com

Looking Inside Out - Quogue, New York 2011

Pollen Pits

Econ — Thu, 26 May 2011 07:21:02 +0000

There are a bunch of premo shots up on the main page. Http://www.reddawnproductions.net

Session

Econ — Thu, 12 May 2011 00:19:13 +0000

Took a few shots of Trevor Lecaros and Andrew Musinger down at the skate park. check em out. Too bad the swell isn’t showing up as planned, I am dieing to get in the water. On the land for now.

Trevor

100th Post

Econ — Wed, 11 May 2011 06:53:48 +0000

While I look through images wide awake at 2:45am wishing I was getting some shut-eye so I could take a crack at the surf in the morning, I noticed that my last post was just one short of hitting a hundred lifetime entries. So i went through a bunch of memorable dates in my archives and picked out some shots that I think all of the viewers might appreciate. I should be making posts like this everyday due to the buildup of photos I have filed away that have never been released, hopefully I will make some progress this summer. Thanks for visiting The Red Dawn Blog

ASP Unsound Pro Junior

Econ — Fri, 06 May 2011 05:49:42 +0000

Today is one week since the ASP Unsound Junior Pro went down in Long Beach, NY. Conditions were good and competitors saw fun 3-5 foot surf that had some side-shore texture adding just the right amount of chop, perfect for the innovative style of surfing most of these groms are known for. The level of surfing was pretty outstanding considering none of these guys are over 20 years old, and most of them are getting paid more than any of us ever will to surf which in its own, is impressive. The location being in Long Beach on the out skirts of the greatest, most diverse city in the world supplied a large variety of onlookers who all seemed to be excited to see an event of this kind on their very own beaches. One thing was for certain about the crowd on the scene of the contest Friday, and that was the unconditional support of local super-grom Balaram Stack. As you may of heard from other sources, Stack did not take the cake, but he damn sure made it an exciting afternoon. While naturally performing committed carves in the quarters to a buzzer-beater-barrel in his semi-final heat, Stack demonstrated the expert knowledge he contains on his home break. The final came down to mother nature and the waves just didn’t show up for Stack, while Keanu Asing lined three great waves up back to back allowing him to unleash his backside attack, Stack could do nothing but watch. Regardless of whether or not Stack took home the win, he is still a winner at home. Last but not least was the air show that followed the final in which about 20 competitors had 30 minutes to launch the best maneuver, winner takes home $750. A familiar face to the end of the island and the Caribbean came, saw and conquered and he goes by the name of Leif Engstrom. Dominating the air show with his acrobatic air-reverses and stylish lein airs, Leif was hands down the victor of the airshow. Thanks go out to Unsound Surf Shop, Oakley, Skullcandy and NYSea Productions for making this event possible.

Excellent conditions and spring time sun shine graced the competition all day in Long Beach, NY

Michael Ciaramella's backhand attack

Leif Engstrom boosting a victorious air reverse in the Unsound Air Show

Britton Galland winning his round 48 heat with this closeout bash

Balaram Stack in form and killing it throughout the day at his homebreak

Florida's Chris Tucker throwing one up

New yorks own Balaram Stack winning this heat and heading to the Quarterfinal

Lots of talent was present at the ASP Unsound Pro Junior

Leif Engstrom Leining in the Air Show

Tanner Hendrickson took 3rd with backside aerials like this one

Balaram Stack showing how its done

Keanu Asings three waves in a row earned him a victory for his backside skills

Christian Saenz getting down, or up should we say during the air show

Balaram took third in the Air Show with this Wu-Tang air reverse... Tiger Style

Spring Zen

Econ — Mon, 02 May 2011 04:06:50 +0000

What a relief it was to get back in the water to shoot some H20 images. I have been itching to shoot some clean waves and Saturday presented me with that opportunity. Although not the biggest of days, it sure was fun and definitely hollow enough to get my camera inside to take a look. Definitely got some mini shacks! If you’d like to leave any kind of feedback please use the comments. Thanks for visiting, look for more to come from this day as well as future swells. Next up this week will be a post on the ASP Unsound Junior pro that went down on Friday in Long Beach, New York. Stay tuned for more.

New York: Weekly

Econ — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 14:31:10 +0000

Compared to last weekend this weekly re-crap, ahem, I mean *cap is nothing special, but I will share with you some extra small waves instead. Certainly nothing to write home about, but I found myself at home writing about it. Anyway, you might have found something if you looked a little bit too hard. Sure hope we will see better waves soon and can shed some rubber in the coming weeks.

Across the World… Wide Web

Econ — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 23:19:28 +0000

The past week has been a good one for those behind the desk trying to get high on some visual stimulation, or in other words, mind surfing the hell out of all the photos that came out of last Sundays epic surf in New Jersey. Photographs produced by Red Dawn have been showing up in various places across the world wide web this week and if you’re interested to see some of these special photos just simply click on the image and it will bring you to the feature in which that photograph was published. First our friends over at Surfbang published a story entitled “April Showers Brings…Waves!” in which they featured 3 of our own photographs. I will then point you in the right direction to see an image that Eastern Surf Magazine used in their feature entitled “RightSide Tax Relief”. Then I will send you back to Surfbang which is who published a sequence I grabbed last Sunday of Jersey native Andrew Schneider bobbing and weaving through a super hollow spitting tube. And as always, you should definitely make sure to visit the Reddawnproductions.net homepage for some exclusive photographs that are only-seen-here on Red Dawn in the Recent Action post. All photographs ©Evan Conway.

ESM "Rightside Tax Relief"

Surfbang Featured Photo

Surfbang Seq Feature

Red Dawn Beastmaster

Straight Skate

Econ — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 05:34:19 +0000

Since the weather has been shaping up a bit around here on Long Island, I am trying to take advantage of it and shoot photographs whenever I can and as much as I can. And, since skating can be done without relying on swell patterns and offshore winds, it is a relief to be able to go down to the skate park and shoot a little when I have the chance. Here are a few photographs from the past day or two..