My Wknd: I Opened for Zakk Wylde, Got Hit by a Wave & Celebrated 34 yrs!

Well despite sucky weather for the most part- I had a pretty good weekend!

Had a few nice get together with friends who helped Valerie and I celebrate our 34th Anniversary! Got some photography in, and started the weekend with Zakk Wylde, Kenny Wayne Shepard and the Experience Hendrix Tour!

So lets start there-

The line to the sold out Experience Hendrix Show wound around the block before the doors opened!

I was there accept a signed guitar from the tour for our Lend a Helping Can auction!

That's me, waiting to go on stage. I was thinking that I went on stage first, so in a way....I can say I "opened" the show for THIS guy.....

Zakk Wylde! So I got THAT going for me......which is nice!

Zakk crushed it, just like every musician that took the stage! GREAT SHOW!

On Friday when I got out of work- I went straight to the coast since the sun wasn't going to make an appearance all weekend long! I got to shoot some pretty good waves! I was working on some long exposures - because I like giving the waves a kind of motion effect. It's all done in camera, while I shoot. Leaving the shutter opened for different amounts of time creates different effects.

The waves were big enough t cover a 25 ft wide stretch of rocks (like in the pic above), and at one point when I was looking north as opposed to east (where the waves were coming from) -

I never saw a huge wave coming. The wind was strong and I was perched about 7 feet above the water when the wave hit some rocks off to my right. You can't turn quick or move quick when you're on those kind of rocks. One wrong move and you're going to eat it, and the fall would definitely do some damage. So when I saw the wave coming- I just braced for it. The wave went up and over those, and washed over the stretch I was standing on! Luckily, I only got hit below the knees, so all it did was get me a little wet. No big deal, but I backed off of those rocks pretty damn quick. No pictures of it, sorry! But- I was just trying not to DIE. hahaha..

Friday night we hung out with my brother David and his wife and son and a group of friends at a local bar! He's kind of taking it easy after shoulder surgery- but we still had a good time!

Saturday morning I headed out because there was a sliver of a chance of a good sunrise in the Portsmouth area, so that's where I went. I started on the waterfront, shooting from the Kittery side of the Piscataqua River. It's such a great view at night....

And then it was back to Portsmouth to catch some spectacular light-

Then it was a roadtrip up to LL Bean in Freeport with our friends Dave and Jolene, and I was almost eaten by a giant grizzly bear that was wandering around the store....

Sunday morning we brunched it up at one of our favorite restaurants to celebrate Valerie and my 34th wedding anniversary, with our newly engaged friends Janet and MIke!

Special thank you to Dana and Javier at MC Perkins Cove for making it yet another special visit! We met Javier there almost 20 years ago when he was our server, and today he and his fiancee Dana are now the owners! The food and service is always top notch and Dana and Javier are the nicest folks!

On Sunday afternoon we hung out watching UConn womens hoops destroy South Carolina, and then the Celtics dispatch Washingtn!

And that was the weekend ! I know I forgot some stuff, but I'm old so I don't care...hahah-

But I do hope you had a good weekend!

g