Since moving to Santa Cruz, I’ve often noticed people standing on surfboards and paddling around just offshore. That seems like fun, I’d think to myself. How lovely their silhouettes look at sunset as they glide across the water, and just imagine the photos you could get from that perspective.

Little did I know I’d be spending one Valentine’s Day at the Santa Cruz Yacht Harbor, jumping in and out of a car with a camera, as we drove up and down the length of the channel photographing paddleboarders in action for the website of a new SUP shop called Covewater Paddle Surf.

SUP means Standup Paddleboarding, and it’s become quite a popular pastime; this must be true, because The New York Times said so. Scott and Leslie Ruble are so passionate about sharing this sport that they opened the only dedicated Standup Paddleboarding shop on the West Coast north of Santa Barbara, and are busily purveying SUP equipment, accessories, classes and rentals.

It was Scott who drove me to and fro in the harbor that day, stopping at good vantage points to let me out for a minute or so to shoot SUP class groups as they made their way along the channel. Meanwhile, Leslie was in the water, teaching the art of SUP and looking like its best advertisement. I could tell that watching other people out in the water was making Scott want to get on his paddleboard, and the feeling was contagious. I totally want to try it, and of course I know exactly where I can rent equipment and take lessons now (that’s Covewater Paddle Surf, in case you didn’t catch it the first time).

SUP seems to inspire a strong reverence for the ocean (or lake, or even river- people use all of these for paddleboarding). It’s a slightly different spirituality than that of wave surfing, which focuses on the swell and the tides. SUP can make use of water in all states, calm or otherwise, and is devoted to exploring, observing, or just being there, out on the water.

As I picked out my favorite photos from that day to share with you, I was reminded of this poem by Philip Larkin, called Water:

If I were called in
To construct a religion
I should make use of water.

And I should raise in the east
A glass of water
Where any-angled light
Would congregate endlessly.

The only person who got a “furious devout drench” that day was Jeffrey Kongslie, who was a great sport about it, and who really deserves his own category on this blog. In fact, I’m going to give him one right now.

Enjoy the photos, and don’t forget to try Standup Paddleboarding!

I knew that the first annual Santa Cruz NEXT award ceremony, aka the NEXTies, would be a big, fun party. But I wasn’t expecting the venue to be quite so fabulously decked out. Walking into that room felt like boarding some kind of super-hip spaceship, and I was astounded by what they were able to create from blank industrial space. I don’t think my photos really do it justice, but you’ll get the idea. All of this amazing design work was done by Nielsen Architects, a talented Santa Cruz group that includes Timerie Gordon, who blogged about preparing for this event with no budget and a lot of hard labor. The light fixtures were made from wine barrels and were constructed by artist Maurice Connolly. And the projected light installations were crafted by people from Digital Arts and New Media (DANM) at UCSC.

I shot this event alone, as Patrick was working late hours preparing for our appearance at the rapidly approaching Santa Cruz Bridal Expo. Usually at an event like this, one of us will use a flash and the other one will shoot with available light only. As the sole photographer, I came prepared to switch back and forth between those two modes of shooting. But when I saw how creative the venue lighting was, and how successfully the right mood had been conjured by the designers, I couldn’t bear to ruin it with bright flashes. I used available light only for most of the night, which meant shooting at maximum ISO and letting the shutter drag for the wide-angle shots.

Since that night, I’ve learned a few new techniques that will allow me to use a flash without destroying the ambiance of a room. I’m still working on those techniques. I have a very strong natural inclination towards sticking with available light because I love the sense of reality it lends to a photograph. But there were plenty of things I couldn’t get good photos of with the light that was there, such as the delicious food offered by various local gourmet vendors. (Of which I only sampled a tiny bit, because of the danger of leaving greasy fingerprints on my lens. However, I couldn’t turn down the dessert that involved bacon tucked into strawberries.)

The award ceremony itself was easier to shoot because the winners were on stage, under spotlights. The winners (click their names to view their sites): Marina Sousa, Reyna Ruiz, Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, and Danny Keith. If you want to read more about who they are and why they won, this Good Times article has great profiles and photos of the four winners. The ceremony featured video profiles of the winners created by SoWat TV, and you can view those videos in this Santa Cruz NEXT blog post.

A band called Persephone’s Bees took over after the ceremony, and they rocked. I had to leave during the break between their sets, to go home and get some sleep before the next few days of Bridal Expo prep. But what I saw and heard of Persephone’s Bees was impressive and the party seemed to be just getting started when I walked out the door.

A belated congratulations to everyone who was a part of creating this event!

On a side note, no party is really ever complete without Jeffrey Kongslie, which is why he appears at least three times in the photos below.

This post is part 3 of a 3-part series. Read part 1 – Read part 2 - Read part 3

This fabulous couple’s wedding reception was held at 515 in Santa Cruz. Talk about a challenge for these photographers! It was dark in there. I couldn’t have gotten the shots I did without the Lightscoop, a small, inexpensive piece of equipment that made it possible to shoot in those dim rooms without the awful results that happen with forward-facing flash.

The newlyweds treated us to an hauntingly sweet duet, with Peter playing the guitar and both of them singing. They claimed that this duet would replace their first dance, but then they gave us a sort of first dance anyway, and everyone was utterly charmed by them for the hundredth time that day. Here are 32 (!!) photos of the first evening of their married lives.

As a special bonus, I’ve included another behind-the-scenes Red Bat shot, about halfway down in this post. It’s Patrick, helping to test the lighting in the area where we expected the first dance to be. By dancing with an invisible partner. Because at Red Bat Photography, we know how to use our imaginations.

Hooray for Crystal and Peter!!

Last month, Santa Cruz NEXT had a little party at Surf City Billiards, and it was the first time either of the Red Bats had seen the place since it became a billiards hall. We were impressed. I found myself wanting to ask people to drape themselves over the tables for some of the shots, but instead I settled for urging people to “Look cool!” They did look cool.

Here’s the Santa Cruz NEXT blog post about that evening.

Take a closer look at the guy in the middle in the next-to-last photo and the woman on the right in the last photo. Don’t they look like they deserve a lifetime of marital bliss? You have just experienced Red Bat foreshadowing. Stay tuned…

UPDATE: Find out what happened to Crystal and Peter by clicking here!