A laconic bear of a man with an easy laugh, but few words, Jon was a blessing to the shoot.
In the water it was so clear he was in a comfortable place, the efficiency of his shooting beggaring belief.
I should have known, for as far back as Litmus he's been swimming out in stupidity to get the shot. Never though, in all our time together, did he take a board out and 'have a splash'.
I had no idea how good he might be if the camera was reversed, though a couple of months back I caught a glimpse of a take off on one wave at Bells and thought... yep, he can surf.
That impression was cemented the other day when my friend Pete showed me this sequence he snapped of JF in the Mentawais about ten days ago. Jon was on a boat at the same spot as Pete's, with a group of young pros not keen on heading out to a gnarly left hander.
Jon decided to get the show rolling.
"If I get a good one you're in."
This is his first wave.
Jaws on the floor from all watching.
And it was his birthday.
The pics, as I said, by Peter James. Thanks Pete. Nothing from me as I've been up seeing my dear old Dad. Plus it's flat.
3 comments:
Not bad, not too bad at all. Phew!
JF is one of my all time heros. I don't know him personally, but I was talking with a guy who was on a boat trip with him a while back. There were two photographers, one was shooting with a digital SLR and Jon was shooting film.
After a 2 week stint The digital photographer had about 10 000 shots of the pro surfers of the trip on waves, Jon had shot 1 roll of film.
When they got back and ran the story in a magazine. The majority of the shots used for the story were JF's. The guy sure knows how to capture moments.
Hope your dear old dad's doing well
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