Raves & Rants . . from Penzance

Well, it's finally here ! After a winter of headscratching and upoading, the new site is finally ready to go. With cracking shots from some of Britain's best surf photographers, coastal imagery, bits of Cornwall, beach lifestyle, adventure sport action and just great photos of the ocean, you should be able to avoid work for at least a few hours. We'll be regularly uploading new images though, so keep checking back for the latest shots. Hope you enjoy it, if you've got any feedback for us, please leave a comment below, or Contact Us . Library website is here : Ocean-Image.com Enjoy Mike

The thing with being a photographer of the ocean is that obviously you have to be outdoors, and consequently you are constantly exposing all your (very expensive) gear to the elements. And not only 'the elements', but the precise elements that are the very worst for sensitive camera gear. Namely sand, and salt water spray - this latter frequently wind-driven into every finely machined crevice of your sensitive (and very expensive) lenses. Salt and sand have trashed many bits of gear over the years, including one drenching in Australia a few years back. I was shooting some tow-at surfing from a pier when a large wave hit, covering me and several fishermen in a deluge of saltwater. Not one piece of clothing was dry enough to wipe the camera and the (very expensive) lens down. Checking the kit over, I could even see water sloshing around inside the lens barrel. Nowadays, I'm pretty good at avoidance tactics, with camera covers, water housings and umbrellas added to the arm

Is surfing Art? Is the actual act of surfing an Art form? Are all surfers artists in some way? There's a lot of both surf and Art around in this part of the world (south west Cornwall, in the UK, since you ask) with the Tate Gallery in St Ives and the renowned Newlyn School of Art just down the road toting their historic lists of well known painters and sculptors. But recently Penzance itself has become the place to see more cutting edge work, perhaps not relying on traditional painting and sculpting methods. Check out the new art works by artist and surfer Ben Cook . This piece refers to the demise of Hayle based Kamikaze surfboards, and the retirement of the company's owner and shaper Mutley, after around 80,000 surfboards. ' I'm not sure if I'm an artist who surfs, or a surfer who arts' says Ben. Despite this mental conundrum, he has made some great investigations in to the areas where surf and art cross over. See his latest show upstairs at the Cornwall Co

News reaches Ocean-Image of the use of many surf photos by many surf photographers to produce a flashy animation. This mini-movie is bought to you the Surf Twisted creative collective. ### WARNING ### Contains Flashing photos ### WARNING #### See if you can guess where all the surf spots are...

Harking back to the problem of concreting over beaches, the Route Partnership, who are proposing to extend and expand the South Pier in Penzance over the beach and rock pools nearby, have ldged their planning application. It is vital to lodge objections to this by 26th March when the proposal comes before the Planning Committee. If you haven't already, you can raise your objections via the Friends of Penzance Harbour website : http://www.friendsofpzharbour.org/ Most people in the area object to the plans, nearly 85% according to the Route Partnership's own survey. However, we still need to pass this knowledge on to the Planners, so please check out the website, and email your objections to them. Thanks for your support.