Bryan Elkus

Author: Bryan Elkus

  • Fall Kite Mission to Canada

    We headed out early to Canada. It was cold and rainy on our drive. As we were driving onto the beach, the clouds broke to let in some gorgeous morning light against the stormy day.

    The wind was cranking and I wound up riding my 7m Envy on short line really really powered. The waves never quite got to the usual size we were expecting, but I still had a blast. I took out the foil for a few tacks and took some good beatings.

    We then packed up and headed back to the states and drove a little north to surf. As we arrived it looked FLAT. But we found a small wave in a little cove and wound up surfing for over two hours.

  • Early Fall Kiteboarding in Muskegon

    Tom and I headed to Muskegon. It was a great warm fall day. the wind was cranking and there were some fun waves. The old time crew was all there. The session started out powered on wakeboards then to surfboards then to foils and finally wound up paddling into some really fun clean waves on the surfboards. We were toast by the end of the day.

  • Late Summer Michigan Surf

    We scored this weekend. I was lucky to get the time to hit the lake this weekend. I had one of my best surfing session on the lakes as well as a few other sessions to keep a smile on my face for a while.

    The highlight was a surf up in Frankfort, MI. We arrived when the lake was glass there were no waves to speak of. We were pretty bummed, but the wind kicked up. We wound up kited for a few minutes until we looked south and saw what we thought was a small rain storm approaching. At that time the waves slowly started to build and you could tell that they were starting to push in. We landed our kites to prepare for the rain and the rain just didn’t stop coming, but neither did the waves.

    We hustled to the grab a board and rode a few waves near shore. We kept having to paddle back out further and further until the waves were breaking at the elbow of the pier and were chest to head high. Even though it was pouring rain the waves were clean, long and amazing. There were only a handful of us out maybe 5-8 surfers/paddleboarders. It was a great session!

    I was having way too much fun while riding to go out shooting. I did take out the go pro for one wave at the tail end of the session after the waves started to die down significantly.

  • Summer Trip to Breckenridge

    A group of us headed out West to Breckenridge CO for my cousin’s bachelor party. We rented a great home just outside downtown.

    After flying in, we hit the grocery store to stock up the house with food and drinks. The next day we headed an hour and a half to Buena Vista, CO to raft the Arkansas River. We did the Numbers section of the river, which was a total blast. The video below gives a look at the trip.

    The next day we did a great hike named McCullough Gulch. We climbed about 1,000ft over the 4 hour hike. There were some spectacular views of the mountains, waterfall and lakes. The views were just surreal.

    It was a great trip and always love being in the mountains.

  • Holga – Roll #1

    I was given a Holga as a gift last year. It took me a while to finish this roll. There are a couple nice shots out of the twelve I shot. I used an Ilford 400 B&W for this roll. I had a bunch of light leaks and double exposures. I learned to keep the lens cap on and come up with a better system to remember if I cranked to the next exposure or not after taking a photograph.

  • Holga – Roll #2

    This roll was shot on a holga on Ilford HP5 Black and White Negative 400 iso Film (120 Roll Film). This was my second roll on this camera. I shot the rolls back to back so I didn’t get to learn from the mistakes of my first roll. Overall, the results have a great feel, though the focus was not too great on many of the shots. The double exposure shot came out pretty interesting though I didn’t mean to make one.

  • Traverse City, MI – Leica M5 – Ektar 100

    This is my second roll of Ektar 100. This was a great roll of film for shooting summer time in Michigan. Some of the lake scenes are my favorite from this roll. The pastel like colors really play well with the warm summer days.

  • Cape Hatteras – Leica M5 – Ektar 100

    After a friend showed my his shots on Ektar 100 film I ran out and bough two rolls. This was the first roll that I shot on the film. It was on my trip to Cape Hatters and shot on a Leica M5. I really like the look & feel of this film it had great color but not over saturated.

  • Spring Roll – Leica M5 – Tri-X 400

    I was a bit disappointed with this roll of Tri-X 400. There were only a hand full of images that I liked and most were poorly exposed.